Chapter 68.

PART 1.

“This year,” said Krishna Menon, meeting with Surbha in her office. “We will break that boy.”

“And I will help you as much as I can.” She spoke. “But tell me, why didn’t you do anything this year?”

“I was busy observing him,” replied Krishna. “Honestly, for all the brouhaha surrounding Zeko, I would have expected him to train him better than this.”

“Meaning?” asked Surbha.

“Meaning that, he should be a monster. He should be beyond Piercers and Slicers already.” Clarifies Krishna.

“But I do hear he is performing elemental magic already.” Said Surbha, talking about what she has heard from the rumor mill.

“Mere baseless claims.” Said Krishna. “During my observations, not once did he use elemental magic. Any child can produce some sparks when distressed, but we don’t call it elemental magic, now, do we?”

“Of course.” Nodded Surbha.

“Honestly, the boy is nothing special. If it weren’t for that prophecy, we could have ignored him. but we can’t let him be a pawn of Porus.”

PART 2.

Corvus doesn’t even have to spy on a professor useless and deputy idiot to see what they are planning. ‘This’ll be a test for your boy, Porus.’ He thinks to himself. ‘If he can survive this year, he’ll be stronger for it.’

Aside from that, he plans to make his moves to slowly crush the resistance which has developed against him over time in the Academy. He abhors the actions he has to take sometimes as a headmaster. He should be pursuing esoteric magic, not playing politics.

But as much as he hates it, he can’t deny that academia is not driven by actual research. Instead, it is driven by literal cutthroat politics, which would give mages outside of the academic circle a pause, should they learn of it.

PART 3.

At Zeko’s house, Hatori is learning advanced (more like intermediate) fire magic from a gleeful Zeko, who now gets to use some of his advance tor—training methods on his student, who seems to be getting stronger and stronger day by day.

“Fireball to the left! Fireball to the right! Fireball behind you! fireball above you! fireball to the ground! Fireball above you!” and the instructions continue in this random fashion.

Hatori is balancing on a thin wall that Zeko raised in his yard by earth magic, while there’s a pool of water around the wall on which he is balancing. Zeko is giving him instructions from afar, and Hatori has to execute them without losing his balance.

Which is not easy. He nearly fell into the water below while trying to throw a fireball behind him. All the while, Zeko tells him to go faster. He decides to fall into the water deliberately, and stays underwater, holding his breath.

Zeko calls him. “That kind of joke won’t work on me, kid!” said Zeko.

When there was still no reaction from the water, he went to check. Seeing his chance, Hatori leaps at Zeko, trying to pull him underwater. He is like a shark trying to punish this puny human who dares to torment him.

Unfortunately, this human is Moby Dick in humanoid disguise, so the shark has bitten more than it could chew. In a swirl of water, Zeko throws Hatori out of the pool. He lands on the dry ground under a mango tree with a loud splat. The fruits above fell on him in a cartoonish style, adding insult to injury.

Zeko chortles with laughter after seeing this. “You’re lucky that they weren’t coconuts. Hahahahaha!” He laughed heartily, unable to contain his mirth.

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Getting out of the pile of mangos, Hatori gets up gingerly. Those mangos are not ripened yet, and they left bruises on him. “Go get healed in the pool.” Commanded Zeko. “After you’re done with that, we’ll do some more fire meditation.”

With a nod, Hatori makes his way to the pool, where the Yaksha is roaring with laughter, sounding like a waterfall in the process after hearing the entire incident. “Stop laughing! This is supposed to be a pool of healing!”

“You are getting healed.” Points out the water spirit, after laughing to his heart’s content.

“Yeah, but you’re damaging my pride.” Said Hatori.

“Then I’m doing a service to your future self.” Said the spirit. “Pride always gets in the way of pragmatism, kid. Never forget it.”

Absorbing the lesson, since he still remembers how he was defeated by his friends after underestimating them, he gets out of the pool and starts to dress up. He gets attacked while putting on his pants. He shuffled aside, barely avoiding the fireball which came from behind him.

Turning around, he sees a shadow, preparing more fireballs to throw at him. But Hatori retaliates with his fireballs, hiding a Piercer behind them. The shadow fails to see the spell coming and gets its throat pierced as a result. It disappears in a woosh of smoke after that.

The battles in the house have gotten tougher since his return. The yantras, spirits, and shadows, are all using elemental magic against him. As a result, Hatori has to be more careful, since he won’t just be bruised if he made a mistake, or is knocked out. horrible burns await him if he misses an attack.

PART 4.

In court, Porus has tuned out the treasury minister. The man has been rambling about tax collections for the last two hours, and his patience has finally run out. Besides, Amarnath has effectively taken over for him anyway, so he is just sitting in his chair, waiting for the meeting to end already.

‘Why did I become a king again?’ He thinks. ‘Ah yes, because I thought I could change the world. How stupid I was.’

He remembers the carefree days of his childhood and the wonderful days of his apprenticeship under Corvus. They traveled a lot and saw a lot of the world. They worked on many alchemic projects together, finding breakthroughs, which are still in use to this day.

Corvus has gotten distant from him ever since he became the headmaster of the Academy. Though he is also responsible for doing the same after acquiring the throne. ‘Maybe I should write an emotional letter to pull at the strings of his heart?’ He smiled at the thought.

Corvus doesn’t have any strings in his heart to pull at. Speaking of letters, the royal courier appears to be running into the court, disrupting the meeting.

“Your majesty, an important letter has arrived!” said the woman breathlessly.

“Do you remember anything about receiving any such letters?” asked the king to Amarnath, while the general, ever the paranoid, checks the letter for traps.

“I don’t recall any important letters arriving today.” Said the secretary.

“It is clear, your majesty.” Said the general, handing the letter to Porus.

Opening the letter, he smiled. “My son is returning.” He announced to the court. The court starts to buzz. “He’ll be arriving here in a week.”

“Congratulations to your majesty!” said everyone on the court.

Overlooking their insincerity this time, Porus inclines his head in thanks. “Of course, this is an occasion for celebration. After all, he hasn’t been here for the last twenty years. So, prepare the castle for his arrival.”

“It will be done.” Said Amarnath.

And if anyone caused any problems during the preparations, Amarnath will make them disappear, this he promised to himself.

(End.)