"You are lying."
Father Agustin tilted his head to meet Eliot's gaze.
"I do not lie. I only tell the truth."
Eliot brewing with anger ripped off what was left of Father Agustin's legacy, prompting him to howl in pain.
"Yes, I know. You only tell half-truths."
Eliot never even bothered to entertain the thought that Father Agustin pointed out since he applied for the Magic Academy. It would be in both the Academy's interest and the professor's interest to get the best students in their classes. Yes sure maybe in the professor's case dropping a few profiles that were less promising for a profit would be better in their interest, but Eliot's profile was created specifically for the academy. It didn't matter if it reflected the real Eliot. Besides professor's couldn't possibly need any more money right?
Eliot scoffed at his useless chain of thoughts.
"There would be no point in rejecting me. What I built was something that could not be rejected. The profile promised success. No, the profile guaranteed success. Who in their right minds would reject it, even if money was involved."
Eliot grabbed the bandages next to him and started twisting it around Father Agustin's legs, being as careful as a toddler.
"It wouldn't matter if I'm an orphan or even a criminal, no one in their right minds would ever reject that profile. Have you seen it? It's practically covered in glitter."
Eliot plucked the bandage right between Father Agustin's empty crotch and yanked it back around. Father Agustin quivered in pain. Despite knowing the right answer Eliot felt conflicted. He couldn't help but take Father Agustin's word seriously.
"Would they really reject me?"
Eliot, in deep thought, continued binding the bandages tight at a quick pace.
"But it doesn't make sense, what would they gain? There is nothing that they would gain by rejecting me. Not as an individual professor. Not the Academy as a whole."
Eliot was getting a headache as he kept on working his ways to walls that all disproved Father Agustin's words. He had to take a step back.
Father Agustin was about to weakly open his mouth and spit out the answer when Eliot overtook him.
"Power, status and money."
Eliot muttered, "people want power status and money."
They don't need power. They are stronger than the strongest elite armies of the Ladora Empire. They don't need the status, since they are known throughout the continent for the very power that their statuses suggest. Eliot highly doubts that they need money because of their position and expensive services, right?
From the outside it looked like Eliot descended into madness, muttering unintelligible words and breathing heavily. Who could blame him? Anyone would need an inhaler if they even attempted to function at the brainpower Eliot was right now. Eliot went through every single possible solution he could think of. His mind swayed with the predictable threads of logic and played around with the loose ends to see if they fit. He pulled and plucked at the stings to see if it came loose.
Father Agustin intently stared at Eliot. Was he always like this? Usually, when it comes to teaching, Father Agustin would just throw information and see what sticks, only drilling in the most important lessons. But what he saw right now was a library of information being used together like a melody. What it took him years to comprehend through experience, took Eliot only a small fraction of what it took for Father Agustin to learn. And what took him his lifetime to fully make use of the information like Eliot, took Eliot only a few.
Meanwhile, Eliot was yanked out of his mind as he pulled the bandaid stiff one last time.
Father Agustin felt, proud? Happy? Jealous? Sad? Hope? He didn't know, but he must have seen something in Eliot.
Father Agustin's hands shook as he slowly reached for Eliot's face. Maybe because he was struggling so much and ended up only being able to reach Eliot's neck, but he firmly planted his hands on Eliot's shoulders. He looked directly into Eliot's navy blue eyes.
"Eliot do me a favour."
There was a second of silence before Eliot's face brightened up like a lightbulb. His navy blue eyes shone as it was swallowed up by a light cyan pool. His face radiated out waves of warmth and affection.
"I'll bring you his head on a pike."
First Father Agustin felt shocked that Eliot knew what he was talking about. Then Father Agustin felt reassured. He sighed in a mixture of delight and relief. He knew this Eliot. This was the Eliot he was most comfortable with. And as rumbling thumps echoed down the hall Father Agustin returned Eliot's smile with his own.
"Eliot."
"Yes Father?"
"Put that pike on my mother's grave."
Eliot's smile blinded the evening sun.
"Yes Father."
Father Agustin laughed and collapsed on the floor, exhausted. Eliot dusted off his shoulders and strutted to the door about to confront the rumbling thumps echoing ever closer. He pulled open the door to reveal a panting Lily reaching out for the handle and a Brennan not far behind.
Eliot squinted his eyes at them.
"Hello there, you excuses for friends."
Lily, surprised to find a bloody Eliot opening the door, jumped in for a hug. She crashed into Eliot's chest and squashed the life out of him.
"Big bro Eliot!"
Meanwhile, Brennan following close behind rapidly slowed down and almost fell face-first onto the floor. He quickly regained control of his feet again and panted heavily as he tried to catch his breath.
"Are you fine?"
Lily rolled her eyes at Brennan.
"Brennan you sound like a wheezing walrus, how are we supposed to hear anything you say?"
Brennan blushed and coughed. He then intently stared at Eliot wounds before apologizing.
"Sorry, we're late. Had a few accidents and we didn't realise the old man slipped through the front door."
Lily leaned into the room trying to spot Father Agustin.
"Where is he?"
"The bathroom."
Eliot pointed at the bathroom and Lily slipped in and scurried to the bathroom.
Brennan on the other hand pulled out a bunch of medical supplies and seized up Eliot's wounds.
"Just a few scraps on your cheek. You already bandaged your chest. Did he scratch your chest too? You are also bleeding in the ears and you seem to have lost your pants. Did you remove your trousers so you wouldn't get blood on them? Smart."
He scanned Eliot's body for any more injuries.
"Thankfully it's nothing serious."
Unfortunately, as Eliot bent down to pick up the keys that fell onto the floor during this whole ordeal, Brennan swallowed his words hard. He felt his soul flying out his mouth as a random combination of sounds assaulted Brennan's mouth. He coughed before wheezing, "Your back! What happened to your back?!"
He discovered Eliot's bruised back practically painted purple. The utter shock made him sneeze. It might have just been because of the dictionary he recited in a single second that caused his nose to have a seizure, but nevertheless, he was absolutely shocked stupid.
Lily on the other hand was only halfway to the bathroom when she heard Brennan erupt behind her. Startled, she turned around only to find that Eliot had no pants on. A random combination of sounds assaulted her mouth. she coughed and sneezed. You know the deal.
She stood too close to Eliot to realise he didn't have pants on and she didn't bother to look before running for the bath. Her soul flew out of her mouth as the colour was drained out of her face.
Instinctively she dashed towards Eliot and tackled him to the ground. Eliot fell flat on his bruised back with Lily stomping all over him.
Brennan shrieked as Lily freaked out. Unfortunately Lily was freaking out about something else.
"Quick cover your legs! How can you be so careless as to just brazenly walk around with no pants!? Are you out of your mind? What if those perverted children see you like this? Who knows what they'd do once they see your delicious legs. Quick! Here's my shirt! No, never mind, here's my pants."
Lily was undressing herself on top of Eliot while Brennan danced around them panicking. Now anybody would be profusely confused at the scene they would witness today. Thankfully, it wasn't just anybody that witnessed the events happening. In fact, a horde of children were all storming down the hall with anxiety writing across their faces. They were dashing down the hall right for Father Agustin's room. But what they did find was not what they expected at all.
You could hear a pin drop as the mob of children came to an abrupt stop. Both Lily and Brennan came to halt what they were doing.
There was utter silence.
Unsurprisingly Lily was the one that broke the silence first.
"I have failed you, Brother. I am truly ashamed of myself."
Lily sniffed and stood up. Having removed most of her clothing to protect Eliot from probing eyes, she in fact stood there almost fully naked.
She took a deep sigh.
"It's a shame it has come to this."
Her face hardened to the ultimate meme. Only cultured people know which.
"To protect my brother's innocence, I will have to silence you all."
She then took a heavy breath before she passionately charged into the crowd with a battle cry. The children, realising the consequences of this very unfortunate reality, directly made a u-turn and was now in fact running the opposite direction from wench they came, screaming their lungs out and their throats dry.
The bigger kids, used to this type of scene, just slipped past Lily through the crowd and were making their way to Eliot still on the floor. In the far back, you could still see Lily chasing down kids and stomping on children.
With great difficulty, Eliot got up again and was now leaning against the wall while Brennan wailed in the corner.
"Is he crippled now? Will he never be able to go on an adventure with me? What am I going to do? What even can I do? I had one job! Just one. And I couldn't even keep Eliot from getting crippled. I'm useless."
Everyone was just ignoring Brennan's existential crises and instead surrounded Eliot.
"Eliot, who knew you had such long hair?"
Hannah was drooling over Eliot's long, long hair. She grasped the bloody hair, even though the blood she could feel its smooth texture. With puppy eyes, she gazed into Eliot's soul by staring into his eyes. She tried poking and prodding at Eliot's consciousness.
"Donate it to me please."
She stroked the hair, rubbing her hands full of blood.
A boy with flaming red hair pushed Hannah away.
"Don't be weird Hannah, have you even seen his cheeks?"
The boy only started to geek out about Eliot's scars, before someone else hogged Eliot.
Eliot, tired of all the commotion spoke up.
"Father Agustin's in the bathroom."
With a snap, the atmosphere completely changed. The children that were having fun and chatting away turned serious before anyone could say another word. They made their way to the bathroom and carefully carried the unconscious priest out the door and down the hall bumping his head anywhere they could. Of course, there were a few gasps and gags when they found Father Agustin without much crotch, but they soon just ignored it. Although a huge amount of children were needed to carry Father Agustin's big body away, not everyone was needed. Some of the children stayed behind to seize up Eliot's brilliant legs.
Father Agustin was just being carried out of the door when a rat decided it was the perfect time to scuttle from out a crack in the wall and run straight through the pack of children carrying Father Agustin.
There was a scream as a few girls and a boy let go of Father Agustin's heavy body in a fright. Faltering around to find their footing under this sudden weight one of the children fell face-first onto the floor right next to the door squashing the mouse with his knee. The poor guy was wearing shorts and the mouse, dragging its intestines along that was squashed out in the fall, ran straight up the kid's shorts, with a trail of blood. Just as everyone got hold of the situation they heard a second ear-throbbing scream as a poor kid with a bleeding nose was dancing around looking for anything to help his situation. And the kid found one. The door.
The kid tried bashing the rat to death through his pants and slammed the door against his legs. But it didn't work so he slammed the door closed with a massive force and ran further down the hall looking for a different solution to his problem. Bits of pieces and blood from the rat's entrails fell out of his shorts as he ran away.
The kid did not however see what had happened after he slammed the door closed, but he did hear it. The manliest scream of pain echoed through the kid's ears as another hulk of a kid carrying Father Agustin become enraged. The door swinging with full force bashed straight into his small toe.
With a fury, the kid yanked Father Agustin right out of the other children's arms. In a rage the kid used Father Agustin as a siege weapon, bashing him into the door head first, intending to break the door down. Not getting quick results the kid yeeted Father Agustin, mangled nose and all onto the floor and tackled the door.
Eliot watching calmly just sighed. Today is just the worst day.