“Perfect!!!” Daisy beamed as she looked at their teacher and his arrival.

“You there; Are you mad?!! What are you doing between them?” one of the guards who had been watching the fight till now asked.

“Oh yes, certainly, very mad.”

“How mad are you, Mistah?!!” a child who was being held tightly by their mother asked.

“SEVEN!!” Came Alex’s immediate playful reply to the child's question.

“Like out of ten?” Septus asked, reeling from the whole situation going off the rails.

“No out of three point six.”

“So you are more than one unit of crazy?”

“Yes, but I’m not too crazy!” the collective audience watching this exchange had the kind of grimace that a person instinctively makes when they hear a terrible pun or a dad joke.

“So I’ve been watching the fight through Munin here,” he continued, ignoring the groans as Munin landed on his shoulder.

“I gotta say I am particularly mad… and not in the haha isn’t he eccentric mad. More like I am beyond livid mad… the angry kind of mad!!!”

All of a sudden, the ground began to crack as his overwhelming aura once more permeated the area around them. The few people who were only just holding on finally fainted.

“Sir, help us!!! We can take down this-” Daisy’s plea was cut off as Alex stomped on the ground.

It was a technique they had seen countless times. They knew from experience their teacher was an almost peerless master of earth magic. He could shape the earth as if it were water, and his mastery was such that he could silently cast nearly all spells regarding it.

The class turned their attention to Septus, who had been stunned watching this all unfold as they began to pounce forward, only to have the earth beneath them warp and change shape. Coiling around their arms, legs and bodies, the cobblestones took on what could best be described as stone serpents.

Struggling with all their might, they found themselves entirely unable to move. Even their fingers were being held by stone serpent heads, preventing them from even summoning forth a light circle.

“Now, Septus, I am sorry about what has happened,” Alex said as he stiffly bowed to the stunned head of the guard.

“I am sure punishments will be needed, but I shall give you this in exchange for overlooking such an incident,” he said as he handed a ring to Septus.

“You… you of all people would give out a marker of debt for them?”

In response to this development, the class struggled further, only to find the stone serpents tightening their hold even more. As if to say the more you struggle, the worse this will get.

“Yes, my foolish students seem to have done a truly dishonourable thing here… I ask in exchange for the marker; will you overlook this.” Septus paused as he eyed the ring and then the class before closing his grasp around the ring and pocketing it.

“Thank you. I will now have words with my students.”

It was now the class understood what true terror was. In all their soul training with their teacher, he had only ever let slip a sliver of bloodlust. They had felt it from others since, but now they understood how much their teacher held back. Even when he was losing himself, they didn’t ever feel such focused horror take hold.

Despite being restrained, they would describe their sensation as an icy skeletal hand crawling up in their chest and squeezing their heart. The sensation would be similar if a rabbit hopped into the eye line of an ancient dragon. Such was the imposing bloodlust their teacher was directing their way.

“Why?” his words were quiet, almost a whisper. But that silence was so much more deafening than had he yelled them.

“He is responsible!!” Daisy protested.

“Why?”

“Because he is… he told me to check on my father…”

“Why?”

“HE IS AN EVIL HUMAN!!!”

“Why?” the same question over and over with no change in tone.

“STOP ASKING THAT!!!”

“Why?”

“BECAUSE I… I DON’T LIKE IT?!!!”

“Why?” Alex now stood directly over the restrained Daisy. His emerald eyes held none of the shine they often held.

“I will answer for you, shall I? You came here because you seem to have failed to absorb my lessons.”

“But you always did stuff like this?!!” Bea protested, only to recoil as Alex directed his arctic cold glare in her direction.

“I did not… Have you already forgotten one of my first lessons? Value a life and don’t take it without reason.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I want revenge!!!” Daisy cried out as she struggled to free herself, only for the stone serpents to coil tighter, causing her to grimace in pain.

“I can understand that. Such emotions can blind you, make you impulsive cause more damage than you intend. Daisy, answer me this.”

“If you ask Why once more, I will-”

“What about Jacob?” Daisy froze mid-sentence as she heard her teacher's question.

“What if Septus didn’t hold back? What if he went straight for the kill? You have lost your parents well… SO HAS HE!!!! And you would deprive him of his last living family for what? Petty revenge?”

“But…”

“What about Bea and Tasha?!” Alex gestured to Bea and the bruised Tasha.

“What if he ran his sword through the real Bea? What if he hit Tasha too hard? They don’t have the benefit of a healing array Daisy…”

“But…” Daisy felt like the scales were starting to fall from her eyes.

“But most heartbreaking for me is… you tried to use me.”

“WE DIDN’T!!!” Kline protested only for both Maxwell and Daisy’s hands to forcibly be moved up to show their cut ring finger.

“I assume you intended to have me swoop in and kill Septus for you?” the class avoided their teacher's gaze.

“I am no one's pet monster. I kill when I have to. I kill not because I enjoy it but because other options are no longer tenable.”

“What about the slavers?!!!” Maxwell asked, desperate to refute his teacher.

“Yes, the slavers I tried to negotiate with. The ones who attacked us despite that. I gave them chances to back down they did not. We were not the aggressors. I even tried to negotiate with men literally torturing me… I DO NOT START FIGHTS, MAXWELL!!!” Alex approached Maxwell, who had begun to break out in a cold sweat under his teacher's gaze.

“I will certainly finish them, though.”

“But you, with your power and inflated egos, have clearly forgotten the humility part of power. You charge in towards an enemy half-cocked. An enemy you were told multiple times was beyond your power. All assuming on reinforcements coming to save the day. I cannot believe such clever kids would assume their plans will work the way they intend them to.”

“Daisy, what would you have done had I not shown up?”

“But you did!”

“Besides the point, what If I was unable to come? I had no one to send in my place. Would you have just died?”

“I…I would’ve figured something out!!!”

“Lovely ‘something’… Glad ‘something’ would come to you when shit goes wrong… kids… I would say I’m disappointed in you… But honestly, I’m ashamed to even say you are my students.”

“Fine, you are ashamed… but please, sir, kill him!!!” Daisy begged, not willing to let the small sliver of conviction she had left go.

“Why he is innocent?”

“What?!... No-no-no-no, you’re lying!!!”

“Daisy… he is innocent.”

“He’s lying; you sent men to my family's home that night, didn’t you?!!!!”

“I did,” Septus’ casual reply shocked most present. Even Alex seemed stunned by this admission.

“Your father was turning states evidence, and I was going to extract him and your mother that night… I’m ashamed I was not there soon enough.”

“States?!” Daisy repeated the word as she felt a pit open up from within her stomach.

“Stephano turned himself in for protection. He was involved with a slaver ring that was recently destroyed,” Septus answered as he glanced at Alex, the man who had destroyed said ring.

“What about Gabriella and Lux?” Maxwell asked.

“Lux was the front through which money was laundered, and Gabriella kept the government from looking too closely.”

“So… my mum… my dad were both killed because they uncovered it?”

“Daisy,” Alex began, his tone softening for the first time since arriving.

“Lux was an idiot, and Gabriella was only good at politics… they needed someone who could cook the books.”

“No..No-no-no-no!!! My dad was not involved with slavers… the slavers that tried to kidnap and sell me!!!!”

“Daisy… it is your encounter with the slavers that got him to turn on them. He couldn’t stomach working for the organisation that nearly sold his daughter off.”

“So where is he?” Daisy asked as tears began welling up in her eyes.

“We don’t know… but his mana signature was imbued on the spears that killed Gabriella and Lux… it is likely he is doing exactly what you are trying to do.”

“Why wouldn’t he just wait? He was hurt; he was…” Daisy trailed off as the last of the scales fell from her eyes. She could now see how blinded by vengeance she had become. Her own father had become just as obsessed; he had clawed his way back from death and gone on to kill two of the people responsible.

Slowly one by one, the stone serpents began to slacken and then release the class. Rubbing the parts where they had been restrained to get feeling back in their limbs, the class all looked to their teacher.

“That was your one and only,” he announced as he looked over the class.

“One and only?” Tasha repeated.

“One and only rescue from a foolish mistake. You started this fight, and the next one you start, I will not come to the rescue. If you value your lives so little, then I have clearly failed as a teacher.”

With no other words given, Alex spun on his heels and left the guard HQ behind him. Slowly but surely, the class assessed what had happened, and they only felt guilt. They had set off under the mistaken idea that revenge equated to justice.

But no… it didn’t. Justice encompassed many facets and held no favouritism nor will. Revenge, though, was just the pursuit of personal gratification.

“Maybe this is what the Oracle meant,” Gunter suggested.

“About the truth?” Daisy asked as tears slowly rolled down her cheeks.

“About seeing real justice,” Gunter explained as he gestured to Septus, who was busying himself helping the civilians who were knocked out.

“Where is my dad, though… we still don’t know where he is?” Daisy asked as Maxwell pulled her in for a hug. “And Jacob… I forgot all about him… what kind of sister am I?”

“Don’t forget about trying to manipulate sir into killing for our own means,” Tasha added, to which Bea helpfully jabbed what likely bruised ribs were.

“You aren’t a bad sister Daisy,” Maxwell comforted her as he patted her back. “Trust me; I know bad older siblings… you just got tunnel vision, is all…”

“But you guys tried to stop me…”

“We didn’t try hard enough. But we have at least learnt not to blindly pursue something, right?” Kline added.

“And all it cost us was Sir’s trust in us!” Tasha added, bursting what little mood had begun to return.