Nocturnio (22.10.9978 AS)
*knok, knok*
“The door is open” Nana absent-minded answered to the knocking of her office door without even sparing it a look. She thought it was one of her employees. “Am I not even worth a look anymore?” An old but warm voice said. Nana looked up and smiled brightly.
“Ares, it’s been so long, since we saw each other!” The grayish-black haired man that looked like he was in his fifties also smiled happily towards Nana. “It has been indeed a long time since last enjoyed a cup of coffee and cake.”
Nana put the papers she had been working on by side and made a coffee for Ares and herself. She called over one of her employees and ordered each of them a piece of chocolate cake.
“After so many years you’ve finally made it big?” Ares laughed whole hardly. “I guess you can say so, but to be honest, I never wanted to make it ‘big’” Nana answered exhausted. “So, what brings you here?” Nana went straight to the point.
“Can’t I even visit my baby sister without having ulterior motives?” Ares asked, knowing he would be shut down anyways. “Please, I’ve known you my whole life. I know you would never visit this old hag, just to chat over a cup of coffee.”
“As usual I can’t hide anything from my adorable baby sister. Can’t you youngsters not even leave one or two secrets to an old man like me?” Nana laughed happily at Ares words. “It sure has been a while since someone called me young! “ She pointed towards her silver hairs.
In the Demon society, most of the people looked like they were in their twenties. No matter how old they got. They would always try to look young and beautiful. Showing your age was frowned upon. Youth was seen as a symbol of strength and wealth.
It was a well known fact, that the amount of mana one possessed was the deciding factor in a demon’s aging process. Of course they were many different beauty items, that would help demon’s look young, but they were really expensive.
Unlike Ares, who spend most of his life training to achieve a high MR level and so had obtained high quantity of mana, Nana didn’t do much in that regard. She was just a normal Demon. She did take daily pills to look young again, but she had gotten to the age those pills were losing their effect, thus she couldn’t regain the color of her hair.
“You know I’ll always see in you as my naïve younger sister.” Ares smiled.
Ares Kuro and Nana Halblicht weren’t really related by blood. Thought the bond they shared was the one of brother and sister. Nana was the daughter of Ares’ nanny. Therefore, they obviously spend a lot of time together when growing up.
Nana could have become a maid at the Kuro household, but during her high school years she met Kleim Halblicht, who later became her husband. After the marriage she became a maid at the Schatten’s household, since her husband’s family served the Schatten clan.
Ares lamented. “I would have loved to keep you at our household and having you take care of my children and grandchildren.”
Nana laughed. “But in the end I still ended up having to take care of your great-grandchildren.”
“And is he a nice child?” Ares asked curious. “To be honest, he is too nice!” Nana laughed as she said so. “In all honesty, I have never seen a more mature child sometimes it’s even scary.” Ares laughed proud. “Well, he is supposed to be the smartest of our kind, so it makes sense.”
Nana nodded. “But still, he is a really likeable child. He isn’t even gone for a few days by now and I already miss him.”
As Ares was about to say something, his Commu started ringing.
Ater Mountains (22.10.9978 AS)
“Tristan! Tristan!” Abigail was hugging onto Tristan’s body, as he awakened from unconsciousness. He was the last of his group to awaken. “Uh… What happened?” He asked out reflex. “I don’t know, you tell us.” Sabrina answered. Tristan shrugged as he heard her cold voice.
Of course he remembered what had happened, and how lucky they all had been. If the bards hadn’t been searching for him it would have been game over for everyone present.
No matter how he looked at it, he had just landed the jackpot. Not only had he survived the encounter with an immortal, but he had also received information about how to get stronger.
Tristan eyes wandered around. Not far off, Richard was trying to calm down Seria, who was crying like a baby. She hadn’t cried so much since she almost got expelled from the Academy after the fight with Laura.
A little further away were Caitlyn, Annie and Orianna. The trembling girls were chatting with each other, trying to distract themselves from thinking about what could have happened.
Left to them, was Leo trying to heal Dolores. She was conscious and speaking to Laura. Though, she was still lying on the ground. Of all of them, she had received the greatest damage during the battle against the ‘Bards’. Although, she didn’t feel the pain during the fight thanks to the pills she had taken, her body was in a really bad shape.
One serious punch from someone like Dunkler was usually enough to kill most of the Demons in Umbra, no, the whole world. Although, neither Helles nor Dunkler tried to seriously kill her, Dolores had received two incredibly strong punches.
One on her stomach, pulverizing some of her ribs and damaging some of her organs, the other punch had been on the face. Destroying her nose and taking out most of her teeth.
Thanks to Leo’s healing, her deformed face had almost turned back to being as beautiful as ever. Unfortunately for her, some scars would remain. Nevertheless, she and Laura were smiling. They both were just happy to be reunited together.
The mother daughter duo put Tristan’s heart at ease. Tristan and Laura jumping down trying to rescue Dolores had been the initiator of the group’s nightmare. Seeing them like this, made Tristan forget his failure.
Although, Dunkler and company were all miles ahead of him in terms of fighting power and experience, he saw this rescue mission as a failure. The past five years he had been relying quite a lot on his passive. Every time he didn’t know how to deal with a situation, his passive would present him an answer. This time, however, his passive didn’t show him the right answer and left him to his death.
He had to come up with a strategy all by himself. The one he had decided upon wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good enough to fight people like the bards.
Tristan decided to ignore Sabrina who was staring at him and Abigail who was hugging him tightly and started to think about why his passive didn’t activate during such a situation.
‘Was it because I was too afraid of them? No, that can’t be. When I fought, Annemarie I was also afraid, but my passive still managed to show me a fool proved plan. Was it because it knew I didn’t stand a chance?’ It shuddered down Tristan’s neck as he thought about that possibility.
Till now he had seen his passive as an overpowered cheat. This was one of the reason’s he didn’t want to rely on it too much in the first place. But now it had shown him it had limits. Tristan wanted to make sure to never enter a situation, where he was the one in checkmate ever again.
But there was also another possibility. ‘What if my passive didn’t activate, because it knew they wouldn’t harm me? What if it had seen everything coming and therefore, had decided to stay inactive! That was also a possibility. If that was the case, why didn’t it tell me sooner? Why didn’t I receive any notification that the ‘Bards’ are on my side?’
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“TRISTAN!”
Sabrina’s annoyed voice roared through the maze. With this she not only got, Tristan’s attention, but the attention of everybody else around. No one had ever seen Sabrina so infuriated.
“Do you know why they didn’t kill us? You were the last one standing, when they caught me.” Tristan shook his head. At the moment he didn’t dare to say a word towards his cousin. He was sure, her anger wasn’t because of the near death experience, but because of something different.
“Why did you jump into the group of ‘Clanless’?” Tristan who was trying to avoid to looking Sabrina into the face, rolled his eyes without her noticing. ‘I knew it! She doesn’t care about me and Laura almost killing everybody present here. She just cares about the promise with Lamia.’
“It- It was my fault!” Laura, who had been smiling next to her mother walked towards the endangered Sabrina. “I- I just wanted to save my mom! I’m really sorry. I didn’t think about the consequences. I just jumped in to save my mom. Tristan, Tristan just followed me to save me. He is not at fault here it was just me and my selfishness, not being able to see how my mom was killed by those guys!”
Sabrina didn’t spare Laura a glance. She just kept glaring at Tristan. “I don’t think I asked you!” Sabrina answered her coldly.
Tristan swallowed forcefully his saliva as he heard her like this. He forcefully looked towards Sabrina, who was glaring daggers at him. “Arm,..” –“We will talk later,” she said and took out her Commu and walked back, to a place where she could talk without people listening to her.
The Commu connected her to the Principal of the academy. Although he wasn’t the one in charge of the patrols, she decided to contact her great-grandfather first. She knew the situation they were in was rather abnormal. Sabrina was sure; no one in Umbra would let soldiers who were chasing them alive.
-“Yes?”
“Gramps, here is Sabrina.”
-“What did you do this time?”
Ares knew, his great-granddaughter; she would never call him unless she was in trouble, once again. If he was honest, he was getting tired of it. It might have been ok when she was younger, but now she had gotten to the age where she should be able to resolve her problems by herself.
“Our mission failed.”
-“IS EVERYBODY OK?!”
“Strangely enough, yes. That’s why I’m calling.”
-“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, we met the ‘Bards’, we were supposed to take out. But they were stronger than expected. ‘Their’ assassin failed to take out the Leader of the ‘Bards’….”
Sabrina gave a detailed explanation, of what had happened.
-“So, they met Tristan?” Ares mumbled mindlessly mumbled into the phone.
“Yeah, is that something bad?”
-“Arm… No… No, it’s not. You know where the automatic Portal is?”
“Yes, I know. Does that mean, we are supposed to come back as soon as possible?
-“Yes, make sure everybody comes back as fast as possible.”
Nocturnio (22.10.9978 AS)
-“Ok.”
Ares disconnected the call and looked towards to Nana who had listed to the whole conversation. She was paler than usual. “What happened to my baby?” Ares smiled. “Nothing, he is fine. It’s just I don’t know the reason why he is ok.” Nana looked puzzled towards Ares.
“Want to go, to the Portal they’ll come back throu-” Nana had taken her coat, and was standing in front of the open door, before Ares could finish his sentence. “Can you lead the way?” She asked, pointing towards the Academy. “Of course.” Ares walked past her and lead her to the Portal.
On his way to the Portal, he used his Commu to contact, Meddie and Miss Doctri.
As he and Nana arrived at the Portal, both women were already waiting. “Did, they already come through?” He asked. They shook their heads in unison.
Ares put his hands on Miss Doctri’s shoulders. “Lina, Sabrina said they’re all fine. So don’t worry too much.” Miss Doctri’s pale face nodded absent-minded. She was too worried about her students. After spending the past five years teaching them, she started to see her students as adorable little brothers and sisters. So it was obvious she was very worried.
In contrast, Nana was as calm as one could be. She trusted Ares’ words. If he said Tristan and Laura were fine, then it must have been like that.
Meddie who wasn’t only Ares right hand, but also the school’s healer, noticed that Ares was deep in thought. ‘It must be because of his great-grandson.’ She knew he wouldn’t get too worked up, about Sabrina’s slip-ups. He had grown accustomed to them in the past years, but he would always get worked up, when something related to Tristan happened.
‘Poor boy, to have such a future ahead, I wouldn’t want to change places with him. For now all I can do is support him from the shadows.’ Ares was seen as the smartest of his race, thus he was probably the only Demon that understood the true meaning behind Tristan’s prophecy.
He knew that he would have to become really strong, if he wanted to fulfill it. So he had convinced Ray to send Tristan to the Guardian Academy. So it would be easier for him to help him. He had planned to drop books containing King level spells here and there, so Tristan would find them. Up until now Tristan had been took weak, so he didn’t see the need to do so.
I didn’t expect him to meet the ‘Bards’ so early, though. But I guess it can’t be helped. And that they didn’t take him with them means they don’t see him as strong enough yet.’ Ares smiled happily. ‘I still have time to prepare him the best way I can.’
Ares looked towards the portal, but there still were no signs of them coming back. ‘I should probably play the strict teacher or else Sabrina will get mad at me. So for how many weeks will I suspend him from school? Two weeks should be enough for him to think about if he can trust the ‘Bards’ or not.’
***
Tristan and Laura walked out of the Portal closely followed by Sabrina who was still in a bad mood and angrily, glaring at Tristan mumbling swearwords only she could hear. There was a huge gap between them and the others coming through the Portal was massive.
Not even Caitlyn and Annie could soothe Sabrina’s anger. They both had known Sabrina for a long time so they knew when they should leave her alone.
‘This doesn’t look too good.’ Tristan thought as he saw Miss Doctri, the school nurse, Nana and the Principal standing in front of the portal expecting their return.
“Meddie, would you please.” Ares pointed towards Dolores, who had been carried by Leo and Ernesti at the end of the group.
Meddie showed, Ernesti and Leo the way to the nurse’s office. Shortly after they were gone.
“Well, as I have heard you all had traumatizing moments behind you. So I think it is the best for most of you to return to your homes after a short check up by our school nurse. Don’t worry, it’s just to see if you really are ok. Lina would you mind accompany them to Meddie?”
Ares’ smiling face turned bitter. “The two squad leaders and you two, would you mind following me to my office?” Laura’s and Caitlyn’s faces turned blank. They both did not expect, the principal to be waiting for them in front of the Portal. Especially Laura had forgotten, that her actions would have consequences.
Tristan knew what was coming so he just followed Ares to his office, while still being glared on by Sabrina.
While walking towards the Principal’s office, Caitlyn and Laura tried to come up with excuses on what had happened.
Meanwhile, all Tristan could think about was: ‘I wish she would drop that already. Is she gonna keep staring at me forever? I got it already. What I did was stupid, so please stop staring at me. It’s creepy!!!’
***
Ares had taken place on his chair. The Students were standing lined up in front of him.
Sabrina was the first one to step forward. “I already explained on what happened via Commu. Obviously I will write a report on what happened and bring it to you as soon as possible.” She bowed in front of Ares.
Caitlyn’s eyebrows twitched as she heard the earnest voice coming from Sabrina. She had just too often heard her complain about how she hated writing reports. She also knew Sabrina would always wait for the last minute to turn in her reports. She even had invited Caitlyn the trip to avoid writing a report all by herself.
But now she was offering herself to write a report as soon as possible. ‘Did the shock have such an impact on her?’ Caitlyn was puzzled by her best friend’s behavior.
“Miss Lum…” Suddenly she heard her name and shuddered a little. “Y…Yeah?” “I’ll expect your and Miss Kuro’s report by tomorrow afternoon.” Caitlyn nodded. “Well then, I think you know the way to the nurse’s office, right?”
Caitlyn looked dumbfounded. She had expected to be scolded by the principal, but nothing the likes had happened. “Well… yeah… I… guess…” She brought out as she was just standing there until Sabrina grabbed her by her arm and walked with her out of the room.
Ares stood up. “I hope you know, what you did was more than just reckless. As I have heard from Sabrina you’ve almost caused the death of all your schoolmates!” As he said so, Ares started walking around the room.
“I hope you know I could simply expel the two of you, because of this, right?” He stared right into Laura’s eyes, causing her to forcefully swallow her saliva. “Since it was your first patrol, I will be kind enough and just suspend you from school for the next two weeks.”
Tristan suppressed a smile. He did his best to look as scared and shocked as Laura. ‘This old man surely just wants the best for us, but he doesn’t realize he’s playing directly into my hands! He just gave me an opening to start looking for Dunkler’s legacy!’
Ares looked into Tristan eyes. “… Do you understand? I don’t ever want to hear again of one of you two causing trouble for their superior. If I ever hear something related to that topic, then you can forget graduating in any school of this continent.
Laura went pale as she heard Ares’ warning. She nodded blindly to Ares’ words as she tried to memorize them. “It won’t happen again.” Tristan said, trying to sound as afraid as possible.
After hearing Tristan’s answer Ares smiled brightly. “Now get out of my sight! He said as he pointed towards the door. And don’t forget to drop by the nurse’s office before heading home!”
‘That boy surely is entertaining. Trying to act, all shy and frightened. But he’s a bad liar. He’s eyes are way too honest… I wonder why he’s so happy to be absent from school for the next weeks… No… Could it be he got a mission from the ‘Bards’?! My, my, I surely didn’t expect something like that. Well, I surely won’t stand in your way…’ Ares thought amused as the Laura and Tristan were leaving his office.