Chapter 155

The Auditors

“So Master, how was your day off?” Jhonny asks, a bit of excitement in his voice as he asks.

We are in our lessons. Now that the troubles with the missing patrols have been settled, and the absence of the King and Princess has been established, I finally have time to go back and do what I want. Which is apparently one-on-one teaching, today, the last day of my three-day break before I go back to teaching full time tomorrow.

With that, I almost wanted to take a break from everything today and just have a little personal day, but I remembered Cassidy and her plea for help, so here I am. Giving up my Sunday to work with Jhonny on the next stages of training before Monday.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” I answer.

That said, I am not looking forward to tomorrow, and thus don’t really want to go over what happened to make it so that tomorrow will be so completely painful to attend.

Nodding.

He nods his head in seeming understanding, but then pauses as he tries to come at this from another angle.

“It’s just that, well, your life is always so interesting.” Jhonny says.

At that, I quirk an eyebrow.

“To whom?” I ask.

“What?”

“You heard me, to whom.” I repeat myself.

With that Jhonny pauses for a moment before then does that thing that all liars do, where they try to shift the blame, while also shifting their bodyweight.

“Well, I guess everyone.”

“Everyone? You are out here asking on behalf of everyone?” I press, “you are going to just ask me about my confidences, and then pass that along to the world?”

“What? No, I would never.”

“Okay then, tell me who it is you are trying to impress, and I might think about answering your questions.” I answer.

With that Jhonny squirms slightly, before seeming to settle on an answer.

“Well, there is this one lady who I am interested in.” Jhonny began.

“Nope, don’t like it.” I state, crossing my arms before me.

“What, what do you mean?”

“I already don’t like this situation, well her in particular.”

“Why?”

“Because she is using you. Here you are, barely in the classes and assigned to me as my bodyguard only because I chose you. They see that connection, and pressure you to ask me questions that might compromise the integrity of ongoing missions. I don’t like her.” I state.

“No, wait, it’s not like that at all.” Jhonny began.

“Let me ask you, how old were you before you joined?” I ask, this is sort of a personal topic, but one that will help me evaluate whether I need to get rid of Jhonny entirely, especially with how many different topics are going on. It is one thing for people to be inquisitive, but another thing for people to be sources of data leaks. In my spying days, I would have turned a boy like Jhonny into the perfect weapon. Actually, for him, I would just watch his coming and goings and mark anything he did that might be remotely important.

“Why would that matter?” Jhonny asks.

“This is important as it will let me know whether you were a youth who joined and can be trained to be reliable, or if you are an adult manchild who will succumb to the whim of every pretty face that comes your way. So what is it?” I asked.

“I was fifteen,” Jhonny finally admitted, then continued, “I had cancer.”

With that last confession, Jhonny looked particularly discouraged by his action.

Hearing him, I could only nod in understanding.

“Okay, you can stay, for now.” I state, nodding to myself about this. “Though know that much of my trust that I had in you has been broken from this one event.”

“But nothing happened?”

“Nothing happened, because I stopped it, before it went anywhere. But what would happen if I had told you all the information you asked about, what then?”

“What do you mean?”

“You would have told her the answers to all the questions you just asked me. She could then go on and tell others that she too was trying to impress, and soon everything I told you would be out and part of public knowledge. Which would compromise ongoing efforts.” I stated.

Silence.

With that Jhonny looked visibly cowed by my statements, as he lowered his head and looked away. Finally, after seemingly enough time had gone on, I pressed.

“What are you thinking about now?”

“Just how interesting was what you did?” Jhonny asked.

“What? That is what you got from that?” I ask, somewhat flummoxed by his response.

“Well yeah. For most people, when you ask what they did on a day off, they will say fishing, or that they worked on making a new craft or hobby. With you, it almost seems like you identified state secrets.” Jhonny began.

With that, I realize that he is correct. Asking a co-worker about their day off is almost cordial in some places. While here I am giving the fifth degree to Jhonny for asking me such questions. In fact, the only reason why I am so guarded about what happened yesterday is the fact that everything still has the chance of breaking.

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There are still a lot of moving parts, and pieces to everything before my marriage to Mallory. I also need to find a way to consummate the marriage, while not actually sleeping with my best friend and the girlfriend of my daughter. Somehow that seems like it would all be a really bad day, but I still have a plan for how I might be able to get around that stipulation, while also fulfilling the requirements of the quest. Of course, I can’t really work on those contingencies if I am always looking over my shoulder for any and all signs that there might be data breaches and insider threats for information.

“You know, lets just go with I knitted.” I state.

“Knitted?”

“Yeah, little mittens that I handed out to the poor.” I add.

With that Jhonny just crosses his arms and looks at me as if I am crazy.

“No one will believe that for a second.” Jhonny stated matter-of-factly.

“What? I can be very compassionate, when I want to be.” I state, feeling somewhat offended by his comment.

“Oh, that I do not disagree with. However, there are no poor here. Also, any gloves made by you will likely be overpowered and highly destructive. Which would be readily apparent as the homeless recipients would likely form raiding parties to level up and start mini uprisings.” Jhonny said a bit melodramatically, but I got his intentions.

“My knitting is not that overpowered.” I state, realizing that I don’t exactly have a knitting skill, yet.

“Uh-oh, what is she yelling about?” Mallory asked, coming forward. I had been tracking her progress as she took three delegates with her throughout the camp. Now it seemed that we were on my portion of the tour. Well not just my portion, but my school’s portion of the tour.

“She was thinking about a way to make overpowered mittens for the homeless.” Jhonny answered.

With that Mallory looked like she wanted to laugh, but then caught herself as she realized, “oh wait, you are serious?”

“They wouldn’t be overpowered.” I state, still trying to figure out if yarn could hold an enchantment, I think it could, but I might need to add a bit more to make the enchantments stick. Honestly, yarn seems like a very light and flimsy medium for enchantments. I might need to use blood or other sticky substances to hold. I know, I just went with blood, but that is the easiest to get to and would provide its own innate power source while it soaked into the threads. Then from there I could add more sympathetic powers.

“She’s doing that scary thing with her tongue again.” Gwen said, “you know the one where she pretends to be cute and cuddly but is really thinking about sacrificing the masses for power.”

“I was not.” I responded a bit indignantly. Then I realized that if I explained about the use of blood as a medium for yarn, I likely wouldn’t be doing myself any favors. You know what, the more I think about it, the more I realize knitting is likely a stupid skill to learn.

That is of course, why I want to now learn it, so I can figure out what is wrong with it and fix it. I used to love knitting so much when I was still living. Though it was mostly because I had slowed down a lot, I still wanted to do something, even though my hands ached when I did anything truly labor intensive. You know what, I am officially putting Knitting as one of my serious skills to get back to, once life calms down a bit.

“I don’t believe her.” Gwen said.

“Me, either.” Mallory said, clearly going in on the joke.

“You two need to stop.” I said, then added, “besides don’t you have dignitaries to escort around?”

With that Mallory and Gwen both turn to face the Deolar dignitaries that were following behind them. The ones who could hear everything.

“Right.” Gwen said, immediately standing up straight, as she tried to adjust herself. As she stood, her stomach bulged ever so slightly. Not enough to cause any major pain or discomfort, but enough that the baby belly was beginning to show.

“This is Knight Captain Glavis De’Arcaneri, Lieutenant Foliv De’Travin, and someone I believe you will be very interested in meeting Arch-Mage Rahul De’Gravitas.” Mallory states, pointing out the Lich.

I turn my head towards Mallory, I can see her already, but this way she knows my attention is directed fully at her. Looking at her, I can’t help but wonder if she is doing this on purpose.

“Oh, we have met.” Arch-Mage Rahul De’Gravitas states. “This is the girl that would steal my heart, if my heart did not already belong to another.” The glowing lich said, as he looked at me with a weird form of perversion.

“Can you not be creepy, for like ten minutes.” I state, trying not to feel revulsion within my own sanctuary.

Looking at the three new guests, I see that Gwen’s Death Shroud is being used to safeguard all three individuals, making it so that they do not take damage while here in the mortal realm. It is amazing, and one of the first powers my original class had.

While staring at Gwen’s usage of the power, I almost wonder if there is a way to improve this capability. Honestly this is something that I wouldn’t even know where to look currently, but I assume there is a place where this information is stored. And if the information is stored it can be altered, logically.

If I had to think about changing this merit, I would likely change the number of people, but that would probably have a direct impact on the distance that the three people could be protected. Right now, Gwen and I could protect three people in either the mortal or spiritual realm, and to my knowledge there is no distance on how far away from us the protection extends.

I also realize that this particular merit is tied directly with my primary class of Ethereal Healer, which if I mess with the merit and break the merit, would that also mean I will break my class? I am just about at the point where I ultimately decide it is best to avoid messing with class breaking exercises, at least for now, when I am drawn from my own musings.

Snap, snap.

“Hey, focus here. Stop trying to find ways to break the world. You can do that later.” Mallory stated, dropping her hand that had been used to grab my attention by snapping.

“I wasn’t going to break the world.” I state, a little indignantly, though breaking a class would likely be along those lines.

“Oh? So what were you thinking about then?” Mallory asks.

I tell her, even noting that I stopped myself when I realized that I might break a class if I do it improperly.

“That is your idea of not breaking the world?” Mallory asks.

“I don’t think I could do it.” I add, as this is all hypothetical, “right now.”

Mallory looked like she was going to relax a little, but then turned to me after hearing my last statement. She pauses, and stares at me again.

“I don’t know if you say things like that to just joke around, or if you are secretly plotting to do these, once you have a moment.” Mallory states, staring at me.

“I what?” I ask.

“You know, I used to listen to these ideas and mostly disregard them as just a sign of your analytical mind at work. However, I have now come to see more and more of your ideas come to light than I would have previously hoped for.” Mallory states.

“Isn’t that good, scientific progress and all.” I state.

“It is, when you talk about creating new spells that explode and coat people in glitter or find ways to cure the Blight. But recently even the system is asking you to stop.” Mallory states.

Hearing that, I realize why Mallory and Gwen both have been so off recently.

Pausing I take in both of their forms, and realize they are both scared. I understand, as it has really only been about a day and a half since I dreamt of little Cassidy and how Gwen and Mallory both were sent to wake me up.

“You are scared? Both of you?” I ask, turning my head to both of them, as I already know the answer.

“I…” Gwen begins, but she is cut off by Mallory.

“No, nothing like that.” Mallory states in her clearly forced cordial tone. Then she continues, “all we are saying is that we need to keep people like you busy. With that in mind, we are expanding your current workload as a professor.”

That was a smooth transition of someone who was used to being in a leadership role. Also, I can see that Mallory and Gwen both seem a little concerned that they aired out so many concerns in front of strangers. Hopefully it will come across as playful banter, but I can tell that Gwen and Mallory both are now looking at me in a more reserved state.

This is bad, as I had always been given leeway and encouragement both to explore different ideas. A week ago, Mallory might have even helped me flush out my idea on trying to alter class related merits, yet today I was shut down.

I realize part of that is due to my forcing her to marry me. Well marry my alternate avatar, but I also realize that recently I have been acting more on my own and forcing others to act to my whims, than normal. It is one thing for me to play both sides of a conflict to better myself twice, it is another thing entirely when the lives and emotions of others also get drawn into that same conflict.

“Knight Captain Glavis De’Arcaneri and Lieutenant Foliv De’Travin will be joining your morning Qi classes.” Mallory states.

I open my mouth to protest, as I don’t even know if ghosts or spirits can accumulate Qi, as it seems to be a very key component of the living. Mallory, seeing that I am about to open my mouth to protest, as we can’t afford to have anyone fail, let alone two people that have no ability to learn Qi, she speaks.

“These two will be auditing the curriculum and sitting in on a few of your other lessons.” Mallory states pointing towards the two Spirit realm guards that I am well aware of at this point. Then before anyone can say anything, she pivots and points to the Lich.

“This is Arch-Mage Rahul De’Gravitas, he will be auditing a few of your Enchantment related courses.” Mallory states, pointing to the Lich.

Before I can do or say anything, I am met with a new system message informing me of these new changes.

Class Roster Update: Knight Captain Glavis De’Arcaneri and Lieutenant Foliv De’Travin have been accepted as students who will be auditing your initial courses related to Qi Manifestation. Similarly Arch-Mage Rahul De’Gravitas has been allowed to audit your initial courses related to Enchantment.

Note: Student Auditing: Perspective students are allowed to audit classes, without any direct impact to the school’s overall teaching success rate. Students are only eligible for auditing when they meet one of two requirements; A) they are not currently enrolled as students. Or B) they are enrolled but are taking a semester off to shore up perceived deficiencies, or due to personal reasons.

“This should only be temporary for me, as I feel most of the information will be below my efforts. But as we have been tasked with strengthening our relationships with each other, I feel it only right that I join you all and attempt to offer my own expertise to the classes.” Rahul the arrogant Lich begins.

Hearing him speak, I get the clear impression that he doesn’t think he can learn anything from me and will likely be one of those students that speaks up constantly in an attempt to derail my classes just to talk about how great he is. I was about to let it slide; I really was. Then he just kept talking.

“In fact, I might even be persuaded to help you teach, if you bow down to me and apologize for attacking me in my own lair.” Rahul said in a pompous lisping voice. Gods his voice was like a metal rake scraping against a chalkboard.

“You think you are better than me?” I ask, it is rhetorical as I already know he doesn’t think, but I am just trying to get my thoughts in order.

“Yes.”

“You, whose major accomplishment was to create a mana siphon that made toxic sludge that you had pooling under your floors?” I ask, calling out how terribly designed his whole cascading array structure was.

“The same toxic sludge you begged me to bathe in, yes.” Rahul stated.

“It’s not toxic to me.” Then realizing I was going to look like a moron if I argued with this moron anymore, I decided to take the high road. “Fine then, you think you are so superior to me, then come to the class, if you don’t learn anything then I might think of adding you as a future staff member.”

The truth was, we needed more teachers. Having one single point of failure for a college was a terrible idea, especially when we wanted to get this college accredited. So maybe this was my chance to get additional staff on hand that could help teach more students.

Unfortunately, this world was all too realistic, as so far the only possible help in the form of additional staff I found was an old lecherous miser whose last major contributions to the chosen field of study happened millennia ago.

“I will gladly let you call me master.” Rahul said.

Bleh.

I almost vomited at that, fortunately I stopped myself.

“You will never be my master in anything, and I will prove it to you.” I said.

Then with that, my challenge had not only been heard but accepted.