Volume 2, Chapter 16: New Roles

{257 Days Remaining}

“Really, don't you guys have better places to build your organization branches than deep underground?” I said, using earth magic to bury the final entrance leading down to the underground tunnels.

“No, since its stupid for an assassin headquarter to be inside the cities. It takes much money to influence the nobles and guards, if you must know,” Ilana said.

Typically, I would have stayed quiet after taking the lives of so many humans, silently reveling in the killing, but the constant hammering in my mind was taking its toll on me. It was hard to even stay focused. My counterpart had broken through most of the chains I had bound him with.

“Let us depart,” I said, trying hard to ignore the increasing headache.

I stepped over the corpses of the four guards as we exited the cave. Then I got on top of the horse I had tied to nearby tree, cutting at the ropes. My three slaves did the same for their horses.

It took only an hour of hard riding before we were out of the forest. Then half a day of controlled pacing before we arrived at the nearby town with its abundance farmlands that could have fed twice the population the town hosted.

“Fuck,” I said, gritting my teeth against the mental pain. My counterpart had broken through the last of his chains and was now furiously trying to take back control, slamming his will against mine.

I put up a determined resistance, bearing the increasing mental agony. My vision became even more blurry, and the conversation between Gwen and Kal became a distant noise. So slow. So heavy. Everything looked as if they were traveling in a slow, heavy motion. Then blackness, my last conscious vision being of the spinning ground and the side of my horse as I fell. I slammed onto the ground, throwing up dust.

Next time shall not be so easy, I promised my counterpart. Next time you die...

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I instantly regained consciousness, and righted myself up from the ground. There was a predatory glint in the eyes of the three assassins as they peered down at me from their horses. The glint disappeared after they saw my unharmed state.

“Are you alright, master,” Gwen said.

“I am fine.”

“Your eyes...they have changed colors. What happened?” Ilana said in a suspicious voice tinged with a little curiosity.

Kal softly muttered to himself, “Emerald...”

I patted away the dust on my clothing before walking toward my horse a few feet away. Then I pulled myself up on the saddle, adjusting myself until I was sitting comfortably. “Nothing happened, Ilana.”

It was the first time I had called the assassin by her name, and she looked surprised, unsure of the sudden, bewildering change.

I said in a strong voice, “Let us go. I must head back to the Mage Academy, especially since I have done everything I need to do in the eastern region.” I tightly held the reins on my horse while nudging at his sides softly.

Everything would change in the twelve days I would need to spend to get back to the Mage Academy. There was a long distance to travel ahead of me, especially since I could not fly with these three assassins as my traveling companions.

There was a small regret in the back of my mind for those caged children and those unneeded casualties. Those innocents. But they were just small regrets; they would not weigh me down.

I had enough problems on my mind.

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{243 Days Remaining}

After telling the assassins to wait at the southern town close by to the Mage Academy and supplying them with enough vials of my blood to last them for a few weeks, I traveled toward the mage institution. I arrived there in an hour or two, sprinting very quickly and traveling through places where there were not many people.

I entered through the southern quadrant of the Mage Academy after the academy Enforcers had confirmed my identity—they easily recognized my appearance.

It took only a few more minutes before I was back in room 328, the academy room which I had been assigned to. Along the way, I had received a few whispers and stares from the third year students outside and inside of the third-year halls.

Calina, at the moment, was still attending one of her afternoon classes, so she was not in room 328, which was just beside my room.

I changed into the mage academy's male uniform which was neatly folded on top of the bed—the academy's officials probably had a way to get into my room despite the door being magically attuned to me.

Then I headed toward the class Calina was probably attending. Magic Support Class.

After a few minutes of asking directions and finding my way toward the classroom, I entered through its ornate door which was labeled Magic Support in black letters on a blank, white rectangular sign.

The female teacher was lecturing inside and continued on, barely even glancing at me. Her students, however, were a different matter. I felt all of their stares on me, especially one intense stare, or rather glare, which came from Calina who was sitting at the highest row with Phan Tsu beside her.

The classroom's seating consisted of rows of long benches with similar length desks before them. Each bench could fit perhaps about ten students. I went up the steps—unhurriedly, of course—before sitting to the right of Calina who was at the uppermost row. Only Phan Tsu and her were sitting on that row.

“Welcome back,” Calina coldly said in a low voice. There was a hint of some other emotions, which I could not tell, mix with it.

In a friendlier voice, Phan Tsu whispered the same.

I nodded at both of them. “I'm back.”

“Pay attention now, students!” the female teacher barked, causing the students to focus back on their teacher. The speed at which they had whipped their necks back around to the front almost made me think that the students neck would snap. The female teacher, no doubt, was a terror.

She continued lecturing on as if nothing interesting had occurred. “As you all know by now, sigils, marks, drawings, magic stones and other materials can all be called support. They help focus and even amplify your magic a little. But for combats, a mage would not have the time to draw these things, so we often use our own body and mind to focus and support the magic. Sure, we could use sigils and marks drawn on paper, but that would make us easy targets. Supports also, with the exception of the rarer types of magic stones, typically barely improve magic. Their effects are almost negligible in fact. This is why we do not see many mages running around using supports.”

The teacher paused briefly, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “That is, until we discovered a material in the western region of the kingdom several months ago. This material was found in the mountains there and we have named it Astraldite. Plenty of it was found through further mining and King Balan has supplied our academy with enough Astraldite for us to create enough weapons for each one of you.”

Astonished shouts and questions came from the students. Amidst the noise, Calina finally turned around to look at me in the eyes. “You are late,” she said bluntly, her voice still cold. “Three weeks...”

“I apologize, Lady Calina,” I said softly, only half-paying attention. The other half of my attention was with my curiosity which was wondering at the material called Astraldite. Just what was it, I wondered. In fact, her whole lecture had been a curiosity, since I barely knew of sigils and marks.

“Are you even listening!” Calina whispered hotly from beside me.

It took a great effort to turn my eyes, which had been focused upon the female teacher and the students asking questions, toward Calina. Our faces suddenly met and our noses almost touched each other. I had not expected Calina to lean closer toward me while I had been turning to look at her.

I didn't move away though as her grey, ashen eyes bore into my own emerald eyes. “Ah, my bad,” I whispered, my breath falling against her face. Up close, I noticed that she had long eyelashes and distinctly shaped eyes, sort of feline looking, in fact.

“Mother's ashes! Look! Calina is kissing her bodyguard!” a male student voice shouted excitedly.

Calina instantly backed away from me, her face turning bright red. Then she muttered and stuttered in a voice only Phan Tsu and I could hear. “We will talk later...”

After that, Calina turned quiet, only focusing on the teacher. She did not, for the whole class period, turn to look at me. I mentally shrugged to myself. It did not matter as I was curious about what the teacher was lecturing.

It was only later after class was over, I realized that Calina had not denied the male student's statement. Retrospecting was useful if your curiosity was not tugging at you in another direction.

Don't get me wrong. I am not a dense idiot, despite my dampened emotional capacity, which seemed to have worsen lately due to my other self. I had a keen sense of observation. I could easily figure out that Calina held some feelings for me, perhaps a liking maybe.

Women are strange creatures with strange minds though, so I was not too sure. Take Veena, for example.

I had no doubts that the mind of a fifteen year old girl was also strange.

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Silently following behind Calina as she headed to her room—Phan Tsu was busying with another class—I examined my mental state, and the image of my magic capacity, a growing pool or a well upon which I could draw upon. Both of them felt tainted. I could feel a small, gnawing darkness at the barest edges. It wasn't anything you would notice without a very close introspection, but I felt bothered by it.

During the time I was not in control of myself, I had gleamed some memories from my other self. Nothing useful though. All of the memories were of the cold darkness. I wondered at the extra memories and the sealed memories he had mentioned. What were they? Was he the true owner of the black dragon body I had reincarnated into? The dragon soul I had replaced?

“Verath,” Calina's voice came. There was a mix of emotions in the voice.

It snapped me back into attention. “What is it?” I asked, following Calina into her room where she stood beside the desk, her hands gripping tightly against the frame of the chair. Her room was similar to mine, perhaps just a little more furnished. There was a piece of paper torn into pieces lying on top of the desk. It looked to be a letter.

“I have to go back to Asolance, Verath,” Calina said in a voice close enough to be a whisper. “I have to go back now that I have confirmed that you have returned....”

“Why?”

Calina froze, almost as if she was encased in ice. There was a long, palpable silence, which she did not break.

“Did something happen,” I said. It was more of a statement than a question, my words.

Calina took three steps toward me, bringing her close to me. We were standing just a mere one or two steps away from each other. She looked up at me and whispered, “I received a letter two days ago saying that all of my family has been killed. Father is in bed from a poisoned injury and only my little brother has survived.”

Burying her face against my chest, she said in a muffled voice, “Let me just stay like this for a while...”

I did not how I felt about Calina softly crying against my chest. In a way, she reminded me of Rhea, the desert nomad who had been my slave. The one who had put up a brave front, the one who had been tempered by the desert sun, her bronze skin glinting in the sunlight.

Humans. They cry too much.

Me, even when I had been a human, I have never cried once...not even as a baby.

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The next day—after I had told the assassins to take up residence at the Silver Beauty inn in Asolance—Calina and I left on horseback toward Asolance. It took us perhaps three days. But by that time, the chains of events had already been set into motion. It would have eventually happened sooner or later, but my other self had set the board aflame. The puppets had started moving and their many puppeteers were slinking in the shadows of Shail Kingdom.

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{136 Days Remaining}

“Knight Commander Verath,” Orik said, saluting me with a fist toward his heart, a fashion which was reserved only for those who were knight commanders and above. I was the leader of three thousand soldiers, a Gold Knight Commander, above a bronze and silver commander.

“Speak, Orik,” I said, knowing that the knight would not treat me informally, despite my continual protests.

“Baroness Calina wants to see you, commander. She is in the First Manor House, the communal room.”

I nodded and dismissed Orik with a thank you, before making my way toward the First Manor House.

Most of the soldiers who had been part of my subjugation squad were now part of the three thousand soldiers I commanded. There were two Gold Knight Commanders for each region of Shail Kingdom, and I was one of the eight Gold Knight Commanders in the whole Shail Kingdom. Not even the generals, who was a position above me, could command me. I was only answerable to the king and Calina.

To give you a picture of the military numbers of Shail Kingdom, I would estimate that a little over 20% of the population are soldiers. Of course, that is disregarding the growing population, the strangers, the children, and the travelers from other places. You could thus imagine how the about three hundred thousand soldiers (mercenaries, warriors, and other fighting men included) are spread out throughout Shail Kingdom. Needless to say, the central region where King Balan resided had the most soldiers.

I entered the communal room, the place where Baroness Calina addressed the concerns of other nobles or even the commoners and artisans whose requests had been accepted.

Ah, nobles. They were the cause of the blood on my hands, and the cause for the whispered nickname behind my back. After I had quelled a few rebellious nobles, beheaded them personally, to be precise, and quelled some unrest by a few groups of hundreds of commoners, the northern region was, for the most part, quiet now. The eastern region, however, was a creek full of shit, to put it kindly.

After the four members of the Council of Merchants and the eastern baron had been killed by my counterpart, the region was in a turmoil. The king himself had to send an army to quell some of the rebellions. One of the king's personal general was still stuck cleaning up the after-math of the battles and the new sparks that had sprouted from the ashes.

As for the southern and western region, the barons had survived the assassination attempts and had taken measures to stop any further turmoil.

Veena's father, however, was still nowhere to be seen, even though I had destroyed any roots Malice had in the northern region. It was much easier to do so after I had Baroness Calina's blessings. An army of thousands, let me tell you, can cover a lot of areas—much more than I could. It was also faster since I knew most of their locations with the three assassins behind my back.

In the large communal room furnished with many heavy, exotic rugs, elaborate chairs, and tables with bowls of fruits and light snacks, I walked toward the center of the room. Then I bowed toward my only superior in the northern region.

“Baroness Calina, as you bid, I have come.”

Calina gave out a brilliant smile, though her eyes and face were tired. They were not as bad as when her father had died after the week we had arrived in Asolance, and she had been thrust into baronial matters, forced to take up her role as the heir to the Guardian of the North of Shail Kingdom. The only survivor of the family other than Calina was her ten year old brother, Lord Gustav Serle.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, White Demon,” the man beside Calina said. He had bluntly said the whispered nickname I had received during the turmoil state of the northern region. Pretty brave, considering that not many people dared to say that nickname to my face.

“Likewise,” I said, inflecting my tone with inquisitiveness while shaking his out-held hand.

“My name is Caldun, and I have humbly come to see Baroness Calina and you with the request of aid.”

“Yes, yes, no need to repeat yourself, Caldun,” Calina said. “I have already accepted your request, but instead of lending you a thousand soldiers, I think five hundred should be suitable since you have Verath along with you.”

I wondered in amusement inside my mind, while my outer self was a display of indifference. Calina, despite the fact that she barely even knew who I was, fully trusted me. I suppose, in a way, it was somewhat reasonable since I had been protecting her, everything from assassins to rebellious nobles.

“Hmm, five hundred soldiers...I am not sure that will be enough,” Caldun said hesitantly.

“Clearly, you have never met my Verath here. Do not worry,” Calina said. Her body gesture indicated a complete trust and full reassurance in me.

After Caldun and I exited the communal room, bidding farewell to Calina, we headed to the garrisons where my three thousand soldiers were staying.

“I still do not know why you would want me along for this 'aid' of yours,” I said.

Caldun gave a small shrug, and his hands, probably consciously, went up to touch the large scar than ran across his left cheek. “You will like it. It should be much harder than killing nobles. What you will helping my group do, as the leader of one of the groups in my organization, is to kill a nest of Devourers.”

I was a little surprised at his words, though I did not show it. What were Devourers, anyway?

“Your organization?” I asked.

“Yes, my organization. It's pretty secretive, so you probably have not heard of it.” Caldrun showed a small grim, smile. “We call it the Grim Hunters.”

Volume 2 (Chapter 17)