Suddenly the letter that Rio received this morning came into his mind
"You should have received a letter this morning from a person of mine, did you not get it?" She asked with one brow slightly lifted
"Ahh, that letter was from you?" Rio said outwardly however inwardly he thought that she was someone probably sent from Xander to stick beside me
"Well, I'm not sure what you want but I'm not interested, unlike what it seems, I'm a very busy person," Rio said stoically as he resume eating his food
"In this situation, it's not what I'm interested in however what I can do to help your predicament"
'My predicament?' Rio thought, however, he ignored her and continued eating his food
'Truly, I already have enough on my plate now this little girl won't leave me alone, well she'll probably go away soon if I pay her no mind' Rio thought
After realizing she was being ignored, a bitter feeling that hardly ever appears started to build up inside her.
'Most people won't even be able to look away from me, however not only is he not looking, but he's also ignoring me. This is troublesome.' Rio thought this would be another easy catch, but it seems his temperament is different' she pondered before…
'Danger?' Rio thought as he looked upwards, 'is it another spoilt brat, that always gets her way? The last thing I need is another enemy'
"It seems your instincts are sharp, I didn't release any killing intent or pressure but you still managed to know something was wrong." She grinned as she continued
"Let me start again, my name is Elise Zathis, daughter of the academy leader, and I've heard of your predicament so I thought I could give you a hand if you're in need. As per the letter I sent you said, I can get you a safe place to develop and since you're a 4th-rank mage, you should be a core disciple by now" she said sternly as if making a business deal
"Here's my proposal, first we get you into the core disciple, since they have their own private residence that can't easily be entered by others, I can pull some connections and get you one of the best places, I can also sponsor you using herbs, pills, spirit stones and more, however, you would need to join me, there are not many rules in place so there's no restriction on you," she said and stared right at Rio
'Have I even said a word yet, she just keeps talking' Rio sighed internally
"What are the rules," I said, 'if even one of them is too much…Rio would rather be alone, he could probably figure out something
After hearing this she seemed to have a glint of hope in her eyes and proceeded to say "I would really even call them rules…it will make sense if I tell you from the beginning"
She goes along to tell them about the internal strife between the faction of the Academy Leader and the High Elder, and basically, every core disciple has to pick a side, if they sit on the fence, they would get pressured to death by both sides and wouldn't even know how they died.
She then proceeded to speak about the High Elder's plan of marrying Xander to her in order to increase his influential power, once that happens, the High elders would have automatically won the strife and would be able to absolve the current academy leader and be able to pass it onto Xander when the time is right, and since the current academy leader didn't have a son to take over his place, a son-in-law is the next best thing
'So, since such a huge friction between both sides is clearly apparent, me picking a side would make the other side my natural enemy' Rio pondered whilst still hearing Elise speak
After all the explanations she looked at me waiting for my decision, Rio didn't know such strife was secretly happening in the shadow of the academy, it was clear he had to make a decision if he wanted to keep going here
After all the pondering Rio only had two questions… "is the academy leader position only passed on by generation?" And after a slight pause "who is stronger between the High Elder and the Academy Leader" naturally Rio could trust her words since they would pretty much be biased, so he would have to look into the information himself
However, contradictory to his thoughts she replied "for your first question, although this is an academy, this is basically an institute that the Zathis Dukedom made, my father is the third generation holder of the academy, so the academy essentially was built by the Zathis Dukedom, so if Xander manages to marry into my family, he'd be eligible to take ownership of the academy. Elise's eyebrows slightly wrinkled as she said the last part
"for your second question, for now, it's my father, however the High elder recently entered cultivation to break through the 3rd Rank Mage Master and could rival the Academy Leader or even surpass him if he breaks through" a dejected look appeared on her face,
'Hmmm…since I have bad ties with Xander, it would do well to have the Academy Leader as a backer, if I'm able to show my abilities, he's most likely going to heavily invest in me.' After pondering for a while Rio sighed and decided to work with the academy leader's faction
'Guess the low-key stage ends now, it was peaceful while it started, but it seems to attain greater benefits, I will have to show some ability' a sly smile appeared on my face before a female voice knocked Rio from his daze
"That's great, since we finished eating a while ago, let's go sort out your registration to a core disciple and get you the residence promised," she said with a smile…
'Killing intent?' Rio thought as he sensed multiple killing intent lands on me, Rio swiftly looked at the areas of the intent…just to see a bunch of boys with gazes of jealousy, anger, and envy.
'I thought it was serious, I guess it's true what they say, beauty is really a way to destruction' Rio thought as he rolled his eyes
Rio faced Elise and replied, "no need, I can take care of the registration myself and as for the residence, you can just deliver the token to the residence," Rio said, even though he joined their faction doesn't mean he trust them, who knows if she's putting up an act, it's best to act alone.
Rio got up to leave but heard the voice of Elise again "the core disciple residence doesn't use tokens, we use our own individual mana signatures. You know what, since I'm quite busy tomorrow, I'll send someone to help you go through the process"
Rio nodded at her and then left back to his room to go over everything that happened so far and what my next moves will be.
'To summarize, a major internal strife is happening between the two most powerful people in the academy, and no matter who it is, once they're a part of the core disciples, they will need to choose a side, the goal of the high elder is most likely to take control of the academy, but since they're both pretty old, he's laying the foundation for his Grandson" Rio pondered for a bit before confirming his next plans
'Since the High Elder is currently in cultivation, trying to break through, he should be cultivating for a while, apparently, it takes at least a couple of years to breakthrough and solidifies each cultivation level in the master mage realm, I got time'
After confirming the next step Rio would take, The next day arrived.