Flare

Flare Scarlet is the first dragonkin child born in 120 years. Her dragon blood grants her incredible, unparalleled mastery over fire magic.

In fact, she is the hope of the rapidly declining Scarlet family; if Flare were to become a powerful knight, or even the knight commander, then the family name would be catapulted back into high society. As such, Flare received training fit for a future knight commander from a very young age, with her social-climbing parents laying ever-increasing amounts of pressure on their daughter.

While Flare quickly outclassed her peers due to her dragon heritage and elite education, she grew increasingly unhappy with her life, and having never had the opportunity to socialize with her peers, she didn't have anyone she could call a friend in whom she could confide.

In time, Flare came to believe that nothing mattered and grew bitter about her dragon heritage and the idea of becoming knight captain. She desperately needed love, affection, and affirmation, but she could not find it within her family.

Flare enrolled in the star-studded Royal Magic Academy at the tender age of ten. This institute was filled with the best and the brightest minds in all of Solismenamus, and there, Flare met the person who would have the greatest influence on her life, Professor Rumeni Oh.

The illustrious professor immediately knew what was wrong with Flare the moment they met. The young girl's pouting face and thorny words were indicative of a more pressing problem that couldn't be addressed with tests and lectures. So, she came up with several plans to guide Flare back onto the correct path.

Professor Rumeni Oh assigned Bonnie, the top student in class, as Flare's roommate in an attempt to correct her behavior.

Bonnie, an orphan with exceptional magical talent, was often bullied by her classmates due to her eccentric personality. Professor Rumeni Oh believed they were exactly what the other needed. Bonnie could humble Flare, and Flare could ground Bonnie's oddball tendencies. They were perfect roommates.

Flare would have disliked anyone she was forced to share a room with, and Bonnie was no exception. She challenged Bonnie again and again, perhaps out of the frustration of being outperformed by someone she thought was so ridiculous. Strangely enough, over time, their constant bickering created a bond. Flare began standing up to Bonnie's bullies and helped protect her.

Flare, in the process of trying to surpass Bonnie, and Bonnie, in the process of trying to make friends, became friends themselves. Through their friendship, Flare learned humility and Bonnie found a sense of belonging. Eventually, external forces recognized Bonnie's genius, and she was accepted into the Royal Knights' Military Band. As she left the Magic Academy, Flare promised to follow her there soon.

Despite being involved in many, far too many, incidents that should have been ended academic career, Flare was able to graduate the Academy on time, as the valedictorian, no less.

Flare's father naturally assumed that Flare would go on to join the Solar Knights as a proud member of the 1st Brigade, the shining paragon of knighthood, where all future stars are born. Naturally, her father used his connections as Duke Flanti Scarlet to ensure that Flare would land in the 1st, but this was a mistake.

Flare knew that joining the 1st was a done deal, given that she'd graduated at the top of her class. But during the entrance exams, Flare noticed the examiners' were watching her with conflicted expressions. She realized that her father had interfered with her exam and was angered beyond measure. Flare loudly and publicly declared that her life's dream was to join the 9th.

It was the first time she'd openly defied her family.

The 9th brigade had a reputation as widely known as the 1st; if the 1st was the brigade of shining talent and future leaders, the 9th was the brigade of catastrophic mistakes and incorrigible misfits.

The 9th's usual duties involved patrolling the countryside and occasionally dealing with aggressive monsters, tasks that most knights considered well beneath their station. Even if they did these duties well, it was far from the glorious life that knights dreamed of.

Flare's reason for picking the 9th wasn't just that she wanted to get back at her family; she also secretly believed that she could be the hero who single-handedly turned the 9th around, transforming it into the most respected brigade. Flare's arrogance, naivety, and desire to prove herself to the world fueled her just as much as her resentment for her family.

Flare braced herself for the worst upon joining the 9th, but she found it way more tolerable than she'd expected. Yes, the missions were often risky and, for lack of a better word, "dirty"but her fellow knights were kind and supportive and her commanders, including Captain Esther, were understanding and wise. Flare expected hazing, hostility, and highborn politics, but what she got was a band of knights that grew closer and closer with every mission they went on.

She grew especially fond of her senior, Reina, and her captain, Esther. Flare had developed an ego being at the top of her class at the Magic Academy, but all it took was one day of watching Esther's rapid bladework and Reina's superhuman strength in action to humble her.

The two of them also came to rely on Flare as well. While Flare's sharp tongue and posh, sheltered attitude did get on their nerves sometimes, they soon realized that her flames never placed an ally in harm's way, and that she took great care to protect everyone around her. In fact, pretty much everyone eventually realized that Flare was a very kind person at heart, they just never felt the need to say it to her face, as all that would do is trigger another tongue-lashing.

With their battle-proven teamwork, Flare, Reina, and Esther quickly became the pillars of the 9th.

Growing up, Flare heard the phrase "you have the power of a dragon" so many times that it lost all meaning. She knew that she was the first person to inherit the dragons' power in 120 years, but she never felt like there was anything special about her.

After enrolling in the Magic Academy, Flare quickly discovered exactly how special she was. In theory, magic is simply the manifestation of mana. In reality, though, mana is a rare and fickle resource, so most common magic is activated with external sources and catalysts. But Flare cast magic as freely as she liked by tapping into the dragons' power within herself. The rules of magic were fundamentally different for her.

She began to have many, many questions about this immense advantage that had simply fallen into her lap the moment she was born. She knew that the power had come from a blessing her ancestors received for performing many favors for the dragons, but that was the extent of that knowledge. How exactly did the power work? Why did the power choose her? What was she meant to do with this power? Existential questions filled her head, one after another.

Flare soon came to a conclusion: as impossible as it might be, she needed to go seek out and meet dragons until she could find the one that had given her this blessing and get answers directly.