Chapter 74 - New Roles

[257 Days Remaining]

“Really, don't you guys have better places to build your organization branches than deep underground?” I said, using earth magic to bury the final entrance leading down to the underground tunnels.

“No, since its stupid for an assassin headquarter to be inside the cities. It takes much money to influence the nobles and guards, if you must know,” Ilana said.

Typically, I would have stayed quiet after taking the lives of so many humans, silently reveling in the killing, but the constant hammering in my mind was taking its toll on me. It was hard to even stay focused. My counterpart had broken through most of the chains I had bound him with.

“Let us depart,” I said, trying hard to ignore the increasing headache.

I stepped over the corpses of the four guards as we exited the cave. Then I got on top of the horse I had tied to nearby tree, cutting at the ropes. My three slaves did the same for their horses.

It took only an hour of hard riding before we were out of the forest. Then half a day of controlled pacing before we arrived at the nearby town with its abundance farmlands that could have fed twice the population the town hosted.

“Fuck,” I said, gritting my teeth against the mental pain. My counterpart had broken through the last of his chains and was now furiously trying to take back control, slamming his will against mine.

I put up a determined resistance, bearing the increasing mental agony. My vision became even more blurry, and the conversation between Gwen and Kal became a distant noise. So slow. So heavy. Everything looked as if they were traveling in a slow, heavy motion. Then blackness, my last conscious vision being of the spinning ground and the side of my horse as I fell. I slammed onto the ground, throwing up dust.

Next time shall not be so easy, I promised my counterpart. Next time you die...

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I instantly regained consciousness, and righted myself up from the ground. There was a predatory glint in the eyes of the three assassins as they peered down at me from their horses. The glint disappeared after they saw my unharmed state.

“Are you alright, master,” Gwen said.

“I am fine.”

“Your eyes...they have changed colors. What happened?” Ilana said in a suspicious voice tinged with a little curiosity.

Kal softly muttered to himself, “Emerald...”

I patted away the dust on my clothing before walking toward my horse a few feet away. Then I pulled myself up on the saddle, adjusting myself until I was sitting comfortably. “Nothing happened, Ilana.”

It was the first time I had called the assassin by her name, and she looked surprised, unsure of the sudden, bewildering change.

I said in a strong voice, “Let us go. I must head back to the Mage Academy, especially since I have done everything I need to do in the eastern region.” I tightly held the reins on my horse while nudging at his sides softly.

Everything would change in the twelve days I would need to spend to get back to the Mage Academy. There was a long distance to travel ahead of me, especially since I could not fly with these three assassins as my traveling companions.

There was a small regret in the back of my mind for those caged children and those unneeded casualties. Those innocents. But they were just small regrets; they would not weigh me down.

I had enough problems on my mind.

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[243 Days Remaining]

After telling the assassins to wait at the southern town close by to the Mage Academy and supplying them with enough vials of my blood to last them for a few weeks, I traveled toward the mage institution. I arrived there in an hour or two, sprinting very quickly and traveling through places where there were not many people.

I entered through the southern quadrant of the Mage Academy after the academy Enforcers had confirmed my identity—they easily recognized my appearance.

It took only a few more minutes before I was back in room 328, the academy room which I had been assigned to. Along the way, I had received a few whispers and stares from the third year students outside and inside of the third-year halls.

Calina, at the moment, was still attending one of her afternoon classes, so she was not in room 328, which was just beside my room.

I changed into the mage academy's male uniform which was neatly folded on top of the bed—the academy's officials probably had a way to get into my room despite the door being magically attuned to me.

Then I headed toward the class Calina was probably attending. Magic Support Class.

After a few minutes of asking directions and finding my way toward the classroom, I entered through its ornate door which was labeled Magic Support in black letters on a blank, white rectangular sign.

The female teacher was lecturing inside and continued on, barely even glancing at me. Her students, however, were a different matter. I felt all of their stares on me, especially one intense stare, or rather glare, which came from Calina who was sitting at the highest row with Phan Tsu beside her.

The classroom's seating consisted of rows of long benches with similar length desks before them. Each bench could fit perhaps about ten students. I went up the steps—unhurriedly, of course—before sitting to the right of Calina who was at the uppermost row. Only Phan Tsu and her were sitting on that row.

“Welcome back,” Calina coldly said in a low voice. There was a hint of some other emotions, which I could not tell, mix with it.

In a friendlier voice, Phan Tsu whispered the same.

I nodded at both of them. “I'm back.”

“Pay attention now, students!” the female teacher barked, causing the students to focus back on their teacher. The speed at which they had whipped their necks back around to the front almost made me think that the students neck would snap. The female teacher, no doubt, was a terror.

She continued lecturing on as if nothing interesting had occurred. “As you all know by now, sigils, marks, drawings, magic stones and other materials can all be called support. They help focus and even amplify your magic a little. But for combats, a mage would not have the time to draw these things, so we often use our own body and mind to focus and support the magic. Sure, we could use sigils and marks drawn on paper, but that would make us easy targets. Supports also, with the exception of the rarer types of magic stones, typically barely improve magic. Their effects are almost negligible in fact. This is why we do not see many mages running around using supports.”

The teacher paused briefly, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “That is, until we discovered a material in the western region of the kingdom several months ago. This material was found in the mountains there and we have named it Astraldite. Plenty of it was found through further mining and King Balan has supplied our academy with enough Astraldite for us to create enough weapons for each one of you.”

Astonished shouts and questions came from the students. Amidst the noise, Calina finally turned around to look at me in the eyes. “You are late,” she said bluntly, her voice still cold. “Three weeks...”

“I apologize, Lady Calina,” I said softly, only half-paying attention. The other half of my attention was with my curiosity which was wondering at the material called Astraldite. Just what was it, I wondered. In fact, her whole lecture had been a curiosity, since I barely knew of sigils and marks.

“Are you even listening!” Calina whispered hotly from beside me.

It took a great effort to turn my eyes, which had been focused upon the female teacher and the students asking questions, toward Calina. Our faces suddenly met and our noses almost touched each other. I had not expected Calina to lean closer toward me while I had been turning to look at her.

I didn't move away though as her grey, ashen eyes bore into my own emerald eyes. “Ah, my bad,” I whispered, my breath falling against her face. Up close, I noticed that she had long eyelashes and distinctly shaped eyes, sort of feline looking, in fact.

“Mother's ashes! Look! Calina is kissing her bodyguard!” a male student voice shouted excitedly.

Calina instantly backed away from me, her face turning bright red. Then she muttered and stuttered in a voice only Phan Tsu and I could hear. “We will talk later...”

After that, Calina turned quiet, only focusing on the teacher. She did not, for the whole class period, turn to look at me. I mentally shrugged to myself. It did not matter as I was curious about what the teacher was lecturing.

It was only later after class was over, I realized that Calina had not denied the male student's statement. Retrospecting was useful if your curiosity was not tugging at you in another direction.

Don't get me wrong. I am not a dense idiot, despite my dampened emotional capacity, which seemed to have worsen lately due to my other self. I had a keen sense of observation. I could easily figure out that Calina held some feelings for me, perhaps a liking maybe.

Women are strange creatures with strange minds though, so I was not too sure. Take Veena, for example.

I had no doubts that the mind of a fifteen year old girl was also strange.