Galen gloomily looked at Miles leaving the library. The Third Elder's insistence to meet with him was becoming annoying, and chasing away Miles with plausible excuses each time he came to bother Galen took too much of his time.
His sour mood was worsened by his recent setbacks. Galen had completed his research about fraud and trials. His goal had been to advance on at least one front since the twins were otherwise hindered. However, Galen was both glad and frustrated with his discoveries. He knew exactly which paperwork to use and which procedure to follow to prove his mother’s innocence. But for that, he needed to use the Caladrius Bird’s body as proof.
The body was still in the “Warehouse”. Galen had discreetly made a special incense to help keep the decomposition at bay since the “Warehouse”’s tier was too low to put the body and the Phoenix egg in metastasis. The youth changed the incense regularly.
Galen also took care of the egg once a week, with Artem taking measures to hide what they were doing. It was risky to bring it out of the “Warehouse”, but the twins had no choice. The Phoenix could survive eternally in harsh environments even as an egg. Nevertheless, an egg needed to be nourished to hatch. Moreover, the twins feared the Phoenix would become estranged from the Eos Family if they didn’t take care of it as they should.
However, it was different for the body. The Caladrius Bird was too big to be taken out discreetly, so Galen couldn’t use the most efficient ointments against decay. The incense was a poor solution.
Seeing their dilemma, Lyra had told the twins to leave it to her. The CSI had fuddled with her system limitations and programming until she combined the spiritual power of the inner world and the spiritual energy emanating from the Phoenix egg. The Phoenix spiritual energy had an immortal aspect that Lyra managed to harvest in meager quantity: it was enough to keep the Caladrius Bird’s body in a relatively fresh state.
Thanks to that, the body was preserved well enough to be used as proof against Tana Eos’s accusations. However, the twins couldn’t reveal they had retrieved the Caladrius Bird’s body. If they did, their enemies would suspect they also had the Phoenix egg.
The joy of finding how to defend his mother, followed by the realization that he couldn’t use it left Galen depressed and frustrated. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that each time he was reaching for a solution or an improvement, something came to rob him of it. Unable to contain himself, he complained and confided in his CSI.
Lyra frowned. Beren Yaratilis’s wish to burden Galen with negative emotions was coming true. She had to push her host in the right direction. Looking for an idea, Lyra shuffled through the bits of conversation she was hearing in the library. She stopped to consider one of them.
“Apparently, one of the main activities during the Festival will take place outside of the City-State of Olympia. This could be a good opportunity to harvest spirit plants. The old man won’t follow you on a school field trip, and it should be easy enough to hide what you’re doing within the tasks given.”
Galen didn’t react to her information, so Lyra turned to Artem. As soon as his tutoring session was finished, Artem came to the library. He scolded Galen for spending too much time in the library for his research and not enough time training. Artem developed a training plan for his brother and forced him to follow it, keeping Galen busy the whole week. It also allowed Artem to act as an intermediary when Miles came to bother Galen.
Artem also asked Galen to help him touch all the pets in the class. The youth felt great satisfaction when Lyra announced the reward for getting the fiftieth entry in the encyclopedia. The one most difficult to get had been the Black Sand Fennec because the Jamra boys had stopped coming to Mr Carter’s lessons.
With these two new shuffles, the twins received one piece of the notable “dazzling gleam” skill and one of the rare “fire rune” skill. Galen and Artem were overjoyed. The “dazzling gleam” was a light skill that could interrupt an enemy’s attack by stunning or charming them. It was interesting, but the real price was the “fire rune” skill.
With it, Ayden could place down fire traps. Anyone touching the runes would detonate a fire explosion. Artem immediately studied the skill and how he could integrate it into Ayden’s strategy. Despite his enthusiasm and his fairy’s eagerness, Artem acted with restraint: Ayden needed to master the “heat detection” skill first.
***
During the homeroom of the second week of November, Mr Carter announced the beginning of the third-year Festival. This event spanning over two weeks consisted of practical group projects and field trips. Usually, the first week was used for preparations and the second for field trips or exhibitions of the concrete projects during a fair.
Depending on their elective, the students’ trips and projects differed. Some elective classes were collaborating, and most of the third-year students participating in field trips were excited. Nevertheless, the Festival wasn’t just a fun and boisterous event: the school used these activities to evaluate the students. The results were tabulated for the next term exams.
Mr Carter asked Zane to distribute the program. “You’ll see that some of you won’t have a choice for your activity. For the others, you have until the end of the day to tell a teacher your choice so that you can be registered. Being beast tamers, you can access the registration summary from your connected bracelet. This will keep you from the shame of asking for an activity without any more vacancies. Tomorrow, during your elective class, you’ll get more information.”
Artem and Galen were scheduled to go on the same field trip. The students from the professional combat elective and advanced pharmacist elective classes were to go on a five-day trip. It was mandatory for them, but students from other electives could join this field trip if they motivated their choice and linked it to their elective.
The purpose of the trip was to go to the Lush Steps Lake to the northeast of Olympia. An Abyss-monster outbreak had occurred there some weeks ago. The monsters had been killed or fought back by the Army, but the monsters still had enough time to corrupt a number of local wild beasts. Then, the Beast Tamers Association had sent several groups of Beast Wardens, Beast Healers, and Beast Nurturers – the highly-graded beast tamers who did the Rebirth Ceremony for dying beasts and nursed their mental health. Thanks to them, the most dangerous corrupted beasts had already been dealt with. Only some stragglers or small beasts were left to purify. It was an excellent and safe way to get the young beast tamers in contact with the consequences brought by the Abyss monsters.
This trip didn’t only concern the beast tamers because they needed to learn to cooperate with mundane people. This sort of cooperation was necessary since beast tamers weren’t numerous enough to take care of everything.
Fifty students were allowed to go on the trip to Lush Steps Lake, and there were places left after counting the members of the two elective classes. Anan Ruh immediately took one vacancy to be able to accompany Mahlon and do his duty to protect him.
“Mr Ruh, care to tell me how you justify your choice? And, please, spare me from your Family’s nonsense.”
“Such outbreaks involve a lot of people from the Army and the Association. They need to respect the rules of the Peaceful Treaty, but such matters lead to complications, be it to divide labor or distribute resources. Moreover, the clean-up must require a lot of paperwork.” Anan spoke slowly, confident in his reasoning. “I’m sure such a trip will be highly educational for my Law and Administration elective class.”
“Do you think the Ruh trains their members to be able to trick their ways into anything they want?” Lyra asked in admiration of Anan’s glib tongue.
Lyra was even more satisfied to see Mr Carter unable to contradict Anan.
By midday, a group of six students took the last vacancies. The only name the twins recognized was Metin Shaytan. Asking around, they learned Metin and some of his mundane classmates from the Abyss monsters knowledge elective class wanted to use this field trip to do their own practical group project.
During the elective class on Tuesday, Galen and Artem learned more about their assignments for the field trip. During the first week, the students would use the two periods of their elective classes and their free periods to make preparations or do more specific training. In the second week, they would have to write a report on their field trip analyzing their preparations, their time on the field, and giving suggestions to improve themselves.
After giving the general explanations, Mrs Bousrani taught her eight students the recipe to brew the purifying potion. It was a high-level potion, necessitating specific ingredients. Since each pharmacist would be in a different group, Mrs Bousrani underlined the importance of mastering the recipe and being able to brew it in rough conditions. She would accompany them to the Lake, however, she would stay behind in the forward operative base while the students went on the field.
Meanwhile, Mr Tawil drilled his students, preparing them to face any situation. However, his main concern was the collaboration between the beast tamers and the mundane students. As such, Mr Tawil paired each beast tamer with two mundane combatants. The beast tamer had to lead his pet and his teammates through obstacle courses, countering or dodging machines simulating attacks. This allowed the mundanes to get used to the pets as much as following a beast tamer’s lead.
Artem enjoyed this period. Mr Tawil complimented his leadership skills. Some minutes before the end of the period, the teacher called the students back. “For the field trip, the participating students must form eight teams of five to ten persons. The ratio of beast tamers per group has to be lower than the number of mundane students. I suggest you find your pharmacist before forming your full team.”
Mr Tawil paused and checked his tablet. “Once you have your full team, register the name of your members on a connected bracelet. It’ll upload the team on the platform, so you can know who is taken and who still needs a team.”
Artem’s enthusiasm cooled down as the explanation went on. As soon as Mr Tawil finished speaking, the students joined their friends to discuss forming a team. Artem’s relationship with his classmates had eased up a bit thanks to Marcus and Orsella. However, the majority still ignored him like Cecelia and Caleb, or mocked him like Amir and his cousins.
For this field trip, Artem and Galen needed to find at least three mundane combatants willing to team up with them, but their Family’s reputation made them everyone’s last choice.
The next day confirmed Artem’s worries. Amir quickly registered his group with his cousins Nasir, Basic, and Shahin. To complete his team, Amir found one pharmacist student and four combatants from the army classes to respect the rules of more mundane students in a group. Amir didn’t hide his intention to use the five mundane students as servants. Despite being scorned and demeaned, they accepted it in exchange for money or resources from the Jamra Family.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The other students from Families also organized their group rapidly. Metin only needed to find a pharmacist, so he negotiated with Melanie and registered her as the pharmacist for his Abyss monsters knowledge group. Anan and Mahlon Ruh effortlessly found three mundane members willing to go with them, getting the lowest number of members possible.
The other beast tamers participating in this trip were part of the professional combat elective class. Marcus and Cecelia decided to be the only beast tamers of their group to train their leadership skills. However, while Marcus only selected the minimum members with Naeem Alfarsi as his pharmacist and three mundane combatants, Cecelia went for a big group, recruiting seven warriors in addition to her pharmacist.
Meanwhile, Orsella and Caleb decided to work together. They managed to recruit Amethyst Gataki – one of the best pharmacists of Dascalos High School – and two mundane combatants. Bruno and Daniyal followed their example and recruited one pharmacist and two mundane warriors. They agreed that Daniyal would mostly act alone as an advanced scout while Bruno would take care of the group.
By midday on Wednesday, seven groups were already registered. This left the twins with no choice but to recruit the three combatants no one wanted on their team. These three were the infamous, problematic students of the professional combat elective class: Emilio Fava, Jarek Dolezal, and Celeste Guerriero.
The first hurdle was to convince these three students of the necessity to team up with the twins. Artem didn’t want to waste his time on that, so he suggested involving Mr Tawil. Galen was reluctant to depend on the teacher and worried they were abusing Mr Tawil’s kindness. However, he agreed to his brother’s suggestion.
“Not so fast!” Lyra made sure to project her next thought to both hosts. “Galen, you’re the head of your Family. You need to stop accommodating your twin. You’re mixing your priorities.”
Galen started, and Artem frowned. The twins looked at each other before sighing together. Galen took the time to evaluate Artem’s suggestion again, forcing himself to think like the head of the Family. “I agreed for the wrong reasons, but it’s still a good idea.”
So the twins asked Mr Tawil to summon Emilio, Jarek, and Celeste during their free period that afternoon. They hoped that if the teacher explained the situation, Jarek, Emilio, and Celeste wouldn’t dare make a fuss about it.
Celeste was the first of the three to arrive on the field for the combat elective class. She was wearing her training suit. Her soft, brown hair was pulled back from her face by two cute, low pigtails. Her pale, blue eyes roamed over the teacher before pausing on the twins. Celeste smiled brightly. “Heya! Galen! It’s been a while!”
Galen politely greeted her back. The girl looked around, noticing the fairies flying above the twins. She didn’t show the slightest disgust. Instead, she waved at them and approached to look at the pets curiously. The fairies hovered above the girl, who raised a hand toward them. Emilio’s arrival interrupted Celeste before she could touch Ayden.
The black-haired boy slowed down as he saw who was on the field. His face soured. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Galen sighed. That was exactly the kind of reaction he had been expected. Artem squeezed his shoulder in silent comfort.
Celeste turned to Emilio. “You’re also excited to see the fairies? Look! They’re so cute!”
“Shut up, idiot! Don’t bring me into your nonsense!”
“Eh, no need for name-calling!”
Emilio scoffed and turned his back on Celeste. However, Celeste abandoned the fairies to pester him for an apology. Instead, Emilio insulted her again. Celeste narrowed her eyes and raised her hands, threateningly clenching her fists.
Helpless, Galen and Artem witnessed the two students quarreling like children. Things were sure to go awry during their trip. But how soon and how much it would go awry was a worrying thought.
Annoyed, Mr Tawil told Emilio and Celeste to quiet down and wait for everyone to be there. The teacher impatiently used his tablet to contact the concierges guarding the entrance. As he suspected, Jarek was trying to leave.
Used to the ways of this delinquent student, Mr Tawil efficiently threatened the boy with “one-on-one” remedial lessons. Jarek still took his time to come. Once he understood what it was about, he sneered. “I’m not interested in this stupid activity. I won’t spend my weekend on school stuff. Put my name on the team if you want, but you won’t be seeing me!”
“Watch your tone, Dolezal! I wasn’t asking for your opinion!” Mr Tawil stepped menacingly toward Jarek. “Your rebellious act is growing tiresome. I’ll personally pick you up Saturday morning if need be.”
A difficult exchange followed. Jarek argued, but Mr Tawil stood firm: no matter what, the boy would go on the field trip with his teammates. Nevertheless, that was the extent of Mr Tawil’s intervention.
Galen looked at the tall blond-haired youth leaving the field. He had ignored Celeste, Emilio, and the twins the whole time. The young pharmacist didn’t understand Jarek’s behavior nor what could make the school so tolerant of his attitude.
“I’m not sure what’s best: missing one teammate or having Jarek for a teammate?” Artem mused aloud, half-seriously. If a teacher had so much trouble getting the boy to obey, what could they expect on their trip?
“Oh, don’t worry!” Celeste carelessly pointed at the teacher. “Mr Tawil is our homeroom teacher. He’s especially dedicated to his work!”
“What she means is that Jarek can’t escape Mr Tawil.” Emilio didn’t miss an occasion to denigrate his classmate. “His act is so stupid! It’s obvious he’ll obey the teacher in the end.” Galen remembered some rumors Zane mentioned about the school trying to control Jarek. Was Mr Tawil in charge of Jarek’s reeducation?
“Like I said, Jarek will be there.” Mr Tawil raised his tablet again. “Let’s register your group and give you your mission.”
Emilio had been distracted by Jarek. It was too late to complain about his teammates. Nevertheless, his face showed his unwillingness, and Lyra heard him muttering about his rotten luck since the beginning of the school year.
“What a dumb ass!” Lyra muttered in turn.
The only one smiling was Celeste. “I’m so happy to be in your team, Galen, Artem! It’ll be nice to be near pets! Happy collaboration!”
Lyra wondered why Celeste sounded like a ten-year-old. She worried for her hosts. With such teammates, Galen and Artem would have their hands full just doing the elective task, they would have no time to look for ingredients for the fairies’ super-evolution.
With their team registered, the twins received more precise instructions and explanations of their tasks. The students from the professional combat elective class would subdue the beasts and protect the students from the advanced pharmacist elective class while they worked to administer the beasts with the treatment to purify them. Each group was given a specific target, scouted beforehand by the Association. The target was randomly given to the students before the trip so that they could prepare.
The twins were the last to draw their target. It was notable Pink Olms. Galen and Artem didn’t know much about this beast. Their priority was to gather information about it. The twins suggested going to the library together, but Emilio left, saying his parents were waiting for him at a newly opened lounge.
“Don’t worry! My dad won’t mind if I stay at school longer. I’ll help!” Celeste smiled and skipped away toward the library.
Artem and Galen thanked Mr Tawil and followed Celeste.
The first information Galen found explained that the olm was a type of water salamander. It was a relatively weak beast. Its noticeable point was its shyness and habit of hiding underwater in caves. So people rarely saw olms.
Artem felt it was interesting they got an aquatic beast. It would be challenging to get to. The twins tacitly divided the work: Galen searched for more information on their target, while Artem took charge of the combat aspect. They let Celeste choose what to work on.
As Artem was pondering on the strategies they could use to approach an aquatic beast, Celeste’s squeal attracted the twins’ attention.
The girl excitedly showed them a picture from an encyclopedia. “They’re so cute!”
“It’s pathological, right? The girl is sick, that’s the only explanation.”
“She’s not so bad,” Artem retorted, appreciating Celeste’s motivation.
Galen looked carefully at Celeste’s book. The picture she was gushing over depicted a pinkish aquatic salamander with a wide and short body. It had six frilly external gills on its head.
“Celeste, that’s an axolotl.”
“But isn’t it a pink and aquatic salamander?”
“Yes, it is. But it lives in the Rio Grande City-State Region. That’s not our target. The olm has a longer and thinner body. It almost looks like an eel. Its external gills are also a lot smaller.”
“Oh.” Celeste nodded obediently and turned the pages of her book, looking for pictures of olms.
“It might be more efficient to look at the glossary,” Galen patiently commented.
Celeste nodded again. Some minutes later, she called out to Galen, interrupting his research again. “The book is wrong! Look, the olm on this picture is black!”
“If she’s not sick, then she hurt her head in her youth, right? And now, she’s a simpleton, right?” Lyra couldn’t help but exclaim again.
“Peace, Lyra. She’s the easiest one to deal with among our three teammates,” Galen wearily said.
Lyra shut up. She didn’t want to burden her hosts, but she didn’t know how she could help. Frustrated, she turned her attention to her passive talent, hoping to eavesdrop on interesting information.
Galen indirectly answered Celeste by exposing his findings about the olms. “It’s a gregarious species living underwater in caves. As such, it is blind but has an enhanced sense of smell and hearing. It is photosensitive, so Lucia’s ‘glow’ and ‘flash’ should be effective. However, it’s ectotherm.”
“Ecto what?” Celeste asked curiously.
“It means it’s cold-blooded. So it would be impossible for Ayden to find it with ‘heat detection’. We won’t find it alone, and because the olms are gregarious, they live with members of their species from the common to the rare rank. That’s why some are pink and others are black. It depends on how they evolved.”
Celeste nodded to show her understanding.
“Did you find their threat potential?” Artem asked.
“They are weak alone, but in a group, they could be dangerous.”
Galen added some more details, answering Artem’s questions about their main skills, their resistances, and weaknesses. The three of them fell silent.
“If we can’t use Ayden’s ‘heat detection’ to scout, should we redeem the ‘Watch Tower’ feature?” Artem asked once he had a clear picture of their target’s characteristics.
“I don’t recommend it,” Lyra replied. “This feature enhances the pet’s scouting skill. Your fairies are too weak for the ‘Watch Tower’ to be effective at this point. I’ll act as your scout. Water smothers sound, but I should still be able to hear them.”
“Thanks, Lyra.” Galen still complained. “I can’t believe we’re so unlucky. We’re not equipped to deal with aquatic beasts!”
Lyra had noticed several teams also gathering information about their target in the library. She shared her findings, in the hope of reassuring the twins. “It sounds like most groups got amphibians or insects for their targets. Bruno’s and Daniyal’s team is researching the notable Tree-Jumping Frog, though Bruno is mostly grumbling. Damn, he hates the library! Orsella and Caleb were just leaving, so I didn’t catch the full name of the beast, but they mentioned a breasted or a crusted newt.”
“It should be the notable Short-Crested Newt,” Galen said, remembering the information he read about the beasts living in the Lush Steps Lake.
“You’re interested in the insects, too?” Lyra asked.
“It might help to anticipate the other teams’ movement,” Artem said, gaining confidence with the knowledge that other groups had to face the same difficulties.
“Cecilia is looking at grasshoppers, but I don’t know the specifics yet. She tasked some of her mundane teammates to uncover the other teams’ targets. From the report given, there should be a Purple-Tinted Damselfly, a Stone Crayfish, and a Pearly Butterfly.”
“They’re all beasts of the notable rank.”
With the full picture, Artem asked Celeste to help him look for traps they could build to catch aquatic beasts. As they were exchanging ideas, Ayden flew down in front of Artem. She signed her will to learn the rare “fire rune” skill. The Fire Fairy wanted to help. She didn’t want to be useless.
“Ayden, we’re leaving in three days. You won’t have the time to learn it.”
The Fire Fairy gestured angrily. Celeste hid behind her hands to snicker. The fairy looked so cute!
“Alright, but I won’t cut off your regular training to allow you to learn ‘fire rune’. Do it on your own time.”
Celeste and Artem returned to brainstorming ideas. The girl was silly but she had received strict military training from her family. The Guerriero household had worked for the Army for generations. Coming from such a household, Celeste understood every strategy Artem was proposing and could offer her input. Nevertheless, her ideas were often impractical or inappropriate for their current mission. Artem couldn’t understand how her mind worked.
Meanwhile, Galen summarized their findings about the olms for Jarek and Emilio. Then, he studied the flora in the Lush Steps Lake. Galen noted the edible plants, carefully learned to recognize the poisonous ones and marked the ones he wanted to harvest.