"A couple of days have passed and The Academy is still no closer to finding out we were involved in the eastern traitor incident. I think we're in the clear." Ruby said to the other three people within the meeting room. These three were Villin, Amelia, and Max.
"I see, and there are still two missing teachers?" Villin asked calmly.
"Indeed. Six of the traitor teachers got captured the day we managed to get into their secret basement. It seems that you were right, professor Howitzer didn't inform his allies before escaping. He left, causing The Academy to realize something was wrong. They somehow found the basement and went into each of the hallways, capturing most of them. Other than professor Howitzer only one managed to escape."
Villin nodded as he thought about the situation. There were a total of eight traitor teachers from the eastern continent, six of them got captured, and two escaped. None of this went silently as most of the teachers fought viciously before they got captured, harming some of the loyal forces and attracting a lot of attention. Other than them, none of the students knew what was going on as they just saw teachers fighting teachers.
"What about students? Have they been found out?" Villin asked as he thought of the people these teachers had been teaching.
"As far as I know, no. Then again, it is too early to say. Students go out into the wilderness every day and occasionally enter missions so when one goes missing it is only seen as normal. It's possible some have been captured, but if it is so, they weren't all captured at the same time and it was done quietly."
"So they are likely still safe," Villin concluded.
Ruby shrugged as she didn't know the answer, which was to be expected.
"What if we look for them, if we recruit them some may be able to help in figuring out potions quicker," Amelia suggested but it was quickly shot down by Villin.
"No, it's possible The Academy did find them but is waiting for the arrests and are tailing them to try and find as many as possible. Additionally, we don't know if these students are like us or if they're generally loyal to the east. If it's the latter, we have no way to safely control them.
The other people at the table slowly nodded as they understood it, at this time, Villin turned to Max. "Now, Max, the deadline has come. Are you planning to join the core tower and take the gene solution?"
In response, Max sighed, "This… has been a rather tough call. I am an orphan and the only reason I was able to survive thus far was due to the council of the continent who supplied us with food and some resources. But then again, during these meetings I've more-and-more realized you aren't traitors so much as you simply try to get more powerful. You aren't guided by loyalty but by strength, perhaps that is the reason Athena's Forge has been able to grow so much so quickly. I'll join but if we ever make a move on the council, I would prefer to be kept in the dark." he finished, before walking up to Amelia who grabbed a vial and a syringe from her interspacial bag.
"Good choice." Villin simply said, not mentioning that Max didn't really have a choice since he had seen the core tower. Keeping Max out of it if they were to attack the central continent wasn't a big deal. It was like keeping Ruby out of it if they were to assassinate the Von Hauser family (saving her of course), it was something they would've probably done anyways, to make sure they'll still agree with Athena's Forge as much as possible.
A few minutes after Max took the serum, the side effects faded and he was able to pay attention again.
Good, with that, we have four people that are now tied together, with nobody being able to betray the guild without giving up their own lives." Villin said as he talked about the gene solutions. "Now, Kayley and Rein will also naturally be brought in, but this will have to wait until after I get back from the auction," he mentioned while thinking of the upcoming event.
After a couple of seconds he grabbed a couple of crystal holders out of his interspacial bags, he no longer put all of his funds in the same location. On his body, he had two-hundred and fifty-thousand magic crystals. A bit more than what he took with him to Atlantis.
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"Amelia, how many funds do we have that I can take with me to the auction?" he asked the brown-haired lady who was missing an eye, "Well," she replied "Including what you have on you, we should have six-hundred and fifty-thousand magic crystals that can be moved. With another fifty thousand that we found in the secret basement, that makes seven-hundred-thousand. A proper fortune with other words,"
"Okay then, let's gather all that," Villin said, not completely realizing how much money that was.
"I already did," Amelia said as she threw a couple of crystal holders across the table which Villin promptly intercepted, "Or well, Kayley told me to give them to you.".
"Good then, I'm almost ready to go." Villin said with a sigh of relief, "Anyone else got something to report?" he asked as he looked across the table.
Everyone except for Ruby nodded, when Villin gave her an inquisitive stare, she explained herself, "My dad talks about the auction regularly. Guarding that place is not safe at all. Proper magi organizations go there and some of the rarest items on the market get sold. There aren't too many wandering robbers around anymore, but most of those that are, pick this place to make their move. If you were to buy something, you should head back immediately, it's dangerous. I know you're stronger than most decent magi but even you can't fight a group of properly equipped mercenary magi."
Hearing her worries, Villin nodded with a grim expression, "I was already warned about the dangers of the mission, don't worry. As far as I know, there's a bunch of guards and even though some die every time, when looking at the number, the chances of me dying are slim, and this isn't even considering my personal magic power. I'll try to find a way to anonymously buy the items I want as well, I'll have to see though, a mask won't do in such a well-protected place, I'd probably get attacked by the other guards for wearing one."
For a short while, Villin simply looked at the faces of each of the people here, finally, he turned to Amelia.
"Amelia, even though Kayley and Rein will be the people in charge of the main tower while I'll be gone, you have the most important position. When people realize I'm gone, they may try something. As far as I know, the auction isn't over in a day or two so I'll be gone for a while. If you want you can authorize any attack you deem necessary on other guilds, you're our commander, I trust you'll do well."
Amelia slowly nodded "I will. Just make sure you get back alive… and try not to almost die this time, it'd be a nice change of pace."
Amused by her joke, Villin smiled at her before dismissing the meeting. He passed by Kayley and Rein once as well before heading towards the tile that held the guard job. It was technically still two days until the start of the auction but he was supposed to come earlier to help set everything up.
The tile was pretty far away but Fang was as speedy as ever as he managed to easily make his way past any potential enemies.
When he made it to the safety tile, Villin let Fang go back to A2 where the wolf made a little nest with Ember and he approached the center by himself.
Villin was careful when he approached the center but luckily it seemed that he was the only one there. He quickly stood on the teleportation array and looked at the mission board, he sent some magic power to the mission requesting a guard for a whopping one-thousand magic crystals, and Villin was soon engulfed in a flash.
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"How do you mean they want us to sell 'that' item? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"Please be calm miss Targentelli, the auction has taken even better safety precaution this year, last year's problem will not occur again." the man was in a pink suit as he spoke to the woman on the other side of the desk. It was Eveline Targentelli, she worked for the Goodlaw family.
"Staying calm? Extra security measures? Bullshit! Even the big guilds will seriously be considering attacking the auction to get this damn thing, leave alone all the scum out there looking to make it big! Even with extra guards and enhanced defenses, there is no way this thing will get sold successfully! How am I supposed to take responsibility when it gets stolen?" Eveline Targentelli asked, nearly desperate at that point.
"Please miss, there is no need to worry. The sale of this item isn't as important as the very fact that we put it up for auction here. In the last couple of years, the big guilds and schools haven't been sending their people anymore because they keep getting casualties. If we were to sell an item like this, this time around, even if unsuccessfully, they will certainly show up next time, trying to get something of similar value." the pink-suited male explained professionally as he was trying to get Miss Targentelli to see the bigger picture, "It is a direct command from Herman Goodlaw to try and sell this you know."
When she heard this, Eveline instantly calmed down, Herman Goodlaw was one of the most influential people on the continent and he was the one that truly ran this auction, she was only here because of him.
"Damnit, okay then, I'll try to sell it. But if more casualties happen because of this let it be on record that I was very much against this!"