"What are those three doing in Loran?" - J look at the information from Devin. He is surprised when looking at the names of the targets this time: Vivian Sovirenka; Mobar Variean; Lisik Inafiel. Those last names matched the last names of the top three students in each group from J's class.
"Usually, the small to middle-rank Families do not meet at this time. Not even major Families like Mokir will do something like this. Why are the heads of these three families decide to meet up at Loran?" - J walks around in his room trying to find a logical answer.
"Visiting their children is too obvious of a reason. Dad even followed them for a while now. He must have a reason to do so. Guess I have to check them out myself." - J removes his usual professor attire, and changes back to his spy form. A complete dark energy covers and masks him from head to toe, leaving just his dark ruby eyes open. J is now ready to meet the Heads of the Families.
...
"Representing LMS, it is an honor to have you three coming all the way to visit our school." - Lerin is standing at the front door of the school. It seems like this is a scheduled event that she is aware of before.
"Thank you, Headmaster Lerin. We also appreciate the warm welcome as well. How are the kids doing so far? Did they cause too many troubles for you?" - Mobar is the first one to speak up while the other two just arrived.
"Well, well... If it is not Mobar The Bladesmiths and Lisik The Fist then I do not know who you two are." - Vivian shows an aggressive tone towards the two.
"Tsk... we certainly do not want to see your face here as well, Vivian The Red!" - Lisik looks back.
"What now? Shall we go ahead and settle the score here? We have one win against each other and that irritates the heck out of me!" - Vivian channels her power and aims at Mobar and Lisik.
Mobar and Lisik around get their power ready at Vivian. However, an unexpected aura appears under those three. This aura is the power coming from Lerin herself.
"All due respect, please do not fight in front of the children. Although you are not the Major Family, your Families are not small either. Please behave accordingly to set a good image for the future generation." - Lerin talks while looking at them with her Bless fully activated. Understanding that the situation is not in their favor, the three slowly cancel their power. Lerin asks them to move to the meeting hall where they can meet their children and discuss all other business plans.
"Miss Lerin. Will they be okay? Putting them all in one place like that and we might need to create a mana dimension to remove them." - The old man who is standing by Lerin's side is curious about Lerin's decision.
"With the kids, they will not do it. Trust me." - Lerin smiles back.
...
"Mother! Father!" - Margaret, Ariksen, and Tera rush to their parents as it has been a while since they last saw them.
"My child, how are you? Do you have enough to eat and live here? Mother is here now and I bring some of your favorite food as well." - Lisik pats Tera's head.
All three children talk to their parents about everything that happened when they are there. Each of them shares their own stories: how they made friends; how they demonstrated their power; how they became the top in their class; etc. However, they all end up at one single point. At the same time, Lerin just comes to the meeting hall to see the Families.
"Dad, there is a person I want you to meet. He is my current professor here at LMS, but his power is ridiculous! We should ask him to work for our Family." - Ariksen looks at Mobar.
"Oh ho? My son does not really pay attention to anything, yet he recommends someone to me. This is really interesting hahaha!!!" - Mobar laughs out loud.
"I am serious this time, Dad! His class is completely full now. He even embarrassed Margaret in front of everyone." - Ariksen keeps going.
"WHO EMBARRASSED WHO?" - Margaret glares back at him.
"It is the truth, you could not say even a word back when he was pointing you out!" - Ariksen argues back.
"Who...Who dares talk like that to my precious daughter? Headmaster Lerin, call that professor right now!" - Listening to her daughter being ridiculed, Vivian bursts out her anger and demand to meet J at all costs.
"Haha...well...." - Lerin can only laugh at this point.
"My child, is that also the reason why you ask me to come here, too?" - Lisik asks Tera.
"Yes, mother. it is exactly as they said. He is on another level compared to the rest of us. I do not know why, but he understood our power really well. Not just my power, but theirs as well. I listened to your stories and fights all this time, but I have never heard anyone who can master multiple powers like him." - Tera confirms the rumor and strongly encourage her mother to meet him also.
"You knew this already, Headmaster Lerin. We each gave our child an emblem. It acts as proof that they come from our families, but it can also act as an emergency call. As long as our children think that this is an emergency then they will break the emblem to call us. Now that we are here, that must mean that this is an emergency. Therefore, can we ask to meet that professor they have been talking about all this time?" - Lisik calmly asks Lerin.
Lerin cannot help but accepts the request. Angering the Families after all is not a good idea in the long run. Asking J to meet them seems to be a possible task to do rather than rejecting them. She asks them to patiently wait in the meeting hall while she rushes to J's office. At this time, J is talking to Ruby and Kimberly about school work.
"You want me to teach your nephew, Kimberly?" - J asks.
"Yes, I know that your class is already full. She really wanted to take your class, but she missed the registration because my class and Ruby's class took a lot of time to register. She could only ask me this time." - Kimberly nervously responds.
"Please? Professor Dylan, I know that you will not reject this little and cute kid here?" - Lucy quickly shows J a photo of Kimberly's nephew: a frail girl with short deep purple hair.
"Calm down, you crazy woman!" - J shoos Lucy away and keeps the conversation with Kimberly.
"No need to feel sorry, Kimberly. Tell her to meet me during lunch tomorrow. I will see how she is first then I will decide whether to take her later on." - J smiles and accepts Kimberly's request.
"Thank you very much! You will not be disappointed!" - Kimberly finally can show her happy side.
"PROFESSOR DYLAN!" - Lerin from afar runs straight to J.
"Headmaster Lerin? Did you just take a marathon? You look completely out of breath." - J looks at Lerin.
"No time to explain. Come with me right now. There are people who want to meet you at this moment." - Lerin pulls J away quickly. He can only say goodbye to both Lucy and Kimberly for 2 seconds.
She explains the entire situation to him, which he is well aware of. J told Lerin that he will take care of it, so she should not worry too much.
"With your power, you can take them on." - J points out.
"It is not about power but is it LMS that I am worried about because we are in tough spots year after year. They are three out of other mid-rank Families that I successfully recruited their children to study here. Hurting them also means that our reputation will be damaged a bit. Now that other schools from each area are becoming stronger and stronger. We have to get as many Families to our side as possible." - Lerin clenches her fists, showing a determined attitude.
"It is good to have someone like her around here. If she is someone I can trust in the future then she will be able to watch my back." - J thinks to himself.
"Please do not forget about our deal, Headmaster Lerin. I might take this time as something that you personally ask me for help." - J shows a smile as things are going accordingly.
...
"Dear Families, here is Professor Dylan. He is the one that...." - Lerin suddenly realizes that the entire meeting hall is under Paralyze and Fear spells. Noticing this strange phenomenon, she immediately removes the spells and sets everyone free.
"What happened here? Where are the guards? Uncle Ron, please go ahead and take care of the kids." - Lerin asks her butler.
(2 hours ago)
"I cannot believe that my dear Margaret has to go through this humiliation. I swear I'll teach that bastard a lesson!" - Vivian is infuriated.
"Please calm down, Mom. I ask you to come here so you can get him to our side. We are not trying to fight him right now." - Margaret hugs her mother.
Suddenly, an immense amount of dark energy from the outside starts flowing vigorously into the hall and covers it with complete darkness. A shadow slowly appears from the darkness looking straight at everyone in the hall. J's first true appearance in Loran makes everyone surprised to the point that Vivian, Mobar, and Lisik have to use their power to push away his power.
"I believe that this must be unintentional. We came here simply for our kids and nothing else. Are there any reasons for you to show up here today, Silent Phantom?" - Mobar speaks up.
"...Perfect Sphere..." - Without saying a word, J casts a spell that locks everyone together with him in a dark magical sphere. There are no other ways to break it unless J decides to cancel the sphere himself. Tera, Ariksen, and Margaret all try their best and do not leave a single scratch on the sphere's surface.
"Tera my child. Now is not the time to act up. Stay behind me and let the adults do the talk." - Lisik hurriedly pulls Tera to her.
"This is not the annual Family event, are you really here just for them?' - J asks while pointing at his students.
"Yes, this is just a normal check-up with our kids. This has nothing to do with other Families. I ask for your consideration. So far, we have not done anything that is against the Royal Palace. Therefore, there must be some errors in the list." - Mobar put his son behind him while he tries to talk things out with J.
"My targets are not you three..." - J stares straight into Tera, Ariksen, and Margaret.
"That can't be....YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH MY CHILD! Blood chain, go get the enemy in front of me!" - Vivian cannot hide her anger anymore and starts using her power on J. The name Vivian The Red comes from the excellent blood control of the Sovirenka Family. They can use blood according to their will, and since blood is everywhere on a battlefield that the Sovirenka Family is considered as one of the most all-rounders among the mid-rank Families. The blood chain wraps around J tightly.
"Blood explosion!" - A second spell from Vivian makes her chain explodes, burning everything inside with her blood power.
"...I told you already. My target is not you three." - J appears behind Vivian.
"Since when?" - Vivian surprises herself.
The dark energy charges at everyone except J causing them to be under fear and paralyzed. The debuff is so strong that not even all three of them can remove it. They are completely helpless at this point.
"The next time you three are my targets then you might not be able to live this long. Remember that." - One glare from J immediately removes the blood power from Vivian.
"So you three are the children they try to protect? Don't do anything reckless, if not then you will meet me very soon. Fortunately, you three are not the targets this time." - His students are affected by his power, but he has to keep up with the pace as an assassin.
"I came to Loran for my target within this city. However, I accidentally knew that the three Families were here for some things. I confirm that this is a normal meet-up. Therefore, we will pretend that this never happens. The debuff will be gone the moment someone opens that door. Good luck to you three. Hopefully, the next time we meet it will not be the last..." - J slowly disappears with his dark energy while leaving one final note to everyone.
....
"To think The Silent Phantom is here. Do we need to report him to Loran City Special Force, Miss?" - Ron asks Lerin while removing the debuffs for the student.
"Do you think they can do anything to him? An assassin only appears when the mission is done. That means he killed his target already. We are fortunate enough to know that everyone is still alive in here." - Lerin changes her expression rapidly.
"Damn... I knew that I was overboard, but to think it was this much impactful on them. With their current status, there are no ways for them to retaliate. I must go to the Library of Time as soon as possible to find out more." - J slowly walks into the hall when everyone is healing, thinking about his next steps for the mission.
Episode 8 - End