Sage found himself escorted to an elevator that took him high above the lower tier and even the upper tier, entering the highest levels of the mountain-like Clear Sky Academy. This was the domain of the highest level students and also the important folk in the Academy. As soon as Sage felt the magic tool elevator bringing him upwards he grew less suspicious. Wasn’t dirty business always done down in the basement?
Of course, he was far from reassured. There was still the chance he needed to meet in person with someone truly powerful so they could read his mind or personally dispose of him. The strongest forces in the Inner World were rapidly preparing, arming themselves with the greatest weapons they’d created over more than ten thousand years of civilization. Leaving the ‘Spirit Stairs’, Sage was led down a long hallway with many paper windowed doors. Above each of the doors was a name plaque with various unusual meanings. After passing one with a very stately feel to the calligraphy that read ‘Student Council’, Sage guessed that these were ‘club’ rooms or the meeting rooms of the various organizations in the Academy. Since he’d assumed he’d run into some sort of internal faction, then having it as an official inter-academy organization seemed to fit the bill.
When they came to the room with ‘Twilight’ over the door, he felt a little more confident in his guess. The Discipline Keeper slid open the wooden door, ushering Sage in before sliding it closed. Inside, the room gave off a very dojo-like feel. The floor was covered in reed mats, yet no one was required to remove their shoes. Sage felt the floor was quite similar to tatami mats, yet there was no area for changing to slippers. Especially when they approached a wide and low table with people sitting cross legged on the floor behind it. It felt very strange to see so many shoes, but thinking about it there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Considering how powerful they all were here, it would be quite simple to keep even their shoes completely clean of being dirtied by the outside world. In fact, there were formations around the entrances of the Academy that automatically cleaned away such things upon entering the school. The strange feeling was purely because of his own psychological association between the mats on the floor and its resemblance to the Japanese culture of Earth.
Sage was careful not to let any of his unease show on his face as he was taken to meet with this table full of, what he assumed to be, important people. Sage was brought to the middle of the table and the Discipline Keeper indicated for Sage to sit while at the same time remaining standing himself. Across from Sage there was a trio of women. One of them had a wider, more matronly look, while the other two were thinner. One had a strained and severe cast to her features with her hair pulled back into a tight bun, while the other seemed much more carefree.
The Discipline Keeper behind Sage spoke first, “This is Lang Sheng.” Then he leaned over Sage’s shoulder and made the rest of the introductions. Pointing out the larger woman as Tian Zemin, the woman with a bun was Gu Lim, and the more carefree woman was called Mao Yimu.
Tian Zemin was the one who took the lead, “Tell me, what do you know about Twilight?”
“So far, I only know you are a righteous organization that doesn’t put secrets before the lives of the staff and students. I’m quite impressed. I would be quite happy to join, but I need to know my responsibilities first to make sure I can properly fulfill them.”
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Brushing past what Twilight stood for, or its goals among the Academy should be enough to show them that he really didn’t care all that much. If their opposing faction was the ones hiding the secret passage, then he was their target. In that case he really had no choice but to come under Twilight’s protection. Does it matter what their goals were? He needed their backing. Despite how much power he had available, he wasn’t about to test it out against the Clear Sky Academy. It was quite likely they had a rank 7, or many of them, and if they were on another level he might be confident in escaping their pursuit. Unfortunately, he was already here in the seat of their power and surrounded by who knows how many Formation Arrays. Since he was already in the middle of the lion’s den, it would be better to get on their good side and get some benefits out of them. He still hadn’t even found the information he’d come to the Clear Sky Academy for in the first place, hopefully this could salvage the situation.
The carefree looking woman, Mao Yimu, frowned deeply, seeming displeased while the woman with the bun, Gu Lim, smiled slightly. The woman in the center, Tian Zemin, maintained her neutral expression while giving a nod.
“We’re always happy to have a smart person join our ranks. Are you intending to become a long term fixture in the Clear Sky Academy?”
Sage shook his head, “I can only dedicate a few decades at most, I have many commitments elsewhere in the capital and in the outside world.”
The woman nodded, “That will work. Keeper Kong here should be able to handle the rest of the procedures with you. Welcome to Twilight.”
To the sides, the two women did not seem pleased with such an abrupt conversation and felt like they were going to share some words as soon as he left the room. Since they didn’t object openly, it seemed that Tian Zemin was the real person in charge. Or at least they had to make it look that way, which was sort of the same thing. After leaving the large table area they moved towards small rooms that were arranged to the sides of the main room. Sage also sensed that as soon as they moved a dozen feet away from the large table he passed through a sort of sound barrier. He was pretty sure the three women started arguing as soon as he took the next step, but he didn’t dare to turn around and confirm his suspicions. It was not a good idea to piss off your ‘bosses’ on the first day.
The Discipline Keeper, who he now knew was called Kong, brought him to a side room, sliding open the door and leading him inside. Sage passed through another sound barrier on the threshold and the two of them walked over to sit on either side of a low table. The Discipline Keeper smiled at him, “You did well. Don’t worry, we don’t mind if you’re not that committed to our cause. Not everyone in an organization needs to aspire to reach its core. This is an Academy after all, not a Cult or a Country. You’ll promise to work exclusively for our faction and not the others. In return we’ll protect you from their… attention.”
He could feel the questions in Sage’s eyes so he continued, “Don’t worry, we aren’t going to work you to the bone. Like I said, this is an Academy. The work still follows the normal rules in the Academy, except instead of choosing from a mission board, we’ll come to you when we need your assistance and when you complete the job you’ll be properly compensated.”
“So, does that mean I can’t turn down a job?”
“You can, but it will be better if you discuss your concerns with us and we’ll try to accommodate you. That comes to the next point. We will need to have a better gauge upon your unique abilities so we can properly determine what missions you can accomplish and how much assistance you’ll need.”
Sage’s face was still as stone at this point, but Kong seemed to know what he was thinking, “We’re not so foolish as to think we can learn all your secrets. We don’t want you to reveal all your tricks. You must know that Discipline Keeper Shin has seen you display quite a few unique capabilities. We just want to know the details on a few of them that could be the most useful to us. Then we won’t be wasting your time or making random guesses about what you can do. We don’t want to waste your time, or our own, assigning random jobs to you and carefully testing out your capabilities.”