Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  Therefore, Soarame was always “bullied up” hard, with wounds and bruises all over his body after classes. This reminded him of the unhappy experiences in his hometown. Although this time it was a gorgeous lady doing the attacking, it hurt much more. Ever since Soarame tried to fly away from this dangerous woman for escape during the fight, but got slapped right on the bottom by a hailstone. Finally he learnt that the only way to stay safe from the “queen” — as everyone called her now — was to skip her classes.

  But I must face it and grow faster! Soarame smacked his own face to toughen up. ‘Good afternoon, professor Greibec.’

  Right now, Soarame was standing by the gate of the arena within the Water Department. Each department had its designated arenas for hands-on practice during classes — especially for the Adepts. Sandoray obviously loved this setting, as she tended to teach her classes in arenas rather than classrooms. In fact, she was a frequent visitor to different arenas for all kinds of things. The least crazy thing she did here was three years ago, when she waved just one finger to prostrate Casavin. Ever since then, she had become the fear of the Number One troublemaker in the school. Casavin sometimes even dared to ignore Dean O’Heven’s words, but never tried to mess with Sandoray in any way.

  ‘Soarame, your mysterious diarrhoea is finally over?’ Sandoray was sitting in a chair, wearing an ocean blue gown as usual. As she stood up from the chair, she pushed her long black hair back from her shoulder. ‘I must say you are a tough boy — usually people die if the diarrhoea lasts this long.’

  ‘Ahh… yes. I’m much better now.’ Soarame hemmed and hawed about the obviously flawed lie he’d told. ‘It’s good to see you again, Sandoray.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ Sandoray seemed to be snickering, which was usually not a good sign — this lady seldom did things associated with smiling. When she did, especially to Soarame, it usually meant something dangerous was going to happen. All the students already sensed this and couldn’t help worrying about Soarame, but were at the same time somewhat amused. They had witnessed all kinds of bullying scenes with Soarame at the centre of them, most of which looked hilarious.

  ‘Positive.’ Soarame stared right into the queen’s eyes. Don’t disappoint me by seeing Master as an unattainable goal! Ecrif’s words echoed in Soarame’s head. I’ve just made it through a Godrealm, what the heck does a professor matter?

  ‘Good.’ A fleeting surprise emerged in Sandoray’s eyes. She found that the boy seemed different today. ‘Remember, this time before you try to fly away, cover your butt with an iceshield.’

  ‘That won’t be necessary.’ Soarame tried to ignore the chuckling from the girls, with a blush on his face. He quickly stretched and took out his wand. ‘Not running anymore.’

  ‘Seriously!’ Sandoray actually smiled this time, making the students shiver in expectation of what might be coming next. ‘Very well, take your time to get prepared. Today we are repeating the hailstone spell, plus learning a new one — mirrorface.’

  Wait… what’s that? Soarame was instantly alerted. It was hard to forget that every time when the queen taught something new, he would suffer a crushing defeat. ‘Sando… Professor Greibec, could you tell me what the new spell is about, please?’

  ‘It’s mostly a defensive spell, similar to iceshield, to block attacks from rivals.’ Sandoray’s smile had been very brief, and she had already become expressionless again. ‘It doesn’t have to be as big as a shield, yet the surface on the out-facing side has to be very smooth and glossy — just like a mirror — so that it can reflect Light spells back to your rival.’

  ‘So, in other words, it’s an anti-Light spell?’ Soarame breathed out a deep breath. ‘As an example of lineage-countering?’

  ‘Exactly. As I’ve told you before, lineage-countering is an extremely important concept because it can save you effort and achieve great effects — if you master it well,’ Sandoray supplemented. ‘As an example, icearrow can pierce through firewall of the same level and hit the target; Firebolt does the same to icewall. So, as Water wizards, you need to make the right choices when encountering a Fire rival. But those are the simplest cases, because they are only about the concentration of power — am I understood?’

  ‘A slightly advanced scenario is exemplified by this mirrorface spell countering a Light rival.’ Seeing everyone nodding, Sandoray continued. ‘Unfortunately, we don’t have a Light wizard here, but thanks to Mr. Jadeking’s generous promise of “not running anymore”, it’ll still be useful — as you will see in a minute.’

  ‘Err…’ Hearing this, Soarame suddenly felt the old pain in the butt coming again. He blamed himself for his brash words, but a promise is a promise; he was not going to run. ‘I’m ready, Ma’am.’

  ‘It’s “Miss”, as I told you last time.’ Sandoray stared at Soarame. ‘For that, you’ve won a prize.’

  ‘Oh no…’ The students became really worried this time — a snickering, followed by a smile, and now even a direct warning… This poor boy really should have memorized the queen’s words, even if he couldn’t memorize names.

  As long as you don’t target my family jewels. Soarame looked a little pale, but he gritted his teeth and started spelling windblades. At the same time, a gentle breeze emerged and Soarame rose steadily into the air. He dared not spare any effort on this battle, so he was trying to maximize his mobility by flying.

  Insta-cast on flying spell… What an amazing talent! Watching this, Sandoray was praising her pupil in her heart, although she still looked expressionless. Usually, it was too hard for a student to learn the flying spell because it’s of Expert level, but this boy had got the incredibly precious gift from a resurgence, so that he could even insta-cast it! Therefore, Sandoray picked on Soarame for all her bullying on purpose, because he was the only one in Grade 4 that she really cared to teach. He really should have been born in an era of wars! What a huge waste for him to live in this age!

  Obviously, Sandoray was of an opposite style to Nicole, the teacher for Novice Water students. The two ladies exhibited two distinct features of water — when it’s in liquid form, it’s soft and mild; but when it’s frozen, it can be unbelievably tough and sharp. Both beautiful ladies’ teaching styles had their pros and cons, and the students couldn’t decide which one they liked better. On the one hand, Nicole was really the nicest teacher in this school, no one disliked her. On the other hand, the students were all wizards and therefore they all appreciated Sandoray’s practical style for the Water pride; but the queen, as commonly acknowledged, could be really harsh sometimes, especially on her training partner.

  Therefore, the poor training partner, although commonly regarded as one of the top talents in the school, had to stay a good way up there, be on his total guard and devote himself to his defence.

  Casavin, you were really damn lucky… Soarame muttered inside. If she is only going to use one finger on me, I might actually have a chance to win!

  But, obviously, the queen had a good sense of her rival’s ability — she decided to use two fingers. The left one waved a blast of hailstones, while the right one elegantly drew a circle to summon a piece of shining ice the size of a plate — the mirrorface spell. The next moment, the mirrorface reflected the strong sunshine towards Soarame’s eyes, which cut short Soarame’s dodging attempt — there was really no time to dodge the light. After letting out a cry of pain, the poor blinded boy fell to the ground with bruises from the hailstones.

  ‘See, the mirrorface can be really useful.’ Sandoray walked over to her “loyal” training partner and started healing him. ‘Not only Light wizards can daze people, we can too as long as there’s the sun. Moreover, if a Light wizard dared to daze us, that’d be his greatest nightmare.’

  The students were once again conquered by the queen’s magical charm, although they did sympathize with the handsome young boy lying on the floor. Soarame, on the other hand, had to “enjoy” the special treatment from the queen and bark inside for the crushing defeat.
The freezing temperature had frozen a large part of Soarame’s body, so the boy could do nothing but lie there looking up to Sandoray from the floor, waiting to get mobile again. In front of dozens of girls’ gazes, this was really not going to be his best memory — maybe even worse than getting slapped in the butt while floating high up there last time!

  Why is Nicole not teaching Grade 4… Soarame took his time getting up with the help of Jemario, Catheray and Vivarin, because they were all in the same class now — Dileys had levelled up to Grade 5. The three girls, especially Jemario, were really worried about Soarame’s injuries but they still had to chuckle upon seeing his twisted face. They all knew that Sandoray was the best Water teacher in the school, so she could defeat Soarame with minimum damage and heal him straight afterwards — as she had always done so far.

  ‘It’s okay, Soar.’ Jemario whispered. ‘She’s a professor, after all.’

  One day, I’ll beat her. Soarame recalled Ecrif’s words once again. He was not going to flinch from the goal of Master anymore.

  ‘Soarame, what happened to your mind ocean?’ Sandoray suddenly asked. ‘You used to react a lot faster during the fight.’

  ‘Oh, I was practising hard before I came here, so I’m tired,’ Soarame answered hurriedly. He was surprised at Sandoray’s superior sensitivity, even to his mind ocean status. Of course, he was not going to tell her that he had lost half of it to a freaking Godmade that was lying right in his space-ring.

  ‘I’m impressed.’ Sandoray glanced at Soarame before she continued her class. ‘Don’t push yourself too hard, or you may get diarrhoea again.’

  ‘The queen is the queen.’ After the class, Catheray teased Soarame — maybe she was trying to get back at him for his teasing earlier. ‘Even to our best Water Captain.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Soarame sneered and waved to the three girls. ‘I’ve got arrangements, bye for now!’ With that, Soarame ran off alone to find a quiet and secret place for his practice using the broadsword Godmade.

  This is it. After a couple of hours exploring and searching, Soarame found a perfect corner somewhere by the boundary of the campus. The pure and natural appearance of the environment indicated that no one ever came here, so this would be an ideal spot for Soarame to secretly do things with the space-ring and the Godmade. This reminded Soarame of similar tricks that he used to play when he practised Wind magic in the old days. Now there was no reason to hide his Wind gift anymore — not since he had been pictured on the cover of Cylone Times.

  But now I have another reason to play hide-and-seek again, and this time it’s a much greater reason! After taking a deep breath and holding it, Soarame cast his mind power into the ring; once again, he saw a black broadsword floating in the middle of the space. In his special Magneer’s vision, there was a thick, dark blue sheen on the surface of the broadsword, adding an esoteric feeling.

  Beautiful… Soarame thought subconsciously, and controlled his mind power to approach the broadsword cautiously. Having learnt from the last time, Soarame dared not make any attempt to fetch it, but gently let his mind power cover it up — so that he could feel the details of the broadsword via his mind power.

  Whirr… As soon as Soarame did that, a strange noise sounded in his mind. The next second, Soarame felt his vision suddenly blur, and at the same time the broadsword started increasing dramatically in size. The sword kept expanding and expanding, which suffocated Soarame — a few seconds later it looked like a gigantic land and Soarame felt as if he was falling on to it from the air at super speed!

  ‘What the heck is this?!’ Soarame was freaked out by the time the sword finally stopped growing — in front of him there was nothing looking like a sword, but a boundless continent instead. Thank god Soarame hadn’t really fallen down there and got crushed; he was floating “above” it — if the position of the “continent” was to be regarded as “below”.

  ‘What is going on?’ Soarame drew a deep breath and sized the continent up, with eyes widened to the maximum. Just then, a cold and emotionless voice sounded from the continent —

  ‘What do you see?’

  ‘Ecrif?’ Soarame tried to recognize the voice, but found it different from Ecrif’s. ‘Who’s that, please?’

  ‘What. Do. You. See?’ The voice sounded louder, ignoring Soarame’s question.

  ‘I see a gigantic…’ Soarame had to choose his words carefully. ‘Surface?’

  ‘Watch it more carefully,’ the voice commanded.

  ‘I see countless bricks on the surface.’ Soarame concentrated and noticed that the land was actually divided into countless triangular areas — looking like bricks — with negligible gaps in between them. ‘What are they?’

  ‘What do you think?’ The voice was still cold.

  How could I know? Soarame rolled his eyes but he certainly couldn’t say that. ‘If it’s really the surface of the Godmade, it has to be whatever material that composes it… Wait, what is this?!’

  While speaking, Soarame sensed a familiar feeling from the triangular “bricks”. The feeling was so familiar that Soarame couldn’t fail to recognize it, but his eyes widened more and more as if he refused to believe what he was gradually convinced of —

  ‘Water Elements?!’ After a few seconds of mind loss, Soarame finally couldn’t help screaming out. ‘The triangles are Water Elements?!’

  ‘What else do you see?’ The voice seemed to confirm Soarame’s claim, making Soarame totally stunned.

  No way! This is what they really look like? They are not round in shape? Soarame tried to clear his mind so that he could think about what was going on. It seemed that he was looking at a greatly magnified image of Water Elements — in his mind vision — so that he obtained an unbelievably precious opportunity to observe the true face of them!

  ‘What. Else. Do. You. See?’ The voice sounded again, pushing Soarame to go faster.

  ‘I see gaps between them, and they are all slightly shaking.’ Soarame observed the boundless land and the bricks in total concentration. Through the gaps he could vaguely see more bricks underneath the surface of the land, but nothing more.

  ‘Good,’ the cold voice sounded. ‘That’s enough for today.’ With that, the whirr sounded once more, and Soarame suddenly found his vision blurred again. Meanwhile, the land started shrinking at great speed. After a few seconds, it had returned to its original size — a big broadsword was floating in front of Soarame again.

  Holy moly… Soarame exhaled a long breath, trying to stay calm. What he had witnessed just now proved one thing: the broadsword was actually made of Water Elements — it wasn’t a piece of metal or any other material, but an assembly of only Water Elements!

  How the heck could it be! Soarame rubbed his hair. This was way beyond his understanding. So the Godmade is actually a big piece of ice? It doesn’t make sense…

  Soarame tried to call the cold voice for an answer, but received no response. It seemed that the boy had to keep his numerous questions to himself for now.

  Magic Elements can be used to make magigears… no, to make Godmades? Obviously, it’s hard for Soarame to get over it. Ecrif’s visit had turned out to be much more than the visit itself. What a crazy man…

  {Soar, Soar.} Just then, a cute childish voice sounded in his brain. {Where are you?}

  {Snower? You woke up early today.} Soarame smiled; it’s the mind-talk from Snower. The cute little girl kitten had learnt to speak a while ago — she could only speak to Soarame via mind-talk, of course. Since then, it had become Soarame’s greatest fun to mind-talk with Snower, because it could happen anytime, anywhere, regardless of the distance between them — well, as long as they were not too far apart. This was the fun part, but the annoying part was that Snower often talked to Soarame during the night, waking him up. After all, she was kind of like a cat, and the most active time for cats is the night. Today she’d woken up early to realize it was only afternoon.

  {Meow, I wanna go out, come back quick!} Snower’s voice sounded
as if she wasn’t totally awake yet, but was already eager to play.

  {Hmm…} Soarame pondered a bit, and decided to go back, as his little sister urged. He was satisfied with his new discovery today, and his mind ocean was almost dried up anyway. Soarame had meant to treat Snower as his “daughter”, but the clever girl refused once she had grown up a little and gained reasonable intelligence — a teenager was too young to be her “daddy”. After trying for a good while to retain his “fatherhood” status, Soarame finally gave in.

  ‘Hey Soarame!’ On the way back, many students waved at Soarame and sent their greetings. After the MagiMax incident, Soarame and his friends had become very famous all over the campus; and the top star was Soarame himself, of course. This delighted Soarame for a while but then started to annoy him, because everyone came to talk to him whenever and wherever he went. If they were trying to be friendly that was still fine, but sometimes people like Casavin would also approach to send some less-welcome signals — he’d been holding a grudge ever since Dean O’Heven forced him to apologize to Soarame. If it hadn’t been for Sandoray accidentally passing by once just when the two parties reached stalemate, Casavin would have kept coming.

  Moreover, there was another thing that was still annoying — the students tended to observe Soarame in all sorts of places. This was understandable to begin with, but when it extended to the restroom scenarios, Soarame finally couldn’t hold his temper. He almost got physical with some curious dude who peeked down there again and again when Soarame was peeing, trying to seek some difference or uniqueness. Thinking of this, Soarame shivered; he rose to the air, and flew back to his dorm at full speed.

  ‘Look, there’s the show-off again.’ Some said on seeing Soarame in the air. Obviously, Casavin was not the only one with envy problems.

  ‘Look who’s back!’ In the dorm, Kardiac teased Soarame. ‘I heard the queen has taken care of you again?’