Gilliam fell back into the bed, he was becoming exhausted before he had even woken up. Not a good start.
He groaned disapprovingly at the door. “Fine, I’ll get ready and come down.”
“Lord Silverhawk is in the Aether Field, Sir.” She didn’t sound super uncertain anymore, but it was easy to hear that she scampered off before Gilliam could really reply anything to her.
Gilliam couldn’t hold anything against her, everyone probably knew how much he cared for the Shitstain that was Garend, and now his father was here, no doubt sounding commanding and angry, sending the first servant he found to go get his son’s mutilator.
He would, however, hold this against the Lord Silverhawk, he could have come later in the day...
Taking a last good look over his more than just a companion in his bed before he got his ass up to his feet and started getting dressed. The morning routine was not skipped, Silverhawk would just have to wait, after all he had to be presentable before such an important man.
Gilliam could taste the sarcasm within his own head as he thought that sentence.
The group was ready in normal time, though Savia was a bit annoyed that they were going to delay breakfast for now. Gilliam thought of the apple slice he put in the ring yesterday, taking it out he happily noticed that there was no browning or hints of it having been a whole night since it was put in there. This suggested that there either was no air in there or that the ring had some preservative effects. The ant he created and put in there was also still fine, even though in his mind ants also needed air... right? They had to... somehow... He decided to leave the ant in there for now as he gave Savia the apple slice. She seemed fine with that for now and the group left his room after he put his coat on.
He was told that Silverhawk was in the Aether field, Gilliam assumed they recently teleported in, it seemed like the logical thing to do unless you wanted to spend quite some time with horses and carriages. It felt safer as well, bandits or that kind of people tended to like high value targets, right?
Mentally dwelling on what could happen as he walked down the hallway, he failed to notice Petal’s content expression and improvements all around. Scarring or any skin damage she might have had before were now gone, she looked like her health improved and even her steps were lighter than before. He did notice that Savia was happily eating her apple slice, not just through the happy feeling through their shared bond but since she lived in his hair most of the time it was hard to avoid feeling it.
Being in his own mental bubble he found himself exiting the door into the Aether field sooner than he expected. Looking out into the field he could mostly see what he somewhat expected.
A large group of people, most of them knight-looking with metal armour and weapons. A man he assumed was the Lord Silverhawk himself as he was the only one in a super nice suit, blonde hair oiled backwards and a cane studded with some gem on the top.
As he got closer he could barely see that the man also had what looked like a bandoleer across his chest, under his suit jacket, with many tiny colored vials attached to it. Almost having suppressed the sight the one-armed little shit was also present, just seeing him was enough that Gilliam could feel a mix of fear and uncertainty from Savia. He was a bit amused at how neatly folded up the sleeve of his missing arm was, it was clear that he was given nice clothing but at the same time it wasn’t exactly prepare for a one armed person.
Getting into normal conversation distance it seemed that the theatrics of politics kicked in right away with introductions. The man gave him a polite bow and behaved rather well.
“Good morning. My name is Lial Silverhawk-” As he bowed he seemed to notice that Garend didn’t do the same, slapping his leg with his cane had Garend reluctantly follow in suit and bow as well. “-You can call me Lial if you wish.”
The soldiers that stood behind him didn’t move, Gilliam had no real knowledge about etiquette in this world so he just let all of this happen. However, Gilliam had no intent to return the politeness, he had no proper idea what Lial had planned but he wasn’t really interested.
Petal looked at Gilliam uncertainly, seeming like she was planning to try to be courteous but since Gilliam didn’t do anything but stare mildly annoyed in return, she seemed to just stand there and do nothing.
At this point Gilliam also noticed that there were a lot of students looking into the Field from their windows, many rooms had multiple students, curiosity was high.
“What do you want?” Gilliam asked bluntly. “I’m not one for politics or unnecessary politeness, be direct and let’s get this over with.”
Normally Gilliam would use passive politeness in his English language easily enough, adding thank-you’s and please’s as part of just speaking, but he didn’t even feel like doing that at this point. He didn’t know anything about Lial but if Garend takes from his father... This was going to be an annoying day.
“As you wish.” Lial replied in a polite tone as he got properly up from his bow, Garend having already done so before they got to that point.
“I am here to make amends on behalf of my unruly son, I would prefer if our relationship would remain positive, but I would accept neutral before negativity.”
Lial seemed honest and did go straight to the point as requested.
This caused Gilliam to raise an eyebrow, he expected the man to come out here, screaming and yelling about how his son was mutilated, demanding payment in some weird form to compensate him. Gilliam had mentally prepared a list of his own exploits and titles to throw back to deescalate the situation, weighing his importance in the invasion but... this... This was unexpected.
Something that was expected was Garend’s reaction to this. The one armed boy turned towards his father with a confused and outraged expression. “But father, he-!”
The boy was interrupted by a look from his father that explained more than one thing to Gilliam. Garend had probably never known much parental love, which is probably why he acted like he did, throwing his status around like a badge of power. And to be honest it probably worked most of the time, he was probably used to getting whatever he wanted, and his posse from before backed this up.
Gilliam chuckled once, failing to hold that back. Wanting to instantly get attention away from the chuckle he took the word and moved the subject back to the matter at hand.
“I have to admit I’m a bit confused, I expected you to come here all angry like for doing this to your son.” Not hiding that he was indeed responsible for this.
Lial looked back to Gilliam with a poker face like a professional, the scornful gaze he gave his son melding into an almost too neutral one. “From Garend’s explanation of the event, he did something unspeakable towards Mr. Gibson, the fact that he kept his life was a gift. A gift I would not have given as freely had I been in your position.”
The emotionless expression, probably beneficial for a merchant or politician, didn’t waver in the slightest when he mentioned killing his own son. This just reaffirmed Gilliam’s assumptions about why Garend turned out like he did. This was no excuse, not at all, but it still hinted at the reasoning behind it.
Garend looked back and forth between Lial and Gilliam, seeming to want to shout something, attack or... at least do something.
“Father, he attacked me, he cut my ar-” His loud explanation was halted by another gaze from Lial, this time followed up by barely moving his cane, almost hinting that he intended to fwack him with it.
All things considered, though Gilliam hated the little fuck, he couldn’t help pittying the boy at least a little. Coming from a not-too-loving family himself, he at least had it leagues better than this boy had it.
Turning back to Gilliam, Lial had other thoughts in mind.
“To make the situation better, I am willing to extend the Silverhawk’s favour to you. We do not only deal in the Silverhawks but we are prominent in the mercantile business, I’m sure we can come to an agr-” Though this was probably a very good deal for most people, Gilliam accidentally cut him off with a little laugh.
“I have the favour of Alleyan in Mazewares, I’m not going to pretend to know everything around here but do the Silverhawks beat that?” Gilliam’s face was honest and questioning, like he actually didn’t know.
In his mind he did feel that Mazewares was higher on the list, if nothing else just because of the coat given to him. If the price was even close to what the assumptions was, he was given a huge fortune in a single piece of clothing.
There was finally an expression on Lial’s face, an expression of defeat. The explanation of Alleyan’s favour apparently hit very hard.
“No.” A simple but heavy answer.
“Good, then I think we’re done here.” Gilliam turned to leave, he didn’t want to get into family business and there didn’t seem to be anything interesting to gain from this either. Anything he could give, so could Yan. And Yan had been nothing but pleasant, even if you ignored the coat, so it was not hard to guess who Gilliam’s favour was with.
“I challenge you!” Garend’s voice was loud and strained. He clearly shouted it to make sure it was heard enough to not be ignored.
Gilliam assumed this was some official challenge thing that his father couldn’t deny if accepted, it felt like the only logical reason to shout it.
Stopping in his tracks and turning around, Gilliam looked at him a bit confused. Having only taken a few steps they were still well within conversation distance. “You... do remember how that turned out last time, right?” He really wanted to de-escalate this before it went into another fight and either more wounds or death.
Garend smiled like he had a plan for this all along. “You won’t be fighting me, I can call on a champion to fight for me!”
This confused Gilliam, he had heard a bit of things like this in certain media, but he didn’t actually know the rules. Sort of looking towards Lial for some confirmation, the sigh and look of defeat on his face confirmed everything.
Turning back to Garend. “So... you are going to get someone else to fight and die for you...”
This just felt so... weak... Challenging someone but not taking part of the event yourself and rather picking some expert.
“Can I just not say no?” Gilliam asked the area, not expecting to get a good answer out of Garend at least Lial added something.
“You can, but it would look bad for your name, backing down is considered weak.” He had some sympathy in his voice.
Turning to Garend, Lial spoke at him in hushed but harsh tones. “Call of the challenge, this is stupid, you don’t want to possibly harm the Heptagon m-”
He was interrupted by Garend, who did not try to hush his voice in the slightest.
“Just because you’re a coward doesn’t mean I need to be one, he will pay for what he did!” The better-than-thou attitude reeked of the boy, wanting revenge more than understanding the situation.
“Fine, I’ll accept your challenge, but only if you fight for yourself. I don’t care about my reputation so if I look weak that’s fine by me.” Gilliam honestly couldn’t care less about his reputation in that context. His reputation probably held closing three gates, surviving the demon realm and once it got out; being able to cast tactical spells on the fly, he was sure that the little hit he would take here wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
This paused the whole discussion, Garend was fuming, his plans seemed to fall apart and he was left with someone he couldn’t manipulate. He either had to ignore the whole situation, Gilliam didn’t even know how this could affect him later on, or he could fight someone who has proven himself to be his better by far.
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“I want to add that I have improved since last time.” Though not a lie, Gilliam wanted to scare him into backing out. He hated the shit but he didn’t want to kill him if he didn’t have to.
Looking at his father, Garend commanded him. “Give me all the potions.”
His father sighed and caved in, it at least seemed that he didn’t want his son to die outright.
Once his father agreed to it, Garend turned back to Gilliam with renewed vigour. “Fine! I’ll take you on myself!”
Not waiting a moment he walked up to his father and got almost all the potions on his bandoleer. Gilliam had no idea what they did but they had to be good for him to react like that. Garend started drinking them as he walked back towards Gilliam.
Gilliam picked Savia out of his hair and handed her to Petal, who gave them some distance after letting the little creature sit in her cupped hands.
Turning properly back to Garend he took the Broken Blade out of the ring.
“Since you are drinking the potions already, how much preparation is actually allowed before you enter these duels?” Gilliam had ideas on what to do, but he didn’t want to be blamed for cheating, however since Garend was buffing himself somehow, there had to be some rules or something, right?
“Like that matters!” Garend didn’t seem to want to wait or even give a ready signal, he had already manifested a spell circle that collapsed into a solid fist-sized rock that flew towards Gilliam.
This honestly caught Gilliam off guard, some arrogance and some expecting at least a droplet of honour from him had him lower his guard a little.
The rock slammed into Gilliam’s chest, but the coat did as it should and took almost all of the force away from his body, the only force that remained was a light punch, not enough to actually affect him.
“Ah, fine.” Gilliam muttered once the shock of the attack was over.
Parts of his mind wanted to use the Star Lance... but that would most likely take half of the Academy, as well as himself, along with the ride. In stead it was better with localised effects.
As he lifted his hand to aim at Garend, the boy ran sideways at surprising speeds, it seems that one of the potions had increased his speed substantially. This was backed up by another stone slamming into Gilliam’s back, he didn’t really get the time to react there either, however the coat handled it like a champion and it was hardly an issue.
However, with this in mind it meant that if Garend hit a good spot this could be over, Gilliam stopped underestimating him and decided to treat this seriously. A second later a powerful barrier formed around Gilliam, an unstructured spell took a lot of energy but it was hardly a problem at the moment. The next thing he needed to do was to get hold of the boy, since he was running around it was hard to hit him with aimed spells but there was a simpler method.
Channelling a tiny bit of water aligned energy into the Broken Blade changed the runes to a deeper blue colour, manifesting the blade had a long and slender ice blade take shape. Ignoring both the laughter and incoming stones shattering against his barrier he triggered the sword’s second activation. The blade started spraying water around the area, like an industrial garden hose he started spreading the nearby area with super chilled water.
“What are you going to do, make me wet?” A taunting comment from Garend turned sour once he realised what was going on.
As the boy ran around on the supercooled water, like a bottle of water in the freezer could come out fluid and freeze once disturbed, so did the water freeze every time he stepped in it or interacted with it.
More and more ice was building on his body and limbs, especially on his legs. It only took seconds before there was enough ice around his legs that he couldn’t run anymore. Panic kicked in much faster once this had him trip into the water and start freezing over. Only the water itself froze, it didn’t creep further than that, but it was enough that the boy was helplessly frozen to the ground.
This allowed Gilliam to walk over calmly, his tests before showed that he could move in it for some reason, and not trigger the freezing. Which made it much, much more practical for the user. Squatting down next to the mostly frozen Garend, Gilliam couldn’t even take joy in this, it was just pitiful. All of this could have been avoided if he didn’t act like a dick.
“Now, I know we didn’t agree on it, but was this a duel to the death, or not?”
The deadpan uncaring look from Gilliam seemed to freeze Garend’s soul even more than the ice was already doing.
“No... Please don’t... I... I yield!” The boy was surrendering yet again, last duel he yielded he was much more wounded, Gilliam almost regretted not finishing him there and then, given the revenge on Savia when he was gone.
“You know, yielding only works if your opponent accepts it.” Gillaim didn’t know what to do at this point. Should he just kill him to make sure this kind of shit didn’t happen in the future? Or should he gamble on that the brat learned and understood.
If he let him go without anything, there would be no punishment for losing and no reason not to try again in the future, and a simple spanking won’t work.
Casting a glance over to Lial, the man averted his gaze and looked into the ground, it seems that his wishes were not a factor. Gilliam didn’t know the rules of duelling properly, but he had pieced together that it was up to him now.
“No, no. Please don’t. Father, help me!” The boy pleaded in an almost commanding manner. Tears rolled down his face and froze as it touched the ice. This was probably his get out of jail free card, calling for daddy.
No, there was no reason not to kill him. He was already a problem and it would probably only get worse in the future, just look at now, he even started the duel early to get an edge. Gilliam didn’t know if this was cheating or not but it was at least a dick move. He had done things to both Petal and Savia, and now he was doing shit to Gilliam again. As he got up from his seated position he swiftly brought the sword up in a rising motion, the ice blade not meeting much resistance and making short work of the slender neck of the boy. The pulse of blood froze as it hit the supercooled ice, travelling through the still warm blood and freezing the wound. Everything was severed and over.
Walking away from the scene, Gilliam dismissed the ice as well as the manifested blade before putting it back in the ring. Garend’s corpse properly fell to the wet grass with a limp thud now that there was nothing supporting his body off of the ground.
Turning towards Lial, Gilliam couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for him. “I assume there are no hard feelings...” This was a confirmation more than anything. Though right after asking he realised just how insanely insensitive it was. He wished that he could take it back and rather ask later, but it was too late now.
Lial’s poker face came back to play, clearly this was useful for more than just business. “It is... regrettable, but there are no hard feelings... I would, however, request that I can take his body back for burial.” There was a hint of break in his voice, he was struggling, rightfully so given that his son just died before his eyes.
There seemed to be mixed reactions from the windows, some were horrified at this, others seemed honestly happy, but the majority were oddly indifferent.
Gilliam nodded and left the area, he had nothing more to do here. As he was heading towards the mess hall he started wondering about how he was handling this. He just killed a human, a child no less. However he didn’t really feel it weighing as heavy as he expected. He thought it would affect him and have him second guessing himself, if it was right, if he could do something else... And so on.
But no, this just felt normal. Not that he would seek out to do it again but more.
Pondering it for a short moment he had a working theory, he was just getting used to killing in general, since he saw Petal as a person, by extent the other demons were people as well. And he had easily killed a hundred of those, and who knew how many went in the Star Lance he sent through the gate, so his mind must just have gotten accustomed to the act. It didn’t really matter, and he was going to have to do it much, much more in the future.
As he passed through the main hall, the first bell rang twice, scaring him right out of his train of thought, he snapped back to reality real quick with a heightened pulse.
Walking that off they entered the mess hall and got their food, Savia needing less than normal due to the earlier apple slice, they waited here for the moment until Angela finally showed up through the other students that had woken to the waking bell. As she was getting her own food, Savia suddenly landed on the table.
“Master, Master. Savia will go to Aeris!” She had toned it in a way that it sounded both as a statement but also as a question for leave.
Gilliam chuckled and nodded, Savia replied with a huge satisfied smile before she disappeared from sight and manifested in front of Aeris with a tiny roar. This didn’t seem to phase Aeris but she faked being startled.
It was good that she had a like minded friend.
“So, I heard a few things on the way here...” Angela started a conversation before she even sat down. “There is talk about you killing someone.” She sat down as she eyed Gilliam with a judging look.
Gilliam nodded in agreement. “Garend challenged me to a duel. I won.” He shrugged as he explained it and was oddly nonchalant about it.
Her judging eye faded into a more worried one. “And... How do you feel about this? Unless I’m wrong this was your first human, no? Most people tend to react on that...”
She sounded like she spoke from experience.
“Yeah, he was. But given how many demons I have killed. I can’t not regard them as people given my relationship with Petal. So oddly enough this doesn’t feel different.” He sounded honest, at least in his own head. He had no idea if this was just him persuading himself as a coping mechanism, or how he actually thought. But for now it was good enough at least.
Angela seemed like she wanted to argue the point, but she thought about it and ended up stopping herself with a weird agreeing shrugging nod.
“Well... I suppose you have a point... in a weird way...” Angela didn’t want to agree, but she agreed to the point if nothing else.
Petal didn’t seem to mind either way, she just looked her happy self, not caring about the talk about slaughtering her people or killing humans. But given her history it made a lot of sense either way.
“Aaaanyway-” Forcefully changing subject without any subtlety, Angela took control over their talk. Gilliam thought it was a bit odd that they went away from the topic of killing this easily but didn’t really mind the topic change.
“After we’re done eating, we should go to the headmaster’s office, he has some information about yesterday’s meeting.”
She seemed oddly eager and interested in this information.
“Oh? Anything you know already?” Gilliam didn’t expect her to have any information yet but it beat sitting in silence.
“It seems you’re getting your wish.” She smiled looking oddly pumped. “Hope you’re ready!”
Gilliam was taken back a bit, he mentioned several ideas and bits of information yesterday, all depending on other things. “Wait, ready for which part?”