Chapter 51: 51. I almost got it
"I am sorry, we can’t take your request. Here is the amount you paid for the assassination and an extra fifty thousand as an apology for wasting your time..."
" Huh, why..." Hugh frowned.
" You don’t need to know..." The old man smiled warmly, his gaze contrary to his expression.
Cold, leaving no room for questioning.
" I don’t get it, why can’t you kill them, why return my money..." Hugh couldn’t care less about his icy stare.
He was a Vulcan; they weren’t easily intimidated.
He ignored the stare, growling in rage.
" We don’t need to explain ourselves to our clients..." The old man sat up, his smile straightening to indifference. " Please leave." he gestured to the door.
" ... " Hugh wanted to retort but halted, his gaze lingering on the old man’s dark red hair, darker than that of his father, a testament to his rank.
" He is at least a sixth resonance powerhouse..." He concluded, a bit taken aback.
Sixth resonance mages were scarce, about 5% of the entire population, yet he met one here, sitting behind a desk.
" These people are dangerous " he rose to his feet.
He was sane enough to know he would die if he tried anything funny.
" You are this powerful, then why..." He stopped at the door, pressing further for answers.
Nebula was powerful enough to have a sixth resonance mage as a division commander, so what did a fifth resonance mean to them.
" A word of advice from an old man, don’t pry when the door is shut from the inside..." The old man ignored him, sitting back in his chair.
Hugh could only leave with a bitter taste in his mouth and 200,000 gold coins.
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" Is Raika special or is it that bastard... " Hugh continued to muse about what had happened.
" These pretentious bastards even assassinate royalty, what is a mere Duke’s wife..." He couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
" Is Father interfering..." He thought but shook his head.
" He is on the battlefield, he shouldn’t have the time to check up on them... "
" ... But he could have sent word beforehand... " He stepped out of the elevator, hood covering his head, face masked by a black cloth.
" Is there another reason..." He absent-mindedly lifted his gaze, noticing the portrait of the man holding the head of a Jörmungandr.
" Father... "
The man in the portrait closely resembled Aiden but not completely.
There were slight differences.
" No grandfather..." He finally recognized the man in the image.
Elio Vulcan, a younger version of himself .
The seventh Patriarch of the Vulcan Dukedom and most powerful fire mage on the continent, arguably the world.
He could tell from the image that Elio was around his age when he hunted the Jörmungandr.
A feat he doubted he could accomplish himself.
" Is grandfather the reason... " Hugh entertained the thought.
Maybe because of grandfather’s contributions to Nebula, they decided not to touch his family.
" No that can’t be, they wouldn’t have taken the job earlier, something happened after taking the mission but what..." he could only speculate, unaware of the truth behind the failed assassination.
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" Are you sure this will work, young master " Philip’s voice trembled nervously as he stood ashore a small lake pooled by a raging waterfall.
At the base of the waterfall sat Alaric, a bare-chested seven-year-old boy practicing Misogi.
The act of purifying oneself under a waterfall.
For him it wasn’t so much purification as training.
The raging water beating his toned muscles.
He had done this and other water-related training back in his navy days and hoped he could attune more with the element.
Raika was out hunting for a meal. Philip was left with the eccentric seven-year-old.
Alaric could feel himself losing consciousness, but he gritted his teeth, enduring the pain.
This was a small waterfall, but gravity made sure the splashing water carried enough force to knock out a tooth.
His body had reddened, head hazy, and he could swear he could taste blood in his mouth.
Yet he continued.
This was nothing compared to grueling training of his navy days.
He ignored the pain, attention drawn to the raging water above.
The sound of the water as it brushed past him, the coldness as it dripped onto his skin.
"Water is denser, yet ever-changing, possessing the free flow of fire yet unable to move as freely..." He tried to understand the element, using analogies from the physical differences.
With his eyes closed, he willed his mind to move the raging water above him, this time not as hastily as he always did.
Water was denser; it needed steady but greater force.
He felt the mana threads linking him to the whole lake, like a curtain of threads covering the entirety of the water mass.
"My reach is too wide..." he thought, reducing the curtain-like network to that of a flag, focused on the waterfall above.
The connection stronger, he felt he could finally move the water.
"Slow and easy."
He pushed mana into the lake above, like a slow breath onto a hot meal.
Then willed the element to shift slightly to the left.
He could feel it move, one molecule after the other, like grains of sand floating with the wind.
"I GOT A BIG ONE," Raika’s voice boomed, cutting into his concentration.
The feeling evaporated and before he knew it, he had lost his footing, slipping into the lake below.
"Ahhh!" he roared in frustration as he sunk under the water, his screams coming out as bubbles of air.
"I almost got it..."
Quickly he swam back, not even paying attention to Raika, who had interrupted him.
The latter watching his son confusedly, unaware of what she had done.
But...
The feeling was gone.
He sat under the waterfall for hours, the feeling completely lost, not to mention the crackling of fire in the background that was eating into his concentration.
Raika was roasting a large boar.
"I can’t always be the filial son..." he murmured under his breath in irritation, before stepping out of the waterfall.
The cold night breeze made him involuntarily shiver.
He had begun the training in the morning, taking him several hours to get that feeling, and in just a moment it was lost.
And now it was evening; the feeling never once returned.
"You look cold..." Raika grabbed a flaming firewood with her bare hands and tossed it at Alaric.
The latter reflexively caught it.
"Sigh..." Alaric watched his hands, holding the burning wood without any problem.
He was a water mage, yet flames didn’t bother him.
Most, if not all, would have reflexively dropped the burning wood, yet he only felt a slight tingling sensation. The flames warming his body.
"How can I become a proper water mage if this continues..."
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A/N
10 golden tickets = 1 extra Chapter.
100 power stones = 1 extra Chapter.
Goal: G: 0/10
P: 12/100
