Chapter 55: Bargaining for Time
“Headmaster, is there anything else?”, Gina asked.
Before they could leave, they were stopped again by the headmaster. From his facial expression, they could tell that he bore a grudge against them. Rowen didn’t mind, it was her last year here, but she was concerned about Teo and the others.
“The ring, if you return the ring that you got from Zachery I am willing to forget this incident”, Elon said but inside how can he really forget about this incident?
Teo took out a silver ring from the bag and showed it, “This one?”
When Elon saw Teo taking something out his eyes lit up, but as soon as he saw this ring, his patience snapped
‘This kid!!’
“Not that one! The other one!”, he shouted
The eyebrows of the red guards raised as they looked over the headmaster.
‘Robbing kids in front of us?’, they thought to themselves, but they quietly watched. As long as the children did not ask for help or were not attacked they would stay silent.
Teo knew that the golden ring was more precious than the other. In fact, ever since he laid his eyes on it he knew that it was something special. Though it looked expensive, it was not the reason why Teo targeted this ring.
He saw several invisible lines within the ring. It was an enchanted ring, but was quite different from the other inscriptions he had seen before.
From the symbols he could tell that it was intricately designed. Inscriptions such as these were a few ranks lower than void ring inscriptions, but was not far from it. Teo wanted to study it but it seems that this ring alone will be causing him trouble for the future.
Teo took out the golden ring, it was looked expensive as it was made of gold and was carved with several designs but it did not have any precious jewels on it. Teo carefully studied the inside and outside of the ring as he took it out, but was interrupted by Elon
“Yes, that’s it, hand it over and we’ll forget about this incident!”
Teo hesitated.
Such a precious inscription should be worth a lot, but its value to Teo was different. His value of it was out of curiosity and a need. He needed it as a precursor to his development of the void array; a step required to fully understand how an inscription as complex as a void inscription can be turned into a void array.
‘I need to buy some time’, Teo thought
He understood that if the headmaster was willing to involve himself to interfere with the younger generation, then it could cause Teo and the others future problems. He knew he had to give it up, but was not planning on giving it up before he memorized the inscription
After a brief moment of thought, Teo looked the Elon and said
“How much are you buying it for?”
Surprisingly, all five of his companions’ faces twisted as they shockingly stared at Teo who had the balls big enough to cover the sun.
Elon who thought he could not get any angrier broke the lid from his top. His fist tightly held together and bones loudly cracked.
‘This motherfucking kid….wants to fucking play with me..’
Even the two red guards and gate guards who stood nearby became shocked and a hint of awe emerged from their eyes. They thought that Teo was either really stupid or really fearless.
After some contemplation, Elon calmed down. Realizing his position, if he really took something from a student, then he would lose a lot of face. Although he and the Rizon faction was already slapped by this kid several times, in front of the two seniors, he had to maintain his face. Besides, he could control the spread of rumors about this incident.
For the noblemen and influential families of the prefect, he could easily sweep this under the rug as this incident was over. The red guards themselves would not have loose lips, and the only ones who he had to worried about were these six students, and the other two guards. The two guards he can control as they worked for him and as for the six students before him, if they knew better, they would know not to spread any rumors.
If the red guards were not here, then he would forcefully take it but now that they were, purchasing it was a good option to keep his face in front of these elders.
He took out 1 gold coin and tossed it to Teo
“Here”
While Elon contemplated, Teo was quickly moving his eyes and studied the inscription with haste.
He was so distracted that the gold coin that was thrown towards him was not caught. He looked at the gold coin and picked it up. He still required more time, it hadn’t even been a minute so he had to buy more time.
“Hmm..”, Teo said with an unsure voice
He was multitasking incredibly, acting and studying, and because of this, he was not fazed by the piercing gaze of Elon.
“Didn’t Zachery say this was worth 10 gold?”, he asked
Rowen’s jaw dropped, her mind became blank for a brief moment. The others were shocked beyond belief as well.
At first, they didn't think that Teo would ask money for the ring, and now that Elon toss out 1 gold coin, how could Teo was asking for more?!
After throwing the coin, Elon was still angry but swallowed his anger as the red guards was still around, but soon after Teo’s remark that swallowed anger became stuck in his throat. He almost choked to death from hearing Teo’s outlandish statement.
His eyes bulged, his stomach convulsed, his teeth clenched so hard the his molars cracked.
“You!!!..”, he was so angry that he could not form words except for a single one
If no one else was here, he would’ve ripped Teo into tiny shreds.
His fingers shook as he pointed at Teo, he was like a tea kettle ready to explode
Teo did not pay attention to anything else and continued on to look at the ring; studying the inscriptions carefully. Thankfully, shocking everyone gave him enough time to study the inscription.
After recovering from their shock, Rowen approached Teo and placed her hand on his shoulder
“Little Teo, don’t antagonize the headmaster any longer, just give him the ring and be done with it. If you antagonize even more, I am worried that after I leave the academy, you might find yourself in great danger”
Teo who finished memorizing the inscription, nodded to Rowen’s request, but he did not immediately hand over the ring just yet.
He looked towards the angry headmaster who was barely able to contain his fury.
“Okay, I will give this ring to you for 1 gold, for one condition...”, Teo said this is a very slow manner. Although he had memorize the inscriptions he was not too confident with it so he decided to buy more time.
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Elon did not dare let his guard down anymore. Once bitten, twice shy. If Teo said anymore things outrageous while having his guard down, he would probably attack without warning and without caring about the consequences.
“You have to swear an oath to the name of the Imperial family and holy emperor, that you will let this go and none of my family, friends or I will be harmed in the future by you or your family, directly or indirectly”
After Teo stated his condition, the headmaster was livid. An oath to the emperor was not a light oath to make. He glanced at the two red guards and then swallowed his saliva.
He calmed himself as if he made such a decision with an enraged mind, he might make a mistake that could cost him his life. Although Teo’s request seemed simple, but it had layers and layers of meaning.
The most obvious one was, because he announced to forget about this incident, if he backed off and denied Teo’s request it would mean that he was not sincere. In front of these two red guards, he would be in trouble if he had hidden plots against the six students. The most likely punishment for this would him being fired and replaced by another. Having control of the Mirth academy for so long and suddenly losing it would bring shame to their branch family, his punishment would not be light, being sentenced to death would not be impossible.
The second issue was if he accepted this proposal, he could not break it. If it was found out that he had broken his oath to the emperor, the consequences would be dire. In the best case scenario, only his head will roll, the worst case scenario, he could drag down the entire branch family; it could even affect the main family’s reputation as well. Even if he had a thousand lives, it would not be enough to quell the anger of his ancestors.
The third is if Teo, his family or his friends were injured indirectly by some unknown situation, it could lead back to him. He could be blame for it even without having knowledge of it! What kind of oath is this?!
And lastly, the most absurd one of all is that this oath would last until eternity. ‘The future’, meant that as long as he is alive, or these witnesses were still alive, he would still be bound by this oath.
Although the two red guards seemed older than he is, their cultivation was far superior. Cultivators’ life span increases the higher it goes, so Elon, being an old man already, was not sure if he could outlive them at all.
This would mean that he would have to get the branch family protect Teo and his friends until he died?! He did not hold such power within the branch family! How can he speak for them?!
Compared to the price of this oath, the ring’s cost was too cheap. Despite the ring being a treasure of the family, it was nothing compared to this oath!
Elon stared at Teo and his impression of this audacious kid changed. Fear emerged from his eyes, as he looked at Teo.
‘Could it be that he planned all of this scheme?’, he thought to himself
He looked carefully at Teo, he was no older than an 11 year old, but this normal looking 11 year old had place him between a rock and a hard place but luckily, it was not inescapable.
Teo waited for the headmaster’s response as he continued to memorize these inscriptions to reinforce his memory of it.
From the books that he had read, these conditions he set was air tight, preventing any future trouble for him, his sister and his friends, but he did not thought that these conditions he had give had any deeper meaning.
After regaining his thoughts, Elon spoke with calm. His anger seemed to be dissipating, but was actually just being buried deep inside.
“I promise you and the holy emperor that no harm will come to you or your friends from the Rizon faction or myself during your stay here at the academy and even within Mirth city”
He tossed aside the idea of Teo being a schemer because of his age, but he knew that this kid was not a simple youth. The main points of these conditions are for his and his friends protection within the future and also guarded against hired help, it proved that his understanding of the whole situation was not too immature.
Teo heard this and analyzed each word. The main difference to the previous oath is that, he can indirectly cause him harm, but that was only if he left the academy.
Being the main target of the headmaster’s hatred, the others should be safe. Hiring assassins to kill or harass a bunch of kids? Who would be so low, if Rowen or the others were ever attacked, Teo, who would stay within the academy, would immediately spread what had happened here. Not only the headmaster’s reputation would be put into question but the whole branch family’s as well.
As for himself, he only planned to return to the city once he is strong enough, or with a perfect disguise. As long as he had his identification stone, he can prove he is a student of the academy without exposing himself and could come and go as he pleased. Perhaps if they performed a divination rite then his identity would be exposed as he was outside but this was highly unlikely. Within the academy, no one can harm his life.
As long as he stayed within the academy, no one can harm his life, unless he breaks some academy rule. He had a little over 6 years within the academy left until he had to go out to explore the wild lands and had enough confidence to be able to protect himself by then. With the success of his wind boots, in the future, he can create array enchanted clothes that had much better effects than the inscription enchanted items.
Although it was quite different from what he wanted, it was acceptable.
Teo tossed the ring to the headmaster and the six left afterwards
Watching the six leave, the red guards as well as the academy guards left the area.
Only Elon stood there with Zachery behind him.
Zachery was elated to have the ring back, he knew it was precious and was worth a lot of money but what he did not know that the price of the ring was far more than 10 gold coins. It was a highly secret talisman, able to create a barrier for life threatening attacks from class 5 fighters or weaker. The ring had 25 charges in total, and through the years, only 10 charges were left.
Elon tossed the ring to Zachery and then revealed an angry face. He wanted to hit the idiot grandchild, but if he did, his ticket to the Imperial city might vanish.
With a grim voice he said
“Let’s go back”
‘I’ll teach these brats a lesson’
One could not tell if he was talking about the six previous students or the Rizon family youths, but once thing was certain, there was hell to pay for this incident.