The Sixth School

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All Characters in the story are 18 years of age and above...

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Chapter Eighty-Six: Retreat...

His experience from the dungeons made the first step rather easy for Greg to figure out. Information gathering. The more they knew about their guests and potential foes, the more prepared they'd be for whatever might come their way. This is how Greg came to be playing the role of the new Town-head's servant. The head of the Valla household had been both displeased and apprehensive when Greg appeared at his house and told him that he'd be pushing him around for the day. Not a stupid man by any stretch of the imagination, the new Town-head wasn't deluded into thinking that Greg had developed a sudden bout of charity. But while he knew that there was an underlying motivation for his actions, he was entirely wrong as to what they were. "The healer doesn't need to send you as a spy. No one among the three families is stupid enough to make enemies of her over a few guests," He'd said when Greg told him that he'd be pushing him around.

Greg hadn't even considered this dimension when thinking of the upcoming meeting. That his presence at the meeting would keep all three families in check and ensure that they were very careful about what they said. To him, his teacher's warning had been enough. While she was genial most of the time, Greg knew perhaps better than anyone in town that his teacher was no saint. If any of the three families crossed her, chances are that only two major families would be left in town. So, he hadn't even been thinking of policing anyone. If any of them wanted to die, they were fully welcome to do so.

Still, he didn't correct the man of his erroneous assumption. Instead, he just smiled behind the wooden mask, knowing that the man could see his cheeks pulling apart. "Then my presence there won't make any difference. Will it?" He'd declared. With no further objections to offer, the man had just nodded, allowing Greg to take position behind him. Greg had gotten so used to wearing the CHARMING mask around town that wearing the wooden mask again felt a bit odd to him. Still, Greg had been afraid that these visitors would recognize the CHARMING mask as a magical item, drawing attention to him that he didn't necessarily want as of yet. He'd thus put on the simple wooden mask.

Though none of them said anything, Greg could see by the slight unease in their expressions that the head of the Ember and Aria households had made the same assumption as the new Town-head about his presence at the meeting. But other than greeting them and telling them to act like he wasn't there, Greg hadn't said anything else to them. If his presence there kept them on the straight and narrow, then all the better. Greg's focus, however, was on the platform descending from the airship.

With everyone looking in the direction of the flying vessel, no one noticed when Greg's irises went from their usual color to a nebula of stars. His goal in activating his appraisal vision was to see just how much of a danger the people coming down would be. After all, while it wasn't a perfect measure, the value of the things on them would give Greg a hint of the kind of power they commanded. Greg, however, got an unexpected surprise when he activated the eyes. While the people coming down were decked out in all manner of magical items based on what he was seeing, the thing that immediately caught his attention was the second platform floating down beside them. On it, only a single man stood. Greg had to switch back and forth a few times between his normal vision and his appraisal sight to ascertain the fact that the man was completely invisible in normal sight. As someone who had a hidden guard in the form of Olivia, Greg could appreciate the wisdom of having an ace that your foes weren't aware of. Unfortunately for them, this ace wasn't as hidden as they might have liked to believe.

When the hidden man turned to look at Greg, he didn't flinch or look away. After all, the airship was still in the skies behind them. Greg just acted like he was looking up at the airship.

Greg had to admit that he wouldn't have been as good at his task of gathering information from their visitors if he didn't have two consultants in his mind to confer with. For example, Morpheus had warned Greg that the invisible guard would more than likely test him when he got down on the ground and that he needed to keep calm and not react. Which is why he turned his appraisal gaze off when they finally landed. Greg wouldn't have been able to pull off nonchalance if he actually knew what was happening. With him blind to it, there was nothing to react to. It was only after the whole meeting was over that Morpheus reported that the man had sent a dagger flying at his head at least three different times, each time, however, the blade would stop just an inch away from his head. Greg had felt a cold sweat soak his back at the idea, at the time, however, he'd been blissfully unaware.

Another area where Olivia came in clutch was in pointing out the schism between the young man and the lady speaking. Given how calm the mask he wore was, Greg had thought that everything was playing out how they had planned it. It's, only when Olivia pointed out the stiffness of the young man's gait, the way his hand unconsciously clenched and unclenched, and the fact that he didn't smile even when the two ladies were, that Greg noticed. "It's easy to control one's facial expressions, but to shut down all the tells of the body is not a skill that many have," Olivia had informed him at the time. Of course, they couldn't be sure what exactly was going on, but one thing was clear, the young man and the lady weren't on the same page.

Greg wasn't sure why, but for whatever reason, the young lady who'd thus far been speaking seemed intent on antagonizing them. Not only did she rudely brush off the former Town-head, but she also immediately replaced the new one. All through the interaction, Greg had been expecting at least one of the family heads or the former Town-head himself to raise an objection of some kind. This was, after all, just a young woman several decades their junior steamrolling over them as if they were nothing. The supremacy of strength in this world, however, was once again hammered down in Greg's mind as he noted that, despite their indignation, none of them gave voice to the clear ire he could see in their eyes. After all, the several guards standing behind their three visitors weren't there just for show.

However, while they couldn't do anything directly to the visitors, that didn't mean that they couldn't do it indirectly. Given that they were in the former Town-head's compound, by custom, he should have been the one to welcome them into his home to share a meal and confer with the visitors. After the blatant disregard from the young lady, however, he'd gone silent far past the point where it would have been polite to invite them into his home. On his part, as soon as he was stripped of his role as Town-head, the head of the Valla household said with a genial smile, "It would seem I have nothing more to do here. Let's head back," He'd calmly instructed. The people of this town had led hard lives, they might not be powerful in terms of magic, but there was a spine to them.

Although Greg wanted to hang around and see what more information he could gather from their visitors, he couldn't break away from his role as the servant to the head of the Valla household. As such, without any hesitation, he reached forward to take hold of the man's wheelchair. It would seem he'd later have to question the head of the Aria household as the way things were going, he'd probably be the one to host them. Greg, however, had only placed his hands on the handles of the wheelchair when the young lady's cold voice rang out "I haven't given you permission to leave," She coldly growled.

"I didn't ask for it," The head of house Valla replied calmly, clearly not bothered by the young lady's objection.

"Toli," The young woman called out just as Greg was about to turn the wheelchair.

One of the guards behind her, a man with a cold look in his eyes and a jagged scar running across his face stepped forward. "Yes, young mistress," he answered.

"If they move even an inch before I give them permission to, cut them down where they stand!" she'd ordered.

"As you wish," Came the simple straight answer from the guard. Looking at the cold way he was regarding the two of them, there was no doubt in Greg that he would carry out the order without hesitation.

Under his shirt, Greg was wearing a tier-two pendant that could suppress one's mana signature up to the second tier. This was the reason that their visitors hadn't picked up on the fact that there was a mage standing before them. Greg was certain that in any other situation, a simple pendant wouldn't have been enough to completely hide him. In this situation, however, it was the expectations of the visitors that worked against them and in Greg's favor. Until they reached the top of the mountain where the abyssal ooze was, they had no way of knowing that there was a mage in this town. They probably thought of everyone in this town as a mundane human, which is why they didn't look twice when they saw the very thing they expected to see.

The moment the order was given, however, Greg's gaze hardened as he readied himself to react. He didn't know if the pendant could keep his mana masked once he started actively cycling it, and frankly, he didn't care. He still had the element of surprise and he planned to make full use of it. Olivia had already revealed the fact that the guards were third-tier mages, if he allowed the man before him to make the first move, he more than likely wouldn't survive long enough to retaliate. As several dives in the dungeon had taught him, once Greg had decided to attack, he had zero qualms with making the first move. Having already prepared himself for the possibility of violence, Greg had several explosives in his personal pocket space that he planned to deploy after his first attack, to further sow discord and allow him to escape in the chaos.

'Calm yourself!' Morpheus's stern voice had cut through Greg's instinctual reaction before he could act. "There are five third-tier mages around you. Even if you managed to kill the first using the element of surprise, you'd be dead even before you fully managed to turn around and run," He laid out. "Besides, the fifth invisible guard is currently standing behind you. Make any move to attack and your head will be rolling off your shoulders before you know what happened," The being had further warned Greg, causing him to stiffen up. Luckily for Greg, he'd already gone rigid with tension when the kill order was given, so his reaction to the presence of the guard behind him wasn't noticeable.

Before Greg could reassess and come up with a new plan of action, an objection came from an unexpected direction. "That won't be necessary Toli," came the voice of the young man that first spoke when the visitors landed before the young lady took over. "Stand down!" while he spoke calmly, Olivia told Greg that the young man was suppressing rage. Taking a step forward, he unexpectedly offered a bow in apology. "You'll have to forgive my sister. Months of travel aboard the airship have left her rather irritable. I thought a trip off the airship would do her some good, but clearly, that was a miscalculation on my part. I thank you for welcoming us, but I beg leave for the day. I'll come down to meet you again tomorrow," The young man said before turning and getting back on the boat-shaped flying vessel.

Greg could see in the eyes of the man's sister that she wasn't at all happy about being interrupted in her power trip and being essentially ordered to get back to the ship. Greg also hadn't missed the phrasing of the young man's words. He hadn't said that 'they' would be back, but 'he'. More than likely, this irritable sister wasn't going to be allowed off the ship again. When she turned to glare at her brother, however, she froze as she caught the same thing Greg had thanks to Olivia. Despite his calm façade, the young man was barely holding it together. There was a murderous rage in the young man's eyes, if she pushed him, there was a very high likelihood she'd be attacked. With one last venomous glare at them, the young lady turned her nose up and walked back to the flying platform.

Once the guards had gotten back on the flying vessel, the thing floated up off the ground heading back toward the airship. For a second, Greg was tempted to activate his appraisal sight to see if the invisible guard had also left with the others. At the last second, however, he decided against it. If he was in the man's shoes, he'd wait precisely for a moment like this to test Greg, just to see if he could be seen or not. If Greg activated the appraisal sight and found the man looking directly at him, he wouldn't know what to do. So without any fanfare, he just took hold of the wheelchair in front of him, turned it towards the gate of the compound, and started pushing. Thus ended the first meeting between Greg and someone who'd come to be a lifelong friend...

***

"Call the captain, NOW!"

From all his etiquette training, Lothar knew that it was unbecoming of him to be shouting but he really couldn't have cared less at the moment. He had called them to his office. He had explained to them that there was a danger in this place, that they needed to tread carefully lest tragedy befall them. And yet, the very first thing his sister did when they got to the ground was to try and stir up trouble. If not for the fact that her master would kill him if he laid a finger on the bitch, Lothar and his sister would probably have already come to blows. Deep down, under the layers of pain and betrayal, some part of him ached and grieved for the sister he'd lost. The sister who'd once cared for and loved him. The sister who now was no more.

Deina, it seemed, was perfectly happy to risk harm if he too suffered as well. That's the only explanation Lothar could come up with for why she would so openly seek trouble after Lothar had warned them of the hidden danger in this area. Perhaps it was because she had her teacher with her that she believed that she'd be able to escape whatever the fallout of her behavior would be. Perhaps he'd been wrong to warn them. He'd done so out of an abundance of caution thinking that they too would know not to stoke any trouble. Not factoring in her hatred of him in that decision had been a mistake, one that Lothar wouldn't make again.

"Lothar," came a tentative call to him from her fiancé, Irena. "Try to calm yourself," she urged, her gaze following him even as he paced from side to side on the deck of the airship. "Like you said, Deina was just stressed out from..." The scathing look that he sent her immediately caused any further words to die on her lips.

"You called for me," Captain Brenar's voice cut through the silence on the deck. The man had just emerged from below deck, his amethyst snake wrapped around his neck as always.

"Captain, at full speed, how long will it take you to go from here to the city of Varun and back?" Lothar immediately questioned.

"Lothar..." Irena made another attempt to speak, but Lothar held up a hand, cutting her off, his gaze never leaving the captain.

It took the captain a second to reply, clearly not having expected such a question. "At full speed, we can be back in the city within three days. It'll take a day to have the airship checked, restock anything we might be running low in, and have the crew rest before another three-day trip back. So about a week," The captain laid out.

"Good! Make preparations! You'll be leaving me with five guards while you take my sister and fiancé back home!" Lothar ordered in an unyielding tone.

"That won't be necessary!" Deina countered in a defiant tone. "I'll be going home when I want to not when you say so!" she declared.

Lothar rounded on his sister, heat beginning to flow off him as the fire mana within him started churning. "Have you forgotten the condition on which I agreed to you joining me on this journey? " He questioned.

As head of the house, Lothar couldn't reject him when his father had said that his younger brother and sister would be joining him on the trip he planned to make. The excuse given was that they too needed a break from the city, not that Lothar believed this for even a second. Still, he couldn't defy the head of his house. Not without a really good reason. But just because he couldn't say no, didn't mean that he couldn't lay conditions for acceptance.

There were two iron-clad conditions that Lothar had laid out for his father. If Deina failed to abide by either, he'd be fully within his rights to immediately send her back. The first was that she couldn't pry into his purposes for the trip. Any attempts to do so, magical or otherwise, wouldn't be tolerated. This was why despite travelling with him for the past two months, she still hadn't been aware what it was he was after. Ironically, the same had been true of him. With how vague the wording of the prophecy was, Lothar had fully expected to have to make several such trips. It was an astounding stroke of luck that he'd come across the answer on his very first voyage.

There was no doubt in Lothar that both his sister and fiancé were aware of the abyssal ooze near the mountaintop. They weren't blind after all. But just like gold on the side of the road, one who came across it would pick it up whether this was their primary goal or not. In other words, the cleansing pearls from an abyssal ooze were valuable enough that it wasn't odd for Lothar to pause in whatever he was doing to harvest them. This fact made it so that even with this stop, they couldn't be sure whether this was his real goal or just something he was pausing to do in the middle of pursuing his real goal.

The second condition that he'd set forth for the trip was that he was the highest authority on board the airship. By the contract between them, the captain of the airship would heed his commands within reason while they were on the voyage. But the same wasn't necessarily true of any other passengers on board the airship. But because this was a private charter, Lothar hadn't been worried about this, right up until his father chose to foist his sister on him. Naturally, Lothar had been quick to assert that he wouldn't countenance any fights for power while on the voyage. Either his sister submitted to his authority or she stayed behind! His father hadn't been happy about this one but Lothar wouldn't be moved.

"Really Lothar?" Deina questioned, sounding part annoyed and part confused. "You want to send me back home just because I threatened a few mundane people?"

Lothar, however, wasn't having any of it. She'd already outed herself as antagonistic to anything he might be planning to do here. Even if she swore to be kind to the locals, Lothar was certain that she would find another way to undermine him. If he allowed her to stay, he'd have no one to blame other than himself for whatever trouble ensued. Turning away from her, his answer to her was simple. "Say hello to Mother for me when you get back!" he coldly stated. It was a bit of a cheap shot, as Lothar knew that the only person in their family that Deina hated perhaps more than him was his mother. Just like her father was his father by law but not by blood, his mother wasn't her blood mother but her mother by law.