Lirian gritted his teeth as Anya vanished again.
'You've lived for trillions of years but can't even think of a way to make up with one person.' he inwardly chided himself.
[Gift your mother with an esper technique.]
[Give your mother guidance on her cultivation path.]
He sighed and looked at the system's messages, the thing about fate is that even it is incapable of understanding emotions.
The first option would be very inconvenient, as the only esper techniques of the empire belong to the immortal realm, and the explanations she would have to give on how she managed to acquire such a thing would be almost impossible to explain.
Also activation of an esper technique requires very rare and/or special items that are difficult to find even in the immortal realms and the last reason why he didn't want to do either of the two was that it would make it even more apparent that Taliyah isn't really his mother.
Giving her guidance would just serve as more evidence that he wasn't her child, to begin with and that he never truly needed her help.
He sighed and walked back to class, the entire class had recovered by now, he walked back in and smiled as if nothing significant happened.
"I hope that all of you learned a lot from today's lesson."
They all nodded repeatedly like obedient little lambs, they had seen and heard everything today even when he threatened the principle, one of the most respected men in the universe, and they all felt like he was a madman, the one thing about a madman is that they almost impossible to reason with.
The best method to dealing with a madman is to give them what they want and avoid them like the plague the rest of the time, but Lirians next words shattered that plan.
"Now that all of that is out of the way, how about we decide who our class reps are, I nominate myself as the boy and would like to nominate Sarah Jane as the female," he said with a smile that despite what happened managed to calm many of those in the class.
It wasn't even a contest as they simply accommodated his wishes.
"There we go Sarah, remember that I always keep my promises, and all of you can ask me to do any one favour for you."
The school day passed quickly they met a couple of teachers and tests were done to determine the level of knowledge of the students.
The school had an individual student-focused program, to determine the students' knowledge and put them in classes suitable to their level, while the class would be class 1-A, each individual student could end up in completely different classes depending on their focuses and level of understanding on each subject.
Lirian chose to mainly focus on history, politics, languages, and business, history was always necessary to any politician and as a prince candidate politics was essential, he knew politics, in theory, he read plenty about it when he was bored in his past lives but it wasn't something that he could never put into practice and the same went for business, and languages was another essential, knowing the main language of the world wasn't enough, there were many races out there and with his position, it was important that he be able to hold a conversation with those races without the use of a translator.
Other than that, as an extra activity he took on sword classes because he couldn't spend all his time at home anymore, he couldn't practice as much as he liked to, but with those classes, he would be able to get an hour or two of practice in everyday asides from his early morning practice.
As for maths, physics, and chemistry he wouldn't waste his time listening to people talk about crafts that he had long since mastered.
---
It was late in the afternoon when Hinata arrived at the office, she presented her pod logs to get her cultivation technique, it was a big decision for her, but because of her background, she didn't want to waste a second of her time.
Especially after the scene this morning, she had never felt such fear in her life and she never wanted to feel it again, and at the back of her mind, she felt the sparks of ambition and desire for that power that made her feel so insignificant.
That was the power of a mage she thought to herself and when she reached the office she made her request, she followed behind the secretary for a while, however when they reached a door she found that it was the principal, "Did I do something wrong?" she asked wondering what she could have done to get in trouble.
"No not at, the principle wishes to discuss something with you, and when he's done he will give you a technique that is more suited to you."
She went into the office feeling very curious as to why she was getting special treatment but she wouldn't be foolish enough to turn down the offer, the principle was a living legend that served the empire for ages and even raised the current empress.
The office was oddly simple, the walls were painted white, a single desk and three chairs sat it the room along with a cabinet.
"Miss Hinata please take a seat." the principle told her with a gentle smile that even his large white mustache couldn't hide.
"Good afternoon, Principal Dao," she greeted politely.
"You're from the new prince candidates' class aren't you, how are you feeling after this morning's incident?" he asked with grandfatherly concern.
Hinata was surprised, it was rare for anyone to show concern to an orphan even in the orphanage, on her first day alone she had been insulted at least a dozen times but the teachers didn't care a bit and didn't spare her a glance, "I'm okay, it was scary at first, but that's when I realised what I want to become."
He nodded with a smile, "That's very good, it takes most people a long time to figure out the path they wish to take, but can you tell me what you thought of the prince candidates' actions."
"He was just using his power to abuse everyone in the class so that we would obey him, it so unfair that someone like him got to be taken in by the empress.", it was the first time she had voiced that thought of hers, all her life she had heard of the child that was chosen by the empress and she felt jealous deep down, and when she was the first person to have the chance to get a technique, she felt that the empress should have chosen her all those years ago.
She felt that if she had been chosen, she would have definitely had the same power as Lirian and she would be able to use it properly instead of bullying others.
Telamon nodded and secretly smiled, "I'm glad that you feel that way, after today's incident it convinced me that that the prince candidate is a problem that needs to be monitored if you could keep an eye on him and report everything, he does to me I will give you guidance as a cultivator and in ten years when he leaves for his trial, I will ensure that you get a basic cultivation technique of your choice and over the next ten years I will give you extra resources to cultivate with."
She didn't even think twice, before narrating their meeting in the morning and everything that he did in class, "But, sir what should I do to learn more about him, I'm a commoner with no background he won't want to include me in his group."
Telamon smiled happily only a commoner would be so easy to control, "Don't worry about that, your talent speaks for itself, as the first cultivator in our class he would be happy to include you in his group, as a prince candidate he needs to create a group of talents to surround him and protect him."
Hinata nodded as she thought about it, she didn't understand why Lirian had to do such a thing but she wouldn't doubt the words of the principle.
Telamon pulled out a circular device and put it on his desk, "I just need you to take an oath on this, that you won't tell anyone about your tasks and that you will do your best to fulfill any tasks I give you, the effects will wear off when you reach the second-grade as a cultivator."
She picked up the oath disc carefully and made the oath it, she felt like she would be gaining a lot more from it than she was giving.
When she finished the principle took her to the room with all the cultivation techniques, she had chosen the path of a mage so he made her hold on to a few different scrolls, they were all pristine and seemed untouched by time as a mystical aura surrounded each one.
Every time she touched one, she felt her open energy points spin slightly, she had lost count of how many she held onto when the principle told her to open up a scroll, on it, she felt the energy swirling around and connect with her energy points it continued to build up for a while when she felt a burst of energy enter her body.
The principle took the scroll back and put it back in its place, he congratulated her on officially becoming a cultivator and sent her off, he laughed to himself as he thought that she was the easiest servant he ever got.