On a stage, inside a bar, a man stood singing a song named ‘drive-by’. Contrary to the name, it was in fact a pop song with a bit of country undertones.

This bar was located in Regalia, capital of the Empire, home of the King of Fire and the largest organized country in the known world, the Empire was also the homeland of Edward and Jade, and a second home to Kazuya who moved between Regalia and Berlin often in his youth.

The second year S-Class of Elem High were currently within the same bar, seated in a corner was the top three students and the lower three of their class, along with their teacher and said teacher’s son.

As for the fourth ranked of the class, the crown prince of the Empire, Edward Valzard?

Well, Edward was the one singing that oddly catchy and fast paced song up on the bar stage, strumming the acoustic guitar fast enough to get some foot tapping going on all over in tune with the rhythm.

“This is… oddly high profile for undercover work.” Jade pointed out, pulling a strand of her hair down to look at it, her hair was now a light blonde instead of its original metallic grey, and behind her glasses her eyes were now a pale blue.

Everyone bar Jonathan had changed their hair colours and eye colours with some wash-away dye and eye contacts, and with a bit of assistance from Yusuf with cosmetic things, they each now appeared a bit older than before.

‘Cosmetic things’, because Yusuf refused to refer to what he had done for them as ‘make-up’.

Jonathan had even pointed out a few improvements for Yusuf’s technique when the disguises were being made, showing that maybe, just maybe… this was something the students would learn in their third year.

Kazuya especially was dreading it, already worried about his masculinity when he cleaned a lot, worried over his friends and cooked in a cutesy manner thanks to being taught by his mother.

“Of course it’s a high profile job. Travelling musicians get a lot of attention, drawing crowds. And where there are crowds, there must be information and rumours floating about.” Yusuf pointed out, twitching his fingers from time to time, listening to select conversations within the bar, and filtering out the unnecessary from the necessary.

Jonathan drank from a mug of beer, looking at his son with narrowed eyes, judging Yusuf’s control over the Wind silently while Leah sat nearby also paying attention to it.

“So, what rumours are floating about?” Vince asked, not wanting to really remain in the bar for much longer.

Despite how Vince acted, like the life of the party most of the time, he disliked these loud bars.

Quieter ones, Vince quite enjoyed… not that he’d ever share why he knew he enjoyed those ones more.

“Well for starters, people are noticing an uptick in Sages on the streets, and there is speculation that the general Gregory Valzard might enjoy K-Pop, so rumours range from the ‘interesting’ to the ‘what am I hearing?’ really.” Yusuf explained, Tony snorting into his cool-drink at hearing the latter rumour.

“Of course, looking a bit deeper, there’s some whispers of xenophobia between Sages and humans… from what I gather, Sages are hearing of more and more Sages found dead in the area around Null-Sons gatherings, and associating the Null-Sons with humans, Sages are targeting humans as a way of getting revenge.” Yusuf explained with a frown, not liking what he was hearing.

“That sounds about right, even if it’s just a few people, mob mentality can start from just one loud speaker. And if a few Sages are catching onto the Null-Sons pattern, and retaliating due to a friend dying, more Sages will join, whether because they are also affected, or just to be a part of the group.” Jonathan said with a sigh, knowing that it was damn near inevitable.

People would always want to be a part of something, even if they didn’t understand what that ‘something’ was… blindly throwing their voices into the maelstrom of opinions.

“So now public order is still fine, on the surface at least, but tensions are bubbling. The problem is confirming whether or not the Null-Sons truly are behind the deaths.” Yusuf added with a huff, not liking this next bit.

“The Null-Sons are claiming responsibility for the deaths, saying that they did it, that they have a way to kill Sages… the chance of that being true is really low, so they’re likely lying to drum up support. The problem is that there are Sages who believe them and attack them, further bolstering their beliefs that Sages are a threat to normal humans.” Kazuya chimed in, hoping that Edward wouldn’t hear him over the crowd clapping in beat with the song…

Kazuya believed that Edward likely heard it though, considering how good a Sage’s hearing was.

“That’s the problem with fighting an idea. The people supporting it can be dealt with, but the idea itself…” Yusuf grumbled with a hand covering his chin in thought, only Jonathan catching on how Yusuf mentioned ‘dealt with’.

Jonathan was a part of this mission partly because of his status as a six Star Sage and being the teacher of the S-Class, but he was also part of the mission as a ‘spy’ of sorts.

To spy on his own son, to confirm that his son’s allegiance was still to ‘Sages’ and not ‘Rogue Sages’.

“That’s not our mission luckily. Our mission is to discover who, or what, is killing the Sages here in Regalia, as well as capturing them or if necessary, kill them.” A bounty hunting mission had that kind of connotations to it, even if Jade didn’t want to consider that a possibility, she still had to mention the possibility of murder.

Leah looked particularly put out at the suggestion of murder, Jonathan and Yusuf sharing a glance at her look before father and son both sighed.

“Let’s break here. Feel free to look around, travel in groups, but make sure you’re back at the hotel by ten at the latest.” Yusuf stated, the S-Class students nodding as Yusuf and Jonathan stood, walking away together, where they were going was of no concern to the S-Class though… it wasn’t their business.

“I’m going to wait for Ed, what’s everyone else doing?” Vince asked, leaning back into his chair, his leg twitching in an attempt to be placed on the table, only for a glare by Jade to cow Vince into simply keeping his feet on the floor.

“Library.” Liza said standing, gesturing for Tony of all people to follow her, the boomerang user pointing at himself for clarification only to be met with a nod.

“Fast reader, shorten search time, travel in groups.” Liza pointed out, and Tony saw what she was saying, though why she didn’t say anything about Kazuya…

“Ah, uh… Hiiro, I kind of wanted to go to a specific place, could you come with me?” Leah said after a moment of internal debate, the Essence user looking to her with a raised eyebrow before smiling and nodding.

Because Kazuya was looking towards Leah, he didn’t catch Jade raising a thumb for Leah, nor Vince’s eyes going wider.

Kazuya only saw Liza looking to Leah with narrowed eyes before she sighed and left with Tony in tow.

Leaving the bar with Liza, Tony and Leah, Kazuya waved to the two library goers as they left towards Regalia’s main Library, he and Leah walking in the opposite direction, not that Kazuya knew what was in this direction.

More important than the reactions of his classmates, and still on Kazuya’s mind-

“You know, you called me Hiiro… why?” Kazuya asked, wondering why Leah called him by his first name instead of his surname as he preferred.

Kazuya didn’t quite mind, he had heard his name from his classmates enough times to be comfortable with it due to their time under his parents teachings.

The S-Class knew that Kazuya preferred being called by his surname though, so why…

“It… it feels impersonal.” Leah said while looking away and to the floor, not willing to look at Kazuya’s expression as she gave her explanation, clearly a bit embarrassed by what she had just said.

Even Kazuya felt a bit of a blush rising to his cheeks at her explanation, he couldn’t quite play that off like he normally would.

“O-oh… okay then…” Kazuya finally said, internally wishing he could palm his face at how ‘smoothly’ he responded.

Something about Kazuya’s expression must have been funny, since Leah started giggling at his side…

Oh well, crisis averted, Leah laughed, so as far as Kazuya was concerned, he was in the clear for now.

“So, where are we really going?” Kazuya asked while raising a brow in question, Leah looking up to him, her eyes looking suddenly a bit dull, and her smile softer and sad.

“I’m visiting my parents.”

“Why are we headed to the library?” Liza had a soft smile at hearing Tony speak, glad that his stutter was gone… well, mostly.

It took quite a bit of speech therapy, but Tony was capable of speaking concisely now, well… until he was under duress, in a fight he had a habit of speaking a bit too fast and possibly stuttering over his words, but still, progress was progress.

“Personal research.” Liza wouldn’t say more than that out in the open, not wanting anyone to hear what she was going to be looking for…

It was frowned upon to even bring up around Sages, so why would normal humans think it fine?

Tony didn’t like Liza’s roundabout answer, but he knew that Liza was trustworthy, so he just shrugged, resuming their walk.

They made an odd picture walking down the street, with how small Liza was, and how Tony was shaping up to be a tall guy, it drew a few looks from time to time…

Tony felt like curling into himself at hearing the ‘P’ word… he was not attracted to little girls, and he was in fact the youngest in his class, with Leah being the eldest with her birthday being exactly thirty days before Kazuya’s, who was the second eldest.

No one would have guessed by how Leah acted.

Back to the topic, Tony was younger than Liza despite appearances, so he wasn’t into little girls! He wasn’t!

“Ignore.” Liza pointed out, uncaring that people were calling her younger than she was. She probably only would have had issue with her appearance if Kazuya said something was off with it…

Considering that-

“Is that really fine? Letting Leah get so close to Kazuya like that?” Tony asked, Liza looking to the taller Sage with a narrowed stare.

“It is fine. Polygamy is perfectly acceptable.” Right… not really, it was still seen as quite out of the norm, even if Sages were left to their own devices in that sense.

“And if Kazuya only wants Leah?” Tony actually liked Liza’s company and he considered her his best friend bar Vince, but he had to ask so that she could prepare herself for disappointment.

Tony cared, even if he rarely spoke it out.

“Then that’s that. It won’t change how I feel though.” Liza added, recalling having a similar conversation before.

“Bless you.” Vince said back at the bar as he nodded towards Jade, who had her handkerchief covering her nose as she sneezed, the girl frowning at the sudden sniffle.

“I see… for what it’s worth, I hope this doesn’t cause a rift in the class.” Liza doubted it would, but she understood what Tony was getting at, groups would splinter for much less at times.

“Probably not.” That was all Liza had left to say on the matter as they climbed the steps into the public library, the place still open despite the late time on account of a previous Emperor stating that knowledge should be accessible at all times.

Granted, that was soon taken advantage of as books were stolen, but after that Sages were hired to guard the library itself… as usual, Sages were the solution to everything, just throw more Sages at the problem and it would solve itself.

Now that they were at the library, Tony followed as Liza walked up to the counter, the librarian looking up with a raised brow, clearly waiting for Liza to speak.

“I’m looking for information on Mystic Beasts and Fae.” Tony really didn’t like Liza’s search topics, his eyes widening a bit while the librarian sighed.

“Go to my left, your right, third floor. Sages prefer alphabetical to the Dewey Decimal system, so look in alphabetical.” The librarian almost seemed to spit out that last bit, clearly against the idea of arranging books in alphabetical rather than by subject.

Tony would have laughed about such a tiny thing to be annoyed over, but he got annoyed when soccer players passed the ball incorrectly, so he instead kept quiet.

Liza nodded in thanks to the librarian, and Tony followed silently, knowing to keep quiet within a library.

“…Is there a reason for this research?” Tony asked, and Liza nodded, not looking his direction as they climbed the stairs, arriving on the third floor.

“Yes… an important one.” Liza said, looking at Tony once more, and Tony felt himself in a nervous sweat.

“…May I hear the reason?” Tony asked, hoping that Liza wouldn’t say what he feared she would.

“It’s about a friend. I want to help him.” Tony retained his caution, but accepted the olive branch for what it was.

“Alright… how long have you known, about your friend’s problem?” Tony asked, reaching over to a nearby book titled ‘Demon Kings of the East’ and flipping it open to a random page.

“I was suspicious since my first fight with my friend… I was also suspicious when he showed hints of his true strength.” Tony clicked his tongue at Liza’s words, not liking what he was hearing.

“I see… how much do you know, about the problem your friend has?” Tony asked, hoping that this answer would be in his favour.

“Admittedly little… what I do know is that this ‘problem’ is unheard of… and I want to know why. My friend has no need to worry about a problem from me though.” Liza added while reaching for a book on ‘Interactions between the Fae and Man’, and Tony was glad.

Anyone listening would think they were talking about a third party, only those who paid attention would notice the reactions of Tony which revealed more of the truth on the matter.

“So no one else knows about the problem?” Tony made sure to remain circumvent, no one could know, no one… if Liza found out, that was one thing, but if someone Tony didn’t trust found out… he’d probably be killed.

“Not that I’m aware of. I’m sure his teachers are curious but can’t quite understand it. I mean, they’re so powerful my friend is just lumped with the rest of his class, the only people who would notice are those around his strength… and if they knew what to look for.” Tony blinked, looking up from the page on ‘Ox Demon King’ and looking to Liza with a blank stare… the implications of what Liza was saying…

“…When?” Tony’s question was one of concern, as it would have to have happened before they started at Elem.

“The reason I became a three Star Sage.” Tony drew in a sharp breath, looking back to his book and flipping it, looking at the images of the deceased Monkey Demon King, the King of Lightning having defeated the Mystic Beast at some point during the opening stages of the Fae War.

“I… I’m sure your friend is sorry.” Tony cut himself off as he was about to speak, knowing that there were Sages guarding the library that could no doubt hear their conversation.

Liza did not want any eavesdroppers to know she completed a Dungeon, or why she was forced to, Tony went along with her words.

“He shouldn’t be sorry since he had nothing to do with the situation after all.” Tony found himself chuckling a bit at that, having a soft smile on his face.

Of course Liza wouldn’t blame the ‘friend’. Liza was probably the most accepting person in their entire class.

It was why Tony considered her a close friend like Vince, though Tony definitely would never talk about this ‘topic’ with Vince.

The conversation was done for the moment, only the sounds of pages turning echoing throughout their section of the quiet library.

“So father, why don’t you ask your questions?” Jonathan sighed, hearing Yusuf and the grin in his son’s words.

“…We know the Baqri began their assessments, your mother and I. I take it you understand why?” Jonathan asked, wiping his hands as he stood from his kneeling position at the side of the knocked out assassin.

They were getting quite bold if they were attacking within the heart of the Empire.

“They’re trying to see if I’m qualified to lead. They want me to challenge mother’s lead and take over the clan, or force her to kill me, am I right?” Yusuf’s words were the gist of it, yes.

Either Rabia handed over command peacefully, or she refused and by family law the King of Wind and Yusuf would have to fight to the death, mother against son.

Rather, a ten Star Sage against a four Star? Regardless of how experienced the latter was, Yusuf was being set up to die, or take control.

“Your mother would never fight you. You’ll get command of the Baqri without question, and no doubt the elders of the family will try and get you to bring back their ways.” Jonathan added to the explanation Yusuf brought, further clearing up the picture as they walked away from the pile of knocked out assassin’s…

They’d probably be killed for failure by the Baqri though.

“Right, they’re a bunch of old men too used to power that was taken from them when my mother took over after killing her brother. I doubt I can fully control them, I mean, most of them are seven or eight Stars…” Jonathan was worried about exactly that, and Yusuf knew it.

“…In all honesty, I don’t mind the assassinations.” And Jonathan was worried about that as well. Jonathan wished Yusuf wouldn’t say that… but Jonathan would wait for a moment before reacting.

Rare was it that Yusuf would do something without reason, and Jonathan would like to hear the reason before he reacted.

“My only issue with the assassinations was that, from the stories you and mother told me, the family has no morals in their assassinations… we would be hired by a family to kill another family’s head, and then be in turn hired by that family to kill the head of the first.” Yusuf disliked that, it was so… mercenary.

“Ah, I’ve heard that story before, and it didn’t happen only once. The Baqri, for all their skill, were quite the opportunists.” Jonathan’s words were putting it lightly, if there were no contracts coming in, one of the Baqri would be sent to plant evidence to cause conflict, then get hired by either side of said conflict or even both.

The only people the Baqri never did such nonsense with would be the Empire and a few other places such as the Dun Scaith, mostly because if proof of their interference rose, the Baqri would be annihilated.

“Right, I don’t like that. Yes, take advantage of opportunities, but maintain your morals at least.” Jonathan hid his smile, not wanting Yusuf to see that his words were exactly what Jonathan wanted to hear.

“That’s a good start. That still doesn’t answer what you intend to do with the family.” At this point, both of them knew that Yusuf would be taking control of the Baqri eventually since Yusuf was too powerful to be killed by any assassin’s in his range as a Sage.

When your mother is the greatest assassin in the world, chances were that other assassin’s would pale in comparison.

“I’m hoping to give them what they want. While getting what I want.” Jonathan raised a brow, wondering what Yusuf was getting at.

“See, the family has been in decline because they aren’t allowed to take contracts anymore. They need to do standard Sage jobs like every other Sage, and quite frankly, the Baqri are average in that regard.” Yusuf spoke truth, as the Baqri were assassins through and through… ask them to guard a shipment of food, or explore the wilderness, and they’d probably flounder a bit.

Part of the reason why Rabia became the leader of the family was that she was a master of their assassination methods while at the same time being able to blend into normal Sage society. She simply knew more than just assassinations, making her the best Sage at straight up fights within the Baqri.

“So they want to bring back assassination contracts so that they can use the skills they learnt as well as earn a hefty sum of money.” The pay for assassinations were much higher than other ‘jobs’ due to the illegality of the work.

Risk pay was a thing.

“At the same time, I don’t really to be the leader of a group that would get destroyed the moment we gather enough attention for a King to take notice of… and considering mother, a King will take note.” Again Yusuf was right, Rabia was a good friend of the most morally grey King, the King of Darkness. It wasn’t farfetched to believe the Black Bank would take issue with the Baqri.

“So my suggestion is this… I will let them make me head of the Baqri. I will allow assassinations to continue once more. However I will start limiting which contracts we accept until they’re much greyer morally, little by little. No murdering children for example, no killing the innocent, etcetera, etcetera.” Jonathan blinked, having not considered that an actual option.

“That… could work. But with your strength, the elders will be able to go above you, you won’t be able to exercise the control needed for your plan.” Jonathan decided it was time to play the game of ‘look for holes in the plan’.

It was a favourite of the whole family really.

“That’s true, and I know that… so unfortunately I’m going to have to play along until I’m strong enough to contest them.” Jonathan narrowed his eyes and sighed, realizing what Yusuf would be doing.

“You do realize that would paint you as a Rogue Sage until you’re seven or eight Stars, depending on the elders and their strength at the time?” Jonathan was worried about this, not wanting Yusuf to ever be stuck with that label.

Not only that, Jonathan himself was ‘only’ six Stars and he was in his sixties, and he was considered a prodigy greater than even his terrifying son when it came to progression speed, the only people who grew at a faster pace were Donovan Oren and Yule Argos, King of Metal and Ice respectively.

Yusuf was only nineteen, even if he grew stronger as fast as his father, he’d need another forty to fifty years just to match his father’s current strength, which still wasn’t enough to control the elders of the Baqri.

That was more than half a century of being an enemy of the law. Yusuf would be an enemy of his parents and their colleagues.

“If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. Don’t worry too much though, since I do have a few plans to ease the burden I’ll need to take.” Jonathan looked at Yusuf for a moment, waiting to see if his son would break at his stare…

Yusuf didn’t even flinch, and so Jonathan nodded, leaving it at that.

“Your mother is in the palace as a guest of the Emperor. We can’t go visit her right now, but let’s go tomorrow.” Jonathan added, knowing that Rabia would want to talk to Yusuf in person, if she hadn’t been listening to the conversation through her power.

“I’d like that… I’m sure I’m not going to be able to visit mother much after this after all.” Yusuf said with a sad smile.

The rest of their walk under the stars was quiet between the son and his father.

“Blake… Blake… Blake… he’s here.” Blake rolled over, looking over to see the young cannibal that called itself Beel sitting at the ledge of their hiding spot, swinging their legs.

“Who is here?” Blake normally wouldn’t give a damn, tired as he was of this wild goose chase here in the Empire, much too close to the gathering Kings, but Beel normally left him alone unless Blake needed to take the cannibal out for a ‘bite’ to eat.

So understandably Blake was willing to hear Beel out if this wasn’t about transporting them somewhere.

“It’s the tasty looking one.” Beel said, Blake raising an eyebrow before he stood up while dusting the dirt off of his clothes… it’s what Blake got for going to sleep on a roof.

“What do you mean by ‘the tasty one’?” Blake walked over to the edge and looked to where Beel was pointing before frowning.

“Ah. That kid. Don’t bother. He is our main target, but not for this mission. Plus this place is way too public for us to get him.” Blake had enough empathy to not want to attack a pair of kids at a graveyard while paying their respects… besides, the thought that attacking the boy would summon the Kazuya Pair was a terrifying one for Blake.

Beel, terrifying as they were for their four Star strength, was not strong enough to keep one of the Pair off of Blake while he’d fight the other.

“I want to talk to him… I want to bite him.” Right, insane cannibal… Blake had to find a way around this…

“Okay, okay, how about this, you can’t bite him, but you can talk to him later?” Blake learnt to compromise quickly when it came to Beel and their wants.

Beel would try to eat Blake if given the opportunity, and while Blake would win that fight, he still wouldn’t want to fight Beel at all… so instead, appease and negotiate.

The only two that Beel respected enough to listen to without question were Jessica and the Apostle himself.

“Later?” Beel asked, eyes shining while drool slipped from the corner of their lips, showing clearly what their thought process was.

“Later, you can talk. Not bite, or lick, or anything you do.” Really, that Blake had to play babysitter to this crazy child…

“Aw… but okay.” Beel eventually seemed satisfied with what was suggested, lazily swinging their legs as they sat at the edge of the roof, Blake watching the Kazuya child along with his charge.

“…Beel, you also can’t drink, nibble, inhale, or any other form of intake.” Blake realized that the questionable Sage might be looking for loopholes in their mind.

“I get it alright. I get it… but he still looks delicious… I bet he tastes like brisket… no, maybe lamb, but what if the taste is just like a steak? Ooh…” Blake grimaced at the audible thought process of Beel, feeling the urge to vomit at the imagery Beel was invoking… rather than listen to that, Blake tried to listen onto what the Elem high students were talking about.

With a bit of strain in his hearing, Blake blinked, and then realized he was eavesdropping on a confession between two teenagers and immediately his face took on a disgusted appearance.

Ugh, those kids were old enough to be Blake’s kids, if he had any. He didn’t want to see anything like this, so he turned around, leaving Beel to watch.

“Blake, why is that girl trying to eat the tasty one’s mouth?” Ugh, Blake wished Beel would shut up already…