Azura woke up to his proximity wards going off. No one entered his room or knocked on the door, but someone was standing outside the door for long enough that the wards detected them as a threat. It was probably that analyst girl. He regretted paying for breakfast. If he hadn’t he would have just left through the window. Unfortunately his blink spell didn’t work like a standard portal, otherwise he could just teleport to the entry hall. He sighed accepting that he was going to have to bite the bullet. He put on his gear in case the presence was in fact a threat and not an annoying person.
He wasn’t overly surprised to find the man who had talked to him on the roof at the door. “You were supposed to leave as soon as possible.” The man was tense and prepared for a fight, but Azura was pretty sure it was mostly just posturing. The guards wouldn’t pick a fight with an unknown force in the middle of the city if they didn’t have to.
“I said I’d leave as soon as I found a guide to World’s End, and one of the analysts here informed me that in order to find a guide I’d need to have at least a certain number of spire floors under my belt. I figured it was better to rest up before challenging the spire, because I had quite the long trip to get here.” In this case the familiars being out and about worked in his favor. Picking a fight with someone whos abilities you don’t know was risky, doing it when they had 5 monsters of various rank behind them was suicide.
The man frowned, but ultimately shrugged. “I suppose they weren’t wrong per se, but just so you know you can’t bring your monsters inside the spire or tame the ones inside.” So the man thought he was a monster tamer huh? That was the logical conclusion he supposed. Lending familiars out wasn’t really something that was done, and even if it was with only 1 school that teaches the spell for it and the handful of mages making their own lesser version the normal conclusion would still be that he was a monster tamer. Though to tame a dragon he’d have to be much stronger than he was now.
“It’s fine if they can’t fight, but I’m not sure leaving them around without my supervision is a good idea. Hopefully it will be fine if they just stick to the same hiding places I had them in before.” As he said that the familiars all gathered to him, Argent slithered up his leg and shrunk until the serpent once again wrapped around his right index finger like a ring. Gaia made tiny vines latch onto one of his coat pockets and pulled herself into it. Caelum shrunk to a much smaller size and decided to use his hair as a nest. Funny enough it actually looked a bit like a crown thanks to the golden color and the splayed out wings. Phantasma couldn’t really shrink, but she could create illusions so she just wrapped around his neck again and then disappeared from sight.
“Well that’s a little frightening. The only thing worse than danger you can see is danger you can’t. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but what about the dragon? That’s the one most likely to cause a panic.” He resisted rolling his eyes and put on a mysterious smile instead. Unfortunately Reign refused to shrink any further than he already had, but even at the size of a large dog Azura couldn’t really walk around with him. Thankfully as a mostly magical being the spirit world wasn’t a danger to his existence. Or at least it wasn’t a passive danger to his existence.
“What dragon?” He really had to fight himself to hold back his laugh at the man's dumbfounded face. After all, Reign really was nowhere to be found now. The man had focused on him for a split second, and then when he looked around the dragon was just gone. It was especially funny because his actual abilities were just so unused, that everyone assumed he was doing much more impressive things than he actually was. For example his blink spell wasn’t spatial magic, or at least not really. There was some aspect of it in there, but it was still primarily spirit magic. But no one else used battlefield enchantments, so the only conclusion an outsider could come to is that he had ridiculous control over spatial magic. Unless the outsider was on heir Crimson’s level anyway.
“I don’t get paid enough for this. Just don’t cause any trouble, the guard is already on high alert, and we really don’t need another scene like your entrance yesterday.” The man left quickly without waiting for a response. Honestly he couldn’t say he didn’t understand how the guards felt. From their perspective he must really be something frightening since they had no way of knowing his true abilities. Of course in reality even if the man he just spoke to was by himself he would say his odds of victory were probably 50/50, and that was including all the tricks he had up his sleeve. It was obvious that the head guard was chosen to protect the adventurer town for a reason.
Either way he was quite hungry, and he did pay for breakfast, so it was about time he accepted his fate of dealing with the analyst. “So how was your night? Sleep well?” Sure enough the second he was on the stairs Melissa’s voice rang out from the bottom of them. He didn’t react. He had learned the best way to deal with analyst’s bothering you was to not deal with them. Anything you said just gave them more clues, silence told them you were hiding something, but they usually already know that anyway. At least the old man was kind enough not to pry. “I saw Graham come by, you must be quite important for the highest ranking enforcer to visit you himself.”
He had to fight the urge to roll his eyes as he stepped past her and she turned to walk beside him as though they were old friends. She was persistent he’d give her that, but compared to the other one he had to deal with she was still a novice with her abilities. Which was probably the more normal thing to be fair. Honestly as far as nobles go in a lot of ways an analyst is far more terrifying than a powerful mage. “It’s probably because of that dramatic entrance you made the other day huh? I didn’t get to see it sadly but I heard plenty of people talking about it. You’re quite the enigma you know? You clearly don’t want people to know much about you, but you pulled off a stunt like that instead of just entering quietly. Of course that would draw a lot of attention. Seems counterproductive no?”
She was half right, but his entrance pulled attention to certain things making it easier to hide the stuff that really mattered. If he entered quietly then it would be more important things people would focus on and remember. It was a variation of hiding in plain sight. If something crazy or interesting happens people will remember that over anything else that happens. Of course the analysts wouldn’t forget any of it, so he’d have to be extra careful around them. He grabbed one of the menus and sat down at a small table. The chair was nice. It was soft, but had ample support. As expected Melissa walked around and sat on the opposite side. She was smiling brightly while examining him for any clues he might be giving.
“On top of all that you seem pretty familiar with how analysts work. However I get the feeling you haven’t met many, so I’d say it’s just 1 that you’ve met many times. So am I right?” He of course didn’t respond. He wondered what he had done that gave that away. Analysts could pick up on the most subtle of body movements. He had been caught lying because his iris shifted less than 1/100th of an inch in the past so he figured he wouldn’t be able to figure it out unless he was told. “It’s more fun like this anyway. When people talk it’s easy to figure everything out, but when they know better the game gets a lot more interesting”
As expected this was just entertainment to her. He flagged a waiter wanting to eat and get out of here as soon as possible. At this point the monsters in the spire would be welcome company compared to this girl. “Can I get the canter beef omelet please?” That would give him plenty of energy, which he was going to need, because the day ahead was going to be busy.
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“Ooh good choice, I’ll have 1 too on his tab.” He smiled venomously. The nerve of this girl. He debated his options. He could of course tell the man to put it on her own tab, or he could eat the loss of a couple copper to finally have a chance to shut her up. He rolled his eyes and let the man leave to place their orders. This girl wanted to learn about him? Well she was about to learn how vindictive he was, and he was ok with giving away that info. For the first time since he had refused to give her his name yesterday she looked a little off put. “You have quite the scary look on your face. If it was that big of a deal you could have just said no you know.” His smile filled with malicious intent didn’t drop for an instant.
Analysts had several major weaknesses. The biggest one being their inability to sense magic more than a few feet away from them. Since their magic naturally spent itself increasing their mental faculties they didn’t really have much left to use for things like sensing other magic. As such he increased his sensory range and prepared himself to cast a spell on both omelets while they were still away he could cancel the spell on his without raising suspicion. Nothing too bad, but he felt making her unable to speak for a week would be fair recompense for the trouble she was giving him. Apparently he should have just released ill intent earlier, because she quietly put 3 copper on the table and sat back in her seat quietly.
He sighed and dropped his smile and stopped focusing his sensory range on the kitchen. So she did know when to back down after all. He had mixed feelings about it, but even he wasn’t cruel enough to beat someone when they were down. He was however fairly content with sitting there in peaceful silence. Melissa didn’t seem to handle quiet very well and was fidgeting restlessly. “It’s fine if you talk, just don’t try to take advantage or expect me to participate.” He was too nice sometimes. He really should have let her stew.
“Fair enough! So I’m guessing since you’re so scary even without doing anything you’re a noble right?” He rolled his eyes. Literally the second he allowed her to talk she went right back to prying. Well either way she was pretty slow to that revelation. Him being noble was fairly obvious to anyone who thought about his circumstances for even a second. “Ok so that part is fine, you don’t care if I know that. So how about we talk about that for a bit?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean just guide the topics to things you aren’t worried about like your life as a noble or whatever and we can talk about those. No prying I promise.” Perhaps he was a little hasty in his judgment. Analysts tend to get bored easily since they processed everything so quickly most things couldn’t entertain them for long, so he supposed it wasn’t surprising she latched onto him as something new and interesting.
“Even if I don’t care if you know I’m a noble doesn’t mean I can go into specifics about my history, but if you’d like to talk about a topic that isn’t me then I might be willing to participate.” Even this much was a risk. Analysts' brains worked on a completely different level, they could connect things that people genuinely thought completely unrelated to somehow come to correct conclusions. Even having the logic explained to him he wasn’t able to follow. It was that ability that made them so dangerous in the noble court. They would almost always serve as advisors because if they were the lord themselves it would be 2 targets on the back of someone who couldn’t use magic for self defense.
“Works for me. How about the princess of Delford? I heard she was an analyst like me.” He barely reacted to that at all. A slight stiffening of his shoulder. It was for less than a 10th of a second. It was more than enough for her to catch on to it. “Oops, not a safe topic, ok how about the Grand Forge academy, I’ve heard they had some pretty promising students this year.” He relaxed. Perhaps it was ironic, given the school was an even bigger clue as to who he was than his slight stiffening when referring to her highness, but the school was also associated with memories of his friends, and not memories of his noble upbringing.
“From what I’ve gathered they have promising students every year. An elven princess is there as a 3rd year, and the heirs of several powerful houses are there.” Strictly speaking the students of that school weren’t a matter of common knowledge, but it also wasn’t unusual for powerful mages to keep an eye on the students there for consideration of an apprentice. He didn’t think he had given away not being as powerful as he let on, so he decided he could play into that safely enough so long as he could stay relaxed.
“An elven princess?! How? They almost never venture outside of their forests, and even when they do it’s never for very long!’ He didn’t know either. He had honestly expected her to be his opponent for the Sunday games. Especially the first 1, but he later found out she had taken a quest that would take a few months. She would be back before he was, so 1 of his copies was probably going to get beat up pretty bad. It was a shame too, he had really been looking forward to seeing what she could do, but he wasn’t arrogant enough to think he could push her without using his unique magic, so one copy with no passive mana regen wasn’t going to stand a chance.
“Who knows. I imagine that the number of humans that know her real circumstances could be counted on 1 hand with fingers to spare.” He probably knew someone who would tell him, but he also knew asking her highness would absolutely be something he came to regret. Not to say he wasn’t extremely curious, but he wasn’t so immature he couldn’t curb his curiosity… most of the time. Well rather his survival instincts outweighed his curiosity at least. Along with a few other things. It was definitely shame preventing from asking the imperial princess. Or rather the shame whatever she asks for in return would cause him.
“Wow, who would have thought a school would have that kind of roster. It’s a shame they don’t have a course for analysts.” He chuckled. What would be the point? Anything you teach them would be picked up so quickly as to make actual classes unnecessary. Rather it was more effective to simply let them figure things out on their own, they would learn faster that way anyway.
“Given the amount of high profile people there I’d be willing to bet they actually specifically try to keep analysts away from the school.” She pouted. He had no doubt hit the nail on the head. It made sense, he had years of practice dealing with an analyst and still struggled keeping important things secret against them, people who didn’t have that practice were practically doomed.
“They do. My mentor Jackson said he tried to sneak into the academy once, and he was rebuffed the second he crossed the threshold.” He smiled. Jackson must have been the elderly man he had spoken with before. So perhaps it was simply that all analysts were insane until they became old enough to mellow out. Funny that people that were inhumanly smart could try something as stupid as sneaking into the place where the strongest young mages of each generation gather.
Their food arrived after that, and they ate in peaceful quiet. With the food to distract herself Melissa didn’t seem as burdened by the quiet this time. He paid for the meal and bid his farewell. He had a spire to challenge, and in order to do that he had a lot of paperwork he was going to need to do. As much as the mages guild and the adventures guild fought and argued, the 1 thing they both agreed on was the need for an absurd amount of registration paperwork. It was rather inconvenient, but he had to admit it served its purpose well, he’d have to use his real info, he simply did not have the time and resources necessary to create a fake identity of sufficient quality to get past the registration process.
He sighed, at least he’d get to kill some monsters to relieve the stress after he finished all of the boring stuff. Plus he would be able to finish it 3 times faster than anyone else. His unique magic really was horrifically convenient. He couldn’t even imagine how people got along without it. There really was so little time in a day after all. He looked at the spire in the distance. The only building tall enough to be seen even with the zone walls in the way. Well it would certainly prove to be fun if nothing else. He estimated that if it was just to floor 11 he could probably get through without using any of his stored mana. Well he’d find out one way or another.