Chapter 13 – Fury

In a hall at a manor gathered a lot of people, all important looking stood around the middle. On the ground lay four frozen bodies of three young men and one young lady. Another middle aged man kneeled beside them, his eyes void of emotion.

This was the Ip family, every top member was gathered here today. Amongst the top members were their children. They each gazed upon the scene, a small flare of fear ignited within their hearts. They knew too well that the assistant head of the family was one of three initiate knights. And if the culprit could beat him…

The Head of the family, out of his chair stood close to the middle looking at the scene with a mixed expression. Fear? Confusion? Anger?

“Riji… What happened?...” The Head finally said after a while. He had already heard from bystanders but he wanted to know the exact details of the event.

Riji looked up to meet the gaze of the Head, shame, anger and guilt flashed on his eyes. But most of all pain. He was no more than a normal person now, the higher you climb, the bigger the fall…

In a slow manner, he explained what happened. How he had heard that someone was causing trouble from a restaurant with children of the Ip family. How at first, he paid it no mind but when the news of them fighting came across, he left to see what happened. And that when he arrived, they were all pretty close to dying. And how the enemy overpowered him and how finally… his centre got shattered.

As if finished his story, people gathered around unintentionally gasped. Hearing the events, it showed how the magician was able to dispatch of him with relative ease. A disciple against an initiate… with such ease? The tiny spark of fear ignited into a flame within their hearts.

The Head’s face darkened with anger. How could he let the Ip family’s pride we trampled on like that?

“He had a message…” The assistant head interrupted his thoughts. “That he was going to right the wrong.” A puzzled expression appeared on everyone’s face. What did it mean? Nobody knew.

“We must find the culprit.” An old, raspy voice rang across the hall. Everyone turned towards the origin of the voice to find an elderly man standing.

“Father.” The Head greeted and called out.

“Grandfather.” Several others greeted and called out.

It was the previous Head of the family, the most powerful man in the Ip household.

“Contact the magician’s guild. Find the man. The Ip family will not allow our pride to be trampled on.” He ordered. A family’s pride was very important in this world.

“Put out a bounty on him. Any information will be rewarded. Let the city know what it means to anger the Ip family.”

“Yes Father.” The Head replied. This matter was significant enough to bring out even his father, which meant he was angry. Immediately he began relaying orders to everyone to look out for someone of Redius’ description. And to send word to the magician’s guild for the identity of the culprit.

Soon another elderly man came out, everyone bowed and greeted him as he walked towards the frozen figures. He commanded the same authoritative air about him, everyone in the family knew he was the one and only Meditro of the house, an outsider but in service to the family.

He knelt beside the frozen figures, his brows furrowed as he could feel the icy cold air resonating from the bodies. 

Unseen his diatis expanded to check the bodies of the four frozen boy and girl. After a while, his brows furrowed even further.

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“Old friend… can they be saved?” The old head asked.

“…yes…” he replied, bringing light and hope to the parents of the children. “and… no…” to which everyone got confused. He stood up and explained.

“Right now, they are alive.” Smiles came up, but they realized that there was a ‘but’. “But… the ice is special. It’s very potent. Even now it radiates power. I suspect thawing the ice would require a high quality flame. At least a 2nd stage initiate magician.” He continued explaining.

“What’s more is that there’s something special in the ice. I think he infused it in so that only he could unfreeze them. 

Unless a powerful flame magician came along, I don’t think we would be able to save them.” He finished bringing another silence to the room.

“Send for the people who went to the magician’s guild now!” The old Head’s voice ordered loudly, his voice filled with power. Even though he knew the magician’s guild were powerful, he could risk going to an extreme length of asking them to hand over the magician because his family’s pride was on the line. Plus the guild wouldn’t go into all-out war for something so small.

But now that he knew a magician would be required to save them, he couldn’t risk even angering any magician. He needed them now.

As he laid down the orders, people began to hurry to stop the people they had sent to the magician’s guild.

Whilst the Ip family was in a frenzy, the rest of the city was in a rowdy state.

“Did you hear? The Ip family’s children angered a magician and got their arses kicked!” Some people discussed on the streets.

“Yeah. And most of all, an ICE magician. Ice magician.”

“Damn. If I had half his power…”

“You wish…”

As people all over the town discussed this, so did the other major families.

Plenio Household.

“Is it the same magician?” The Head asked the person in front of him. An intelligence officer.

“The description of him appears to be the same sir. What’s more, I would not suspect that there are any other ice magicians in town.”

“Very well. Dismissed.” He said as the officer left. He sat back in his chair.

‘The city’s going through a lot…’ he thought to himself. ‘It won’t be peaceful these days…’

The Losrenos family’s reaction was different. As they hadn’t heard about Redius before, they were on full blown investigation to find out who he was. And it was ordered throughout the entire family to never anger him.

But deep inside the household, a small family sat eating. Smiles across their faces.

The woman lovingly kept placing a lot of food onto their sons place.

“Mum… I can’t finish that much.” Kiol half complained.

“You’re a growing boy, eat more.” His mother smiled warmly.

“You must be dedicated to your training son. Don’t let success overcome your hard work.” His dad said to which he nodded.

Their family were a lot happier now, especially seeing their son able to train. A disciple class at the age of 16. That is already quite an accomplishment. He would be considered very talented. Even though they did not understand his reason of not telling the rest of the family, they did not mind.

Kiol ate as he looked out the window. He had heard about the fight in the afternoon, and he allowed himself a sly smile. 

He knew it was his boss. Ip family… you better be careful. We’re coming.