"So you're leaving?" Vlad asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I am," Jack replied, taking another sip of his ale.
"Where to?" Vlad asked leaning in slightly.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you yet." Jack said with a shrug.
"Jack, the brave and endearing on a long trip into the abyss," Vlad chuckled.
"Drama queen," Jack shot back with a smirk.
"Look who's talking," Vlad retorted rolling his eyes.
A comfortable silence settled between them as Jack took a sip of the ale in hands.
"So, you won't be around for some time, regular?"
"Nope, but I'll be sure to swing in now and then."
"That's very considerate of you old man."
"I'll miss you," Jack said grinning.
Both men mockingly gagged, retching at the comment.
"Hahaa, why did you have to say something so embarrassing," Vlad groaned still chuckling
"I don't know," Jack laughed. "But hey at least you won't have to see my ugly mug anymore."
"Yeah, Yeah, don't get too sentimental on me old man."
"See, I told you, old man, you're old," Finn who was downing some treats joined in.
"Hoho, so how is this OLD MAN?" Vlad asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "He sure is a boomer, right kid?"
Jack let out an exaggerated sigh "Why are you two bullying me?"
"Because you're easy to toy with," both Finn and Vlad responded in sync.
"You bastards, I'll get my chance one day as well, you two better prepare," Jack jeered in anger.
"You'll never get that chance," Finn returned.
"And why is that kid?"
"You'll never be able to," Finn replied once more.
"And why do you think I can't? Are you telling me I'm incompetent?" Jack asked feigning offence.
"No, no, it's just that you can't, you really can't," Vlad interjected.
"I can do it, why are you two telling me otherwise?" Jack retorted half annoyed.
"Hey, the old man seems to be drunk, seeing as how he is spouting nonsense," Finn laughed.
"Hey I'm no lightweight," Jack spoke puffing out his chest. "And you cheeky brat, how dare you betray me after I've done so much for you?"
"It seems our old man is pretty sensitive, I think it's best if we stop here before our old man tears up, right boy?" Vlad added.
"What can I say, I wanted to continue a bit more but let's stop here," Finn chuckled.
"Bastards."
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"Huh, how did he do it?" Shia sighed.
"Are you sure this is how he did it?" Templeton spoke.
"Yes, this is how he did it, but the code keeps breaking down whenever I try to activate it," Shia spoke as she formed another mana circle atop her palm.
"Maybe there is another method around it," Templeton suggested, "how about you wait for him to teach it to you?"
"I wish, but it's too beautiful to forget, beauty you can't stop admiring," Shia paused for a moment, her eyes gleaming before continuing, "from that Wave Crash to Gungir, yes that Gungir, I'm still stumped from seeing that spell."
"Gungir, huh... you told me earlier how he explained using Gungir, why don't you try it?" Templeton asked.
"I might end up blowing this room up if I do," Shia giggled.
"You're a seven-star, either control the scale or close of this space."
"Closing spaces are a pain in the ass. But based on how he explained it, he merged three barriers and created a construct from that," Shia spoke as she rubbed her chin. "But how did he..."
"Merge the three barriers in the first place?" Templeton finished her thought, "Barriers are used for defence, closing space or sealing but merging them to form an offence spell..."
"That's it," Shia's eyes brightened, "those weren't advanced spells, no, none of the spells he used were advanced spells. He used Limitless Concentration, a basic four-star barrier, wave crash without water and then combined those smaller barriers to form Gungir."
"He held out against Sir Thomas with basic spells? Templeton's voice betrayed his disbelief, "And limitless concentration, isn't it pretty useless for anyone above fifth-star?"
"Yes at that point our brains develop enough to be accustomed to the large calculation and our brains become fast enough to process even without the help of Limitless Concentration."
"So that means either his talent is one which corresponds with the spell or he can't utilise advanced spells."
"The second one is more feasible," Shia said thoughtfully, "since someone with scarlet hair is prone to having a smaller mana pool and poor mana control but based on the fight you described, I do not think his control over mana is the reason, so..."
"Which means," Templeton began, piecing it together.
"His mana pool must be small so he created techniques to use advanced spells, via stacking basic spells in a way the code can't break after activation, which means he's a genius," Shia concluded, "Daniela really got me something amazing, I have to thank her."
"Shouldn't you refer to her as the Princess even if it's just the two of us?" Templeton queried.
"Oh! Yes I forgot to mention that she's given up on succession."
"Really? Today's been full of surprises, a six-star manakai we had no idea about, knew ways around magic and one less member in the battle of succession," Templeton recollected all the events of the day.
"Exactly, this was the best day ever, I'll make him my teacher, I want him, I want him, I want him—"
"Miss Shia, please calm down," Templeton cut in as Shia rambled on.
"But how can I? When someone like him exists, how can I calm down?" Shia asked, her tone excited.
"Isn't it too strange? I looked into his background a bit and there are quite a lot of bizarre things," Templeton added.
Shia seemingly interested, probed, "You did a background check on him so fast, I only told you about him a few hours ago?"
"I'm not lazy and I have to do a background check on people about to join the academy, because someone called principal is too lazy to do her damn job," Templeton replied, frustrated.
"Alright, alright, please forgive me and I already told you, I'm doing this for yo—," Shia's words stopped as Templeton shot her a look, "me, fine I'm doing this for me."
"Anyways as I was saying, peculiar things like the fact that he had partial mana blockage as a child and the thesis he prepared disappeared after he was accused for plagiarism."
"His research disappearing is no wonder, but the fact that he solved the blockage... Templeton can you look into him a bit more?"
"I pulled a few of his medical reports and his condition wasn't as severe as many had experienced but it got worse with time, the center point for the cold mana beginning from his Dan Tian to his heart."
"You call that not severe?" Shia queried.
"That's because usually the cold gathers around places where energy flows the most but all cases of blockage had it fully spread within the body by the age of ten letting the victims only live up to the age of eighteen to twenty years."
"But..." Shia added nudging Templeton to speak his speculation.
Templeton continued, "His blockage only developed into complete blockage only by the age of sixteen, which was a first time, but it shouldn't happen either because children with the partial blockage have a high chance of recovery and almost all children with partial blockage have outlived it but for his to develop into full blockage—"
"It means his family never helped him in the first place, harsh life I guess," Shia mumbled fully understanding the situation. "He did tell me his father always forced him to dye his red hair."
"Duke Thorne, I've met him once but he seemed like a nice man, unless that was just a facade."
"Nobles know how to fool people, assholes."
"Aren't you a noble yourself Miss Shia?"
"But I'm not like them, I work for the—"
"You don't work," Templeton cut in.
"Huh," Shia asked confused.
"You don't work, I'm the one doing the work, even now I'm the one working you lazy old hag," Templeton added angrily.
"Hey, Templeton calm dow—."
"Calm down? You force me to do all your work and now you want me to—, uhhh just do your work."
"Hey, the night is young, let's not breakdown shall we?"
"What's that supposed to mean? Just do your work, you have lots that need to be done and I want to go home."
"Please complete this before leavin—"
"Do it yourself hag."
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Why is his dinner table so tense and why is the dinner so lame? Daniela thought to herself. This is just some fancy-ass soup, a tart and some... is that sparkling water? This is like the time I ate at a fancy restaurant, Daniela cried internally.
"So Gabriel how was the trip with your sister?" Thaddeus asked, breaking Daniela out of her thoughts.
"Today was great," Gabriel replied as if he'd been waiting for the question.
"You met Principal Shia?"
"I did but that wasn't today's highlight."
"Ooh, would you like to tell me, brother?"
How is he doing that? He's got his way around Gabriel. Every time I talk to Gabriel I'm scared of treating him differently and how he might react? Daniela thought as she glanced at their conversation.
"I got to meet this man, and he had a duel with Sir Thomas and it was mind blowing," Gabriel spoke out excitedly.
"And who was the person that fought Sir Thomas?"
"Jonathan Thorne, he was this six-star manakai."
"Thorne? You mean—"
"Yep that's him," Gabriel cut in before he could finish his sentence, but Thaddeus didn't seem to mind the little boy's joy. "Oh, brother did you know elements could be used without actually following the elemental triad?"
"Um? No because it's not possible," Thaddeus replied, confused.
"No brother it's possible, I saw him doing it today. He used Wave Crash, but without water."
"Wave Crash without water? Daniela what have you been telling Gabriel?" Thaddeus spoke as he glanced at Daniela, his eyes seemingly asking Daniela to elaborate.
"It's just as he said brother, the man was amazing, the way he used magic, it could only be described heavenly," Daniela spoke as she waved her hand around.
"Without the elemental triad?" The Emperor who had been silently observing finally joined in, his voice as stern as ever.
Oh, the Emperor talked, I shouldn't let this chance go, I should get him to join in and stay a bit longer. "Yes father, you should have seen him, and that's not even the best part."
"And what's that?" The Emperor spoke, clearly uninterested.
He doesn't seem too thrilled about it, this isn't going to do it, let's just keep trying.
Gabriel joined in, "He used a spell of the Sage of the North called the Gungir."
Both Thaddeus and the Emperor's eyes shot up in surprise.
"Gungir? How is someone able to use that spell?" Thaddeus questioned.
"I don't know since I haven't started cultivation but I heard him explaining it to Miss Shia, about something, something about a barrier and a construct?" Gabriel spoke.
"Gungir is an advanced and original spell, if he could do that he must be pretty skilled," the Emperor joined the conversation, his voice, one that seemed interested.
"But even that isn't the end of it father," Daniela chimed in after observing the Emperor for some time.
"Oh? There's more?" The Emperor asked.
"He copied Sir Thomas's martial arts to the last detail," Daniela added.
"The Radagar family's martial arts? Copied? He is a manakai, right?" Thaddeus asked, surprised.
"But brother, he then copied Sir Thomas's martial intent, he trapped Sir Thomas in a prison cell type of barrier and smashed a moon into him after Sir Thomas revealed his martial intent."
"Is that true, Daniela?" The Emperor asked her, his voice stern yet inviting.
"Every single word is the truth father, it was so impressive Miss Shia hired him instantly, she didn't even give it a second thought."
"Miss Han Shia hired him that fast?" The Emperor replied.
"It was quite the funny scene, seeing her perched up on top of him forcing him to accept the offer. No matter what he tried he couldn't escape her grasp." Daniela spoke with a smile. Father's caught, now if I keep this up I can save him.
"He didn't want to accept?" The Emperor asked.
"Eah, he was pretty adamant on staying there and continuing his simple life, if anything Miss Shia dragged him in."
"Haha, that's a first, I've never seen anyone reject an offer to Nexarion."
"Ye—"
"Huh?"
What was that? Daniela thought as she turned to the source of the gasps, her brothers, their faces stunned.
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