The next day Gillian and Alysse went to collect Carl and Klaire before they headed out, since neither of them thought to actually tell Carl what they had told Matthew.
"Yeah sorry guys, we wanted to get it over with..."
"He means he wanted to get it over with." Alysse corrected, trying to save herself.
Luckily Carl and Klaire were actually quite grateful, this meant they wouldn't have to risk bumping into him throughout the day. So with that, they grabbed lunch kissed their mums goodbye and headed off.
After they left, Lydia explained the plan for Lillim's public departure to put people's minds at ease. Even if she would be heading straight back to Lugaria from the demon realm. Lydia would be finalising her appointment as a medical companion to the group and then would be going to meet Noah to put in a request for some creatures that Carl was pretty excited about.
"Honestly Leanna, he was so adorable when he realised he could tame demonic animals, just like you when you saw that Purgatorial-Chimera as a child."
"Mother, I'm still not used to you back-benching murder, please keep it eighteen plus at least or I might have a stroke." Leanna said, standing to wash her plate and mug before she left.
Leanna, in truth, didn't know what to think. She was happy, happy that Carl had a real Grandmother, happy that even her mother was now more approachable. Deep down though, she was angry and confused.
Lillim knew of course and ordered everyone to get their days started, which was a polite way of saying "get out" and more in-keeping with her new persona.
While they had their mother-daughter bonding moment, the four students were making their way to the designated meeting spot. Not tense, or angry, or negative in anyway, this wasn't a face-off, or a reckoning and they had no reason to ever fear it coming to that.
When they arrived Matthew was present, accompanied by a young woman he hadn't met before. "Apologies Miss. I won't keep him long, just need to get him up to speed." Carl said with an overly relaxed tone that made the one he was there to meet nearly crumple.
"Carl, been a while, hope you're well. Sorry to hear about the difficulties, I ho-"
"I hope you know that you're here to get disowned." Carl said bluntly, tearing the little confidence, or what the young man had left, away.
"What do you mean "disowned"? Why would I get disowned?"
"Well, you not only screwed up, but you also made me hate the pure-blood humans quite a bit. That little stunt of yours really done a number on my head."
"Carl, come on, I was just trying to give you a little extra motivation to aim higher..." It was clear he couldn't even convince himself that was possible.
"Matthew, shut up. I'm not here for your input, I know. You did have that effect though, which is why I can be mature about this..." He smiled and held Klaire's hand out, along with his own. "After all, I'm a married man now, can't keep holding grudges with children, no matter how overgrown."
"You married her!?" The words were laced with fear and confusion. A failure would have been bad but forgivable. This though, this might really see him disowned and was indeed a worst case scenario.
"Yes, I did. Wildest thing ever, my Grandma Lillim officiated..." He laughed both at the memory and Matthew's expression. "To top it off, she gave me her wedding ring and it made our matrimony binding in the eyes of the gods. So you best tell your dad that trying to break us up might piss them off, at least the nine that sent us wedding gifts." Carl laughed harder.
"Of course, I'll pass that message along, not that anyone would ever try to break you two up."
"Well that does it, I was trying to be mature, but you keep talking to me like I'm an idiot so please choose..."
"C-c-choose what?" He stuttered, an unfamiliar tingle creeping up his legs and arms.
"Me or Klaire? One of us is hitting you, the other will make sure you don't die... Or breach the hull."
It was at that moment, Matthew done the smartest thing he had since meeting Carl... He passed out, hitting the floor like a felled tree.
"Damn Alysse, I owe you lunch."
"Damn right Mr. "I bet you lunch tomorrow he pisses himself then passes out". As if he would be conscious long enough to piss before he dropped."
Suddenly the young woman found her voice. "Quiet hal-"
"Look Miss. Do not finish that sentace. I really don't want to have to use my money up repairing this place. In fact just to make sure you don't I'm gonna do you a favour..." Carl raised a finger to his lips, channelling mana into it.
At first it was hard to tell if anything happened, but when the girl tried but no sound would come, the effect was clear.
"Okay Gillian, thank you for not shutting up the other day... If not for you, we wouldn't have this great trick in the household." Klaire laughed, but that proved a trick to make the three with her think she was calm and provide an opening for her to administer a healthy dose of Lillim level terror.
Her armour oozed from her hand and up her arm, like she was being consumed by the nothingness of space, then one by one small specks of starlight appear across the black in a truly breathtaking design.
"Comet." The word made the three wince too much to actually try to stop her. More black oozed from an outstretched left hand, both up and down, the right hand moved toward it and plucked a single strand of it.
The room was suddenly filled with otherworldly illumination, the air itself changed, as though it simply refused to be in that place.The cascading waves of air that rippled in their attempt to flee seemed to refract the haunting light but then Carl simply took a step to the side to block her shot.
"Carl, dear... Are you really protecting him?"
"What? Oh gods no... You were just taking to long and assembly is in five minutes. Squidge, do me a favour and haunt them for a while, okay?"
'Why can't Levi do it... She could keep them paralysed here all day..."
Cal considered that a moment, then shook it off, Levi was still largely unknown and that was an advantage. "Squidge, I'm shocked, they tried to break up your Mummy and I, you don't want to spend all day embarrassing them, with your new skill?"
'Actually... When you put it like that, it does sound fun.' As he finally agreed he appeared from thin air.
He was invisible, nor was he camouflaged like Levi. He had simply changed his material to something known as poltergeist essence, something which humans and many half-breed species couldn't see, though he could still be affected by elemental attacks and tracked by scent and non-standard senses.
He had gained that material after eating a poltergeist that Lillim had summoned to teach them how to deal with non-physical entities, it was a happy accident more than anything which surprised even her.
It was effective in launching surprise attacks and also for neutralising physical attacks without needing to reform as he did with the gelatinous form, but it also allowed him to be a near undetectable protector.
Lillim had hoped to get him to consume the wyvern scales that Carl still had as well, but he proved surprisingly proud and declared "If I can't beat it, I won't eat it." That led to an argument between the two which lasted until Carl pointed out they were both wasting time arguing.
"Right, now he's on board you two can run along... Not sure when your voice will return, but two should get moving as soon as he wakes up. Hopefully you can figure out a way to warn him you have my pet watching over you without words. Would be bad if he accidentally gave me evidence the committee was making moves against its students to advocate, pure-human supremacy."
With that, Carl then led Klaire and his friends away.
They were running late, but with what they'd learn in their gruelling training, they were able to utilise most of their stats in a way that meant they could move much faster without the risk of accidentally smash into people with that momentum. They might still get in trouble for not restraining themselves, but whoever gave the lecture would inevitably to impressed with that control to throw the book at them.
As they got to the assembly hall with barely a minute to go, that was proven true, professor Kon was waiting by the door. "You four! Why aren-..." His voice faded, quickly. "Where did you learn such masterful control? I should be lecturing you on unrestrained stats, but when did you four even travel as a group, let alone grow so much?" He looked at his slate, as though checking to make sure he hadn't been gone for more than a week.
"We were getting prepared for the optional programme, after everything that happened we wanted to get an early start and since my Grandma turned up unexpectedly, I decided to ask her to train us. That Omina-class threat really done a number on me and Klaire, we couldn't sleep knowing how outmatched we were." Carl said, not so much lying, but definitely skewing the timeline of events.