Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘Wow.’ Seeing the chaos below, Catheray was amazed. ‘I’m almost becoming a fan of Soar myself.’

  ‘Were you not already?’ Kardiac teased, despite receiving a punch again. ‘Thank god this guy didn’t talk about Soarame’s Lightning gift! That’s really considerate for someone like him.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ The waiter rushed forward. ‘Did you just say Soarame was a Lightning wizard too?’

  ‘Ah… no, no. I didn’t mean that.’ Kardiac was caught off guard. ‘Wait… wait!’ Seeing the waiter hurriedly run out with excitement, what could Kardiac do other than scratching his head?

  With a flurry, while everyone was waiting for him to continue the story, the host suddenly lifted the cover on the painting. Allowing a few seconds for the visual impact of the painting itself, the host then started talking again. ‘This is the unique mind painting! Take your time to examine the absolutely incredible painting style — no other painter can ever do it, because it’s magic! This skill belongs exclusively to Mr Soarame Jadeking!’

  With that, all the senior assessors of the hall stepped on to the stage, verifying the host’s words with their well-known reputation. ‘The painting is of the Wind Department of Libral, which you and I will never get the chance to visit. It is this very place where Mr Jadeking learnt Wind magic, and thereby defeated the evil! So this painting has its own special meaning for the artist; plus, it is the very first time Mr Jadeking has exhibited his work to the public!’ The host then made his final point: ‘Think about it: if this talented young man becomes a Master one day, how precious is his very first work going to be? 50 ruby coins, starting now!’

  ‘60!’

  ‘70!’

  ‘80!’

  ‘100!’

  ‘What?’ This time, even Ericson was stunned. The hall had actually made such a crazy attempt without notifying him, and they’d made it work!

  ‘Wait, Soar learnt windblade from his master!’ Jemario frowned. ‘And he never even entered Wind Department before he beat Max!’

  ‘Lady, this is business.’ Ericson sneered. ‘Let go — comparing to the live skin-peeling, don’t you think this is heaven?’

  Ericson’s words made everyone pale again, but thank god he didn’t continue. So the friends watched all the rich people bid like crazy for Soarame’s painting, until an old man locked the final price — 205 ruby coins!

  ‘Holy mama!’ Kardiac had to express his astonishment this way. ‘We were expecting 20, and they gave us an extra zero on the end?’

  ‘Plus a high five!’ Vivarin jumped off the couch and led the cheering!

  WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

  In Soarame’s dorm, the shining red colour from the ruby coins lit up the entire living room, making the boy feel as if he was in a dream. The ruby coins could have been stored at the bank or the auction hall, but Ericson had insisted on bringing them back to daze Soarame — and it had seemed to work out very well.

  The friends had a brief celebration after the success of the auction. They were one step closer to their goal on the soulcore collection, so everyone was happy, except Jemario. Although she still seemed fine, Soarame could tell there was something wrong.

  ‘Guess which two learnt Mirrorface together?’ After the celebration ended, Soarame walked over to Jemario.

  ‘Together?’ Jemario skewed at Soarame. ‘Someone has learnt it, the other one is still learning.’

  ‘Well, it won’t take long.’ Soarame tried to cuddle Jemario’s shoulder, but his hands got patted down halfway. ‘What’s wrong this time?’

  ‘You tell me.’ Jemario smiled at Soarame in a meaningful way. ‘I thought I could trust someone?’

  ‘Err…’ Soarame suddenly started sweating. Oh my god! She knows I’m an Expert?! How come?

  ‘If you’d started learning Lightning, why didn’t you just let us all know? We’d have been happy for you.’ Seeing Soarame lost for words, Jemario sighed. ‘If it hadn’t been for Kardiac at the auction, I wouldn’t even have noticed the change on your emblem. I guess only your buddies knew it, huh?’

  ‘Ahh… no! Oh god.’ Soarame smacked his forehead. He could secretly breathe more easily now, but the situation was still not very good. ‘No one knew it, at least I never told anyone… Oops, I didn’t mean to hide it; just that I’ve been so busy these days…’

  ‘Of course. What a trifle, huh?’ Jemario mocked. ‘Why would the Water Captain bother to share that?’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Soarame hurriedly apologized. ‘It’s not a secret. As you just said, it’s on my emblem. I thought you were worried about…’

  ‘Worried about what?’ Jemario suddenly raised her head and looked straight into Soarame’s eyes. Soarame had to swear at himself inside — What an irredeemable dumbass I am!

  ‘About… emm… hmm…’ Soarame stammered as he tried to think of an excuse as rapidly as he could. ‘I’m hanging out with someone else?’

  ‘A girl? No way.’ Jemario was amused. ‘I can tell that easily — you have no girl experience at all.’

  ‘Wait… what?’ Soarame stared in a blush. ‘Why?’

  ‘The top talent in our school really can’t tell this?’ Jemario couldn’t help chuckling. ‘A kiss on the cheek could stun you for that long… Come on boy, admit it!’

  ‘Hmm… umm…’ Soarame’s face looked red hot. He had to change the topic right away. ‘How did you notice my emblem, anyway?’

  ‘Using my eyes,’ Jemario teased. ‘You are nervous.’

  ‘No, I’m not,’ Soarame took a deep breath and tried to ignore Jemario’s tittering. ‘Aertiuno thought I had reached bottlenecks in both Wind and Water, so he suggested switching my mind to Lightning.’

  ‘Oh my god.’ Jemario stopped tittering at this. She looked at Soarame and covered her mouth. ‘You are lying… so you chose to start Lightning because…? Oh god…’

  What the heck? Soarame so wanted to cry. Am I really that bad? I’ve practised — three times!

  Silence.

  Soarame tried to say something, but this time he was really lost for words. Jemario didn’t seem to be joking; her face became pale and she looked pensive. Soarame realized that he had once again underestimated this smart girl, who was so good at telling people’s true thoughts. Of course, she was extra sensitive to Soarame’s.

  ‘So, your Wind broke through?’ After quite a while, Jemario broke the silence. ‘Does that mean you are about to leave?’

  ‘No… not exactly.’ Soarame had to laugh at himself inside — why hadn’t he just admitted it in the first place?

  ‘Don’t lie to me, please!’ Jemario looked at Soarame. Her eyes started watering. ‘If you have to go away, at least tell me first!’

  ‘I didn’t plan to, I swear to god!’ Soarame wasn’t sure if Jemario would believe him, but he still had to try. He therefore had to tell her everything — other than the part related to Ecrif and Chelonad, the boy revealed all. Jemario looked slightly better after hearing the story, and she seemed glad when Soarame said he had been keeping his secret in order to stay longer.

  ‘How long do you think you have?’ Jemario asked after a while. ‘A month? Two months?’

  ‘No, it’ll be longer than that.’ Soarame quickly estimated. ‘A year at least, I think. My Lightning only just started, so I don’t think I can become an Expert any sooner.’

  ‘A year.’ Jemario pondered with a frown, as if she was making a hard decision. Then she raised her head and looked at Soarame. ‘What are you waiting for, then?’

  ‘Pardon?’ Soarame didn’t follow.

  ‘For me to kiss you again?’ A blush emerged on Jemario’s face. With that, the Water princess slowly closed her eyes, facing upwards, waiting.

  Seeing this, Soarame heard a big “WING” in his head — just how the broadsword had sounded when he tried to summon it. At this moment, Soarame lost all his sanity; he didn’t know what was happening until he was woken up by a pain in his forehead — he had moved too fast in his excitement, so that
he ran into Jemario and bumped his head right on hers.

  ‘Ouch!’ Jemario opened her eyes, astonished. But soon she realized what was going on, so the poor girl had to hold back her amusement and stop Soarame from apologizing — by letting their lips touch!

  ****

  ‘Soarame, are you listening?’

  The next day, a teacher stood in front of Soarame, frowning. It was Soarame’s first day reporting to Lightning Department and he was starting his first class. The teacher in front was named Kastico — a Lightning professor. Although he looked a bit thin and small, no one in this school dared to underestimate the power of this man.

  Because very few students had gifts in Lightning, it had been a tradition that each student here had classes in a one-to-one fashion. So, just then, Soarame was mind-sliding in his very first class in front of his new teacher, whose focus was solely on him. This was certainly not good. Soarame hurriedly woke up to make his apology, but Kastico was already annoyed. So his first Lightning class finished much sooner than was planned, and Soarame walked away as if he were in a dream.

  ‘So, dream-walking is actually not that bad.’ Soarame teased himself. He regretted his impolite behaviour, especially since Lightning was his best bet in magic and he really must learn it well. But, right at this moment, the boy just couldn’t find the desire to care — his mind was still stuck in the instant when Jemario let him have his first kiss.

  It was actually a very brief contact because both were shy; but even so, Soarame swore to god that it had been his most wonderful night ever since he came to this world. He had certainly had to have an all-nighter celebration last night, and he had dragged Kardiac and Omifo for company too —

  ‘Dude, you’ve repeated it 20 times! Trust us, we both heard you!’ Finally, at sunrise earlier this morning, Kardy had had to laugh at Soarame. ‘You two finally got there — we’ve been waiting!’

  So, when Soarame came back to his dorm after the Lightning class, everyone was aware of what had happened. Inevitably, there was another round of teasing and joking.

  ‘Everyone, attention please!’

  Just then, a large voice from outside interrupted the friends’ conversation. The friends recognized that it was Gazbell’s voice, and it was a broadcast echoing in the air.

  ‘Everyone, attention please!’

  ‘Come out of your dorms immediately, and gather at Challengers’ Palace!’

  ‘Challengers’ Palace?’ Everyone was surprised. ‘What’s the big event?’ Challengers’ Palace was a large building on campus, where the most critical events were held. Events such as freshmen admissions and graduate ceremonies would never be held there, because those happened regularly and were not special enough. As far as the friends knew, the last event held at Challengers’ Palace was a grand magimal-awarding ceremony two years ago — it was the very result of the friends’ defeat of Max. Thanks to the incident, Institute of Libral had confiscated all the magigears and magimals from MagiMax. Most of them were not high-ranking, so the institute decided to use some of them as scholarship awards. Of course, Soarame and his friends were all invited to the stage and honoured a great deal, on top of the high-ranking magimals that they had already been awarded. Thus, Soarame and his friends had become famous and started to have real fans, because many students obtained their only magimals thanks to them.

  Two years later, another big event seemed to be happening all of a sudden. This was very unusual, because big events always come with advance notices. The friends hastened towards Challengers’ Palace, making all kinds of guesses along the way.

  From a distance, Challengers’ Palace looked like a big crown with magnificent decorations of all kinds of crystals, gems and unknown materials. Looking at the magnificent building in front of them, the friends were all excited. Especially Soarame; he couldn’t forget that day when he had stood on the stage and received the warmest applause in his life. Stepping into the hall of the palace, the friends instantly saw Mr. Principal already on the stage, waiting quietly. Lots of people had already gathered in the palace — not only students, but also professors. Everyone felt the solemnness of the palace, and tried to keep the noise down.

  ‘Greetings, proud wizards!’ After a short while, Gazbell broke the silence. ‘Sorry to summon you so suddenly, but please get used to it! After all you are wizards, and wizards are born for battles and emergencies! Once you are needed you must instantly show up, no matter when, where and what!’

  Everyone stood upright on hearing this. This made the Principal nod with satisfaction. ‘When you graduate one day, you will most likely report to Sunrise Alliance and become a real wizard who contributes to the maintenance of the peace. There you will receive your assignments or missions to make your contribution. Those missions could be to fight evil, to fight wild magimals, or to save people somewhere. So bear in mind what I just said, and always be alert!’

  ‘What’s going on?’ Kardiac couldn’t help asking his friends in a low voice, but received a light kick from Catheray. It seemed that the reason they were here was even more special than the last time; everyone was holding their breath and staying silent, waiting for the Principal to continue.

  ‘Sometimes, you will be most fortunate and honoured, to have an opportunity for a mission before you even graduate!’ The Principal’s words made all eyes brighten up. ‘This usually means bad things are happening, but it also means great opportunities for you to realize your dream of becoming a real useful being! Have you been longing for a real wizard trial? Have you been yearning for a real battle against evil? Have you ever wanted to prove yourself useful and irreplaceable to the human world?’

  ‘YES!!’ Everyone replied in union, totally excited.

  ‘Well, congratulations! You’ve got one precious opportunity this time!’ Gazbell was pleased to see the students’ reaction. ‘We just received a notice from Sunrise Alliance that a beastide is coming! Its destination seems to be Cylone City, so you will have a chance to show your talent there soon!’

  ‘Beastide?’

  ‘What is that?’

  Many couldn’t help whispering; some were astonished, some were confused.

  ‘For those of you who doesn’t know what a beastide is, learn this well.’ Gazbell looked serious. ‘As you know, most wild magimals were and are enemies to mankind. We fought, fight, and will keep fighting against each other, probably forever. But do you know why?’

  ‘The reason is simple — for resources, for survival.’ Gazbell didn’t tell an old story like “wild magimals are our evil enemies”; instead, he sighed deeply. ‘Wild magimals have to live their lives, just like us — they have to eat, sleep and breed. However, there’s only so much food in the wild area, and sometimes they just can’t find enough to survive. Therefore, they have to invade us.’

  ‘That said, I didn’t mean they came to attack our people for a good reason. I’m just trying to tell you what it is in reality, so that you’ll appreciate the truth.’ Looking around the thoughtful students, Gazbell continued. ‘That’s why we fight back, we kill them as much as we can, but we don’t mistreat their progeny when we get them. And that’s why many of you have magimals as your buddies, because they are innocent, although their parents and grandparents may have killed our people.’

  It was a difficult story, but everyone just had to take it as a matter of fact. Soarame couldn’t help thinking of Volsta — it was the same story that Scankeen and Gazbell told. Good or bad, righteous or evil, sometimes it was straightforward but sometimes it could be very confusing. It could differ case by case, and could be even be up to one’s judgement at times. The Principal meant to train his students’ minds at this time, so that they could make the appropriate judgement one day in the future, if need be.

  Hearing the Principal, all the friends were having different thoughts. Alicey was reminded of the Windwolf soulcore at the auction; Vivarin held a grudge towards humans, because of the skin-peeling stories; Kardiac was picturing Gaga’s parents. The Prin
cipal deliberately stayed quiet after that, letting the students take time to think, until a while later: ‘Usually, after the wild ones killed our people or we killed them, the invasion would be over — either they fed and retreated, or we finished them. And those incidents were usually of a limited scale; like the battles you had in the Jankide Quest.’

  ‘However, sometimes things can be different. If a large number of wild magimals can’t feed sufficiently, not even after fighting and eating each other, they will unite and come together against us.’ The Principal’s words woke everyone up. ‘When this happens, it’s no longer an incident. It’s a disaster. The number of wild magimal beasts could be from a few thousand, to hundreds of thousands! When it reaches the level of ten thousand, we officially call it a beastide.’

  ‘Ten thousand?!’

  ‘Coming at us, now?!’

  The Principal’s words certainly astonished even those who were not already astonished. The younger students were pale as they pictured the endless waves of wild magimals flowing out from woods, one after another.

  ‘But don’t worry too much just yet. This time, the estimated number of magimals is about two thousand, so it’s a mini-tide.’ Gazbell waved his hands to suppress the noise. ‘But even so, it is a dangerous mission for you as students, and we’re still not completely sure about the magimals’ rankings. Therefore, today I’m just announcing this matter so that you can get mentally prepared; our plan is to only allow students of Grade 5 or 6 to volunteer in this mission. As I said, it’s not compulsory, but it’s highly encouraged for the Grade-5-and-aboves to take advantage of this precious opportunity!’

  Gazbell’s encouragement appeared to be successful; the students seemed more and more interested as they realized that it was indeed a rare opportunity. The mini-tide was supposed to be even more challenging than an Expert trial, but with the professors protection it was going to be safer. For the school, the main point was still to protect people from the beastide, but it would be a huge waste if the professors did it all — the beastide would be a dream opportunity for the students to witness what a real battle looks like.