Chapter sixty seven

        The next morning Michael informed me that I was again being summoned by the council to give a report on the events that transpired during the battle to defend the city and afterwards, apparently I was counted as one of the official combatants of the city and as such they wanted to 'debrief' me. I thought it was strange to have a meeting so early in the morning but it was not like I was busy or anything so I consented to their summons.

         Like last time we took Michael's carriage to the council building and on the way I regaled him with a highly edited and much less horrific version of my adventures in the other world, which means they contained much less about bleeding and screaming bits and much more about the helping the poor parts. 

          After we made it to the giant multicolored tower we proceeded to the main hall which I had found so childish and it was equally silly to me in the daylight. We climbed up the stairs of eternal suffering, I came up with that myself, we finally reached the giant door and just like last time Michael proceeded to shove it open with so much force that I could have sworn I saw it warp a little, I wonder if they had someone come in and fix the door every time there is a meeting.

            Like last time the council members were sitting in their high chairs wearing their color coded robes that made it easier to remember what their element was, just in case you forgot. Personally I thought this whole color coded thing was dumb, I say keep your enemy guessing , and the less he knows the better but nobody was asking me.

            I wasn't a paragon of fashion either, I was in my customary black cowl, I didn't really need to wear it anymore but I have gotten rather fond of the damned thing. 

            Unlike last time, they appraised me carefully with sharp eyes that showed great interest. The douche bag fire mage from last time who had tried to take my ARM , Antonio Serafino was the first to speak,

               "Why do you wear your hood up after appearing in front of the council , according to Galina you have nothing to hide or be ashamed of."

                "Trust me when I say he doesn't , hello Tom glad you made it back, I really regretted not finishing what we started at the party." Galina's voice was her usual sensual purr and she left no doubt as to what she was talking about.

                 Since they already knew what I looked like, well at least Galina knew, I found it pointless to fight them over something so trivial . I casually took off my hood ,

                  "She wasn't exaggerating about your looks!"

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                  Everybody turned towards the source of that loud exclamation , surprisingly it was Aria Ventus who was the one who spoke. She had a horrified expression on her face and seemed mortified that she gave an opinion, her twin brother Alexander just looked at her as if he had never seen her before.

                   The awkward moment was broken when Galina started to guffaw quite loudly , while saying 'I told you so' several times.

             Finally Antonio interjected, " Yes quite, now to get to the more serious part, Mr Tom it seems you haven't been quite honest with us have you?  You said that you are nothing more than a novice enchanter with a powerful artifact effective against demons, but given recent events and several eye witnesses that claim they saw you perform magic without any artifacts we are forced to conclude that you are indeed a mage. Why would you lie to us? What are you hiding? "

           "I'm not a mage, at least not in a conventional sense. Let's just say I have a lot of enchanted items and not all of them are easy to spot."

             The old lady, Anna Voda , spoke next in an even measured tone," Can you tell us how you defeated the fiend and escaped from hell? You can ignore Antonio's accusations , you are here to give a report , so give a report about the battle and what happened afterwards."

             I told them a story about how I luckily hit an important part of the fiend's summoning circle , and after it dragged me in with it, how I escaped due to some more luck. I told them about the other world and how it was not hell. I told them about the situation there , how the nobles had tricked the anarchists. Finally how I used a summoning circle to come back and narrowly defeat the unprepared anarchists to rescue Emily.

             Anna just started at me for a second and gave me a knowing smile, " You seem to have an inordinate amount of luck young man."

                Antonio looked a little pissed , " So what you are saying is that you defeated the entire anarchist organization single handedly with no personal magic but just using enchanted items? Do you honestly expect us to believe that?"

                But I had had enough of this whole interrogation schtick , "Believe it or not , I do not care, I have already made my report . Now I have to restock my store so I have a busy day ahead of me. Goodbye."

              Before they could react I was out the door and the moment I was out of sight I teleported to the back of my store.