"Hmm," she nodded, silently and with sadness, as someone as mighty and arrogant as her reached this level where she had to run for her life, and from the one she once thought to be her chosen.
Arthur stayed silent, while thinking about all these complicated matters. He knew Iman was a ticking bomb. Even if she joined the Dorgazire academy, she would still be in grave danger every time she moved out on an academy mission.
He knew that lycon wouldn't be that insane to attack her inside the academy, so his only option was to hunt here outside the academy walls, either before or after joining it.
"Has he tracked you to here?" he suddenly asked, as if he was that lycon, he wouldn't let this golden chance slip by his hands.
"What do you mean by that?" she replied, in extreme fear, nearly equal to the fear she once expressed when he showed off his dragonair's aura.
"I'm just asking," he said, calmly watching her reactions, which showed her ignorance of that lycon's whereabouts. "Don't worry, even if he tracked you here, I can kill him," he said, as if that lycon was as powerful as she was right now, he could kill him using his dragonair form.
"I- I-…" she stuttered, knowing that Arthur would ask for something in return. "Don't worry, I told you if we are destined to each other, you will be mine regardless of anything else," he said, trying to reassure her disturbed emotions, "I just want you to be my inside mage in the academy," he finally stated his condition.
"And you promise to kill him?" she asked, with doubt.
"I will cure you first, then help you kill him later," he said, expressing his sincere plan for her. She felt his sincerity, and in comparison to her once beloved person, he was better, way better than that traitor.
"Hmm," she slowly nodded, "I will honor this agreement on my tribe's name," she added.
"Well, first of all we call it here a clan, not a tribe," he said, with a wide smile over his face, "secondly, welcome onboard," he said, while looking at Lily who just giggled as she welcomed her:
"Welcome to our big group sister, I'm sure you will be greatly surprised and very satisfied."
Lily heard everything said here, but couldn't understand everything. What she understood was that Iman was betrayed by her lover, and got severely wounded, while Arthur promised to cure her, in exchange for her support at the academy.
She knew Arthur well, he wouldn't pose a thing without knowing for sure his ability to do it. the fact that he asked for her support at the academy made her speechless. No one in the group had any confidence at joining the academy, and here was Arthur, planning for their future inside its walls!
That was the main difference between him and them, as he always chased his dreams, and made sure to see them fulfilled.
The flight to home took a couple of hours flying, and when they exited the forest, Arthur was astonished by the scene in front of him.
He left the clan with slightly over one thousand mages trained from the villagers, plus less than a thousand rogue mages from the bounty hunters, but now he found over five thousands there, or even more!
"Are they all mages?" he pointed to this huge number in disbelief.
"No," Lily shook her head, "but most of them are the villagers who came from our newly joined tribes, sorry clans," she had learnt the word tribe from the long talks with Iman, "We have tested all of them with the meat test, and they all passed it. we just need you to do the absorption test, and the next steps as well," she said.
Arthur just took a deep breath, feeling how strong his new power was growing into. This wasn't a mere force of a clan, this was an army, and he was the leader of this army.
He missed the days of his sect, where there were many disciples there. He glanced at these yet to be mages, dreaming of the day he used them to establish his old sect again.
"If you have all of them, you can win Noura's army easily, even if the camp is still there," Iman said, while remarking over the huge number of mages here.
"It's not that simple," he simply replied, "we have a deadline of the next competition of the Dorgazire academy in less than two weeks from now," he said, expressing his regret for not having time to train all of them.
"Will you take all of them with you?" she suddenly asked, with surprise over her face.
"Surely no," he shook his head, "I would only take those outstanding out of them," he added, as those having unique talents were unfair to let them stay back here.
"What about others?" she asked.
"I have a new bounty hunter branch established here, I will make all of them enlist there, train in the forest and complete quests, while giving those with outstanding performances a chance to join the academy next year," he explained his future plans for here.
"Hmm, seems quite a nice plan for me," she nodded, admiring his way of thinking, "I want to say that I'm glad you don't intend to kill Noura, she is a good girl with bad luck," she suddenly said.
"Noura?!" he exclaimed with surprise, "What bad luck?" he asked.
"It's a long story," she sighed, while Lily suddenly said:
"Hang on, we will descend now."
She controlled her pet to descend to the ground, while the two of them felt the effects of this quick landing, hanging on the long feathers of Lily's Birdy.
Once they reached the ground, many voices came from around them, with many familiar faces popping out from everywhere, coming to check on him.
"I'm perfectly fine, sorry to make you all worry," he said, with a wide embarrassed smile over his face.
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