Book 2: Chapter 12

Cyil was brought into a large circular room with seats fitted around its periphery and the inner space left open. Seated around in the room were men and women of various ages and as they saw Cyil enter the room, the boisterous atmosphere dampened, all eyes following the convict. Cyil could feel everyone’s eyes on him, but he continued to keep his head lowered and walked until he was kicked behind the knee, forcing him to kneel down.

By now Cyil was in the middle of room and he finally raised his head to see the old man, Headmaster Oscar, who had brought him here and three other people he was unfamiliar with. These four people were seated on an elevated podium and were clearly the people who would decide Cyil’s fate.

Headmaster Oscar didn’t even care to look at Cyil and was busy addressing a young looking man. “Sir Calliat,” Headmaster Oscar said with a wide smile, “this is the boy that we were discussing. As you can see, he looks fairly normal but he is devious beyond all means and that is how he lured Rebeka and the others into a death trap!”

Cyil heard what Headmaster Oscar had said and he stared daggers at the old man who simply scoffed. Cyil wished his stare could pierce a hole through Headmaster Oscar’s skull, but instead the guard standing next to Cyil grabbed him by the hair and pushed his head down while saying, “You dare raise your dirty eyes to look at the Headmaster?!”

As this was going on, the man named ‘Sir Calliat’, who was the family leader of the Calliat family and actually named Vecarn D. Calliat, said nothing and only observed the proceedings. Headmaster Oscar’s tale was indeed intriguing and although Vecarn already knew Headmaster Oscar was lying through his teeth, he didn’t let on about it.

Vecarn was the strongest and oldest living member of the Calliat family and he usually never came out in public, opting to spend most of his time meditating, studying, magical beast hunting, etc. It was only when he heard about Rebeka’s death that he personally came to investigate. Rebeka was not the most talented young mage from the Calliat family; actually, she could be ranked as one of the worst, but her straightforward nature and steadfast character was to Vecarn’s liking so he gave her a grade 6 magical defensive equipment and sent her out to experience Nakrul, rather than be sheltered and trained within the family grounds.

Vecarn had found out about Rebeka’s death instantly. Similar to the orb Headmaster Oscar had used to locate Rebeka and Lupin’s location, Vecarn also had an orb to track down Rebeka’s location; Vecarn’s orb, however, was a grade 5 magical equipment so he could gather more information about Rebeka’s death. He could make out the fuzzy shape of a magical beast and knew that that must have been the culprit.

As the Calliat family was on their way to Gale Saint Academy, Vecarn took a detour to visit Emerald forest and the place of Rebeka’s death. When he got there he was angered to find that someone had destroyed the magical beast’s den. With the den intact, he could at least figure out clues to what kind of magical beast it was. After quickly thinking about the situation, Vecarn knew it must have been Headmaster Oscar who had destroyed the den whether out of anger or caution and this worsened his opinion of Headmaster Oscar. Vecarn dug through the den and found nothing at all, not even a hair, feather, or a piece of dung.

Frowning, Vecarn then walked over to the three bodies with their heads detached and he collected the bodies into his spatial equipment, an attractive looking ruby earing. Vecarn planned to examine the wounds on the bodies in more detail later.

Vecarn was a middle-grade elemental body, rank 6 level 8 wind mage and he had plenty of knowledge about magical beasts, but he couldn’t figure out which magical beast had killed the teenagers. The strongest magical beast in Emerald forest should be the Bewildering Stag King, a rank 5 level 2 magical beast. It was the ruler of Emerald forest and usually stayed deep within the forest depths. Vecarn only knew this because he had tried to hunt down the Bewildering Stag King, a few years back. Vecarn had failed even with his higher mage ranking because the Bewildering Stag King was just too fast. He would perhaps have a chance to catch the Bewildering Stag King if he became a rank 8 wind mage or found some sort of domineering magical equipment to assist him, but as for now he could only hope it wasn’t caught by other mages.

After putting the bodies away, Vecarn followed the trail of broken branches and bushes and found Lupin’s body. Vecarn’s curiosity grew even greater because these wounds were clearly different from the others and he became excited about the prospect of there being two unknown magical beasts. Having had a great harvest, Vercan already forgot about Rebeka’s death and eagerly flew to Gale Saints Academy to see if Headmaster Oscar had any more information on the magical beasts…

Vecarn sat in his chair still thinking over the information Headmaster Oscar had provided him and turned a deaf ear to Headmaster Oscar’s flabby words about prosecution and punishment.

It was only when the man sitting next to Vecarn said, “Family Elder, this is the boy who is responsible for my daughter’s death. What shall we do with him?”

Vecarn looked at the man who was Rebeka’s father and looked at the woman who was Rebeka’s mother and said plainly, “You two can decide what to do with him, but let me ask him a few questions first.”

Vecarn guessed Headmaster Oscar must have seen the boy wandering around and used him as a scapegoat but still wanted to ask in case the boy had any actual involvement with the magical beasts. This was now the driving purpose behind his visit to Gale Saints Academy.

Now that Vecarn was about to speak everyone else quieted down, a sign of respect that some of the Calliat family members didn’t bother showing Headmaster Oscar.

Vecarn addressed Cyil simply, “boy, I only ask you one question: did you see the two magical beasts in the forest?”

Vecarn’s question was so off topic that it startled everyone, but they didn’t dare make a noise.

Cyil was shocked, too. “Is this how the line of questioning should be?” Cyil thought they would ask him if he did this or that but this was...odd. In any case, Cyil thought a bit then decided to answer truthfully, “Yes, but I only saw one beast, not two.”

Vecarn was excited when he heard this. He quickly turned to Rebeka’s parents and proclaimed, “I will personally deal with him myself. Rest assured, Rebeka was like a daughter to me.”

Then without courtesy, Vecarn announced in a booming voice, “this trail is done! Calliat family, you may leave. Don’t bother waiting on me.”

“Done?” Everyone had the same thoughts running through their heads. From the time Cyil kneeled to the time the trail ended, it had been less than 2 minutes! This family head was definitely decisive and overbearing. He didn’t allow Cyil to have any say nor did he allow the Headmaster to have any say. Cyil had, after all, been accused of killing 4 other Gale Saints Academy students.

As everyone was still confused, Vecarn jumped out of his chair and floated down in front of Cyil. He didn’t say anything and grabbed Cyil by the arm, departing from the room in a blur of wind.

Headmaster Oscar’s mouth was still gaping and he was a bit frightened at the prospect of Cyil having a chance to speak freely with the Calliat Family Head. Headmaster Oscar was well prepared to call Cyil a liar should he disagree with his story and his accusations, but now he wouldn’t have that chance. The angry crowd he had gathered and devious plot he had cooked up had all been spoiled by the eccentric Vecarn. Never would Headmaster Oscar had expected this to happen and he could only hope Vecarn killed Cyil quickly.

***

Cyil had now calmed down and as he was being slightly carried and slightly dragged along he wondered what the man wanted. Cyil was glad to be out of the suffocating room, but if the man decided to kill him, too, then the end result would be the same. Cyil was still thinking when he and Vecarn came to an abrupt stop a mile outside of Gale Saints Academy. They were standing to the side of the dirt road with no one in sight.

“This should do,” Vecarn said and casually took a seat on a boulder by the roadside. “Now, boy, tell me about the magical beast you saw. Don’t leave out any details at all. In fact, make a drawing of it!”

Cyil didn’t know what to make of the questions but answered, “Senior, I have not had the chance to learn how to draw but I can tell you in detail about the creature that I saw.”

“You can’t draw? Nonsense, everyone knows how to draw. Here.” Already pushing a feather quill dipped in ink and parchments of beast skins to Cyil, Vecarn eagerly awaited Cyil’s drawing.

Cyil had no choice but to accept the utensils, lest he angered the man. Cyil could see that the man placed great importance on the drawing of this magical beast so Cyil began to draw as if his life depended on it.

As Cyil drew, the man was agitated but kept quiet. If Cyil knew that the man who was acting like a child waiting for ice cream was actually a 302 year old rank 6 level 8 mage, perhaps he would laugh or feel even more pressured. Nonetheless, when Cyil finished his sorry piece of a drawing and passed it back to Vecarn, Cyil was not optimistic. He had did the best he could but his drawing was only slightly better than a kid drawing stick figures in the dirt.

Vecarn glanced at the drawing and his eyes widened. Then he picked up the feather quill and told Cyil, “Tell me about the magical beast. Height, weight, colour of the body, everything.”

Cyil sighed a breath of relief because he hadn’t been killed yet and he began to tell Vecarn everything he knew about the beast. Cyil was planning to make a deal with Vecarn concerning the information but he decided against it. Cyil knew he was too weak to be making deals and decided it was best to give the man what he wanted.

As Cyil recounted everything he saw, heard, and even smelled, Vecarn continuously nodded while moving the feather quill; oftentimes, Vecarn would ask Cyil to clarify some details and Cyil would do his best to try to explain.

When Cyil was finally done recounting everything, almost an hour had gone by. Cyil was surprised that something that should have taken a few minutes was dragged on for so long.

“Senior, why are you interested about the magical beast?” Cyil asked, because the silence between them had gone on for a long while.

“Hmm?” Vecarn looked up from the beast skin and without answering Cyil’s question, said: “Ah, yes. Take a look.” Vecarn passed Cyil the beast skin and the drawing that Cyil saw shocked him! It looked exactly like the magical beast he had seen. The details were fine and lifelike, almost as if the frightening creature was going to jump off the beast skin and attack him. This was the same beast skin where he had drawn his chicken scratch, right?

“Any changes that should be made?” Vecarn asked, still trying to figure out what magical beast he had just drawn.

Cyil shook his head and returned the beast scroll to Vecarn.

“Fine,” Vecarn said, a little upset but mostly satisfied after getting more than he had hoped for. Vecarn took one last look at Cyil and could tell the boy wasn’t lying to him-- he had told him everything he knew about the magical beast.

“You may leave now,” Vecarn got up off the boulder and shooed Cyil away with his hand.

“I am free to go, just like that?” Cyil couldn’t help but to ask this question.

Vecarn frowned and pointing towards the spot between Cyil’s legs, he said, “You have already received your punishment for your crime of being too weak. Now go before I change my mind.”

As Cyil detected the change in the man’s tone, he knew it was best to leave right away but there was a problem he had to solve before anything else. “Senior,” Cyil got down to his knees and his forehead slammed onto the ground. “If anyone asks, please say that you’ve killed me.”

Cyil was looking to mitigate any potential future threats from Headmaster Oscar or other Gale Saints Academy Students. If they thought he was dead then they wouldn’t cause him any trouble or try to kill him. The Calliat family may even come after him, too, so Cyil hoped to ‘be dead’, at least until he was strong enough to protect himself.

Vecarn raised and eyebrow and stopped his Fly spell midway. “Why? So you can have time to get stronger and get revenge on those who framed you?”

Cyil hadn’t expected Vecarn to hit the nail on the head and answered, “Yes!”

A moment of silence blew through the enthusiastic ‘yes’ before Vecarn’s laughter rang out.

Cyil was confused and didn’t know what was funny. He raised his head and saw Vecarn holding his stomach in laughter. Cyil frowned at the sight and patiently waited for Vecarn to say something.

Once Vecarn got all his laughter out he said, “Wouldn’t I be on your list for revenge, too, then? Now, I feel like killing you would be better.” As Vecarn spoke his voice grew deeper and there was a powerful force backing them.

Vecarn was trying to suppress Cyil with his aura but he didn’t know that Cyil’s soul strength was practically on the same level as his own. Cyil was bent over on the ground so Vecarn didn’t notice that has aura wasn’t affecting Cyil in the slightest bit.

After Vercan ‘suppressed’ Cyil for a bit longer, he laughed once more and flew off into the sky, saying: “Fine, as of now you have died by my hands. If you ever grow strong enough to seek retribution from me, then come find me. I am Vecarn D. Calliat.”

Vecarn wasn’t concerned at all that Cyil could pose a threat to him. And even if Cyil could, Vecarn knew that by then he himself would have long been dead. Vecarn was sure about his deduction so within the next month he forgot all about Cyil, the boy who no longer had his balls...It wouldn’t be until years later that Vecarn would hear about Cyil again, and by then Vecarn could only hope Cyil didn’t bear any grudges against him or the Calliat family.