Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘He’s so good at psychology.’ Halgon marvelled. ‘Think about how you won the quarter final. His plays were amazing.’

  ‘Indeed. He seemed to be able to predict people’s move… Wait a minute! I almost forgot this!’ Soarame was suddenly enlightened as he recalled the golden colour. ‘He can read minds! I think that’s the reason!’

  ‘Mind reading? Are you sure?’ Halgon looked serious. ‘With his master-level power, if he read my mind…’

  ‘No, I don’t think he did.’ Soarame closed his eyes and frowned. He was devoting himself to recalling all the details. ‘I now know that the mind-related spells come with golden colour…’

  With great concentration, everything about the Master-level battle was recast in Soarame’s memory. Chelonad had claimed he had evidence against Naclad, and Naclad smiled at Soarame after spelling something to Chelonad — that must have been when he saw Soarame’s mind-painting in Chelonad’s mind. Then Naclad switched to reading Soarame’s mind, because he wondered how Soarame could tell he was spelling; and the result was that he instantly learnt that Soarame was a Magneer! If that wasn’t mind reading, how else did Naclad know Soarame’s biggest secret all of a sudden?

  ‘He can read minds, I’m sure! But when he does that, the golden colour will shine. So it’s not something that he does all the time — probably because it’s not an easy spell!’ Soarame opened his eyes, with both excitement and nervousness. ‘So, I don’t think he ever read your mind. And I think he could only read people’s temporal minds, rather than their entire memory.’

  ‘That makes sense. He never really cared to check me.’ Halgon heaved a sigh of relief. ‘I think the reason that he threw me into the palatorium was for Icer. He probably wanted a firntiger, but he needed time to break the bond between me and Icer — to a Master with mind-related spells, it’s probably doable. So he took me along, so that the mind-talk between us wouldn’t expose his whereabouts.’

  Soarame nodded. Then he started to think more deeply. Details of all the golden-coloured scenarios emerged in his mind piece by piece, forming into a series of speculations. The first time was in Tropical Spirit; Naclad had approached the friends and introduced his Darkness capacity, opening the window for the friends to invite him to the Resurgers. Having read Soarame’s mind about Halgon, he actively proposed to be the secondary Darkness player, leaving Soarame no reason for a second thought.

  The second time, he’d learnt the details of Soarame’s mind-painting skills, so he suggested the auction right away and made constant efforts to make it happen. The third time was after the poison attack; when the friends talked about Rodka’s incident, he had obtained first-hand information on Max, which was perhaps his best gain. Then he quickly made a decision — to use Myriad Eyes as the motivation for Soarame to go out of campus for a rehearsal — but it had failed due to the Jankide Quest. The fourth time, he’d realized Soarame’s master was actually Scankeen — that’s why he suddenly looked shocked and stammered…

  ‘This guy is scary.’ Soarame was sweating as he recalled everything. If his speculations were right, he was really lucky to have survived. ‘No wonder he was so upset about missing the beastide. It would have been the perfect opportunity for him to kidnap me out there.’

  ‘Sadly, the real Ericson must have been a Grade-4 or even less when Naclad got him.’ Halgon nodded. ‘Naclad decided to become a Grade-5 right after the first announcement on the beastide, which was already a little suspicious. So he couldn’t jump to Grade 6 after only a few days.’

  ‘But he didn’t have to worry about all this!’ Soarame propped his forehead on his hand and thought hard. ‘He had a palatorium! He could have just used it as soon as he got here.’

  ‘You can only put someone into your palatorium if he allows you to, or if he lost consciousness.’ Halgon was trying to sort things out. ‘That’s why Naclad had to drug us first. And in order to avoid attentions, he needs to do it in a private place — like our dorm.’

  ‘Even so, he had so many chances before this, but he didn’t do it. What was he waiting for?’ Soarame shook his head. ‘To activate Myriad Eyes? No. I don’t believe that he needed us for six Expert soulcores. We must have missed something.’

  ‘You are right. He said he borrowed the palatorium, remember?’ Halgon smacked his head. ‘It’s not his!’

  ‘So his initial plan was just to get me out one way or another, then he changed his plan and borrowed the palatorium?’ Soarame nodded thoughtfully. ‘His patience ran out? Because everything seemed to go out of his control?’

  ‘Most likely. But the point here is that he’s not alone. He has rich resources somewhere.’ Halgon started to worry. ‘A palatorium is not something that one can borrow whenever one wants to. And the cost must be scary — as he mentioned. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited this long.’

  ‘And his resources can’t be too far from Cylone City — the only time window for him to leave campus and get the palatorium was the day before we returned from the beastide.’ Soarame started to worry too. ‘The gate was open for only one day before we came back, but he had already returned with the palatorium. That’s fast!’

  ‘And he used it for only one hour before it got destroyed.’ Halgon mocked. ‘That’s faster.’

  ‘Err… true.’ Soarame wasn’t sure if he should feel proud or worried. ‘He must hate me to death now.’

  ‘Well, he must hate Chelonad more, but what can he do about him?’ Halgon mocked again. ‘If it hadn’t been for his scrolls, he’d be dead already.’

  ‘No kidding! Those scrolls were unbelievable!’ Soarame couldn’t get over the scrolls, especially the Godrealm one. ‘No wonder he bristled after using them.’

  ‘Of course. If he hadn’t been trying to save them since the beginning, he could have used the teleportation scroll to take you out easily.’ Halgon sneered. ‘But he certainly wasn’t willing to; especially as he’d already used one scroll — to change his appearance to Ericson’s.’

  ‘Really?’ Soarame’s eyes widened. ‘That’s from a scroll too?’

  ‘It must be. That’s a transformation spell in Life magic — I don’t think he’s capable of that.’ Halgon offered some new knowledge. ‘Remember the Druids? That’s their best spell.’

  ‘Oh my!’ Soarame’s eyes shone as he was enlightened. Druids were known to be brilliant at changing their appearance, and now Soarame finally knew why they were natural allies with Elves — both races were born with the gift of Life magic.

  ‘But it’s very odd that he has so many extraordinary scrolls. They were supposed to be very rare.’ Halgon frowned as he went on. ‘Where did he get them?’

  ‘He’s a thief, remember?’ Soarame said. ‘The scrolls must be stolen.’

  ‘But I doubt if anyone would have had any of those scrolls for him to steal — especially the Godrealm one! It’s more likely that he gained them through some extraordinary experiences.’ Halgon suddenly smacked his head at this. ‘Remember what Kastico said? Naclad disappeared for decades and even Scankeen’s mind-scan couldn’t find him.’

  ‘What are you suggesting?’ Soarame was confused.

  ‘I don’t know, but that part must be significant.’ Halgon looked as if he was deep in thought. ‘Why don’t you ask your master? You are big enough to know those secrets now!’

  FILTON

  Soarame spent a long day in tricky story-telling after he got back to the dorm. According to the Principal’s edict, he was not supposed to talk about the battle, but there was no way to cover up the “what the heck is the scary moving bridge” part. The friends spent a whole night asking about Chelonad, and Soarame could only imagine Gazbell’s headache when everyone demanded an explanation.

  Other than that, the faking of Ericson was not an easy let-go either —

  ‘I still can’t believe all this…’ A few days later, Catheray was still downhearted. ‘He’s a fake? He didn’t mean to help us get soulcores, but just wanted to get Soar out of campus?’
>
  ‘Accept it.’ Omifo said. ‘Myriad Eyes was never a secret of his family, blah-blah. He just wanted us to keep him from being noticed by other people, and we all signed a magic pact!’

  ‘But he seemed to be a good guy!’ Vivarin said sadly. ‘Remember the skin-peeling story at the auction?’

  ‘True!’ Alice agreed. ‘I still remember his eyes and tone — he actually hated it! He wasn’t pretending!’

  ‘He probably really hated the cruel behaviour of mankind.’ Halgon nodded in thought. ‘He did say that he wanted to make the world a better place…’

  ‘By kidnapping Soarame?’ Kardiac barked. ‘He betrayed us! He was part of our dragon-slayer team, and he betrayed us!’

  ‘Dragon-slayer team?’ Halgon’s face was twitching.

  ‘‘That guy is complicated.’ Soarame recalled the skinless corpses; he had been having some ideas about them. ‘He’s done a lot of bad things, apparently. But maybe he isn’t pure evil.’

  ‘He tried to harm you, but you speak up for him?’ Jemario was angry. ‘What if he had kidnapped you?’

  Soarame wanted to pacify Jemario, but she looked really upset and walked away. He was about to follow, but his emblem suddenly vibrated — it was a message from the Principal, an urgent summons. Therefore, the poor boy had to watch the girl disappear, and head for the Tropical Peak again.

  ‘Soarame, things have become complicated.’ Gazbell and Kastico were both waiting for him. ‘Bad news today… Sorry.’

  ‘Aertiuno?! Sandoray?!’ Soarame immediately felt dizzy. ‘No… not possible!’

  ‘It’s not about them. It’s about you.’ Gazbell hurriedly stopped the boy from making wrong guesses. ‘You have to leave the school by the end of this week… I’m sorry for this sudden notice.’

  ‘What?’ Soarame was startled. He felt his heart chill. ‘Why?’

  ‘Many students believe that you’ve brought danger to this school, and they’ve been complaining like hell recently.’ Gazbell said. ‘Unfortunately, some heard part of the conversation at the battle, and they believe that the bad guy was here for you.’

  ‘Let me guess… Matt, Ben, Casavin.’ Soarame looked angry. ‘Was it all of them, or some?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. According to the rules, since you became an Expert a while ago, you should have left already.’ Chelonad’s voice sounded out of nowhere. ‘You don’t really think I can’t tell that, do you?’

  ‘Chelonad, I’m sorry for Aertiuno…’ Soarame didn’t know what else to say. It had been kind of Chelonad to keep his secrets this long. Fortunately, Halgon had not been summoned here, meaning that his secret was not exposed yet — Soarame tried to comfort himself with that thought.

  ‘Let it go. Gazbell was right; it was more my fault than yours. If my main head had stayed awake…’ Chelonad sighed. ‘However, as harsh as it sounds, another part of my fault was to let you stay. If I had sent you out in the first place, everyone would have been fine — except for you, I know.’

  ‘It does sound harsh, Chelonad!’ Gazbell rebuked.

  ‘It’s okay, he didn’t say anything wrong.’ Soarame was feeling so sad. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve been selfish!’

  ‘Don’t say that! No one calls a dragon blood donator selfish!’ Gazbell grabbed Soarame’s shoulder hard. ‘Plus, I’m the one who made you stay. But Naclad’s lesson showed us that this school can’t really protect you. You need protection from Sunrise Alliance, until you can protect yourself one day.’

  ‘I see.’ Soarame nodded. ‘Please keep me updated on Aertiuno and Sandoray after I leave.’

  ‘For sure. Fortunately, things may be better than you thought — Sandoray may be able to escape and come back safely, because I actually injured Naclad really badly before he teleported away.’ Chelonad’s words cheered Soarame. ‘You probably didn’t see that, but I’m sure he’s half dead now.’

  ‘Thanks to this wonderful news, we know Naclad won’t be a threat any time soon. Therefore, you should head for Sunrise Alliance; the sooner the better, for your own good.’ Gazbell patted Soarame’s shoulder. ‘I can personally send you to the Alliance, if you want. But the Naclad incident taught me that my arrangements were no guarantee of anything; fate tends to play games. So I’m thinking… maybe it’s better that I leave you alone, and see how it goes.’

  ‘Sure. I’ll go by myself.’ Soarame nodded as he was reminded of Ecrif’s words. ‘I’ll go and get prepared then.’ Soarame had to accept the sudden change of plan now. Fortunately, graduation wasn’t totally unwelcome to him — he could finally go and find Scankeen now!

  ‘Very well. Your badge can get you timely help from Sunrise Alliance, so you should be fine even if Max comes for you.’ Gazbell obviously appreciated the boy’s courage. ‘But I’m sorry that I can’t let you play the Dragon&Empires Championship anymore, since you are actually an Expert.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Soarame waved his hands. Now that the Myriad Eyes had been triggered, he didn’t care about the award anymore. ‘But I need to tell you one thing…’

  WING — Just as Soarame was thinking of the Myriad Eyes, he suddenly felt a head-splitting pain. At the same time, he received a warning message in his mind, alerting him against becoming a soul-slave of Naclad!

  ‘What is it?’ Gazbell was puzzled to see the boy suddenly look pale.

  ‘Nothing. Err…’ Soarame hurriedly aborted his careless attempt, sweating. He’d almost forgotten that he’d signed a magic pact to keep the information about Myriad Eyes confidential. ‘Well, it’s about this…’

  With that, Soarame quickly pulled himself together, and mind-painted a pair of snow boots — the ones that he’d seen in the hologram of Max. ‘Do you know anything about this kind of boots?’

  ‘Tottwal boots?’ While Gazbell was pondering, Kastico spoke out. ‘What about them? They are very common boots in the Tottwal Empire, because the country is always covered in thick snow.’

  ‘Tottwal? Are you sure?’ Soarame was overjoyed to have obtained this clue. He knew that the Tottwal Empire was northwest to the Arkward Empire, where they were right then. ‘Sorry, I can’t tell you why this is important to me, but please be certain!’

  ‘Oh?’ Kastico became solemn. He checked the painting several times. ‘Yes, they’re Tottwal boots. I grew up there. It can’t be wrong.’

  ‘Thank you so much!’ Soarame nodded hard. ‘I’ll go and prepare my trip now.’ In order to be safe, Soarame decided not to talk about anything related to Myriad Eyes. But he was planning to visit Tottwal, and once he found any hint about Max or Rodka, he’d use the badge to summon help — then anything he said wouldn’t be specifically about Myriad Eyes anymore.

  ‘Good. But before you go, we’d like to offer you something helpful for your journey.’ Gazbell led Soarame downstairs and stopped before a heavy door. ‘This is the treasury of the school, for magigears on or above Expert level — for example, the Epic ones.’ With that, Gazbell opened the heavy door. The scene behind the door dazed Soarame — it was a large array of shelves with countless magigears on them.

  ‘The school has decided to let you pick three from the treasury, to thank you for your donation of the dragon blood.’ Gazbell smiled. ‘Frankly, it’s a bit unfair for you because dragon blood is nowhere to be exchanged; so feel free to pick three Epics as you think best.’

  ‘Really?’ Soarame was overjoyed. ‘But I… I need some time to think.’ Soarame never forgot that the dragon blood was not really his, so he wanted to pick them for Halgon after speaking with him.

  ‘Of course. Take your time.’ Gazbell smiled. ‘But let’s give you some advice first.’ With that, Gazbell and Kastico led Soarame into the treasury.

  It took three hours for them to show him around the treasury and give advice on its contents. Soarame memorized all the information, but Halgon turned down Soarame’s offer as soon as he heard it. The reason was simple — ‘I don’t have a space-ring to keep them. What do you think they will think of me, if they see I have
your magigears? Don’t forget those are for your dragon blood donation!’

  ‘Just take the most useful ones for you, and be safe out there.’’ Halgon stopped Soarame from arguing. ‘I have more dragon blood than you think, and you’ll take some with you for your journey too!’

  ‘What about you?’ Soarame hurriedly asked. ‘Are you gonna stay here? That’s not your style.’

  ‘I’d go with you if it weren’t for my dad.’ Halgon sighed. ‘You know I sneaked out… Dad will be mad once he wakes up. And he’s capable of getting to me wherever I go — except for a limited selection of places, such as this campus.’

  ‘I see. Damn… you just came back, but I have to leave?’ Taking a potion of dragon blood from Halgon, Soarame wasn’t sure what else to say. He didn’t need to thank him, because their sworn brotherhood had been forged through their deadly adventures, one after another. Soarame was making an oath inside his head, that nothing would stand between Halgon and himself, no matter what happened in the future!

  Do you believe in fate? Out of nowhere, Ecrif’s words echoed in Soarame’s mind. This made Soarame decide to make a serious attempt to comprehend the question, as it reminded him of so many unpredictable possibilities in the future. For example, his best friend’s father was a dragon — he was supposed to be a mortal enemy of mankind! If people discovered it one day, what’s next?

  Hopefully, that day will never come. Soarame was on his way to Jemario’s dorm. Although he was still not sure how to tell her about the sudden change of plan, he didn’t have the luxury of waiting.

  It’s here. Soarame stopped in front of a delicate building, watching Jemario’s window quietly. Jemario’s dorm building had been upgraded in a very different way from his, so that its colour and shape seemed soft and fruity. Soarame seldom visited her dorm because the girls tended to keep their privacy and hang out in his instead, but this time...