ALL NOVEL Chapter 220 – Uncertainty
To Cael's surprise, his days were anything but dull. At first, he was sure he would be bored, and there was nothing they could teach him. It was kind of true when he attended his regular classes... but when he was listening to Lia's lessons? He found himself wanting to hear more... learn more. To know... more.
After his second course with the Headmaster, he headed towards the school's 'Mission Hall.' He was determined to look for available quests to earn himself Contribution Points as he spent all of his starting ones buying books and pre-ordering Lia's upcoming 'Diary.' A publication done through the Library of Rejects, in which she will retell her experiences as a child and what kind of difficulties she faced while growing up.
"That damned cat didn't even let me bargain..." Cael grumbled, remembering his not-so-pleasant experience with Cici, "Magical Beasts nowadays are way too arrogant..."
"What does that mean?" Asked a voice, making Cael flinch. When he turned around, a small girl was standing before him, wearing a mismatch of school uniforms. Some pieces were not even her size, drooping over her tiny frame.
"Can I help you?" He asked, trying to figure out why she was so familiar-looking.
"Yes, by answering me!" She pouted, "Why is that? Why are beasts arrogant? Is it a secret? Is it something hidden? I can keep secrets! Tell me!"
"It isn't a secret," Cael answered, blinking his eyes in surprise, answering without thinking much. "Back then, the Realm was open, and the stable energy flow made it so that many animals transformed, gaining intelligence. It is that easy... after its closure, only the really, really talented could keep producing intelligent offspring. No wonder their numbers never replenished... and those who are present are haughtier than a dragon!"
"I don't get it... that is boring. I wanted a secret! Ugh... you are so boooooring! You do nothing interesting!"
"And how do you know that?" Cael couldn't help but furrow his brows... he did have a nagging feeling that somebody was watching him all these days... but he ignored it. He thought it was just his restless mind playing tricks on him.
"I am haunting you!"
"Excuse me?"
"You are too dull to notice it!" The little girl pouted even stronger now, her eyes lighting up aggressively, "You don't notice things changing places, disappearing or floating! Your roommates are at least funny, but you are no fun! I hate you! You don't play along; you are the worst!"
"I don't believe in ghosts."
"Uuuu! You will!" And with a bright flash, she disappeared, but Cael wasn't really bothered by it. He remained standing there, slowly looking around, unperturbed by the sudden events. Instead, he just shrugged and continued on his merry way, snapping his fingers when entering the building.
"Ah. It was a faery... that's why she looked familiar!"
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"Super-duper-bossy-boss! Please... I want a different mission! This is boooooooring, boring, boring, booooooring!"
"No matter how hard you cry, I need you to keep an eye on him!" Lia answered with a grunt, looking up from behind her manuscript, watching Melody, in her weird mismatch of clothes, rolling on the floor, throwing a tantrum. "Where did you get those clothes?"
"Sto-" But then she stopped herself, sitting up and saluting, "Borrowed it!"
"Sure... get them back to their owners, okay?"
"Ugh... I no longer remember... I took them part by part, from here and there!"
"..."
"Hey, Bossy-Boss!" Melody smiled innocently, crawling on all fours and looking at Lia with pleading eyes, "Please? Let me do something else? He is immune to my pranks, and I can't scare him! He is always spacing out! He is dumb-dumb! Dumber than Liliette! Speaking nonsense every time..."
"Like?" Lia asked back, feigning uninterest, but her ears listened to every word Melody said. After briefly recounting her previous meeting with Cael, Lia nodded at Melody, looking directly at her. "Okay... you can stop; I will call you if I have another mission. For now... take a break!"
"Yey! Breaks! I love breaks!" And with that, she zoomed out of her office like someone who had just been set free from prison.
"What she said is right. I have the recording of their talk. Want me to replay it?" Asked Hajna, appearing next to Lia like a loyal secretary.
"Mhm. That would be good and please, replay me his whole day... I want to keep a close eye on this... Cael... if that is his real name."
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Arriving back into his dorm room and looking around, it was finally evident to Cael that something was off. His roommates were nowhere to be seen, and their beds had some strange insignias inscribed onto them.
"Is this wants to be some kind of... ward?" He mumbled to himself as he leaned closer, examining them one by one, finding it amateurish and hilarious.
"Cael?" Whispered one of his roommates, Morah, who had just returned, "Don't mess with those!"
"Why...?" He asked, befuddled as all of them were... nothing. They had no real power behind them at all.
"Marca found it in an old book, at least that is what he said... They are to repel the lingering souls of the Undead!"
"Huh? That doesn't make sense. Souls can't survive here without a body to inhabit. Even then, without a proper technique, they would wither down the host body and be forced to possess new ones on a constant basis."
"Oh no... are we being possessed?!" Morah yelled, going just as pale as an Undead.
"What? No?" Cael's response was accompanied by a loud snort, holding back his laugh, "An Undead never would have tried to possess you while you are alive! That would require assimilating your soul; with your memories present, it would have compromised his existence! That thing can only be done at a high level, where you can't be overwhelmed easily! Not to mention, who would want to possess us? With our undeveloped powers... It would be inefficient."
"H-how do you know?" Morah asked, looking at him suspiciously now, trembling a little.
"Go to the library and ask for the Headmaster's notes! She is constantly putting her thoughts in there, all her experiences! It is a read that should be made mandatory if you ask me... Anyway, there are no ghosts here, no Undead remain alive; they were exterminated."
"You don't know that! They came back once... they can come back again!"
"True. There could be splinter cells hiding in now inaccessible sub-realms. But returning? Hard chance. They are done for."
"Then explain why things move around and disappear here! Was it you? You were the only one among us who didn't seem affected!"
"It was a faery," Cael answered without looking at him or getting angry at his accusations. "They were pranking us."
"..."
"I ran into one, wearing stolen clothes of others, so... yeah."
"But..."
"Think!" He smiled, walking past Morah, patting his shoulder, and smiling at the young boy, "Would they have a chance infiltrating the Academy? The place that is being run by the one who made them fall?"
"Oh..." He relaxed immediately as it dawned on him. Now he felt stupid for letting himself be swept up in their little groups' wild theories about the reasons for the strange events... in the end, they ended up believing it was a spirit left behind by an Undead. "Where are you going?"
"Training!"
Cael left after his simple answer as he was not keen on explaining it further. Instead, he went to one of the unoccupied fields, and before entering, he looked at his bracelet. He was sure it was a device that was more than helping people communicate anywhere or serving as the most valuable tool for students. It was something they were monitored through. Yet... somehow, he felt okay with it. Even he couldn't explain why.
With a shake of his head, he entered the field and chose the 'Cosmic' background as his setting before focusing on his current main element. With intricate hand movements, looking like some ancient dance routine, he summoned the flames surrounding his body, twisting and twirling like snakes. This was the easy part... the real difficulty came after.
In his previous life, his body was attuned to water, and back then, as an elder, he managed to combine the elements of water and metal. But now? Reborn into a body that was primarily drawn towards fire? He was struggling. All his memories proved no use; more than that, they were a hindrance. It didn't take long for him for the fire to become unstable and then burst apart, making Cael fall to his butt.
"A bit of progress..."
Even though he failed, he couldn't help but smile. Raising his hand and moving his fingers, tiny drops of water began to emerge before evaporating. Since remembering all his teachings from his previous life, he has tried to recall his powers of water and embarked on a journey to combine them with his new element... without any success. Yet, this time, after listening to Lia's lessons, he managed to last longer than ever before. The backlash came way later than usual, filling Cael with optimism.
"Combining them is so far off, I can't see the finish line... but at least some water finally appeared! I missed this feeling!" With a happy laugh, he started to meditate, reviewing his previous efforts, letting himself be immersed in it, working towards improving himself, feeling as if he was once again a child who just started his journey.
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"What should we do?" Hajna asked, standing next to Lia, who was down on her first floor, meeting with Ceiline, Simbad, and Lucian.
"Which mission did he accept?" Simbad asked, taking a sip from the tea that Ceiline served up for them.
"He will accompany a trading caravan to one of the cities and back. There should be no problems, but some animals can turn wilder these days. The changes in the world are hard to adapt to." Hajna answered him calmly, displaying more details, be it the number of carriages and how many guards would go with them.
"Have an idea?" Ceiline chuckled, knowing the look that Simbad had on his face.
"I do, but it is unconventional."
"Oh? Speak, I'm all ears!" Lia chuckled, watching him with interest.
"We can orchestrate an attack on the convoy and kidnap him. Then we can take him away and have a little...chat."
"An interesting approach!" Lucian hummed, leaning back and scratching his chin, "We would need to do it cleanly to not hurt the other students nor those who are part of the caravan."
"Agreed. I wouldn't have suggested it if I hadn't thought about that! I would conduct the raid myself, of course."
"Let's make it doubly sure!" Lucian interjected, "I will disguise myself and be part of the caravan. We can swap out some cargo, let it go up in flames as a distraction and a botched effort of a robbery while you disappear with the kid."
"We sound like some evil masterminds planning some really nasty thing..." Lia giggled but nodded at the two, "Let's do it! I will wait for you here!" She opened the local map and pointed to the faery's village. "They will be happy to help! We will interrogate him there and determine what his fate will be..."
"You really think you can turn him?" Ceiline asked, watching Lia's mismatched eyes.
"I do have a strong feeling that I could do it."
"Be very, very careful!" Hajna warned her seriously, "They are not somebody to be trusted! They are more than two-faced; they are three or four-faced!"
"I am very well aware of that! But if I can provide a future for them that the Golden Claw can't, I am confident they would ditch them! Eras have passed, and their time has run out... Meriath is changing, and it is ours now! We eliminated the Undead... a different version of the same cancer won't stop me! I will carve them out and destroy them all, one way or another!"
