I don't know which idiot said that it is hard to understand the tribes. The logic of the tribes seem painfully clear to me. Then again I am quite sure that the man cloak is somebody quite important to the council. I do not speak this knowing of any of the man's history. I speak that on the basis of how well he understands the council. You do not try to learn the rivalries, the supposed alliances, the true alliances of a court if you do not benefit from it and as My master likes to say it is in the best interest of a king to always understand his underlings. The people likely to assassinate a king often come from the underlings after all.

I am a minor character in the black mountain. One of the other scholars would be able to establish connections like this quite easily integrating themselves into their societies in such a way that people tend to forget that you are even an outsider. I have read quite a few logs and it is almost creepy the way that they tend to do it. It is supposed to be literally part of training for scholars to enter into hostiles territories to change the opinions of the people that might oppose it. How else do you think the black mountain gets new ruins to research.

I am stopping this weird tangent of mine to return to the topic. Firstly, i am not claiming cloak to have a important role in this council, but the man understands the formation as i might understand the inner workings of a formations. It might be because he is a curious man that finds these things fascinating or he might have actual benefit in learning such stuff. only time will tell the truth and I certainly have no wish to wait here for long. If being at the fort was torture, this place is hell.

Thankfully I atleast don't need to worry about feeling cold, since the only way that I can survive in the true lands is by staying in formations and magics specifically meant to protect me. i won't be feeling cold here since I would be frozen long before the chill would even be registered by me. i don't know if that knowledge is comforting or terrifying.

For now i am struck between choices. Neither is a good choice and neither give me much chance of living. I sometimes wonder if my master wants to get me killed sometimes. This entire trip has been just the process of delaying death to the next day. Well, regardless of whether my master is to blame or not, I will need to focus on survival today. After that, well I am a formation mage and our revenges are quite creative when we bring it to our enemies. It warms my heart as i imagine the many formations that i can use to bring pain to my masters heart. Sadly these thoughts have to remain in my head. The man has used anything that I can think of a thousand times. I am sure if i were to actually act on my thoughts, i would be infinitely more miserable.

Well, first I guess i should explain to you on the exact nature of charges that have been placed on me. There are four such charges though cloak had only expected three. First is the charge of dishonoring the council. Turns out the man that I have fought in the fort is a soldier that is under the hire of the council. Specifically a man of the tattoo clan.

This is where I struggle to understand the snow tribe. If I had killed the man, the council would have no grounds to assign any blame to me. Instead, since I had fought the man and I used unfair means in the fight, it was to be considered an insult of the council.

This particular charge is not particularly bothersome, since the punishment for such a fight is little more than temporary imprisonment, though i have to imagine that rules apply a bit differently to outsiders. Any local must go through a much harsher punishment. That would have been the case if a similar thing happen in my home.

The second charge on me is the charge they have thrown against my bloodline and my training. Normally, a sage is to be killed on the spot after they have been discovered, to prevent any unnecessary nuisances from occuring in the future. While there is a universal hatred of the sages, they seem to be tolerated as a necessary evil. Necessary evil is always code for "I want to till the other side, but they are too strong for me to do so effortlessly."

Why that is the case, I don't know. How the snow tribe and the sages interact with each other I do not know. Cloak can be pretty tight lipped when he wants to be. As for the legion, i can feel the hatred palpitate from the man that is supposed to protect me whenever he speaks of the legion.( And stuff like this is why I say my master can be naive sometimes.) Judging from the way the man has reacted at the mention of the legion, this is what I supposed would be the thing that would do me in. The man is good at hiding it but he is a powerhouse at the same level as the commander. Even his suppressed bloodlust can invoke the sense one gets looking at a predator. Honestly, i wouldn't be surprised if the man is stronger than the commander. This man's suppressed presence is enough to match with the commanders intimidation. I seriously wonder how they do it though.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

I don't know how cloak got me of that particular charge or even why to be honest. With that most of the charges levied against me should have been shelved and i should have been free to leave at the time of the last log. Since you must have noticed the fact that I am still here, you can say that I was screwed over in the worst possible way.

The man that i fought, a gentleman by the name of shakok has taken a charge against me. It is supposed to be the same law under which the council could charge me of disrespecting them, except in this case the person I am supposed to have insulted is the man himself. Turns out the punishment is the repeating of the fight under more fairer conditions.

That means that i would have to fight the man without the support of any formations. You can imagine just how quick of a fight that is. I wouldn't even last a few seconds. The man doesn't even need to move. I can hit him for hours and i am not sure if i will be able to penetrate that skin of his.

Well, that means that i will most likely end up dying still. The only option left to me is that I will have to go to the council personally and somehow convince them that i did not fight shakok in a unfair manner. How i am supposed to do that, I do not know and nothing is striking me at the moment.

Well, it is not like the council would ever accept that i am not guilty of the final charge, it is literally the only chance that this guys have got of killing me. They would rather be idiots rather than letting a potential enemy of theirs walk.

That means our goal is not to get the result changed but to reduce the intensity of the challenge. After all, the man might definitely kill me in a direct one to one fight, but the alternate punishment has chance of me surviving, so slim that there is no really difference between the two. (as is with life, in case a particular fight cannot be repeated the alternate punishment is used.)

Now, as to what the alternate punishment is. The challenge is simple, a sledder will be given to each person and both of them will be directed into a storm. Now a storm here is nothing like the tame stuff that occurs near the fort. The storms are so wild, that is like a wild buffets of ice mana that flow much like waves in a storm. Imagine that, but in all directions around you. Top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right or right to left and in any direction you can imagine. Essentially, the instant that you enter into the storm, there is a chance that you will be blown away in any direction.

There is a way to survive the storm. A capable enough person would be able to predict each wave in this omnidirectional storm and would be able to steer the ship to match the wave. That way there is a chance that you will be able to survive this terrible outcome. Even in this method there is a decent chance of death though.

Now the punishment is that we are made to enter into a storm, and whichever ship is surviving once that has passed would be the winner. The person who has made the complain, will consider his complaint shelved regardless of if the other ship has survived or not.

That is why this is the alternate punishment. It is so brutal that just surviving tends to make people forget about whatever complain they had. Atleast that is what cloak claims. I just think these people are suicidal.

I have been practicing the usage of a sledder for the last couple of days and I must admit that i am getting quite used to it. While there are differences between it and an airship, I am learning to adapt to these differences quite quickly at that. No amount of training will help in a storm though.

Those things are quite brutal. By the way I am in the control room of the sledder at the moment.

"You really should be focussed kid, the council is expecting to meet you in a week.", a voice spoke behind me. The man has pulled that trick so many times that I am not even particularly phased. "They honestly need one little excuse and you are dead kid. My influence is quite limited among the council. It certainly won't allow you to go in front of the council as an arrogant young man."

"Well, I am quite sure that I can learn all of this quick enough, cloak. We at the le...", i speak, almost losing my tongue. "at the black mountain are a similar stickler for traditions and rules. I am certain that I will manage the council. What i am worried about is what is to happen immediately after. Even in the best scenario, you say that mastering the sledder takes years. How exactly i am supposed to do it under a week."

"Well, as i have been telling since a week ago. Surviving a storm is not a matter of skill. It is about the sensitivity of your senses. To grasp the flow of wind and adapt according to it is something that you outsiders are good at. Else your airships wouldn't survive even a storm in your lands. I can't even imagine it, to be in the sky during a storm. Granted yours are not that violent. How many of those you had to face?", cloak asks.

"A fair few, i must admit. but our storms are gentle compared to shit you have here. Any normal airship would be torn into pieces even if I was the god of flying.", I say.

"Well, that you will have to figure out. Your master seemed quite confident that you should be able to do it. I have never seen him go wrong when it comes to his craft. So I am sure you will do it." He replies, leaving me speechless.

How is a man supposed to react to that. So I don't.