Everyone was getting ready and Clara had a worried look on her face. She didn’t have time to prepare and didn’t know what to expect. George seeing how worried she was tried to calm her down by giving her some advice.

“It’s not going to be scary at all, try to calm down and just follow your instincts, we will meet soon.”

He wanted to tell her to follow the path and get straight to Wine village but he couldn’t talk about Nash in the real world and could only give her some encouragement. He just had to look for her and with some luck find her before it got dark. George didn’t know why but he felt responsible for her even thought he was only a month older. By paying the credits and letting her come to Wine village he had taken over the responsibility of taking care of her from Omar. But George didn’t have the confidence, he couldn’t take care of himself so how was he going to keep her safe. He tried not to make a big deal about it and had to do his best, that’s all they can ask from him. Omar also asked him to take care of Clara and George not wanting to worry him nodded confidently.

George once again was in his room and to his surprise was still holding the scroll. He looked around but the room didn’t seem any different from any other day and couldn’t find any sign of a struggle. The only thing that was different was Martin sitting in the lotus position in front of the door, Martin would usually be at the training ground by now and it was unusual for him to be here, especially sitting in front of the door and blocking the exit. George didn’t want to confront Martin and just wanted to go to work but he didn’t have a choice, he had already spent a lot of money and with the expensive training sessions the principal send him too, he needed to work now more than ever.

“Excuse me, I need to go to the village entrance to meet a friend.”

Martin opened his eyes and was looking at George with a cold look on his face. He didn’t have any wounds on his body and looked, even more, fit that then last time George had seen him. Wat George didn’t know was that the body would need at least a session month to recover from the wounds from a forbidden pill, but Martin had used expensive medical pills and had fully recovered in only a few days. But even with the full recovery, it was recommended to not do any physical training for at least a session weekday. That’s why Martin was sitting in front of the door waiting for George and wasn’t working on his sword skills like he usually would.

“No I will not excuse you, take that scroll in your hand and use it right now.”

George looked at the scroll in his hand and didn’t want to use it, he just wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. What if he used the scroll and the masked thieves would come back? They could get really angry and beat him like had beaten Martin.

“I… I can’t do that.”

Martin signed and started to shake his head in disproval. He didn’t understand how George could just let them walk over him. But at the same time he felt sorry for George, Martin wasn’t the kind of person to bully the weak but he also wouldn’t let anyone get away after they wronged him, weak or strong.

“I don’t know why the principal would send those people to beat you, or why he gave you that scroll. But the only thing that’s important right now is that I get my revenge, and the only way to do that is by making you use that scroll and make him lose some of his precious money. It’s not much but it’s all I can get, so use that scroll now or the boys coming back would be the least of your problems.”

George hearing Martin mention the principal got surprised and angry at the same time. He had done everything the principal had asked of him and still got punished. He didn’t know if the principal did this to teach him a lesson or it was him just messing with him, but whatever it was the message was received. George took the scroll and activated it, the chant and technique of the middle-grade spirit stage refining technique instantly appeared in his mind and he could see how amazing the refining technique was. No wonder the three boys were after him to get the scroll, not only did the technique absorb far more energy than the low-grade spirit stage refining technique, it also helped the cultivator make a breakthrough into the spirit stage easier. There were a lot of things George didn’t understand but he had to read the skills and its uses manual to fill the gaps.

But George didn’t have time to think about it right now and had to go to the village entrance to meet clear, and still wanted to be on time for work. He had used a lot of money today and didn’t know what other expensive classes the principal wanted him to take so he couldn’t miss work.

“Can I go now?”

Martin smiled for the first time and stood up to move out of the way. He didn’t expect George to use the scroll so soon and was pleasantly surprised.

“Maybe there is hope for you yet.”

George got a little big annoyed and didn’t react, who was Martin to judge him if he had potential or not. It’s like he had forgotten that he was lying on the ground beaten like a dog, and didn’t even have the power to stand up afterward. So he put it away as noble arrogance and quickly started to walk towards the village entrance.

When he arrived he saw the two guards he had met the day he came to Wine village, he didn’t have a good recollection of the mean Guard so he went to the other one and asked if he could inform the new arrival that he was staying at the academy and that he should ask for Solomon. The path to Wine village would at least take two hours and he didn’t expect Clara to be here already.

After he did that he went to work and like always. Usually, he would make the wine and use the time for the wine to get ready to read books and Liz would chat with old man Levy. But today was different, Liz and Levy approached him and had a look of curiosity in their eyes. Levy pushed Liz forward and nodded his head for her to ask the question. George didn’t know what was going on and was taken back by their actions.

“George, is it true that you and the noble boy in your room took illegal drugs and had a fight? There are stories going around that the boy used his connections to get his hands on some powerful drugs and that after using it you two started to hallucinate, had a big fight and the principal had to intervene to stop it and saved your life’s. ”

George was speechless, he didn’t know how everything had turned out this way. He just wanted to be left alone but the principal was doing everything to make his life a living hell. Liz and Levy were looking at him with curiosity in their eyes and were waiting patiently for an answer.

“It’s not true.”

George didn’t give them time to ask other questions and pretended to go back to work. Liz had a big smile on her face and put her hand up.

“You see, there is no way he would do what.”

Levy was a little bit annoyed and took one credit and handed it over to Liz.

“How is that a confirmation? The only thing he said was ‘it’s not true’, how can we trust his answer? But I’m a man of my word so I will pay even though I still think he did it. If experience thought me anything is that the quiet ones are always the craziest.”

George finished his work and went back to the entrance to ask the guards if the Clara had arrived, but the guards had changed shifts so he had to go back to the academy to find her. He went to Solomon’s office but to his surprise found out that Solomon had gone on a hunt and wouldn’t come back until tomorrow. He asked around to see if anyone had seen Clara and after a while gave up and went outside and sat on the bench in the garden. He would usually go to his room and read, but he didn’t feel like confronting Martin again and thought that staying here would be easier.

But George didn’t have time to read the books he liked and had to study the skill and its uses manual. He started to read chapter one and before long had finished the chapter. It talked about skills and how it worked just like master Keven had explained. George got a little surprised on how simple and short the chapter was and that the principal had not asked him to study more of it. But he wanted to be sure that there were going to be no surprises to he started to read the second chapter about characteristics.

“It’s always inspiring to see young people work hard and study.”

George gave a bright smile and greeted grandpa Wilton. Grandpa Wilton had always been kind to George and always treated him with respect. Grandpa Wilton put the rake down and sat down next to George.

“It’s rare to see you outside of your room, does it have to do with the incident everyone is talking about?”

Hearing grandpa Wilton mention the incident made George ashamed and he tried to explain to his best ability that the stories were not true, but didn’t tell him anything about the principal. It wouldn’t be smart to make claims you couldn’t prove and get himself into more trouble. Grandpa Wilton had a smile on his face and was patiently listening to George tell his story.

“You say that they were better than you but in what aspect? If you had to find a weakness, what would it be?”

George thought about it for a minute and again remembered the mistakes the boys had made yesterday.

“They were not the sharpest tools in the shed, it took the leader too long to react to surprises and one of them even said the name of the leader out loud and the leader started to chase him.”

Grandpa Wilton stood up and started to walk away while cleaning the garden with the rake on his hand.

“Now the only thing you need to do is to find a way to use these weaknesses against them.”