After leaving the study to give Neal and the kids sometime to catch up and talk, Wesley headed to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Wesley, being a prince, was always served food at his leisure, however, now that he was free of the constraints of the Royal Palace, Wesley has picked up a habit of going to the kitchen to eat. This, at first, startled the maids who had no idea how to react, but as time went on, they adapted to the point of always leaving some food somewhere in the kitchen for their odd master to eat.

After eating something, Wesley graped a bottle of water and immediately headed to the backyard. The backyard of the Manor was almost twice the size of the front yard. The most eye catching thing In the backyard was the fountain that was in the center of the yard with water spouting out of it in pretty arcs that looked dazzling under the sun. There was also a table with numerous seats near the fountain.

In a small corner of the yard there stood a pitch black pillar which had numerous slashes and cracks all over it. Leaning on the pillar was odd upper body armor with sleeving, and the odd thing about this armor was that it had numerous springs connecting its joints. This was where Wesley practiced his sword techniques.

Wesley walked towards the black pillar. Wesley immediately donned on the odd armor and started practicing each of the silent sword techniques. If one looked at Wesley's movements as he executed his techniques, he would notice how slow each of Wesley's strikes were.

The slowness of Wesley's movements were due to the odd armor. The armor had Iron Springs connecting all its joints, so everytime Wesley wanted to move his arms, the springs would prevent him. This armor, bequeathed to him by the second elder, enabled Wesley to train the muscles needed to execute his techniques without the need to bulk up one's entire body. It also enabled him to observe and correct his posture. Also the armor, although not as heavy as the ones given to the strength based students, was still heavy, enabling Wesley to improve his general stamina and strength as well as his Silent Steps footwork.

After a few hours of practice, Wesley noticed that Neal, Lane and the others were walking towards him. Their faces had bright smiles plastered on them and their eyes were red probably from crying. As soon as they were within few feet of Wesley, Neal who had little Sala sitting on his shoulders was the first to speak. Even though his voice was still whisper like, it contained a lot of excitement:

"Wesley!"

"Haha, Neal. Am glad to see you guys finished with your introductions. I was starting to worry."

Neal looked at Wesley with eyes filled with infinite gratitude. And spoke:

"Yes. It seems that aside from Lane here, none of the others recognized me. And I didn’t even know Sala."

"Haha, that’s good. You guys should go have some breakfast. Come see me later Neal, we should continue our discussion from before."

"Understood."

Neal immediately turned around and headed towards the Manor. Lane and his three brothers respectfully bowed to Wesley before turning and running after Neal. Wesley only shook his head with a laugh and continued his practice.

After another hour or so, Wesley's practice was once again interrupted by Neal who walked towards him. This time Wesley was not accompanied by the kids and his face, although slightly red, was stoic and emotionless.

Wesley slowly sheathed his sword and took of the armor. He was practicing for more than three hours so his shirt was drenched by sweat and his well toned muscles stuck out from underneath the wet shirt. Neal was surprised to see Wesley's body since he was under the impression that Wesley was a mage, but after seeing his muscles and long sword practice, he was doubtful.

"Neal, Please have a seat, I will be with you shortly."

Wesley immediately took off his drenched shirt and put on a clean one. Then he slowly walked towards Neal who was already sitting in one of the seats and sat across from him. Wesley and Neal sat motionlessly for a moment then Wesley spoke up:

"Neal. You need to set up your networks as soon as possible. I am not comfortable with waiting for the four families to move without my knowledge."

"Yes. Everything has already been prepared since I expected my brother to still be alive. I only need to do some minor alterations to the original plan, but everything should be ready soon."

"Good. Also, incase Lane hasn’t already told you, there are some businesses that I directly control, so avoid those businesses so as not to have me in any way connected to the network."

"I understand your point, but that is a mistake. If at some point our network is found, and someone notices that hundreds of businesses were infiltrated except for the ones that are associated with you, then it'll just look suspicious. So I will place some low level agents at these businesses."

"Haha, I didn’t think of that. Clearly you're better at this than I am, so I'll let you take care of the details. I'll prepare the funds for you tonight."

"Good, I'll be heading out then."

"Before you go Neal, I have a question"

"Yes?"

"Tell me, how did you manage to get into the basement last night."

Neal was surprised at Wesley's question. Of everything that happened last night, his entrance seemed to be the least precarious, but he immediately realized the point behind Wesley's question and immediately answered.

"It was am Earth technique known as Earth Meld. It enables me to go anywhere as long as it is made of earth."

Wesley knew that this was some sort of magic, but that wasn’t what puzzled him most.

"Then tell me Neal. If you had such power, then why didn’t you just go kill the four families."

Neal simply shook his head with a resigned look on his face and spoke:

"Sigh....I can't indeed be blocked by walls and things like that. But Earth Meld is a famous technique of Earth Mages, meaning there are ways of countering it. For example, building walls with.a layer of metal."

Wesley suddenly understood why Neal who clearly had the power to go anywhere was somehow restricted. But he was also surprised that his Dark Warp was not restricted by something like this. He immediately made a mental note to research the capabilities of his Dark Warp as soon as possible. Wesley then glanced at the standing Neal and spoke:

"I see, that’s a shame. Come see me later to collect the funds."

"Till then."

Neal immediately muttered something under his breath and soon sank into the ground, disappearing from the backyard. Wesley also got up and walked into the Manor to take a bath.

.....................................................................................................................................................

Two days later.

Currently Wesley was heading towards the academy. Only it was not yet six in the morning, meaning this was his once a week attendance of all his classes. Wesley was only interested in the two classes of light and swordsmanship with the other three simply being fillers, this meant that he consistently attended these two classes while only attending the other three once a week to keep up.

Coincidentally, today was also the day Wesley received the results of his end of year exams. The academy held their annual examinations at the end of the year and all students required one to pass at least half of their classes to be allowed to go on to the next year.

Naturally, Wesley passed by Michael's Inn to eat breakfast. Since Wesley went to the academy early once a week, it has become almost routine for him to have breakfast at Michael's, causing his relationship with Michael to increase.

After almost an hour, Wesley finally reached the academy at around six in the morning. The bell that signaled the start of the day reverberated across the academy causing Wesley to head straight towards his first period: History.

As soon as Wesley walked into the class, he saw that the class was half filled with the eighth elder lazily sitting out front with his eyes closed as if he was sleeping. This eighth elder seemed like a kind, amiable old man, but Wesley wasn't fooled by his appearance, he knew that this old man was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Wesley simply walked towards the front of the class where a burly youth with a large great sword sitting next to him. Wesley himself had his sword on his hip, but compared to the incredibly menacing size of that great sword, his seemed like a plaything. Wesley sat to the seat next to the burly youth and looked towards him with a friendly smile on his face:

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"Hey Kellan."

The youth who seemed to be half asleep due to the time jerked his head to look at the person who spoke his name. He hardly ever had anyone sit next to him, and even less speak to him, so hearing someone speak his name so friendly was to say the least, rare.

Seeing the thin, blue haired green eyed youth who sat next to him, Kellan smiled at him and spoke in his croaky roar like voice:

"Wesley. Good morning. I didn’t see you there."

Over the last year of school, Wesley and Kellan developed to become rather close friends. Not only were they swordsmen, but they also shared three classes making it very hard for them to not meet. Furthermore, Kellan's quiet, aloof nature made it hard for people to approach him, but Wesley often sat with him and talked to him without reservation causing them to naturally become friends.

Wesley and Kellan continued speaking for a few minutes as did most of the people in the class, however, everyone was instantly quieted down after a few coughs from the elder who was sitting up front:

"Good Morning children. As many of you already know, today we won't be learning anything. Rather, I will be announcing you end of year exam results for this class. First, you must understand how the ranking works, those of you who are in the top twenty pass, while those at the bottom twenty fail. Any questions."

This was how the Academy evaluated who passed and who failed. Your passing and failing in a class was done through your ranking in that class, this means that fifty percent will always fail regardless. This served as a motivation for students to do better in their studies, but it also served to distinguish those with potential from the rest by always separating the herd. Furthermore, the percentage of those who fail and pass gets more stringent as one advances in grades, for example, for second year students, forty percent pass while sixty fail, and for third year students, thirty percent pass while seventy percent fail.

After no one raised their hands to ask any questions, the eighth elder continued speaking:

"First place, Menail Cel; Second place, Elmer Treo; Third Place...."

The elder continued with his list until he got to the tenth place at which point his face showed a pleasant surprise and his eyes landed on Wesley:

"Tenth place, Wesley. Hohoho, Wesley, to be able to pass while attending only once a week...Impressive. Eleventh place..."

Although the elder's praise caught the attention of some students, what caught their attention the most was how none of them ever heard Wesley's family name. To be without a family name implied one of two things, first Wesley is from a super famous family and is unwilling to let people know his name, or that he is a beggar orphan without any family hence no family name. Most people thought the latter was the case which only served to deepen their contempt for him.

After the elder finished with his list, half of the class was frowning while the other half were smiling. Wesley simply turned to the Kellan who was sitting next to him with an elevated smile on his face because he surprisingly placed twentieth in the rankings, hence barely passing.

"Haha, Kellan. Stop smiling so much and let's go. We have geography next."

Kellan simply nodded his head while smiling, then got up. He and Wesley walked out of the door to their next class. Their next class was geography which Wesley was somewhat proficient in while Kellan was terrible at it. The smile that was plastered on his face all but disappeared as he realized what was about to happen.

And as if it was agreeing with Kellan's fear, he miserably failed in geography. Wesley on the other hand barely passed by placing in the near the cut off line. Wesley looked at the dejected Kellan and let out a small laugh while speaking:

"Kellan, Don’t be so heartbroken, we have strategy and tactics next, you are great in that class so you should have passed it."

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course. You'll see when we get there."

After getting to the strategy and tactics class, Wesley's prophecy came true, Kellan place first while Wesley placed in tenth once again. This extremely improved Kellan's mood causing him to puff out his chest and smile continuously like some idiot. Wesley couldn’t help laughing and bid Kellan farewell as he headed to his next class which was Light Magic study.

Wesley already passed more than half of his classes so he did have the minimum requirement for advancing a year, but he still went to his next class, but Wesley knew that there was no way he passed his Light studies exam.

After reaching the class, Wesley simply sat in the one empty seat near the edge without talking to anyone. All the students In the class thought very little of Wesley, some couldn’t even be bothered to think of him at all, however, Wesley also never bothered with anyone in that class so he just sat there waiting for the teacher.

After a moment's wait, the third elder walked in and headed towards the front of the room. His gaze swept across the students, but the moment it reached Wesley, the elder simply looked away as if there was no one sitting where Wesley was at. Wesley laughed inwardly at how little this teacher thought of him but didn’t really mind it.

"Now it is time to announce your end of year exam results. First place.."

Since there were eighteen students in this class, only the top nine passed. So the moment the elder announced the ninth person's name he simply stopped and said:

"The rest failed so there is no need for me to continue."

The elder simply walked back nonchalantly. Wesley only shook his head at how apathetic and cold this third elder was, but he hardly cared about how him so he simple got up and left the class to head to his final class: Swordsmanship.

After leaving the main school building and going to the swordsmanship classroom. Wesley was surprised to find that the second elder was already standing in front of the class with his ever present smile still plastered on his face.

This second elder was the one who left the most profound impression on Wesley. Unlike his amiable and easy going appearance, Wesley viewed this elder as a monster, the kind that would walk when you walk and stop when you stop, to the point that you believe that there is nothing there, but pounces at you the first chance he gets.

Wesley didn’t dare to look at this elder straight In the eye, so he walked with his head down and stood quietly. After all the students were present the elder started speaking:

"Good, everyone is here. Let's begin with your rankings. First place, Kellan Dole; Second place, Wesley; Third place...."

Wesley and Kellan placing first and second was not a great surprise to anyone since Kellan's great strength and Wesley's techniques were extremely above their peers. There were nearly fifty students in the class, and the elder announced each of their ranks. After finishing, the elder put away the sheet with the rankings and spoke:

"Congratulations to those of you who passed. As for those of you who failed, do not be discouraged, the way of the sword is as boundless as it is deep and cannot be summarized by these simple tests, but we must do so for our convenience. Remember, one learns thousands things more from failure than they do from success."

"Now I have a few more announcements regarding your rankings. At the end of each school year the academy holds a rankings competition where students spar against each other with their rankings on the line. It is a great opportunity to test your skills and improve them in combat. Naturally, it is not possible to have the entire student body to participate so each class appoints two students to represent, and if those two students get good results then the whole class gets their rankings boosted. I was thinking of sending Kellan and Wesley since they are the top two in this class."

The entire class burst into murmurs and whispers. A chance to increase one's rankings were very rare, and now they had such a chance so every student was naturally excited about it. However, amidst all the excitement, a single person raised his hand as if to ask a question. Seeing this raised hand, the elder slightly furrowed his brow and spoke:

"I am not taking any questions Wesley."

The entire classroom quieted down at the elder's words and all eyes fell on Wesley who slowly retracted his hand then taking advantage of the silence spoke with his soft, yet firm voice:

"It is not a question elder. I just wanted to say that I decline to participate."