Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘Didn’t you hear Naclad?’ Chelonad’s loud voice made the room tremble. ‘Soarame is the reason that impostor came in here!’

  ‘So? That’s Soarame’s fault?’ Kastico barked. ‘Did you want him to die out there?’

  ‘If I had, I wouldn’t have used my best scales to protect him!’ Chelonad humphed. ‘Or was I being over-sentimental? Because he’s got a Godmade after all!’

  ‘That…’ Kastico was choked. ‘The Godmade…’ He glanced at Soarame.

  ‘That Godmade is not mine. I’m just borrowing it.’ Soarame had to be strong about this. ‘It’s not relevant, though, because Naclad didn’t even know of its existence — that’s why it could save me and expose him!’

  ‘That’s right. Naclad came for Max, to retrieve his lost space-ring. If it hadn’t been for the Godmade, he would have walked out with our students kidnapped in his palatorium!’ Gazbell cut in. ‘Think about it, what if that had happened? It would have been the greatest shame ever for our school and we’d all feel guilty for our entire lives!’

  ‘Agreed. Plus the Godmade actually injured Naclad in the beginning, so it bought us time!’ Kastico followed up. ‘In any case, the Godmade is a private matter between Scankeen and his disciple, and we should trust Scankeen’s decisions.’ Obviously, everyone was assuming the Godmade and the dragon blood was from Scankeen, and Soarame had no better way than to let this go for now.

  ‘Trust Scankeen? Even after we lost two people?’ Chelonad was not convinced. ‘Oh, counting my tail-head, that’s three!’

  ‘Hold on, Chelonad. I know Aertiuno is your best friend and I understand your feelings.’ Gazbell urged. ‘But by any logic, this is not Soarame’s fault. Plus, none of them are dead, including your tail-head.’

  ‘The tail-head…’ Speaking of this, everyone was feeling as if they were dreaming. After Naclad had teleported away, the enormous head affirmed Gazbell’s guess — the head was Chelonad too!

  ‘I HAVE TWO HEADS…’ Chelonad’s loud voice from the enormous head echoed in people’s minds. It didn’t take long for Chelonad to explain this — the two heads of his were both part of his body, but their mindsets were somehow independent. The main head was the one that had defeated Naclad in the end; regarding the giant boa — it was actually his other head, on his tail!

  ‘So what are you, after all, Chelonad?’ Soarame couldn’t help asking.

  ‘Silence!’ Chelonad was still mad. ‘You don’t even deserve to be here!’

  ‘Enough, Chelonad!’ Gazbell couldn’t hold back anymore. ‘It’s actually your fault! YOU let Naclad sneak in, and you didn’t even know it until Soarame called fire!’

  ‘…’ Chelonad was silenced. The embarrassing silence lasted quite a while, until Gazbell asked again — but Chelonad didn’t respond anymore.

  ‘He’s gone?’ Kastico asked. No one could answer this, but everyone did feel the earth start trembling from very deep underneath.

  ‘He’s venting his anger. Let’s give him some time.’ Gazbell sighed. ‘I was too harsh on him… it’s almost impossible to spot a Master if he’s well covered.’

  ‘Indeed.’ Kastico nodded. ‘Especially since Naclad changed his appearance somehow.’

  ‘And he’s patient and clever. As a Master, he didn’t even mind-scan once.’ Gazbell frowned as he thought of the details. ‘If he ever had mind-scanned to check around, Chelonad and I would have noticed him right away — Masters can detect each other’s mind-scan.’

  Soarame was listening in silence. Since Halgon had mentioned mind-scan, he had been extremely interested. ‘Sir, do you know when Naclad got into our school?’

  ‘We don’t. And here’s the bad news.’ Gazbell looked cross. ‘Ericson arrived here as a real student five years ago. Naclad came here for Max, so it must have been much later than that when he arrived — most likely after the MagiMax incident.’

  ‘So he kidnapped the real Ericson and has been pretending to be him since then?’ Kastico was panicking. ‘Where is the boy then?’

  ‘Fortunately, Naclad wasn’t aiming to kill him, so he left a note in his room to guide us.’ Gazbell said. ‘He’s laughing at us. He planned everything and he’s been waiting for this day!’

  ‘But he failed after all.’ Soarame cut in. ‘He certainly didn’t plan that, right?’

  ‘Right. Thanks to Chelonad.’ Gazbell looked better for that. ‘He saved you, Soarame.’

  ‘I’m certainly grateful!’ Soarame was suddenly reminded of something. ‘The cell he put us in… is actually made of his scales?’

  ‘The sloughed ones. They are big, tough and safe, at the same time reshapable under Chelonad’s control.’ Gazbell smiled. ‘Could you find a better material to form buildings?’

  That’s why there’s Energy of Life in the wall? Soarame nodded in silence. He had noticed the uniqueness of his dorm building when he first moved in; now he finally knew the reason.

  ‘We’ve been living in his scales all the time?!’ Halgon widened his eyes. ‘What is he after all?’

  ‘I’ve asked him about it via mind-talk, but he didn’t tell me.’ Gazbell smiled wryly. He hadn’t even been aware of the existence of the enormous head until this day, and had always thought that Chelonad was a giant boa. ‘But he told me another story, which I think is enough to keep your brain busy for a while.’

  ‘My brain has been busy ever since I saw the Godmade.’ Kastico teased. ‘But I’d like it to be busier.’

  ‘As you must have figured out, Chelonad is even more than a Legendary Baron. His tail head only possesses a small part of his true power.’ Gazbell marvelled. ‘He’s by far the most powerful being in our school — what a crushing defeat he dealt Naclad! Such a powerful being wouldn’t have come to our school if he didn’t serve the Great Libral.’

  ‘Chelonad is the Great Libral’s bond magimal?’ A flash pierced through Soarame’s mind. He looked around and saw everyone react in the same way — no one had known about this before.

  ‘He didn’t explicitly say that, because it’s certainly not a proud title for magimals. But he’s been guarding our school and couldn’t leave it, because the Great Libral said so.’ Gazbell lowered his voice for this part. ‘Imagine how tedious the guardian’s life had been to such a powerful being! But, fortunately, he has two heads. So guess what?’

  ‘They took turns to do the job and nap?’ Soarame nodded in thought. No wonder he claimed that every time he took a nap, it took a year or so!

  ‘Actually, his main head has been hibernating most of the time; and I can’t blame him.’ Gazbell sighed. ‘That’s why when an extreme scenario happened, like this one today, it took time for him to wake up after hibernating for a century or so — even though his tail-head tried to kick him awake.’

  ‘But once he woke up, you’ve all witnessed his power.’ Gazbell still couldn’t get over the splendid victory. ‘Only it was a bit too late; his best friend’s life is at stake now. That’s why he’s so mad at himself — trust me, Soarame, he knows it’s not your fault. Just that, when he’s upset, he becomes grumpy… you know, he’s a magimal after all.’

  ‘I have nothing to complain about,’ Soarame said hurriedly. ‘I just don’t understand why dragon blood doesn’t work on Aertiuno?’

  ‘If I knew, he’d have been healed.’ Gazbell sighed. ‘For Aertiuno, the best way to recover is to stay in the centre of this ancient tree, which he brought from his home.’

  ‘This tree is from the Elves’ home?’ Soarame marvelled. According to Naclad in the battle, he had realized that Aertiuno was an elf.

  ‘Yes, it functions like a control centre for all trees on this campus, and Aertiuno can transport himself from here to any of the other trees.’ Gazbell stated. ‘Amazing, isn’t it?’

  ‘Plus he does need that transportation.’ Kastico was trying to smooth the tense atmosphere. ‘He’s really bad at directions and easily gets lost without those trees — like all elves do.’

  ‘They do?’ Soarame was puzzled.
‘All of them?’

  ‘Well… once they leave their home. Elves love trees and their home is forests; they are more capable than you think there. However, just as we can get lost in forests, they can get lost out of them. As the messenger of Elves, Aertiuno is a typical example.’ Kastico smiled. ‘That’s why he has grown countless trees since he joined the school, and Chelonad often laughs at him. Funny thing is, somehow he persuaded Chelonad to grow trees as road signs — to elves, trees are the equivalent of road signs; and he’s imposing that on us.’

  ‘Poochee…’ Soarame was amused. ‘You said he was the messenger of Elves?’

  ‘Aye… that’s a long story that I’m not supposed to talk about. But I think you deserve to know it now.’ Gazbell sighed deeply and sat down. ‘It all started with Naclad…’

  ‘As you’ve learnt, he was a disciple of Scankeen too. It all happened before you were born.’ Gazbell’s gaze became more distant as the story went on. ‘Decades ago, Scankeen brought a super-talented boy to the school. We were impressed by his gifts in Darkness and Wind, and did everything to help him. Naclad didn’t let us down either; his name was famous here for years, just like Rodka a while ago, and the Water Captain nowadays.’

  ‘Well…’ Soarame scratched his head.

  ‘But then he started to change somehow… somehow dark.’ Gazbell was immersed in his memories. ‘In the beginning we didn’t think much about it, because one of his majors was Darkness anyway. Until one day, Kastico decided to spy on him and discovered his scary dark secret — he was so talented to have discovered a connection between Darkness and Death magic, and had started practising it secretly. We all knew about Death magic because it’s forbidden in most places, but we had never heard that Darkness could actually evolve into it… Kastico, why don’t you tell us the details of what happened on that day?’

  ‘We had a confrontation, Naclad and I. The boy was unwilling to destroy the skeletons that he had been cultivating, so he besieged me with them. Back then he’d barely reached Expert level in Wind and Darkness, but with Death magic he was a lot more powerful in a real battle — I guess that’s why he was so blindly confident.’ Kastico shook his head. ‘Fortunately, Lightning is very effective against Death, so he suffered a miserable defeat and lost all his Death works. But when we questioned him about how he’d connected Darkness with Death magic, we failed to get an answer out of him.’

  ‘The fight was ferocious enough to startle lots of people, so I had no choice but to kick him out.’ Gazbell continued. ‘Scankeen was astonished to hear about this, of course. He came to pick up Naclad, only to see that the boy was devastated. He had no interest in magic anymore due to the total crush, and he lost interest in himself after that, too.’ Gazbell propped his forehead for a sigh. ‘Scankeen had no better choice but to leave him to idle for a while, until one day the boy suddenly disappeared — no one has been able to find him ever since, not even Scankeen using his mind-scan. That was very weird, because a Legendary Master’s mind-scan is supposed to cover hundreds of miles and all details within them; even if a Darkness wizard hides himself in shadows or anywhere else, for that matter. However, Naclad just disappeared, for a long time.’

  ‘Years later, allied troops of Druids and Elves came charging at us. They claimed that someone had sneaked into their shrine and stolen their most precious treasure — a physical-defensive Godmade called Mercy of Demiurge.’ Gazbell paused and looked at Soarame. ‘The very magigear that Max was wearing. Thanks to your mind painting, we finally got a clue about it after so many years, but we didn’t know how Max got it from Naclad. Worst part is, we still cannot locate Max.’

  ‘Master told me part of this story — the Druids part.’ Soarame was finally enlightened. ‘But he never told me there was a war!’

  ‘There was. Druids and Elves thought it was the Sunrise Alliance’s dark plan to steal their Godmade, but fortunately we convinced them to trust us in the end.’ Gazbell was indignant as he narrated this part of the story. ‘According to their description of the thief, we ascertained that it was Naclad. Scankeen searched for him for months and finally found his whereabouts, then they had a bloody battle — but I don’t know the details. In the end, Scankeen returned but, strangely, he didn’t manage to capture Naclad… did he tell you about this?’

  ‘Yes, he did.’ Soarame was now much clearer about the whole story. ‘But he didn’t give me any detail either.’

  ‘That makes sense. You were too young to know such dark stories.’ Gazbell nodded. ‘The Sunrise Alliance was once suspicious about Scankeen, because he was way more powerful than Naclad back then, so it was very strange that he failed to capture him. However, they had to believe him because not only was he injured himself, but also his magimal, Volsta, was disabled in the battle.’

  ‘Do you know what Volsta looks like?’ Soarame hurriedly asked.

  ‘You are his disciple, and you ask me?’ Gazbell was surprised. ‘I was just about to ask you!’

  ‘Master wouldn’t let me see Volsta because he was still not recovered.’ Soarame was frustrated. ‘And I did hear Volsta moaning in pain from time to time.’

  ‘It was that bad?’ Kastico couldn’t help cutting in. ‘Something must have gone totally wrong in that battle… But the entire Sunrise Alliance has kept silent on this subject ever since, so we never knew.’

  ‘What about Aertiuno then?’ Halgon finally asked his first question so far. ‘How is he relevant to all this?’

  ‘Oh, he’s the one that helped us gain the Druids’ and Elves’ trust.’ Gazbell patted his forehead for digressing. ‘You know that Aertiuno was capable of some mind-control spells, so that he performed a truth test on our Masters and realized that we weren’t lying.’

  ‘Aertiuno is that powerful?’ Soarame was shocked. ‘He can do that to our Masters?’

  ‘Partially because our Masters volunteered to let him.’ Gazbell smiled. ‘But don’t you ever take him for granted — he’s just one step from a Master too!’

  ‘How old is he?’ Halgon asked. ‘I heard that Elves look younger than they are, because they have a much longer lifespan than humans.’

  ‘You know a lot, boy. He’s older than me, but I don’t know by how much exactly.’ Gazbell raised his eyebrows at Halgon. ‘Due to Aertiuno’s special mind-control capacity — which was rare anywhere, he was assigned to be the messenger between Druids, Elves and Sunrise Alliance. Then he volunteered to serve our school after he heard the story of Naclad, and became the entry examiner, to spot out bad boys in the first place. Oh, he had to grow lots of trees around that castle first, of course.’

  ‘Oh my.’ Soarame was suspecting that Aertiuno had detected all his little secrets since the very beginning. ‘What magic lineage do his mind-control spells belong to? They’re different from the mind attack spells in Light, aren’t they?’

  ‘Definitely. The mind attack in Light is much simpler; it cannot do complicated illusion and mind control like Aertiuno does.’ Gazbell sighed deeply. ‘Let’s hope Aertiuno wakes up soon, so that he can answer your question.’

  ‘And hope Sandoray is safe too.’ Soarame muttered. ‘Aertiuno is at least lying in one of our beds, but Sandoray…’

  ‘We are already searching for her. You two can go and rest for now.’ Gazbell and Kastico looked at each other, both worried. ‘Please keep Naclad’s story to yourselves. We don’t want any fear to spread.’

  Following Kastico, Soarame and Halgon walked a long way downstairs, until they reached the ground floor. After opening the door in front of them, they were surprised to find a very familiar place behind the door —

  ‘Tropical Spirit?’ Standing in the restaurant, Soarame nodded in enlightenment. He recalled that, the first time he met “Ericson” here, the boy had claimed there was a top floor up there — now Soarame believed that he must have been spying around. Thinking about “Ericson”, Soarame felt as though everything had been a bad dream — the Darkness wizard that he had been so overjoyed to find, the warm
-hearted boy who had helped him with the auction, the famous ghost gust that helped the Resurgers get into the final Championship, the dear friend who almost sacrificed for saving him in the Jankide Quest… they were all affectations in the first place?! The only reason he had shown up here as a waiter was to “coincidentally” become a friend with him?

  ‘Tell me about Naclad.’ Halgon patted Soarame’s shoulder. ‘I may be able to help predict his next move.’

  ‘Sure.’ Soarame began to tell the story as they walked out of the empty restaurant. The more Soarame recalled about “Ericson”, the more details he realized he had previously ignored. Since that boy had “reluctantly” joined the Resurgers and became a close friend of Soarame, he had been using all kinds of subtle influences to lure him out of the school. The most obvious effort had been about the auction — “Ericson” persuaded Soarame to go for it, and he took care of everything in person. The cleverest part was that he didn’t try to push Soarame to go out, but led everyone else out instead, to suggest that it was safe out there. Soarame was sweating as he thought about it — he had really been planning to attend the next auction!

  Moreover, “Ericson” had been making other efforts, starting with the rehearsal plan. Fortunately for Soarame, the original rehearsal programme had been replaced by the Jankide Quest and Sunrise Alliance got involved, so Naclad had to abort his kidnapping plan there — but he still had to take the risk of going there, so that he wouldn’t be pushed out of the circle. That was why when Naclad heard about the sudden update on the quest, he was so disturbed and had to re-plan everything; and that’s why he was mind-occupied when the friends were configuring the teams, and had to use the spider joke to distract them. Then, during the quest, when Soarame was caught by the spiders at the cavern exit, he’d quickly decided to fake his rescue in order to gain Soarame’s trust — there was no way that those spiders could have hurt him.

  Taking advantage of that trust, Naclad started to encourage Soarame to bring forward his graduation date. Besides direct verbal encouragement, he’d tried to help the Resurgers win the Championship, so that Soarame would be willing to graduate after accomplishing his aspirations regarding the Water glory. Both Soarame and Halgon had to admit that Naclad did a great job on this — he flawlessly faked a Grade-4 student regarding his magic power, but he did so much more using his brain.