Ordinarily, Evelyn would be paying attention to the teacher, even if she already knew what he was talking about. Yet she couldn’t get herself to focus on the elderly man’s words.
While she kept her eyes on him, the teacher could tell that her mind was elsewhere. She was typically the one to answer the questions, but she had remained mute the entire lesson. The teacher was not the only one to notice her absence.
Usually, if a student was not paying attention, the teacher would call them out on it, but he left her alone. The news of Lord Ashborn’s activities the night before had spread throughout the entire Noble community before the sun had risen, as well as his connection with her.
One of the servants that had been ordered to clean up the massacre had been a beginner Light Mage. They had been able to capture the scene on a Crystal and then made copies. For a servant, he was now quite wealthy as he had then sold the copies for a few Gold Coins. A fortune for commoners, yet pocket change for the nobility.
By now, as the sun was cresting its peak, practically every Noble House had a copy. Even Luke had procured a copy. Evelyn had seen the image, and just as it did with everyone else, it had sent shivers down her spine. It was horrifying to see a man’s chest flared out like that.
The official report was that Duke Redmond had issued an arrest warrant for Lord Halligon for Illegal Slave trade and prostitution. Lord Ashborn had accompanied the Duke for the arrest, but when Lod Halligon resisted the arrest, Lord Ashborn killed him. That was the official report, yet few believed it.
Why would a visiting dignitary be allowed to participate in the arrest of a Noble, even as a spectator? Such things would ordinarily be kept secret from the dignitary in order to show the Kingdom in the best light.
Despite the dubious story, there was not much resistance. Lord Halligon was a Lord that was seen with distaste from the majority. A slothful, greedy, and prideful man who partook in excess of all forms. The other Nobility only did business with him because he controlled the majority of wine trade in the Eastern Districts.
Now that he was dead, without any official heirs, despite the near certainty of countless bastards sired by Lord Halligon, the Halligon House was now in the process of being deconstructed. All its properties and businesses were being accounted for.
Once it was all accounted for and sorted through, they would be auctioned away to the other Nobility. Anything that was not sold to the Nobility would then be auctioned to the public, where the wealthy commoners and merchants could acquire them. The proceeds would then be granted to various Kingdom funded projects, such as the defenses, army, academy, and such.
Evelyn was glad Lord Halligon was dead. The man had never dared to proposition the Noble born girls, but Evelyn was not Noble born. The first time she had met Lord Halligon, he had assumed her to be a favored servant. He had offered her some coins if she would spend some time with him.
Since then, she had done her best to avoid him, but there were times she could not. He disgusted her every time. Just like many others, Evelyn was glad he was dead.
Evelyn assumed that Lord Ashborn had killed Lord Halligon because he learned of the Lord’s disgusting offers regarding her. She was mistaken. Had Alaster known of the offers, Lord Halligon would have disappeared. He would have only reappeared hanging from the city walls with his body turned inside out after many months.
When classes for the day ended, Evelyn met up with her friends at their usual place. She was sixteen, soon to turn eighteen. When she did, if she had not already decided otherwise, her engagement would be announced as official. Despite her rather young age, she had already become an Adept, something that had caused quite a stir in the academy.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The academy was full of promising people, but it was still unusual for someone to become an Adept before they turned twenty. Especially such a powerful Adept.
Unknown to her classmates, teachers, and pretty much everyone else, her stats were much higher than any other Adept. Her [Soul Seed] Ability, which allowed her to gain a Free Stat Point for each level one of those implanted with her [Soul Seed] gained.
As a Novice, her Ability was limited to only ten Seeded. When she became an Adept, just a little while ago, she learned that her limit had increased to one hundred. It would still be a long time before she could Seed that many people, especially as she wanted to keep the Ability secret.
She knew that such an Ability would attract unwanted attention. Attention that could prove dangerous both to her and to the people see cared about.
Besides, she only wanted to Seed those who were already destined to die, but wanted a second chance at life. There weren’t many of those, so she had to be careful. Since her limit had increased, she had Seeded only four more, bringing her total number of Seeded to fourteen.
Such a number was much too large for an effective Hunting Party, which usually numbered seven. Including both her, and Luke, who she refused to use her Ability on, there were sixteen in her Party. Too large. So, they had separated into two groups of eight. Still a larger party, but not one that would hinder them.
Despite being two different groups, and having the son of the Duke, both groups agreed that Evelyn was the leader. Having been saved from death row, they were extremely grateful. They knew that it was because of Evelyn that their lives had been spared. She had their profound respect and loyalty.
And since she was prioritizing young people with lower levels, they tended to have nowhere else to go. Evelyn was their lifeline, and she treated them well.
They gifted a small barracks from the Duke, which gave them a warm and safe place to sleep. Due to its small size, built to only house thirty people, it had limited uses, and had fallen into disrepair, but overtime, they had managed to repair it enough to be comfortable.
Paired with Evelyn allowing them to keep all the proceeds from their hunts, they no longer struggled to live, even if the hunts were occasionally difficult.
As she came into view, her friends and comrades waved at her, calling her over loudly. The two nearby Guards, stationed at the entrance to the Duke’s stable and courtyard, sighed at the loud noises, though they did not complain. They had grown used to the noises, as had most of the Duke’s guards.
While the Duke had not allowed Evelyn’s party members into his residence, as they were all reformed criminals, but criminals nonetheless, he did allow them to wander around his property.
“So Evelyn, where are you thinking of hunting today?” one of them asked as he stood up from a crate and grabbed his spear.
Even though they hunted separately, they preferred to hunt near each other so that they could protect each other if needed. Such an event had only occurred once, but had the second group not arrived in time, the first group would have lost two members.
“I was thinking of hunting around the lake we found last time.”
“In the west?”
“That’s the one.”
“Isn’t that kinda distant? When we were there we saw some pretty high level Monsters.”
“Yeah, but so what? We will crush them just like the rest!” one of the others chimed in, causing Evelyn to smirk despite her thoughts.
“We will have to be more careful, but we can only level up if we fight stronger opponents. Right now, out of the sixteen of us, five of us are still Novices. We need to get stronger, quickly.”
Laim, now a level twenty three Crusher, clad in steel studded leather armor and wielding a large studded hammer and iron rimmed wooden shield, stood up. His large size rivaled that practically all the adults.
“Are you ok Evelyn? What’s the rush?”
“I don’t know. I just feel as if things are getting dangerous.”
“Because of what happened to Halligon?”
Luke lightly kicked Liam, “Watch it Liam, he might be dead, his House being dismantled, but he was still a Noble while you are a commoner.”
“Oh come on, you know what I mean. Decides, I’m sure some people are going to be throwing parties to celebrate his death.”
“Liam, seriously, you can get executed for saying stuff like that.” Luke once again warned.
“Fine, I will say it quieter next time. But seriously Evelyn, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, its just a feeling I have. I think something is going to happen sometime in the future, and I just want to be ready for it.” Evelyn shrugged.
“Well, your feelings have never been wrong before.”
One of the girls chirped in, “So what does Lord Ashborn look like? Is he handsome?”