Serving the Kingdom

A/N:My friend has been telling me that I should watch Black Clover for about a month and well now were here. Anyways about the story so this is essentially pre-Royal Knights exam and things from the exam will show up. Nozel is gonna be a pretty shitty person in the fic just a heads up and I really hope more people start making stuff for the fandom because now I think I'm a little obsessed. Welp let me know what you think and have a good day cheers!

TWIMC: Sorry it's not an update on my FT fics

It's been exactly one year to the day since Asta and Noelle were inducted into the Black Bulls Magic Knight Squad. The hideout was as you would expect on any other occasion this time just an excuse to be so. Magna was aiming fireballs at Luck who was dodging them and not so discreetly trying to make the fireballs to hit other members to get them to join the ruckus. Charmy and Vanessa respectively were eating and drinking to their heart's content. Gauche was gazing into his mirror watching his little sister while Gordon mumbled affectionate things about his squadmates and Grey hid under the table. Lastly the two newest members of the Black Bulls both sat at a table enjoying some food, Asta stuffing his face and Noelle actually tasting her food while snarking at Asta to not choke and die in her usual tone. The door to the squads hideout casually opened going unnoticed in the chaos and in walked Captain Yami followed swiftly by Finral.

"Bulls!" Everything dropped at the one word of the man who dragged the bunch of misfits together and gave them a home. Everyone gave him their full attention sensing something was wrong mainly because the door was still in one piece.

"ey Cap'n brin ane ne rokis fo ush!" Asta shouted with his mouth full of food, earning a smack on the back of his head from Noelle causing Asta to quickly swallow his food or choke.

"No kid, now shut up and listen will ya." Yami said without even threaten to kill Asta, that left a bad taste in the mouths of all the bulls. "Anyway the entrance exam was pushed back by a couple weeks in light of recent circumstances."

"What circumstances Captain Yami?!" Asta shouted earning another swat from the royal next to him and a death glare from the Captain himself.

"What did I say about shutting up kid! *sigh* As I was saying, the captains still had a meeting in the capital and it was brought to attention that the Black Bulls meet the minimum required members to participate in the rotation for border patrol duty." The room was dead silent hanging onto every word that left the smoking man's mouth. "With this news brought to light it was requested the Black Bulls send a team west to relive the Green Praying Mantises of duty and watch over the border with the Heart Kingdom for an undisclosed amount of time. Magna, Luck, kid, you three and Finral will be stationed at Carsage village the pillar of defense of our border with the heart kingdom. Pack your bags you leave in three days." The captain finishes in a solemn tone turning to head to his quarters and let his squad absorb the news.

There was a long pause with the only sound in the hideout being the captains heavy footfalls, just before Yami was out of sight a chorus of objections excuses complaints anything that might get them out of being split up and thrown into a war zone.

"That's enough!" The captain shouted shattering a nearby wall with his fist never turning back to look at his group of misfits. "It's apart of the rules in being a Magic Knight it was thrown in his face and Julius can't show favoritism to anyone. so we go, we do our time, and we get out. There's no way around it." Yami finished disappearing down the hall towards his room leaving a stunned group of outcasts baffled by the unfamiliar emotions of their captain. There was a long silence where no one spoke just tried to understand. One by one the knight excused themselves before long the only two left in the common room were the two rookies of the squad.

"It's so unreal" Noelle spoke softly breaking the silence her gaze remaining on the floor. "Not even a knight for a year and they're already sending you into a warzone." Her voice trembled as she spoke, her body began to shake with barely held back sobs when a hand lands on top of her head causing her to lookup meet the gaze of cheerful green eyes and a face splitting smile.

"Hey don't go worrying when we're not even gone yet, if I'm gonna be the Wizard King I have to protect people what better way to do that than not letting war into the Clover Kingdom." Asta says with a genuine smile plastered on his face.

"But Asta this is your home and your leaving won't you miss it here?" Noelle says sadness welling up in her voice, she knows she'll miss his freaky training routine dorky smile and atrocious eating habits he livened the place up. Asta let out a small laugh at her statement causing her to turn a cold glare on him.

"I'm not laughing at what you said," Asta says ending his faint laughter while holding up his hands in surrender before propping his arms behind him and turning to look at the ceiling. "It's just I thought it'd feel like when I decided I was leaving Hage village to take the entrance exam, but it's different I can't really put a name to how it is, but it definitely feels different. Of course I'm gonna miss this place, I'm gonna miss you, I'll miss everyone, well I guess except for Luck, Finral and Magna." Asta laughs boisterously while Noelle fights off her blush at his words, her embarrassment fighting her sadness eventually the sadness wins and she curls in on herself hugging her knees propping her chin on them while gazing at the wall.

Noelle in her own little daze doesn't see Asta get up, she just notices when he leans in and touches his forehead to her in an affectionate gesture she thought him incapable of. "Don't think too much about it, the four of us will be back before you know it, just make sure to give the rookies extra trouble for me okay?" Asta stands up while smiling down at the blushing royal.

"Fulfilling the wishes of a commoner is beneath royalty." Noelle haughtily claims turning her nose up at her fellow rookie while untucking her legs from her chest, the gesture brings a smile to the ashen blonde's face.

"Well your majesty, is it beneath you to accept this humble commoners help?" Asta says in an overly dramatic tone but there was no mistaking the smile on his face as her offered the water mage a hand which she gladly took.

"I guess even commoners have some usefulness." Noelle says keeping her gaze away from Asta trying to hide her blush as he pulls the royal to her feet.

"Well your grace, we should probably turn in it's getting pretty late." Asta says releasing her hand as he turns to head towards his room. "Goodnight Noelle." He calls over his shoulder with a wave.

"Goodnight Asta." Noelle answers with a meek wave.

_Line-break_

The remaining two days were all a blur at the Black Bulls hideout, the anticipation of their friends departure clouding the usually cheerful environment, everything still conducted as usual just with somber undertone. Before anyone was ready three days were up and the whole squad was gathered outside the base to see the four mages off. A collection of half-hearted smiles worn by the squad none wanting to say goodbye so halfhearted teasing filled the air in attempt to lighten the mood.

In the chaos of unorthodox goodbyes Noelle made her way straight to Asta for once not caring for appearances and engulfed the fellow sixteen year old in a hug. "Don't go dying on us Dorksta and come home in one peice, got it." She says softly with her face buried into the neck of the shorter male. Just as quickly as the embrace started it ended in an abrupt fashion the royal disentangled herself from Asta and turned towards the hideout.

"Finral make sure the commoners don't get themselves killed, thinking is not really in their skill sets." Noelle calls her stride and gaze remained towards the hideout, ignoring Magna's shouts of protest.

As soon as the hideout door shut the welled up emotions inside Noelle burst she slams her fist into the wall slightly damaging the stone and opening a wound on her fist causing blood to flow. Removing her fist from the wall she fires a blast of magic not caring where it hits as long as it broke something. Noelle is about to let out a scream of frustration before a voice speaks up stopping the royal teen in the midst of her outburst.

"That make you feel any better?" The Captain asked making Noelle jump and turn towards her superior only to see him leaning against the wall with a cigarette in his mouth and an eyebrow raised at her expectantly.

"No." Noelle answers with a huff turning her head back towards the wall she punched. Captain Yami takes a long inhale of his cigarette before kicking off the wall and approaching the royal.

"Well tough because it's about to get even worse" Yami's remark immediately caught the teenagers attention turning her gaze towards him as he continued. "Your brother captain stick in the mud personally asked for Asta to be sent to the border, the Wizard King couldn't decline without a reason and I couldn't object without one so here we are. Now before you go run off blaming yourself remember that the kid probably would have volunteered anyway same with the other three, well not Finral but who cares." Yami pauses his speech scratching the back of his head and turning his gaze to the ceiling before letting out a large sigh. "Look I'm not telling you this so you can beat yourself up, I'm saying it so your asshole siblings can't throw it in your face like they plan to." When Yami looks back to his squad member he sees all the fire gone from her eyes she's back to that sad self doubting kid she was when she first lost control. Yami reaches out and places his hand on the youngest Silva's head causing her gaze to turn to him.

"I said it wasn't your fault and I meant it kid, you didn't ask to be born related to a bunch of psychos, unless you did then well tough. Those idiots will be back before ya know it, if anyone can come back in one piece it's them." Yami ruffles the royals hair before walking away. "One more thing stop breaking shit or I'll-eh whatever. Damn Julius didn't mention this sappy stuff when I signed up for this job *yawn* I need a nap."

Noelle smiles at her Captain trying to cheer her up, it's so unlike him she even glanced to his grimor to make sure it wasn't Grey. With a heavy sigh Noelle made her way towards her room, she wasn't better and certainly not happy about the whole ordeal but she could live with it.

Flashback

"And on to the last item on the agenda this evening, tensions with the Heart Kingdom are riding high as of late, I fear our western border won't remain peaceful for long." Spoke Julius Novachrono the twenty-eighth Wizard King, as he sat at the head of the table with nine magic knight squad captains present.

"Keh keh, let them come the Green Praying Mantises will tear them in two, in fact it would be our pleasure." Spoke Jack the Ripper the aforementioned squads captain.

"*Sigh* While I appreciate the enthusiasm Jack it would be best if we could avoid war entirely or at least until the Diamond Kingdom calms down." Julius waves in a placating manor towards the slightly psychotic captain.

"While we're on the matter of our borders," Nozel Silva speaks up in his usual sickeningly cold tone. "I believe we are well overdue for rotation, The Silver Eagles along with the other squads have been at our post for quite a while now." though his words seem simple enough the slight upturn of his lips on the usual stoic face spells trouble.

"Yes I believe you are right Nozel, as far as replacements go we will have the Crimson Lion Kings take the Silver Eagles place at the northern border, does that sound good Mereoleona?" Julius asks for confirmation at the captains nod he continues. "The Coral Peacocks can take the place of the Purple Orcas to the east." Julius looks up for a thumbs up from Dorothy Unsworth's sleeping form once he receives it he continues. "Lastly the-" The Wizard king is swiftly cut off by a rather smug eagle.

"Pardon my interruption your grace but I think the Black Bulls should handle the western border, they are well overdue for a turn." Nozel says a toxic smile on his lips as all eighteen eyes focus on him.

"My apologies Nozel, I'm afraid the Black Bulls simply don't have enough members-" Julius tries only to be once again cut off by the Eagles captain.

"Ah but with last year's addition of two new members I believe the Bulls are just over the line of required members provided one hasn't been kicked out." Nozel hints not so subtly sending a wicked smile Yami's way. "In fact I have a perfect member to send, the anti-magic boy Asta was it? With all his outstanding feats he should have no problem defending our borders, the rest of the squad I'll leave to their captains choice bar my youngest sisters attendance, with her unreliable control over her magic I fear she would be a... Inconvenience to the mission."

"Ah I see." Came Julius's moot reply as silence reigns over the table. "Any objections?" No one speaks at the Wizard King's question all is silent as they can feel the malicious aura coming off the Black Bulls captain. "Very well, we will give the squads time to organize their teams and move out, we'll hold the exams in two weeks times, meeting adjourned." As the last word falls off the Wizard King's lips the chair that once sat Yami Sukihiro was embedded into the wall just from the large man standing. No words are spoken as the Bulls captain storms out of the room the dark aura around him having little to do with his magic.

As Captain Yami storms through the castle halls on a path towards his spatial mage, fate decides to test his temper once more. Standing in Yami's way was Nozel Silva, the very same man he was attempting not to murder by leaving swiftly.

"This whole mess can be over with one order from you foreigner, send that failure sister of mine back home and out of the knights and that magicless commoner you're so fond of doesn't embark towards certain death, then you and the rest of your trash squad can continue sully the name of the magic knights as you always have." Nozel said in a patronizing tone not sparing the dark magic user a glance.

"You really gotta death wish don't ya?" Yami spoke in a soft calm tone before letting out a long exhale. The Black Bulls captain lit up a cigarette (royal palace be damned) and took a much needed inhale of the toxic smoke before leveling the royal with a flat stare. "I'd watch your back if I were you, the last thing you wanna do is piss off a bunch of misfits and freaks. That's just what you've done in spades, or should I say clovers." Yami lets out a hearty laugh though the threat still clear in his words as he passes the royal but not before flicking the cherry of his smoke at Nozel as a parting gift.