"What in the seven hell is wrong with you?"At the corner of the guest room in the grand hall,Allison were busy glaring furiously at her fiance who was only seemingly confused at her outburst.
They have both pasted their exams without a problem and is now free to roam the hall until the announcement for their exam result and class distribution starts.
"What do you mean,dear?"
"Don't call me that,and you know damn well what you did,Rodney.What did he ever do to you to deserve this?"His innocent attitude only serves to further fuel her anger,she have observed how the young noble were teaching Lucas the way to use his sigils and bracelets.And it was obvious why Lucas has ended up in the medical wing of the grand hall.
"That is not very nice,I have merely taught my fellow classmate a lesson on how his sigil work and provided him an opportunity to prove his worth to the school and I have taken the liberty to taught him another lesson in life as well."
Rodney kept his smile as he drummed his finger on the front of the desk,waiting for his spouse to piece one and two together.It didn't take long as her glare intensify with a vengeance,she knew exactly what he was talking about.
"You are a psychopath,we merely talked for a few moment during the entire trip and this was enough to tick you off to kill him?"Allison said,her eyes now filled with disblief.She might not have known him for a long time,but she have learnt the way most noble deal with things since a young age.
"Oh no,you must still be misunderstanding something my dear."Allison's shoulder tensed up as his hand land on it.
"I don't care even if you two flirt behind my back like some animal in heat, our family have a important deal with each other and you are merely the seal for it. I won't allow some lowborn serf disrupt it in any kind of way."Rodney's smiles finally disappear as he blankly stare into her eyes,making his message clear.
Patting her shoulder gently a few time,Rodney move to head out of the home."Besides,since he survived, he have now learnt a valuable lesson that will serve him well,it could have been much worse for him…and his family."Rodney gave her a wink as he close the door behind and disappeared.
Allison simply stared at the floor after he left,she gripped her shaking left hand that were ready to ball into a fist and slammed into the noblemen's face.
After a while she lifts the pendent attached to her necklace and flipped it open,inside were a clear picture of a smiling young women that share many similar feature as herself."What would you have done in my place…sis."
______________
There was a time when Lucas got into a drinking competition with some of the older kids at the tavern when percy and leia wasn't watching.The next morning,his head felt like a team of dwarven men has set up their shop in it.
But the pounding headache he felt at the moment made that morning felt like child play.His head felt like it was directly being pound on by a war hammer and on top of that his body was aching all over,it was as if he had spent the entire day moving logs and nothing else.
"It will be best if you stay down for a few more hours,the pain killer has probably worn off by now."Lucas looks for the source of the voice and found a older lady staring at the papers on her desk next to his bed ,her head prop up by her elbow as she do her writing.
"Okay…and you are?"Lucas gladly took her advice and laid back down on the soft woolen bed sheet.The lady has long dark haired tied into a messy bun and worn heavy eye bags under her disinterested gaze.
"I am the poor underpaid head nurse of this school,my name is Gabrielle.Please to make your acquaintance but hopefully we will never need to see each other again for both our sakes."
The head nurse finished her words as she push a heavy stamp onto the paper she was writing on and sighed contentedly.Somehow,Lucas understood that her words were everybit true and not meant to be rude,he would prefer to avoid being so injured as to be sent to the medical office in the future if he can help it.
"Understood,lady Gabrielle.Can you tell me what exactly happened to me that lead to …this? "Lucas has many guesses and thoughts that he had little doubt is close to the truth but he would still like to understand what exactly did the noblemen do to his sigils and his bracelet during the exam.
"Ha,I can't remember was the last time I was addressed as a lady.Well kid,to put it plainly,you were suffering from a combination of ether fatigue and massive blood loss.I am curious though,why didn't you activate the bracelet that were given to you?"
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It was a good question and one he was utterly embarrassed to answer,but nevertheless he explained the entire situation from where the noble offered to teach him how his sigil work and how he lied about the usage of the bracelet to the nurse.
Gabriella nodded along as she listen"I see,that was not very wise but I guess where you were from,there weren't many chances to handle artifacts.For an artifact to activate,you will have sent a required amount of ether into it before it can do anything.And as for you sigil,the spellfrom he made for you was likely not wrong,it simply weren't supposed to be used in a prolonged period which I guess he didn't told you."
Lucas grimance as he understood his mistake,he should have been more careful and asked more questions but he had chosen to believe the young noble blindly.It was a lesson that nearly cost him his life and one that he swear to remember.
"I see,thank you for taking care of me from that miss Gabrielle."Lucas prop himself up on the bed stand and gave her a bow as he thought about Rodney.Despite his betrayal,Lucas still have very little idea about why did he bother trying to have him kill.
"No matter,I don't know how did you managed to make a duke's son your enemy on the first day of the school and I would rather not know.But I would watch my back from now on if I were you,you might have gotten lucky this time but it's best you avoid him from now on."
Lucas was about to nod but his eyes went wide at the mention of Rodney being a duke's son."He was duke marshall's son?"There was only one current Duke in the kingdom of Filehona governed by the empire where lucas has lived all his life so he can immediately guessed that it was the grand Master ranked arcanist Marshall Stafford.
"What about the duke's son?"Before Gabrielle can answer his question,kul made his entrance into the room,his eyes quickly went to Lucas as he made his way towards them.
"Hey you barbarian orc!Care to ask how your big sister is doing at all?"Lucas watched as a grimacing kul made a U turn and gave Gabrielle a hug."You looks fine to me gabby."
"Fine?Have you looked at my eye when you say that?yo-"Kul quickly rummage through his bag and pulled out a sizable box of chocolate to lay on her desk as his sister talked.
Gabriella's attention immediately went to the large box of chocolate,she hastily unwrapped the box and start popping the sweet into her mouth, soon ignoring them all together
"Okay,now that is out of the way.Lucas I need you to tell me what happened today,in detail."Kul took a seat next to Lucas's bed and watch him intently.Lucas has many questions for the current situation but can only sighed as he depicted everything that happened after he parted away with the professors.
"You have landed yourself in quite the predicament Lucas,but still since you are alive and well,I suppose this isn't the worst."Lucas stare blankly at his professor as if he had grown another set of eyes as he wonder how could this get any worse.He had somehow offended a duke's child who had helped his family's tight finance tremendously,it would lucky if his family weren't affected by this.
"Do you have any idea why did he target me in the first place?"
Kul shrugged and grabbed a piece of chocolate from the opened box and popped it into his mouth,earning him a round of hissing from Gabrielle."I have little interest how nobilties thinks or why they held some grudges,for all I know it could be something as petty as you looking at him the wrong way or worse at his spouse."
Lucas frowned,Rodney has seem friendly and open minded all this time,he doubt looking at him would bother him at all.As for Allison,he barely talked twice with her during the entire trip and he certainly are not interested in stepping in between the marriage of two high noble.Surely that isn't worth to be bothered about for someone of his position,right?
"Well either way,just be careful from now on and avoid the two of them if you can help it.Also I am here to inform you of your result since you missed it and your assigned class"
Lucas has little doubt that he is gonna ended up at the bottom,even if he did manage to kill the conjured beast.He basically lost at the same moment,not to mention he didn't even took the second exam,but maybe…there was chance he would just be placed a little higher
"You are ranked 32……of the 275 candidates, effectively giving you a seat on the monarch class which is the first class out of the four available one."Lucas barely register the words,as his mind went blank at the professor's explanation.
"How was that possible?I didn't even do the second part of the exam?"
"A good question and one and that I have no clue of the answer.It can be said you did decently in the first part, the second part was a series of theoretical question that I doubt you are prepared for at all."Kul sighed.
As excited as he was,Lucas soon noticed how distressed the large man seems to be at the news.He was confused for a moment before he realized a hard truth.He will likely be in the same class as Rodney,Allison and many other entitled young nobles for the rest of his stay in the academy.
"Ah,the boy seems to realized the trouble he has gotten on his plate just got bigger and messier.I meant no offense to you lucas but though that does make me think,why do you care so much about what happened to him my little brother."
Gabrielle commented as she wipe her mouth with a napkin,raising one of her eyebrows as she kept her gaze on kul.
"This has to do with you as well gabby,but we need a quiet here before we talk about it."Gabby narrowed her eyes for a moment as her eyes became much more focused and serious.
At the end she simply shrugged and called out her sigil,it was a bright white colour sigil that lucas has not seen before and what's more the sigil held five layers of runic wording instead of the two layer sigil work he processed.
With practiced ease,lucas watch in awe as she adjust and rearranged the five layer of ancient codes into the desired form.
"Occiuguish Ravcane Caloraiobeo(Greater reflective warding)"As she finished the chant,a orb made from thousands of glassy surface enlarge and encompass the entire room,finnaly disappearing in the walls and door of the room.
"There,now can I have my answers?Mystery man."Kul groaned at her,but started to tell her the whole story from start to finish,except Lucas didn't knew about all of it as he would have thought.In fact,he could hardly believe the next 5 minutes of telling from the professor.