Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Lucius's eyes settled on the two new arrivals to the meeting room. Kalliope had been sent by Wally to fetch a last-minute registration, but it seemed someone else had tagged along. The two people who followed her were a pair of siblings, twins, no doubt, with vibrant violet hair and blue eyes.

The woman had a mark on her left hand, while the man looked slightly familiar. It took him a few moments, but then Lucius remembered that the man was a contestant in the tournament, and he had defeated Rena. Lucius watched the fight closely and respected the contestant's honor. However, honor alone was useless without the strength to back it up.

"Lord Kane, a pleasure to meet you." The violet-haired man walked up to him immediately for an introduction. "My name is Desmond Adler. This is my sister, Jade Adler. It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Yeah, cut the formalities. I don't like it. Save the fluffed-up speech for parties."

Though he was abrasive, Desmond responded with a smirk. "Got it, I like it better that way. You can call me Desmond, then. Do you prefer Lucius or Titan?"

"Lucius is my name. Titan is for work."

"What work?"

"Classified."

"Understood. Anyway, I found a strange letter on my bed and wanted to know if you knew anything about it." Desmond said while pulling out a letter.

On the outside of the letter was a cracked and broken sphere. The contents were somewhat concerning. It appeared someone wanted Lucius to be watched; however, the only identifier was the strange symbol, and he did not recognize it.

"Do you mind if I keep this? I want to have some people look into it."

Desmond gave him an affirmative wave. "Sure, do with it as you please. I will let you know of any other letters that come my way. I don't enjoy secrecy and games such as this. I was interested in getting to know you before the letter."

"Why is that?" Lucius questioned with a raised eyebrow. Desmond was certainly interesting as a person.

"You are a powerful noble in Eroa; connected to one of the strongest warriors on the continent… I want to get my sister to Eroa, and I think working with you might be a good way to do it." Desmond stated plainly. "Well, think about it; I'll talk with you later."

"A pleasure, Lord Kane," Jade said while giving a slight bow.

Lucius eyed the woman as she followed her brother to a set of open seats. Other students flocked around them, men around Jade and the women around Desmond. At first, Lucius was interested in how he would react to speaking to so many Marked Ones at once, but as Lucius had assumed, Desmond was completely comfortable.

"Kalliope. Take this and notify some of our contacts in the capital. Also, contact Kalivas and ask him to have some people look into this. Whatever you do, don't let anyone know that you have this. People have been tailing me non-stop, and I don't want to deal with them right now."

"Got it."

Kalliope secreted the letter away in her armor and exited the room hastily. She breezed past Wally, who was about to enter the room and start the meeting. Wally gave Lucius a single glance, then shrugged and allowed Kalliope to continue on her way.

King Verdayl had told him that Wally was aware of much of their circumstances and that they would be performing tasks on behalf of the King's Shadow on an irregular basis. All Wally had to do was take the Kalliope in as an assistant and let her and Lucius do what they needed, within reason. Enjoy new adventures from m-v l'e|m,p| y- r

"Lord Kane…" Wally started.

"Wally, come on, you used to beat the snot out of me as a kid; just call me Lucius."

His words made the old man smile. "Alright, Lucius… please remove your sword, academy rules state…"

"Wally, you know as well as I do that having my weapon on me or not on me does not matter. I'm just as capable of killing someone with my fists or a random object as I am my blade."

Wally opened his mouth to say something but then decided against it. It seemed that Lucius had won the argument, much to the old man's chagrin.

After a short explanation of the department's expectations for students, Wally greeted each one individually. He took down their names, backgrounds, and marks so that he had a good understanding of who they were as people. He was able to get a lot of that from their applications, but that was simply not who the old man was.

"Lucius… before you leave. Shall we have a sparring contest?" Wally was looking at him with a cocky grin.

As much as Lucius wanted to, he knew it would be foolish to try and fight him… but it would also be fun to see how much he had grown. The last time he tested his mettle against Wally was when he was a young teenager.

"Alright. Let's do it."

"Should we fetch your wife to watch, or would it be too embarrassing to have your ass trounced in front of her?"

Lucius felt his eye twitch slightly at his old master's shenanigans. He was always like this. However, it was one of the reasons he came to respect the old man. He was not afraid to act true to himself, even when doing so would reflect poorly on him.

They agreed to meet in the main training grounds, which are centralized in the academy's main garden. The sparring session would be in a few hours. Wally's reasoning was that he had other tasks to finish first; however, a part of Lucius already knew that the real reason was him wanting to let the rumor spread throughout the academy.

The old man definitely wanted the entire school to bear witness to Professor Wally Carmichael beating the absolute snot out of Lucius. He had no confidence in his victory, but he felt that he could hold his own better than the first time. All that remained to be seen was how much he would hold back. Letting loose too much would reveal information that Wally liked to keep hidden.