-Radix-

It had been five days since Radiant escaped from prison, and things had finally settled down enough that a meeting had been called to discuss the incident. When it had first been found out that he had escaped the entire prison had been put on high alert and all available resources were mobilized to find him, but in the end Radiant hadn’t been found.

His tracks were hard to follow, almost like Radiant had years of experience with counter tracking and evasion techniques. That combined with everyone’s limited capabilities within Lonevista, and it took a while to make any significant progress even after hours had passed.

Eventually Radiant was close to being found, according to the freshness of the tracks being followed, but then all traces of Radiant seemed to disappear almost as if he had vanished into thin air. Not only had his tracks disappeared, he was nowhere to be found even after 4 days of trying to find any traces of him.

After such a long time the search had to be called off. The drain on resources and manpower was too steep; Lonevista was no summer playground, and the resources needed to traverse the jungles safely were too great to sustain such an extensive operation.

And now that a meeting had been called to inform the proper authorities about the situation, I had been asked to attend this high level meeting. Given the fact that Radiant had escaped while under my mental watch, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was suspected of being an accomplice. I had to make sure to place as much of the blame on Radiant as I could, and emphasize my innocence.

I was sitting in my chair nervously waiting for my queue to get up and speak. The intimidating warden had just finished up explaining the gist of the situation to everyone attending remotely and ended his remarks by saying, “-and now we’ll turn the time over to the Chief Mentalist, Radix, and get his take on the situation.”

Multiple sets of eyes turned to me as I stood up from my seat and looked towards all of the faces attending this meeting remotely. Not only were there representatives from the 3 Dukedoms, there was even the High Talent’s Advisor and her intimidating presence. The number of high level people currently attending this meeting would be enough to make anyone nervous, especially when they had to explain why an individual was able to escape from a max security prison under his mental watch.

I swallowed hard and cleared my throat, “As the Warden said, my name is Radix, and Radiant was under my supervision for his entire seventeen years here at Lonvista. I’ll first give everyone a brief overview of Radiant’s personality before we move on to questions.” I lifted up my notes in order to have something other than scary faces to focus on, “Radiant has shown from a very young age to be a very capable individual, both in magic and social manipulation. His magic is important to his ability to escape, but his manipulation is what I would like to focus on. His ability to not only understand, but also manipulate others' view of him is almost infallible.

“For example, at the age of ten Radiant had not only managed to convince everyone that he was safe, but also perfectly fine to be let out of Lonevista. It was only after it was revealed to him, during a meeting with his parents, that he would be able to leave, that he finally revealed what was behind his mask. That was the first time that Radiant revealed his plans to escape from Lonevista when he said, and I quote, ‘They think that they can lock me up? I’ll show them. Just thinking about the look on everyone’s faces when I manage to escape from here makes me shiver with excitement.’

“From this point on Radiant openly displayed his desire to escape from Lonevista, but I believe this too was an act to get us to lower our guard. He has played everyone like fools ever since he was a child. Radiant has terrifying intelligence and the capability to use that intelligence to get what he wants. He has been planning this escape from the time he was only a child, and not even I was able to see past his deception.”

A woman in a very official looking uniform full of medals spoke up after I had finished my overview, “That’s a very bold claim Mentalist Radix. Are you trying to say that we know nothing about his true character and everything we know about him is a lie?” Almost everyone in Tallen would at least know this woman’s title, ‘The Chief Domestic Affairs, and The High Talent’s Advisor’ Meldet Agait.

I quickly ran through multiple responses in my head before I said, “I wouldn’t necessarily say that we know nothing. Even if he was putting on a facade to hide his true intentions, we do know some of his core motivations. We know that he has a strong desire for freedom and independence. He has also shown a strong desire for anything related to magic and magical knowledge. Beyond this he hasn’t shown any aggressive tendencies and is content to mostly keep to himself.”

Then I caught myself, “Although he has shown klepto tendencies. There was never any evidence of the things that went missing around him, though after the footage of his escape it is presumed that he has some kind of spatial storage. Other than this he hasn’t shown much of a desire for other things.”

My answer seemed to be sufficient and I relaxed slightly. Maybe I would be able to get through this after all.

“Would it be possible to see this footage?” Another woman, this time ‘The Chief of the Central Intelligence Division’ Reen Ennerat. Maybe her profession influenced her question.

“Yes, certainly.” I nodded towards the technical assistants and they quickly pulled up the footage of the beginning of Radiant’s escape.

A video was displayed to everybody. The video started off with Radiant taking the talent awakening orb and clearly using it in front of those that were in his room including Radix himself. Everyone in Radiant’s room then proceeded to file out of the room leaving Radiant alone. Then the video fast forwarded while Radiant was just sitting there in the middle of the room doing nothing.

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The video returned to normal speed when Radiant suddenly opened up his eyes at the same time as a poorly made flesh golem appeared next to him. Then without hesitation Radiant proceeded to cut his finger and draw a magic circle on the chest and back of the flesh golem. Then he seemingly pulled two mana crystals out of thin air and used them to activate the two magic circles.

Radiant took a look at his work before slightly nodding and rushing to the bathroom. The video switched to a camera within Radiant’s bathroom and showed him taking everything he could before running back out of the bathroom. The video switched back to the view of Radiant’s room and showed him going back over to his flesh golem and placing a piece of paper in its hands.

After placing the piece of paper in its hands, Radiant walked over to the wall with a door and stood there for a moment before turning to look directly at the camera in his room and giving it an arrogant, almost mocking smirk. Then a portal showing the hallway outside of the room appeared in front of Radiant and he stepped through it before it closed behind him and the video ended.

Some of the people in the room now had sour faces after seeing the mocking smile Radiant had given the camera. I probably had the most sour look on my face, because that mocking smile almost seemed like direct evidence of my failure.

“Not only does he have some kind of spatial storage, he can also open portals? How were these things not noticed before?” The Chief of the CID Reen Ennerat focused on assessing Radiant’s capabilities.

Sensing an opportunity to clear my name I said, “Well normally I would be able to catch these kinds of things when doing my sessions with him, but Radiant never showed any signs of being able to do these things.” I needed to give some evidence so I said, “It was known that Radiant had some kind of mental metaphysical organ before coming here, and I believe that this allowed him to evade my mental detection somehow.”

“A mere child was able to evade the mental detection of an expert Mentalist? I find that hard to believe.” The man representing the Dukedom of Freegear spoke up.

I gulped, “Please understand that Lonevista suppresses my capabilities. The Mentalist that examined Radiant before he came to Lonevista with his full capabilities gave no mention of Radiant having such abilities, so there was no way for me to prevent this.”

“Hmm, so you’re saying that Radiant developed the ability to shield his mind after he came to Lonevista? I might be able to believe that, but a mental shield could still be detected right?”

I jumped on the opportunity to emphasize Radiant’s competence, “Not only just shield his mind, but make it look and feel completely normal. I could’ve easily detected a shielded mind, but this was something much more impressive.”

“Alright, we can discuss that further later.” The Chief of CID Reen Ennerat said, “I’m more curious to know what the thing Radiant left behind was.”

“That was actually a letter. Nothing of much importance.” I said.

“A letter? I would like to see this letter, I’ll decide if it’s important or not.”

“Yes certainly. One moment please.”

An image of the letter was displayed for everyone to see, and I proceeded to narrate for everyone present.

To anyone that reads this message. I want to emphasize the fact that I was being unjustly held here and have finally decided that it was time for me to take my leave. I hope that after hearing of my, absolutely amazing, escape from a max security prison, that you will be able to realize that you would not have been able to pull off such an impossible feat yourself. Don’t worry though, it is only natural that a genius such as myself would be able to accomplish such a thing, I was just born superior to you. I recognize that I had an unfair advantage being born superior to everyone else, but there’s nothing I can do about this fact, so you’ll just have to accept the truth and move on.

To those that imprisoned me here, at this point you might be afraid, thinking that I’ll want revenge against those that imprisoned me. This worry is unnecessary though, as I recognize that inferior beings, such as yourselves, can’t be held accountable for their stupidity and ignorance of my greatness. Though if I am branded as a criminal, even though everything is entirely your fault and I’ve done nothing wrong, then don’t blame me for acting like one in the future. Honestly that would just make you look like a petty child that is upset at having been beaten at their own game. Even after years of openly displaying that I was going to escape from prison, don’t blame me for your incompetence and inability to keep me here.

From your superior, Radiant.

P.S. If I am branded as a criminal you better not make me look stupid. You wouldn’t want to lose your most prized and valuable possessions to a stupid person after all, though I would find it hilarious so ultimately it’s up to you.

After the letter is finished, the mocking smile Radiant had given before he exited from his room stings all that much more, and even those that didn’t have a sour look on their faces before, now have one too. Looking at everyone, I could tell that they all felt like this was just too much. Not only had Radiant successfully escaped, he had mocked everyone and even claimed to be their superior while rubbing it in their faces.

Nobody spoke for a while as they took in Radiant’s letter. Even though I had read this letter before, its mocking and arrogant words still made me feel indignant.

“This kid is arrogant beyond words.” The burly man representing the Dukedom of Underrich spoke up.

“Indeed. The circumstances that led to his escape were impossible to plan for. Though it makes me wonder if all he was waiting for was the right opportunity and this just happened to be the one he decided to use.” The elegant woman representing the Dukedom of Nightwater also gave her opinion after listening to such an arrogant letter.

That comment seemed to bring mixed reactions to everyone. Then Meldet Agait, the High Talent’s Advisor, spoke up, “Given what I have learned about this man, I am led to believe that while not physically violent he could be dangerous in other ways. He even stated himself that he might resort to becoming a thief. In your opinion Radix, what is the stance we should take on Radiant and his escape?”

I was surprised that I was being asked my opinion on such a topic by the High Talent’s advisor. I took a deep breath and gave my thoughts, “In my opinion it is unnecessary to label Radiant as a dangerous individual and notify the public about him.” I paused for a moment, “That said, I also think that some measures should be taken to inform the public about Radiant, if only to make it easier to find him. But I’m not an expert in this field, so that is just my uneducated opinion.”

“Alright, thank you for your opinion.” Then she moved on from me, “Warden. What is your opinion on the matter?”

Everyone attending the meeting started to ask questions about Radiant and his escape while myself and others tried their best to answer them. After an hour from when the meeting began, it ended. Everyone attending the meeting was an important individual, and they didn’t have the luxury of staying any longer than an hour, as they had other things to attend to.

I had no idea what would come from all of this, but I just hoped that I would be able to keep my job. Letting a MAX danger patient escape under my watch definitely didn’t bode well for me though. I just hoped that I had stressed how capable Radiant was and made it clear that I was completely innocent. Hopefully they focused more on Radiant than they did on my shortcomings, because I really didn’t want to have to find another job at my age.