I had some skin-colored scales here and there. I thought for sure they'd all be white. But they weren't. And they didn't feel any different from typical skin either. No, they did feel a bit cold but that was about it.
I did however have very obvious white scales on my chest. These were the stuff Rexen used to save me; fortunately, I could cover them up with just a good shirt. And I had a feeling they would fall off… eventually. Probably. Maybe. We'll see.
Walking around the campus felt odd. It'd been a week since I woke up. And although I didn't writhe in pain, I did feel shit. During these past few days, I had some fun conversations with Shia and ultimately had to give her the kitten. I already had my hands or rather shoulder full with Rexy anyway. But no, it didn't feel odd because of that.
Instead of just avoiding me, people were nodding or bowing and all that stuff these days. Apparently, I was famous… and in a good way?
Are they going to kill me or something?
"They like you more now," a clean-shaven gentleman said.
Well dressed, tall, handsome. I hadn't seen a handsome man like that in a long, long while. "Assuming they did before, I guess they do," I said. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Sol. Soler A. Barack."
He was probably some noble who came after the recent events. There was a good chance the church already found out and sent people here. I hadn't yet had a chance to speak with Alayla or Sharmon. I was damn sure they wouldn't want to see me right now but… but I definitely wanted to meet them and give them a taste of my mind.
He smiled. "Alus" He nodded. "Alus Tair Brookes. Nice to meet you Sol."
The who?
Alustur? No, no, that man had weird hair. This man had a clean cut. That man wore rags and a cape. This man had nothing but a suit on which was quite nice and probably cost a pretty penny!
"You're joking? You're not his long-lost brother or something?"
"I am not." He shook his head, producing a knife from his suit. And a pair of gloves? "Just having one might seem odd, you should wear them on both hands from now on."
Speaking of my glove, that kind of burned off too. I was covering my whole arm with bandages for now.
"I already have knives," I said. I hardly ever used them though. I didn't really have talent and no matter how I tried I wasn't making progress. Nothing significant.
"I know but this one's not for fighting. It's… remember how my voice sounded different?"
"Right."
He pulled the knife out of its sheathe; it glowed in pale blue. "When you will your mana into this… you can easily change how you sound. Though I suppose you can also do that with your own wind magic." He sounded very different. It was somewhat artificial but you could easily cloak your real voice.
And now that he mentioned it, I tried talking and using wind to change my voice; nothing happened. Nothing significant.
"Why're you giving it to me?"
"A token of apology and… good faith."
"Thought you weren't going to apologize."
"I didn't." He gave me the knife and walked away.
Huh.
Weird.
Weird. Dude.
But thanks to him, we got rid of the assassins on campus and… and now he was becoming a full-time teacher here and a full-time guard at the same time. But since we'd already declared him dead, he was changing his attire and joining anew.
Doesn't having the same name defeat the purpose though? Or he could introduce himself as Mr. Brookes and everyone would just…
Moving on, I had other things to worry about. Namely, in my Fiancée's absence, I had to attend the weekly club meetings and there was one today. Why did she make me the vice president… sigh.
***
The club's existence was simple.
The members would be taught the real history and they would come to appreciate the true teachings of Askvan, not the church… at least for now. That's why it was named the Cult of Askavan, not the Cult of the Holy Church.
Of course, all of that was just the front. I was going to mess with their minds but gradually. How am I going to make believable lies though? Wait… wouldn't I be doing just what the church has been doing? No, it couldn't just be lies. All great lies had one thing in common. They weren't exclusively lies but rather they were mostly the truth with a pinch of lie like salt. All great stories had lies, and they only added to the flavor. But truth….
Almost all books on Askavan and the church were heavily regulated by the high church and that meant there really wasn't much history… no, wait, history!
Why the fuck did I even return that book~! But there was a really good chance history books were also regulated. We were in the Western continent; the actual headquarters of the church was merely two countries over. Anything was possible here.
"Good morning, Mr. Vice President Sir!" The moment I walked into our clubroom (which was generously provided by the headmaster in his white tower's basement) one of the club members greeted me. Her name was Arin, if memory served me right. Blue, so definitely a noble lady.
There were some others members too who weren't in here with us. They were probably not taking this thing seriously. I mean, noble ladies were kind of… lazy. Shia was probably the weird one.
"Good morning," I said. "Feel free to call me Sol."
"Right!"
We sat down. It wasn't much of a room. Small. Five stools, and meager light coming from the swinging magic lamp above. "Okay so, what have you been up to?"
"We've so far gone into details about existing knowledge about Askvan and all things surrounding him."
Sigh… why couldn't I be here to hear that? "Have you gone into history. The real history, I mean."
I have to do some real reading.
"Umm… we don't really know which is real and which is… made up."
True enough.
I didn't either.
There were some books in other languages though. I had my doubts about the church having as strict of a control on those books compared to the Southern and Western tongue ones. But I hadn't yet fully memorized the letters yet, let alone the languages.
"I'll try to find some good books-"
"But you just got out of the infirmary. Shouldn't you rest?"
"I should. And I will. But I can't sit down and do nothing either. I started this club with Nisa to spread the glory of Askavan, and I'd like to-"
"Oh he's already here?" Our other members… two of them arrived. A blonde and a ginger. One of them, the Blonde one wore a golden uniform; high noble….
If I recalled correctly, the blonde was the fourth daughter of a Margrave and the Ginger was the second daughter of Count Albide, the official ruler of this city. But of course, that was in name only.
Both of the ladies wore really heavy makeup.
"Greetings my ladies," I bowed in a noble manner.
"Greetings Baron Soler Barack," they bowed like noble ladies and with that I started off the session. I did absolutely nothing of importance. Nothing other than just talk with them, to gauge a bit more about them. Their maturity level was that of a typical ten-twelve years old kid. Yes, all three were about ten. Arin seemed slightly older and was the only one properly paying attention.
We were of course missing one more but she wasn't in school today.
I dismissed the club with the promise that I would bring some truth next week. Honestly, they didn't seem all that interested in Askavan. They seemed more interested… in me.
Did their parents put them up to this?
Still, this made things easier for me. I could manipulate them as much as I want to! Hopefully, without getting too deep into noble politics, though I had my doubts on whether that'd really be possible at this point or not. Wouldn't guys have been more influential though?
Oh well.