Chapter 146.

PART 1.

Hatori wakes up from his deep slumber. The bed is unfamiliar, and he imagined his groggy brain starting up with a whirring sound, kind of like how his computer used to do back home. he listens to people moving and talking beyond this room, and smells some food cooking as well. the door opened, and he twitched. He has gotten control over his instincts, otherwise he would have attacked Henish, who has just come to check up on him.

Still, he has not learned to sleep completely relaxed. Hatori still needs to find that sweet spot between debilitating violence and complete relaxation, deeming the people around him no threat.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good,” said Henish after seeing Hatori sitting on the bed.

“What happened with the soul?” he croaked.

Henish answers while handing Hatori a glass of water. “Oh, you manage to deal with it. it really did a number on you before it disappeared in a bright light though,” he explained.

“I wasn’t ready for that. master Munshi will be so disappointed.” Said Hatori, putting his face in his hands.

“Don’t worry about it, the important thing is to survive. After all, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as my grandfather used to say.” Smiled Henish. “Speaking of Munshi, you should know what happened.”

“Can I at least brush my teeth before getting any bad news?” asked Hatori, having deduced the kind of thing he should learn from Henish’s tone.

“Sure, sure.” Agreed the young man.

Once Hatori was done with his morning ablutions, he sat at the breakfast table, having a very late breakfast. Herik and Henish have told him all about what happened at the City of Throne, but clearly, they still don’t know all the facts. “By the way,” he said to them after hearing the news, “I must thank you for taking care of me.”

“It wasn’t a trouble. Don’t even mention it,” said Herik, dismissing the entire matter with a wave. “I assume you will be traveling back to your master?”

“Indeed. But first, I think I’ll contact him.” Hatori brings out the mirror. Herik wanted to ask about the different design but refrained from asking for now.

“Yes?” asked Munshi, picking up the call. “I assume everything went well?”

“Yeah, except for one hitch at the end. The soul knocked me out before I dispersed it. mister Herik is nice enough to let me rest in his house, however.” Once more, the man called out it wasn’t trouble from the other room. “What happened? I’m hearing some really strange news here.”

“We’ll talk about that in person. I suggest you leave for the Academy from there, there is only a week left until the winter festival starts. I wouldn’t be able to pick you up and drop you there.” said Munshi.

“Sure.” Said Hatori. Putting the mirror in his expanded pocket, he turns to Henish. “I think it is time to leave. I hope you won’t have any trouble with souls in the future.”

“Me too. Once was enough honestly.” Said Henish, escorting Hatori to the entrance of their house. “Will you be fine traveling to the airport by yourself?”

“Sure, I’ve done that before.” Smiled Hatori. he shook hands with Henish, and then left after hailing a bus.

As he clambers up in the vehicle, he is glad that the mages are pragmatic enough to borrow ideas from his own world. he doesn’t wish to live in a fantasy world where horses and carts are the best mode of traveling. Hatori would have destroyed that world out of sheer spite, after learning all the magic he could, of course.

PART 2.

Sangita is speaking with the students in the Academy over the mirror. They are discussing who could be the conductor for their orchestral performance this year. “How about Varun?” she suggested.

“No.” said one student. “He’s too brash, and he just never listens.”

“Hmm. Tobias?” she suggested.

“Mam, he is a good player, but a lousy conductor.” Said one female student.

“How about Indrani?” suggested Sangita, running out of the names as each one is rejected.

“I think she could use some more experience.” Said the male student. “In particular, she needs to get rid of her stage fright first.”

“Professor,” enters Shin. He sees that she is currently busy. “I’ll come later.”

“Wait, is that Shin?” asked the male student.

“Sujeet, is that you?” asked Shin.

“Yep.” Said the boy. “Professor, if you don’t mind, we’ll have him.”

“What?” asked Shin, shouldn’t they tell him first about why they want him?

“I suppose it could work.” Said Sangita. “I do recall that he did some conducting before.”

“In my first year,” said Shin, finally understanding.

“Excellent.” Said Sujeet. “We’ll also help you out with your own solo performance. So, does everyone agree? Can we finalize Shin as our conductor?”

“Yes!” was the united reply.

Shin excuses himself. Looks like he will need to be ready to work a lot this year at the festival. ‘But then again, I’ll get to shine as well.’ he smiled at the thought, putting his composition notes on the table. He will give those to Professor Sangita when she is free from the call.

PART 3.

James moves from cauldron to cauldron, as several potions are being brewed simultaneously. A yantra prompts him whenever a potion needs some attention, his own creation of which he was proud. He wouldn’t be managing to handle so many potions at once with such ease otherwise.

Each year, right before the festival, Slaughter makes all the apprentice interns in their second year brew these potions. There is a great need for them to cure sore throats, so people can continue screaming (Hatori hates that activity), and of course, to make sure that accidents do not happen when students decide to remove their clothes. James blasted Slaughter for sharing that particular detail. He is not interested in knowing what his fellow students do during the festival, thank you very much.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

PART 4.

The general watches Raven with a pile of paperwork, he is sorting them by hand due to the sensitivity of the documents to the magic. someone decided to write them with ink that could burst into fire if anyone used magic on them. currently, the process of copying them to safer alternatives is going on, but the important question is, why is his intern working on them?

Unable to take the rustling of the papers, he gets up from his chair, and starts to loom over Raven and his papers. “Why aren’t you at the Academy already?” asked Sundar with his best Zeko imitation. The man has some truly great ideas to put the fear of magic on people.

“I’ve got work to do.” Said Raven, still working on the sorting, answering the question of the general distractedly.

Sundar’s eye starts to twitch. ‘Who does he think he is, to ignore me like that?’ the general swats Raven so hard at the side of his head that he falls to the side in a heap. “Leave that work, and go to the Academy, that’s an order!”

Getting up from the floor, Raven salutes. “Sir, yes sir!” he marches out of the room, apparently whatever fog was clouding his brain has lifted.

The general also walked out, intending to assign this work to someone who would not pile this on Raven once more when he gets back. ‘I swear, I’m surrounded by the lazy idiots. I’m glad that the city didn’t take much damage. Otherwise, these incompetent fools would be running around like headless chickens.’

PART 5.

Hatori arrives at the Academy. he considers himself lucky that flying to your destination takes very little time in a country. As for going inside of the dimension where the Academy is located? It is a piece of cake for him. he knows the roads by now. he decides to take a flight to practice his flying skills, landing at the gates of the Academy, where students are walking and relaxing on the ground, just like they are doing all the time. unless someone like Hatori Eagle is rampaging, then they run for the safety of their dorms.

‘It is such a shame that I never targeted the dorms with my attacks.’ thinks Hatori, sad that he missed this opportunity to torment more people.

But all thoughts of tormenting everyone fled from his mind, when he saw the familiar face of Avinash. He looks warned out. ‘Looks like farming was difficult this year.’ he thought with amusement while approaching Avinash.

“Sooooo!” said Avinash, having seen Hatori coming towards him, “Took you long enough to come here.”

“I was busy with a case.” Said Hatori, walking with Avinash, who decided to take a seat underneath a tree. Hatori sits down next to him.

“What kind of case?” asked Avinash.

“Nothing much, just an old soul. It was petty enough to injure me before I dispersed it. I learned a lot from that soul.” Said Hatori.

“Like?” asked Avinash, expecting the answer to be something horrible.

“You should always leave one last attack at your opponent, even if you are about to die. If you injure them, then they’ll remember you. if you injure them in a permanent manner, they will curse your name for the rest of their life.” Said Hatori. “It is a great lesson which that soul taught me.”

“Figures.” Said Avinash, unwilling to say more than that.

“What about you?” asked Hatori. “Was farming too tough?” he taunted.

“Yeah, Kishore got ill, so I had to deal with everything on my own. Once he got better, my duties were reduced, but then I had to catch up on everything I missed this year, plus my usual duties. It was exhausting.” Said Avinash.

“Better you than me,” said Hatori with a smirk.

Avinash punched him in the face.

PART 6.

In the president’s office, Josh is thinking. He has drawn up some plans. They are approaching the end of their schooling with every new year; the next year will be their last one. he wishes to do something unique in the festival as a result, to have some really good memories.

If he has learned anything from holding the position of the student present of the Academy, then it has to be that adult life is a soul-crushing boring hell. he wishes to have some good memories once they start to suffer through that hell. maybe that will prevent their madness.

Josh wanted to do some sort of drama, where he could involve every one of his friends. but aside from this starting idea, he has nothing concrete. ‘Hatori is here already.’ He thought, regretting that he couldn’t go and meet him immediately. ‘I’ll ask him about some ideas later.’

PART 7.

Porus is leaving the Fernandes City. The next destination is Keralam. He is looking forward to visiting that region. He has heard and seen a lot of good things about that area, so it is bound to be great.

The king has enjoyed his tour. Sure, there was that ugly business of the strange murders, and the culprit even attacked the capitol. Even though Porus regrets not being there to defend his city, he is still continuing on this tour. Besides, the general is strong enough to repel any other attack. it is very important for Porus that he sees people in their natural environment, observes their lives, and experiences the things that can only be experienced locally.

This will give him a tether to the sanity, some strength to continue on with the politics, of which he has been increasingly fed of recently. ‘Too bad I can’t just retire. There are not any good candidates to replace me, there would be a bloody civil war.’ He sighed.

So, for his own peace of mind, he must continue on touring his own country.