October 8, 3109
Scouts Lessons, Forest
"What can I say, you really have something that draws you to the major clans," Liam said, sounding almost disappointed in me. I didn't pay it much attention and gestured for him to continue.
"Samuel Flareplume, the representative of the younger generation from one of the four major ManaDomain clans, is the illegitimate son of the clan chief. He was considered talented from a young age, but only because the other descendants of the ManaDomain clans were already mature and involved in clan duties. That lasted until Lirael Windor appeared, stealing Samuel's place under the sun, becoming the promising future of ManaDomein."
Liam now explained to me what he had found out about a piece of trash who pushed me to the edge of emotional stability.
"Don't you know he has some vices?"
"Nothing specific. I just know he's directly considered the clan chief's tail, always following and carrying out his every command."
"Really? No scandals or gossip at all?"
"Even if there were, considering that the Flareplume clan is currently in a dispute with Skycoil over a mining permit in the Southeast, near the border between two clans, any rumor could damage their image and cause a major loss, that's why they do everything possible to maintain the concept of an ideal family and clan with major promises of improving the standard of living in their territories."
There are four major ManaDomain clans: Whitefang, Duskshell, Skycoil, and Flareplume. Each holds a Magic Tower in the north, east, south, and west, respectively.
Back when I was still in Cindercrest, they were seen as mad scientists who would do anything for a breakthrough in formation research.
"Something unusual," Liam continued, "is that unofficially, almost everyone close to Samuel sees Lirael as his future wife. But he himself hasn't confirmed anything."
The hand I had resting on the ground slowly closed into a fist, crushing the grass beneath it.
"Stop. He doesn't say anything about it?"
Suddenly, I reflected on Liam's wording.
"Of course," Liam said, lying back on the ground. "If he said anything, the gossip would turn into a clan statement. Then other powers would start asking questions, especially since Lirael is currently the most sought-after bride, one that even GlaciarDominion wouldn't refuse."
Ahhh. Problematic.
I suddenly stopped walking and fixed my gaze on Liam.
"Even the Forest Guardians are interested?"
"Meh, not really. My brother's already engaged to a side-branch descendant of the GlaciarDominion, and I definitely won't follow the guild's wishes. I don't think my parents will force me either, but besides that, the competition for Lirael takes place in a league far above what my guild can afford to enter."
Liam's words only made me feel more worried inside
"And I personally... am not interested in Lirael?"
Liam sat up from his lying position, crossed his legs, and focused his gaze on me.
Resting his head on his hand, with his chin propped up, he said...
"Now that's a discussion I didn't expect to unfold with you," he said, a smile spreading across his face.
"If we've already started, I have something to share… I like Luna."
That completely caught me off guard.
"Are you serious?"
"Absolutely! We've known each other for a long time thanks to all the gatherings we both attended. She was always trying to avoid Astrel's gaze and I, from my mother, who's constantly trying to make new connections or find potential wives. It became quite common for the two of us to slip away and talk in private, away from everyone else."
When Liam was talking about Luna, a pure smile appeared on his face, not the idiotic one with which he was constantly just thinking about how to cause problems, but a true and sincere one.
"But! I hope you haven't forgotten about Astrel?"
"I know!!"
Pausing in thought, Liam studied me for a moment before continuing.
"Do you know the general situation between the major clans right now?"
If he'd asked me this a few years ago, I could have answered in detail but not anymore.
"To some extent, but not the latest updates."
"In short, the major clans are currently split between two competing ideologies. On one side, you have Cindercrest, who want to continue military actions against other races. On the other side is GlaciarDominion, who want to stabilize the situation within our territories."
"I'm familiar with that," I replied with a nod.
"Right now, the power balance is equal. Each side has four allied clans assuming we ignore other guilds or independent organizations. Because of that, no definitive decisions can be made; the parties are too divided. The borders between clans are set, and order is maintained within them. But the moment you step outside a clan's area of influence, it's chaos. Anarchy. A fight for survival. Organizing a large-scale raid is impossible; your neighbors will immediately accuse you of trying to annex their territory."
"From that, I can assume the only way out is either for one clan to change sides or abstain from their voting rights."
"Exactly. But if anyone suddenly shifts their support, the side they abandon will feel betrayed, while the side they move toward will regard them with suspicion."
"Not Duskthorn!"
"Bingo, my friend. Everyone knows their situation and Astrel's actions only emphasizes how underestimated they are in their current situation. They're being trampled by their own allies."
It was clear: the goal was to give the suffering clan an alternative a way out of their dead-end situation. In doing so, someone hoped to gain a decisive vote.
"But how do you solve the clan's core problem? Their financial troubles, while significant, aren't the real issue. But the world hasn't forgotten the Mist Catastrophes."
The catastrophe with the greatest damage since the last war.
Black Rose Town, the largest city under Duskthorn Enclave's control.
Because of a mutation of the black rose species—once the city's main attraction, kept in a greenhouse at its center—it began to emit spores that bonded with the Mana Heart. These spores grew inside the body, causing horrific deaths by suffocation. Victims lost the ability to breathe due to aether buildup in the lungs, which blocked respiration entirely.
Seventy-two hours. Around 100,000 victims. Out of nearly a million residents, the city was evacuated and declared black territory.
Even during the war, no such loss of life had occurred in such a short time.
This accident shattered all trust in the clan and forced it into astronomical compensation costs. And yet, it still retained its title—though now only in name.
"I don't know anything for sure either—just that there were some ambiguities. But as for what exactly they're going to announce? No idea," said Liam with a shrug.
Then, acting on impulse, he suddenly darted toward me at high speed. I managed to dodge left just in time, nearly getting crushed between Liam and a nearby tree.
BOOM.
Instead, Liam slammed into the tree and hugged it tightly, his face pressed flat against the bark.
When I turned my gaze to the cause of the commotion, I saw the familiar bunny appear in my field of vision standing upright on its hind legs.
"Youuu, today for sure you'll turn into dead meat!"
Peeling himself off the tree he had just embraced, Liam lunged at Moco in frustration, cursing the awkwardness of the situation he'd just created.
.
.
.
Let's see how ideally the Flareplume Clan descends.
Liam had told me that his additional lessons were in:
Political Correctness — which usually meant gatherings of people with considerable power across different fields.
Fire Dominance — the study of the fire element.
But the third one remained a complete mystery. Not only had Liam failed to learn the subject, but he couldn't even discover the instructor's name.
The only known detail was this: once a week, around sunset, Samuel after finishing his lessons left his room again, heading in an unknown direction with six or seven of his vassals.
And today happened to be that day.
After finishing our Unarmed Combat class, Liam, Nero, and I headed off to rest. Earlier, Lia had told me she wanted to focus today on classes with Ms. Selina my Aether Control teacher. She also taught a class titled Conceptual Understanding Between Aether and Intention.
When Lia told me the course name, I instantly knew I wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't even understand it at the level of the name.
(And that's after listening to a 30-minute explanation about how thought and intention manifest in Aether and other nonsense I forgot within a minute once we changed the topic.)
After showering and changing into clean clothes, I left my room and walked down the hall, passing other rooms on the way to the main exit.
Once I reached the main hall, I leaned against the wall facing back toward the hallway I came from.
Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the vibrations around me. Or at least, I tried.
The sheer number of sounds from the other rooms and from people on this floor and the floors above made it nearly impossible.
Someone turned the music up to maximum volume. From another room, I could hear people arguing—objects crashing to the floor. Someone else was taking a shower. One floor above, someone played the violin. A group had just entered the hall, yet their voices still rang very loudly.
The amount of information was overwhelming.
If these sensations were usually filtered out without thought, now, with my senses deliberately opened in search of something specific, it was almost impossible to ignore them. A headache began pulsing behind my eyes, throbbing worse with every new disturbance.
Vibrations. I only need vibrations. I don't need sounds or smells—just vibrations!
Time passed. I couldn't tune out the irrelevant noise. The headache worsened, and all the extra information blurred into confusion instead of clarity.
It was already past 9 p.m., and the long-awaited person hadn't appeared. At this point, I wasn't even sure I could recognize him among the chaos of sound and interference. My headache was already too severe for clear focus, and the sun was quickly hiding behind the horizon.
It means not today…
I began walking back toward my room.
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
I sensed someone in shoes walking through the hall. The sound was heavy and familiar, like footsteps on resinous wood.
Hello, my dear…
.
.
.
At first, I trailed the group of eight from a distance, keeping them in sight. But as we moved away from the crowded areas, I had to rely entirely on the vibrations they emitted, fortunately strong enough, given the number of vibration generators and the fact that they don't really hide themself.
Then suddenly, the group stopped. Without warning, they split off into four pairs, each rushing off in different directions.
I had no choice—I followed the nearest pair.
For five minutes, they moved with their Mana Domains activated. Their presence was obvious and loud in the aether, making it easy to track them without being detected.
"Do we really have to deal with this every time?" one of them asked, his voice projected clearly enough for me to hear from afar.
"You already know how paranoid Saimon can be?" the second one answered with an equally exhausted tone.
"Yeah, he acts like he's some great criminal, being hunted by everyo…"
The speaker stopped mid-sentence.
That's when I noticed it: a magic circle had formed. White in color, with a triangle inscribed inside, facing my direction.
Their Domain's aether surged toward the circle and turned it red. The magic circle condensed into a sphere of flame, then split into three fire-formed arrows that shot toward me.
But they didn't find their mark. They struck only the ground, igniting the terrain and casting flickering light across the shadows nearby.
"What happened?" the second one was also surprised by the unexpected attack of his colleague
"It seemed to me that I felt someone it in my Domein" the second one answering him with shades of distrust in his words
"Man you scare me, I already thought it was something serious, come on quickly if Saimon starts to go crazy why we were late you will talk to him"
So the 3 of us headed towards an abandoned building near the walls of the academy, this being 20 meters long with only 1 floor, some broken windows and the building itself being completely made of wood and the roof being triangular with some gaps in it.
In the darkness of the night a window in this building transmits the light that attracted the two adventurers, when the 2 approached it a person opened it allowing them to enter inside.
I activated the head armor and stood on one of the trees, but with a clear field of vision exactly towards that window.
But nothing extraordinary was that the group of 8 people sat in armchairs that were placed around a round table as if they were the great knights of the round table.
OMG calm down, Who do you consider yourself, have some self-esteem. No! Have some less self-esteem!
This farce had continued for about 1 hour where they were drinking alcohol and laughing like a group of degenerates that they were in my eyes. I was already getting nauseous watching how 8 imbeciles were spending their time when something really considerable happened.
All participants except Simon took out of their inner pockets some cards very similar to mine but they had different amounts from 1000 to 5000 indicated on them with a kind of marker.
Then they started counting these cards in turn to give them to Simon. When the last one also finished his transmission Simon stood up and headed towards the left wall leaving the field of view, while I was thinking about changing my position or not, Simon had already turned towards the round table with 3 zipped packages.
Opening the first one he took out some kind of red pills distributing to each of those present a different amount of them, followed by a green capsule and from the last package he distributed…. money, regular banknotes that can't even be used here.
Oh you little dirty drug dealer!