Airic spent every day at the school pushing himself to learn his abilities as fast as he could, his Platoon there with him after the second week when they realized what he was doing. They spent thier day as a Platoon much the way he did, and found they had 4 hours for Platoon training, 4 hours for homework, 8 hours for school, and 7 hours for sleep as dinner was not included in school. For 15 weeks that had repeated that process every day, and his Platoon had whipped into shape faster than he could have imagined. The week before they were scheduled to go home he had done a repeat of the first course he made them run, the First Battle that served as thier final exam for Junior Academy.
This time instead of losing half thier number before being killed within half an hour, it had taken them 6 hours to complete the simulation losing 2.
"This is our final day before we have 2 weeks of freedom from here. Have fun, enjoy your families, than get your asses back here ready to work again. This next semester we have the Platoon Challenges, and I fully intend to give the Seniors a run for the money to represent the school." Airic said as they all cheered before they left to catch the bus to the airport. He was the only one who went back to his quarters, and opened the email he just received from his cousin Christopher.
It was an invitation as well as a plea for help, as Jeffrey seemed to have doubled down on his Puritan beliefs, and was openly opposing Christopher not supporting it. As much as he wanted to, he wanted Airic to be the bad guy and come down on this party being held under his name for the Puritan Leadership who had all vowed to attend.
Airic smiled as he realized he had 4 days before this party happened on Christmas Eve, he decided to go to the city and look for a gift for his cousin. When he saw a bookstore a few blocks from the school with an impressive array of skill and ability books, he decided to check it out. Most of them were booms of skills or abilities that were extremely common, though a few of them were less common they were also less useful for what he wanted to do. As he walked further into the back, he realized that this shop had a rather larger selection of Dark Element Books, and Airic was careful about how he placed them in a bag he found lying nearby before he took them to the front. He had even surprisingly found a Blood Book, as he grabbed several more books and went to the front counter.
He placed even the bag on the counter, and the cashier went pale when he saw what exactly they were. "We cannot purchase those books from you sir. Your total will be 142 credits." He said using the bag.
"Those books were on your shelf, and the bag is yours as well. How much to purchase them." Airic tried correcting him.
"You must be mistaken sir, we do not sell these types of books. The total for those is 142 credits and you will have to take thier with you." He said vehemently making Airic pay before he was ushered from the store.
He returned to the school, curious as to what he found that had made the store clerk so nervous. He remembered well that his cousin had 3 Elements now, and the books he had paid for were some powerful skills for those ones.
The 5 books in the bag however were extremely powerful Dark Element books, one of them being a book about Blood Magic. That was the first one Airic went to open, only to be stopped as nothing he could do would open the book by force. He had a very good idea what he had to do, as it looked like a lock made to resemble Vampire Fangs kept the pages securely covered in the leather wrap that made the cover.
The other four books were of a less powerful nature, although Airic was pretty sure he could make Shadow travel a skill that would be extremely beneficial. Mind Flay, Mass Control and Zombiefication would be skills that any Dark Practioner would like to have, and were the skill books he had purchased from the book merchant. Although, he was sure the clerk had no idea some of those books were his. How he had said they couldn't take them or be his was more
Intriguing to Airic than anything else. He knew he would need to go back there, and purchase a few more books and overpay for them to make up the cost of what these 5 books would have cost him before.
The next day when he found the shop however, it was an equipment store that sd beast armor and weapons. As much as he liked the look of the craftsmanship, he already had a full set of armor that his dad had ensured he knew how to repair and accomodate for growth in the pieces when he got older.
When he gave up after searching all day, he looked at the very real books that he had bought and the ones he had essentially taken without paying for. He opened the shadow movement book, and began learning how to use it, even if he wasn't supposed to do so while classes were out of session.
The day of the big party came, and Airic was surprised to see Christopher in the car when he was picked up to attend the dinner.
"I am sure my father is going to try and use this to weaken your standing among the other lords." Chris said to him as Airic handed him the three books and smiled as he saw his cousins wrist and had remembered all 3 of them correctly.
"Honestly I would be disappointed if he didn't atleast try. I know you get the brunt of it as I cannot lead the family officially until my service is over, but it will not always be this way." Airic assured him.
"I fear you will have to end up exiling my father for him to stop challenging your wishes." Christopher said with a smile.
"Oh believe me, the Puritans will not dare set foot on our family estate again after tonight. You can sit back and enjoy the show once it starts." Airic said with a smile on his face as he had been practicing Shadow illusions that would freak out even the most powerful warriors.
The drive to the estate was uneventful as most of the city did not experience the outside weather, as it was protected by an extinct volcano in Africa. They however threw great parties among the Elite, as it was a reason to celebrate as good as any.
However by the time the car stopped to allow them out, Airic knew Jeffrey had pushed the envelope a bit too hard. He had planned on having the police escort the Puritans off the premises, he never dared to believe that Jeffrey would bring in nearly half a dozen even Atlantis considered terrorists. He informed the police on standby of the situation, and before Airic could even say a word to Jeffrey the entire premesis had been surrounded and the police were on the Lord horn having verified with drones the identities of those on the terror list.
"Jeffrey Carter and all Puritan Terror Suspects, the premesis is surrounded, including all escape tunnels in and out of the property. Come out with your hands high, and there will be no issues. Failure to do so, will result in your forceful capture." The officer said before he read off a list of a dozen other names of people they would be taking from the premesis as Airic walked up and slapped Jeffrey in front of the entire family.
"It is one thing for you to allude to the fact that you are associated with a group that has a terrorist element, but to bring that terrorist Element into this home, among this family?" Airic said outraged as the police arrested everyone trying to flee from the party as the terrorists tried desperately to get out any way they could think of. "You have left me no choice to exile you from the hearts and minds of this family. Should you ever return to the home of this family, you will be killed on site."
Just as he said it the police rushed in and arrested Daniel and the rest of the family members for questioning, as there were in fact 15 wanted terrorists among the guests, and they had on explosive vests that had been suppressed as soon as they entered because of the new security measures Airic had insisted on.
In the end, Jeffrey had only known about one or two of them, and that the Puritan leadership had planned to use it as an event to send a message to Airic and those like him. He just hadn't known that the event was tha bombing death of the entire Carter Family at thier annual Christmas Extravaganza. Airic was supposed to have arrived before they began planting the bombs and leaving quickly. The raid however had caught them all in the act, and by the time it was all out even his most ardent defenders in the family was saying he deserved far more than the exile from the family he received.
His wife had even used it as grounds for an immediate restraining order while she filed for divorce and filed for soul custody of thier children. Christopher just happened to be the oldest, but they had several more including triplets who weren't even in Academy yet.
All of this left Airic glad when the school reopened the weekend before classes resumed, because his Holiday was no Vacation from the thrills of living his life. It only helped to show that Airic had a long way to go before he proved to everyone his ideas were going to be what lead them to victory.