Quick steps echoed down a long yellow corridor as a man in a tight black suit and gold framed glasses walked hurriedly.
The man's short black hair bobbed slightly as he walked. With dull black eyes just slightly below his bangs, and a small stature, he seemed to be in his late twenties but anyone who looked at him would agree that he had the aura of a scholar.
The man anxiously adjusted his frames on his nose and his pace increased a little as he neared the end of the bright yellow corridor.
He halted at his destination and took a few seconds to compose himself, he knocked softly twice on the elegant wooden door at the end and waited.
After five seconds, he pushed open the door lightly before making his way in.
The door opened up to a simple quiet room that radiated utmost calm and humility. Directly facing the door was an unlit fireplace, something extremely rare in most houses present at the time.
It was made with a type of white polished marble that looked a bit unremarkable but was barely enough to look decent.
Right above the fireplace was a large double barreled hunting rifle with its hand crafted handle and glistening barrel that sat behind a glass case.
The walls and floors were made of the same polished marble and there were two glass paned windows on opposite sides of the room. Both windows were closed shut with simple yellow curtains blocking out the light.
The room was mostly dark except for a dim light emitting from a large yellow sofa in the middle of the room facing the fireplace, the only visible furniture in the decent sized room.
The bespectacled man adjusted his collar a bit before he approached the sofa from the side after quietly shutting the door.
"Even with the fact that this room is soundproof I could still hear your anxiety long before you entered, Souma-san."
A low lazy voice came from the other side of the sofa.
"I apologize for disturbing you, Lady Yamano." The man replied to the voice somewhat stiffly.
As he approached the side of the sofa, he was finally able to see the source of the voice that greeted him, the woman known simply as Lady Yamano to the world, Kazue Yamano.
Wearing a tight fitting black skirt and a loose yellow blouse with a frilly collar, the middle-aged woman had black short cut hair with side bangs that framed her pale white skin that was a result of staying indoors too much.
Her small black eyes could barely be noticed from underneath her half-closed eyelids that made it seem like she was always asleep.
And her sharp nose, small lips and the long line that extended from her edge of her eyes down her cheeks made her look like the laid back but principled person that she was.
The man she had called out to as Souma stood patiently as he waited for this woman to speak to him again.
Although he himself was an influential figure known in the world as a brilliant mind and the youngest pioneer in the field of Biomechanics and computer engineering. Kazue Yamano was in her own right, a true to the extreme genius!
From a young age, she had shown frightening comprehension capabilities that took the world by storm. By the young age of three, Kazue Yamano already had mental capacity of a teenager and was already solving basic equations by the age of five.
She was given multiple certificates from various high end institutions around the world by the age of eleven simply because the amount of knowledge she had amassed was overwhelming.
In the words of the chancellor of a prestigious university when questioned on why they gave her a certificate when she had never even seen the walls of the institution, he had replied;
"Why? This girl is breaking down theories on quantum physics as a past time and has written countless books across various genres of literature. If by some wild phenomenon she decides to come here, I would have to ignore my position and beg her to teach just a single lecture instead!"
There was simply no field of knowledge that she walked on in which she didn't thrive, she was like a living sponge that could accumulate, digest and utilize any information she came across.
After a few years of fame and around the age of seventeen, she went under the public eye and was never seen again but her name still caused waves wherever it was heard.
Although there were speculations and theories here and there about where she had gone, the truth was she was always under the protection of the World government ever since her talent was discovered.
And at that time, she was recruited to work on some top secret research along with some other genius minds found by the world government.
Now this amazing woman that was basically a myth in the modern world was slouching lazily on a sofa with her legs laying on a pillow on the floor.
She held a yellow bound book in her hand and there was a delicate set of glasses on her nose that glowed with a faint light as she lazily read through the book.
Although Lady Yamano was an amazing genius and seemed to be intelligent beyond limit, she was also chronically lazy.
Once every few days, she would leave the center of the world government and come back to her hometown to spend a few days doing nothing but sleeping and reading novels.
This caused a headache for the world government's upper echelons but they couldn't do anything about it because of her irrefutable ability.
So they always had to send someone to bring her back.
But Souma worked directly under her and had no reason to be ordered to bring her back. In fact, Souma had followed her back this particular time because this time, Lady Yamano had brought back something special with her.
Or rather, someone.
"Lady Yamano...." After standing for a few minutes, Souma couldn't help but to call out.
The woman turned her eyes to the side and glanced at him before facing her book once more.
"Have you ever read SunTzu?" she lightly asked.
"The Art of War?" he was perplexed.
"'In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them', one of the enduring tenets of the Art of War. Something I'm sure was known to genius commanders long before the time of SunTzu and after."
Souma's face showed a bit of reproach as he realized what she was talking about.
"Although we are no soldiers, this is certainly something that we can agree applies to various parts of life, is it not?" she added as she regarded him once more.
Just a few days ago, the person she had brought back from the center of the World Government who was under his charge escaped from him.
The house they were in wasn't any random building but a highly secured environment with the security measures used being among the best the world can offer in this time.
It would take a literal army to breach the security defenses of this house, the world government took the protection of Lady Yamano very seriously.
Yet, he had escaped.
Lady Yamano sighed before raising her hands above her head and stretched deeply. Dropping the book on the sofa, she took off the dim glowing glasses and stood up.
Souma had to look up to match her gaze, although he himself was short, Lady Yamano was rather tall for a lady.
"When you realized that he had escaped you went in to cause such a ruckus, locking down the town and shutting down places from hotels to schools. How did you even manage to convince them that all that was just for a single boy?" she chuckled dryly.
Souma swallowed a bit of saliva and had to drop his gaze out of shame.
"Now without a doubt those stuck up idiots will know about it. The matter has now become far more troublesome."
She rubbed her eyes a bit before sighing once more.
"Leave the higher ups to me, I will handle them. As for my boy, leave him alone for now. When he gets tired, he will definitely come back home."
Souma raised his head, his expression flashing with a little bit of relief and curiosity.
"So we would be staying here for the mean time?"
"Of course, we have to." She bent to pick up the book from the sofa.
Walking to a part of the smooth marble wall, she tapped on it once and an amazing scene occurred. The marble seemed to dissolve as all the walls, including the floor of the room flashed with light to reveal another layer.
Shelves upon shelves of books of different kinds and types across different languages and genres decorated the walls and floor.
Souma glanced around at the myriad of books before taking his gaze back to Lady Yamano who was casually putting the book she was reading into the shelve in front of her.
There was a thick layer of some light blue substance in between her and the shelve and she pushed her hand through it and dropped the book on an empty shelve space.
She turned around and looked at the floor seemingly searching for something.
"It has been a while since I was home anyway, I would like to visit some old friends."
Souma nearly rolled his eyes at the statement as he knew this woman had very few people she could barely call 'friend' but held his opinion.
Reaching into a section of a shelve on the floor, she pulled out another short blue bound book before tapping the floor again and the layer of shelves disappeared revealing a marble floor once again.
"Let's go Souma" she flipped through the book casually before looking up to him and walking to the door.
Souma shifted to the side to let her through before replying.
"Yes ma'am!"
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In a small dark room in an unknown location, the sound of a pack of chips being opened echoed out.
POP!
A pair of long slender fingers reached into the pack and took out a crispy yellow chip which was promptly put into the owner's mouth.
Wearing a large head warmer around his head and donning on a large soft blanket to cover up his entire body, the face of a boy who looked barely out of his teen years sat with his knees to his face as he slowly ate the pack of chips.
The light from a large holographic TV reflected on him as he ate while watching a news segment reporting the latest events on the full dive VR game, Age of Magic.
"So we have been seeing large movements from the Temple of Valhalla these recent weeks and their guild leader, 'Son Of Odin' has been very active in the public scene.
"With the end of the year closing in, the ranking arena would soon be open. This means the possible advent of new rankers and even possibly, massive changes in the position of top rankers."
"Do you think Son of Odin is trying to increase his strength with a last minute rush now that the ranking arena is closing in Mr. Oreki?
"I don't know Mrs. Ichika, he is ranked 12th after all, I think that is already a very good ranking most people would be very satisfied with"
"Maybe he wants to aim for top ten? We all know the glory and perks that come with being top ten in the rankings"
"Maybe so but that would be a bit of a hard stretch honestly, although everyone knows being in the top ten comes with various benefits, we also all know how monstrous those in that echelon are. It would be very hard for Son of Odin to surpass any one of them."
The voices of the two anchors of the program went back and forth as they discussed the game.
The boy's eyes flashed with a glimmer of light as he watched the TV with rapt attention.
"Age of Magic...…"
CRUNCH!
"So that's what they're doing now."