Gilliam went into great detail, explaining his thoughts and lack thereof in a lot of cases. It started with the training and learning, as well as bonding with Savia. Putting her in his hair to free his hands he continued with the testing of magic and simply explaining who and what he was to the group that might not know him.

Then the first gate that had him terrified, that was the first he saw actual combat in his life. He managed to puzzle together the spell that broke the gate and sent the demons back or left them to be slaughtered, the portal cutting the foot of the Gatekeeper.

Then he went through the thing with Petal becoming his servant, he chose to not mention the possibility to just force-teach her V’idan and just mention that they agreed on the conclusion of his reputation. The original information they got from her about demon biology. He went into detail about all the other things, scaring the students to not mess with Petal. It went onto the training with Ghaos, the duel with Garend and perhaps not in the correct order, everything up until the second portal.

The second portal started out with simple explanations, as they were prepared he managed to destroy it before it opened but was stabbed. Adding a point that he wanted to know what happened to her once this was over he continued.

This moved to once he grabbed the dagger it felt like teleportation, similar to when Aeris teleports him. The explanation then continued into his awakening and introduction to the demon world, moving onto his escape and everything that followed. How he struggled to survive, needed food, and his whole path through his mental ordeals. The training with Ghaos had already gotten him over the fear of hurting people, that helped a lot. The explanation continued with Sirzan, though he decided to not detail the ring and sword too much for now. The information he got from Sirzan was some of the most interesting parts for the people in the room. All his combat, the potential hundreds of demons he killed, the description of them and how they fought, in the end the static gate, the following fight that had two dangerous mages and finally the orb. He had to mention the sword in this but he didn’t detail it, leaving them to speculate.

The story ended with the mini gate within the Academy walls, finding out about Garend, Savia and Petal. Taking his revenge on Garend, managing to bring Savia out by feeding her Garend’s arm and that kind of concluded the explanation.

People took lots of notes but now the room was dead silent.

They were re-reading their notes, making new notes, seeming to shuffle papers back and forth, some murmuring between a few of them until one of the well dressed men finally broke the silence.

“You... You cut the arm of a noble? A com* Mage such as yourself-” It was plain as day that he was about to define Gilliam a commoner and the outrage, but tried to save himself some face there. “Attacked a noble and cut off his arm... That you then fed to your demon slave...?”

He looked almost more outraged at that than the whole explanation of the Fractured Lands and its people.

“After everything I just explained, this is the part you react to... Yes, the little shit tortured my familiar and attacked my companion, so I took revenge. I meant to kill him so you can be happy that I was persuaded otherwise.-” As the same noble was about to comment, Gilliam cut him off before he could properly start. “-And yes, I am very aware that he will most likely get his very influential father and family to do their best to either take me out or ruin my reputation. But honestly, if you pompous fucks decide to bring that up before the actual demon invasion, I’m out, I’ll just leave and I won’t help anymore.”

He put heavy, heavy pressure on the ‘actual demon invasion’ part of the explanation, forcing focus on what’s important. Parts of him knew how nobles would often consider themselves before everything else but this was getting on his nerves.

Naturally it was a lie that he would leave and not help, he would absolutely leave but he would not stop fighting the demons. Though he felt he needed to put into perspective that currently at least, he was the most experienced and potentially powerful person they had against the demons. So some noble squabble was so far down on his list that it just annoyed him.

“Now, anyone else?” He forced word away from the man who wanted to speak about the nobles. Didn’t stop him from wanting to talk more but after looking around the room he realised and stopped himself from asking anything else.

Following were more practical questions about the demons, their apperance, how the different ones fought, their world and other things Gilliam had noticed that he might not have realised that he noticed. This took the rest of the day with food and drink being brought in at some point. The discussions didn’t need much steering after the initial trailing off, and a lot of information was shared, Gilliam doing his best to draw or explain things asked of him.

Ledels asked what Gilliam planned to do in this case, specifically mentioning that since he isn’t tied to anyone he also didn’t owe anyone anything.

Gilliam replied that he planned to fight the demons, for now he likes the academy and the people more than the few he dislikes; so he’ll stay.

This calmed down a lot of people in the room, so it seemed that his threat hit harder than he expected.

In the end the meeting, or rather presentation was over. The current questions were answered and people were tired. The nobles of the group left before the others, teachers following after. Nobody really said anything but rather seemed deep in thought. When they all had left the remaining ones were Gilliam’s group and Ledels, who got up from his chair and walked over to Gilliam.

“I do apologise for the nobles, they are egotistical but mean well in their own... weird way.-” His factual expression was forced calm, clearly trying to hide the tiny bit of disgust he had for them. “-You will have my full support, almost anything the Academy can help with, as long as it makes sense, we’ll do our best.”

This was a super good deal, not that Gilliam needed much more than knowledge and training, although there were two things.

“Can someone heal Savia and teach her V’idan?” When referencing his familiar he pointed at the little creature he had put into his hair during his presentation.

He investigated her a bit, she peeped out from a small nest she had made in his hair and smiled at Ledels.

“I don’t think we can regenerate her feathers, not many healers have that skill. So might need to happen naturally if they regrow. The rest of her wounds seem fine.-”

Looking back to Gilliam he continued. “-Teaching her V’idan is not a problem as long as she’s sentient and won’t resist the process.”

Gilliam smiled. “Good. I would like both done as soon as possible.”

Ledels pondered for a second. “I can cast the spell, but I’m not as good at it as Muul is. I can only pass my knowledge of the language away, so she’ll only be as good as I am. Muul has studied V’idan to a much higher degree than me.”

This had Gilliam realise something, since Muul was the one who taught Petal, she should have an incredibly good grasp of the language. That was a bit amusing that she as an outsider would know the language better than most natives.

“I’m fine with that, I don’t need her to have perfect knowledge, so nativer understanding is plenty.”

Gilliam was a bit happy. On a cold and logical level; this would increase her usefulness a lot. But on a more emotional and real level; this was going to increase her life quality, being able to talk to people.

Lifting his hand up to the hairgoblin that she had become, she eagerly climbed into it before he lifted her back down and waited for her to pay attention to him. “Now, Savia. He will use some magic on you, don’t resist it, ok?”

She simply smiled and nodded which prompted Gilliam to nod at Ledels.

The headmaster proceeded to generate the very, very complicated multi-tiered spell circle. Once completed he placed the oversized circle on her head which prompted it to flash and disappear. Much like with Petal there was no visual change and everything ended up with a confused little creature in his hands.

“It’s going to take a moment.” Ledels commented, which is also somewhat akin to what Muul mentioned for Petal.

The tiny relief that Gilliam had now, since everything else was taken care of, adding that time moves slower in the Fractured Lands, so any time they used to mobilise would give them more time to react, all these thoughts allowed Gilliam’s fatigue to rush back over him.

Waking up to the sound of heavy, heavy rain, Gilliam felt better. Not just since he seemed to have gotten proper rest, but there was something oddly calming about the sound of rain. He was never really sure if it was because of the static noise effect that rain had or that it felt nostalgic to the UK. Not the most rainy place in the world, it was still pretty known for it.

Thinking about the day before, after the language spell was cast on Savia the remainder of the day passed in a blur, the walk back to the healing area and getting a checkup on Savia. He vaguely remembered them mentioning that they didn’t exactly have much knowledge about just what she was, and nobody had exact skills in regrowing feathers. What they did have, however, was much more knowledge and skill than Gilliam had in generalised healing, allowing them to improve her general wellbeing. It was not to the point that her skin and scales were perfectly fine, but it was much closer than it was before.

He had so much to do in his future, he had without a doubt pissed off the demon domain something fierce. Not just did he kill some of them, he destroyed parts of one of their towers as well as consumed an important artefact. He did feel surprisingly satisfied by all of this but given how fight-happy the demons seemed they were most likely increasing efforts.

The need to train was ever present, he did well all things considering but he clearly needed more knowledge, even with his cheat-level of knowledge in magic, he couldn’t create food. And he didn’t even know the cleaning spell. Though he did get a decent look at the spell circle that Jial used on him after the event with Petal, it was too fast for him to get it properly. He also needed to get more used to the sword and find out the limits of the ring.

Considering that Petal and Savia could end up in the demon realm in the future, as well as other people for that matter, there was also the need to train other people.

On the thought of them he took a brief check in his room, Savia was sleeping in a nest she had made in his hair again, he strangely enough missed this before. And Petal was sleeping in his bed next to him. Smiling to himself as he looked at the ceiling he realised that he really didn’t hate this.

The five days or something he spent in the Fractured Lands had absolutely changed him, the fear of harming people and doing what he felt was needed was absolutely removed. To the point that he didn’t even wince at remembering that he fed a teens arm to a chained up demon, it just felt needed so it was fine.

He was turning into a ‘I do what I want’ kind of person with his own rules behind it... Or at least he hoped that he could keep it that way, he didn’t like the idea of becoming as the roleplaying community liked to name ‘chaotic stupid’. He remembered playing with those and that was... not god... So one of his highest fears at the moment was becoming one of those.

Though everything said, he did like being in the demon realm a bit, not the threat of death... that part was terrifying and he absolutely hated that part but the lack of fear when using magic. He didn’t have to actually be afraid to use something big and just try out things. He didn’t like the idea of killing even demons without reason but, if he did it was kind of OK. He wondered if he would ever end up thinking about humans that w*

“Master!!” a tiny voice broke him out of his weird mental place. Savia had realised that he was awake somehow, since she was still in his hair it was probably through their bond.

Stressing herself out of the ball of hair she had collected she climbed up from the top of his head to his face, a few flaps were needed to aid her climbing until she stood on his forehead.

She just stood there for a few seconds with a very, very satisfied smile before she tilted forward in a face-planting hug, she remained there until he lifted her off.

“Good morning, Savia.” He smiled back at her. This is how it should be, waking up with those who are close to you. It would be just a tiny bit better if there was not the threat of an incoming invasion s*

The sudden sound of his door being stomped against woke the three of them properly up. They were quite startled as this came from nowhere. It was almost to the point that the three of them flew out of the bed as a reaction. Though that didn’t happen Gilliam did realise that in that split second he had taken his sword out of the ring, though not activated it yet.

“What?!” Gilliam shouted out toward the door, his calm and pleasant morning completely destroyed.

“I heard you got a neat sword and some new combat skill. I wanna fight!” Kintas' voice was outside the door, he sounded very, very... Very interested. He could almost feel his adrenaline through the door.

“What... You boot my door to ask me to spar?” Gilliam was more confused than anything, this just felt... weird. He could have waited?

“Oh, no, I don’t want a spar; I want to fight.” There was an odd tone to his voice. No anger or any feeling for any revenge or really anything like that. He just wanted to fight.

Climbing out of the bed and shuffling over to the door, not considering that he was in his underwear at the moment and how the equally in her underwear Petal in his bed could be misunderstood, he opened the door to Kintas. Feeling safe to do so as he was part of the Academy faculty.

“I’m tired, you booted my door and.. You want to spar? Fight? What’s the difference?”

Gilliam looked at the sword in Gilliam’s hand, he had seemingly forgotten to put it back in the ring. His look was that of an addict eyeing their next fix after abstaining for far too long.

“Ohyes, that looks good. I like the runes. From what I heard when you activate it, your skill manifests, I guess it’s related to your magic skill?”

Gilliam couldn’t remember having mentioned much more than in passing how the fight against the demons went, and he only briefly mentioned that he obtained a sword that could magically manifest a blade.

Kintas was a swordsman... right? Did Ledels of Jial realise something?

In his confused daze Gilliam sort of nodded in agreement to his assumptions. “I gues* I mean.. Who.. How did you know?”

The tone of his voice changed before the last question when he snapped out of his daze and wanted to know what was going on.

“Oh. I got a little info from Jial yesterday, I pieced the rest together.” he smiled a bit proudly.

“But. You want to fight me? Right now? We can use the dome in the Light field, the one you and Ghaos used.”

He was like an eager puppy wanting to go on a walk.

“No, yes... no.. what.. Hold on. What’s the difference between a spar and a fight?” Though not the most pressing question in Gilliam’s mind at the moment, there were many, but it was the one he asked a moment ago and he kind of needed to know.

“A spar has too many dumb rules and people fighting with holding back and trying to not hurt the other side too much. No. Fuck that, I want a proper fight. Like you and Ghaos had. You got a sword now and perhaps the only one that can take mine, I want to fight.”

He kept repeating that, he looked scarily eager. And given how easily he whooped his ass last time there was something more to it this time.

“.... What do you know that I don’t understand yet...” Gilliam was hesitant, was this some kind of weird trap? Was he going to kill him and eat his heart or something weird?

“If anything, I might be one of the few that kind of understands your gift?” He sounded a bit uncertain, but at the same time the tone hinted that he did indeed know something, but it might be hard for him to put his finger on it.

Gilliam’s eyes narrow, he understood his gift but that was mainly due to tropes and media back home. It at least helped a lot.

“Oh, and what exactly is my gift?” Gilliam wondered. Not that he didn’t know but he wondered how someone claiming to get it understood it.

“Hmm... I’ll tell you after we fight!” He had a shit eating grin but at the same time there was something in his eyes that confirmed the truth in his statement, that he wasn’t lying.

“So... You want us to fight, as in actually aim to kill each other in the dome where Ghaos killed me like a thousand times, and after we’ve done that for a while you’ll tell me your version of what my gift is?”

It was more a summary so they were on the same page before they decided on anything.

Kintas actually thought about this for a good solid few seconds before he answered.

“Yes, however you need to give it your proper effort, I won’t accept it if you just go in there and fake die a few times. I want to fight properly!”

He was hellbent on this fight of his, almost like he was extremely pent up after teaching students for years, but now after the first gate incident he might have triggered something.

“But... What if I don’t want to?” There was really not much for Gilliam to gain here. He could already somewhat fight and he was pretty good at magic, did he really need this fight?

It’s not like he didn’t know his own gifts.

“Oh, sure there is. Consider your improvement in fighting after training with Ghaos. Now we’ll do the same with the sword-” Kintas interrupted Gilliam before he got the chance to react to this statement. “-And before you answer or say you won’t earn anything from this. I know that lots of the last training was to remove the fear of pain but most importantly, affect your fear of hurting others. That’s boring. What I can do is to tell you things about your sword.”

The grin was back...

Gilliam didn’t like it but... He did have some good ideas.. He was currently relying on the magic cheat bonus, and he had found out that though it’s very good, it’s not super amazing.

“And how can you tell things about my sword just by looking at it?” Gilliam realised this was a better question.

“Now, that is the important question, isn’t it.” His shit eating grin grew to a magnitude Gilliam didn’t think possible.

“Get ready. Meet me in the dome right away, I’ll explain to you why I know and share some fun details. When we fight I’ll share more details as we go.”

Not letting Gilliam respond, Kintas closed the door and just left.

Standing in front of a closed door barely not touching his face. Clearly in thought, weighing options and considering things he remained there for a solid few seconds before letting out a super drawn out sigh with a groaning undertone. muttering to himself in a defeated tone.

“Fuck you, Kintas....”

Turning around he faced Petal, who was still sitting in the bed looking at him confused.

“Get dressed, seems like this is going to be a painful day...”

She smiled and nodded, starting to put on the dress she got from Jial all that time ago.

Gilliam put the sword back in the ring and started getting dressed.

A day off was all he wanted, lie in bed and just chill, but he apparently had to go fight the swordmaster of the Academy today...