"Please excuse me, young one, but there was an emergency at the royal palace and everyone is to be checked. I have already delayed myself, I must be going to the guards now." Nobleman Qan could not hide the fatigue and worry in his voice.

He was recently coming down from the high of his magical drug use, and was near crashing.

"I am not good at subterfuge, unlike yourself. Again I offer my greetings to nobleman Qan. I am Willem Reinhardt, master of Kinsey Dragon." Willem removed his hood to show his boyish smile.

"Subterfuge, whatever could you mean?!" Nobleman Qan had stopped gathering his work and was now on the defensive.

"The King has asked me to look over the financials for the sale of plots of land in the outer area, as a portion of money has gone missing. He believes it may be related to a much larger issue and has chosen for me to investigate it. I need you to come with me until I can finish my investigation. Any attempt to gather your work further will be equivalent to a confession." Willem pretended to reach into his pocket as he used his spatial spell and pulled out the seal of the King.

Willem was quite pleased with himself for becoming better at lying and using long winded speeches.

"Kinsey did say you were to the point, and I would not dare question the King. Even under this duress, I will comply." Nobleman Qan felt Willem's strong presence and an indescribable pressure, and readily stepped away from his desk. Having been strong armed into compliance, Qan did his best to hide the slight tremor in his hands.

"You have chosen correctly." Willem gathered the documents from Qan and placed them inside a nearby satchel. "Please follow me."

Willem and Qan went to the guard post, where Willem showed the seal of the King to the guards and the satchel with the documents. After a quick explanation of their previous whereabouts, they were on their way to the inner city of the Bastion of Hope. Qan looked around anxiously, but it was as if he was invisible while travelling beside Willem.

Willem had silently used his darkness magic to mask their presence, not enough to distort their bodies but enough to make the residents of the inner city unknowingly look away.

Qan could do nothing but obediently follow Willem.

"We have almost arrived at our destination." Willem announced.

Though to Willem it was only roughly ten minutes of walking, to Qan it was a near eternity of anxiousness and despair, his skin feeling like it was crawling with bugs waiting to bust out.

"I recognize this place. Nobleman Saye used to live here with her husband and son before their untimely death." Nobleman Qan had previously spent time with the head of the family as they both were under the employment of the King. "You own this residence now?"

"Correct, please enter. Do not concern yourself with removing your boots." Willem stated matter-of-factly. "You will be under the care of Kinsey while I look over your work for inconsistencies."

Willem used his mental connection to Kinsey and informed her to be ready to be teleported immediately. Upon her confirmation, he gathered his magical force and sent her to the Private Sanctum to prepare for his arrival.

"I understand, please let me know if there is anything I can do." Nobleman Qan rubbed his shaking hands together and bowed his head.

Willem stood above the chalk outlines and motioned for Qan to come toward him. When Qan entered the teleportation array, his vision suddenly blurred and when he opened his eyes he could not recognize where he was.

When his eyes began to re-adjust to his new surroundings, Qan noticed immediately that he was no longer in the Saye family's old home. In front of him was a large desk filled with alchemy supplies, accompanied by two fully clad knight statues standing on each side. The rug on the wall was of fine quality silk and depicted a red dragon coiled in an almost perfect circle. Multiple tapestries of war and famine encircled the otherwise plain room. To those in the know, this was how a high noble would decorate their room, as is the custom.

Qan sighed in relief and stood up from a kneeling position, having gathered his wits. The first to greet him was the beautiful red haired girl that he had seen not that long ago.

"Greetings to Master and Nobleman Qan." Kinsey bowed.

"Kinsey, Nobleman Qan will be staying with our other guest while I look over his work for the King." Willem hinted.

"As you wish, I will prepare for him what is needed." Kinsey's eyes sharpened but her gaze did not attract the attention of Nobleman Qan.

Having caught on immediately, Kinsey led Qan toward the basement where the elf was being tortured. After being led to the torture chambers, Qan assumed the door led to his guest room and opened it only to find a beautiful woman standing over a tied up human-like male. Before he could utter a word, a sharp stab in his back forced out of him a guttural cry of pain.

With almost surgical precision, Kinsey coated her fingers in a thin membrane of vibrating magical force and sliced open Qan's back barehanded, grasping his spine.

Green blood slowly oozed out of his open wound while Kinsey continued to apply pressure directly to his spine. Qan felt a numbing pain in his arms and legs as if he was slowly losing control of his body, and he could not struggle nor fight back. Kinsey asked for Willem's new slave to help her tie Qan up, and she did so without hesitation.

The spider demoness had found great pleasure in torturing the already helpless elf, being mostly helpless herself made the domination of another being that much more meaningful. When a new subject of torture arrived, she jumped at the opportunity.

"This is another one to be tortured, am I correct?" She looked to Kinsey for an answer.

"Yes, I believe that is exactly what Master has in mind." Kinsey nodded and removed her hand from Qan's spine.

"Looks like I can no longer hide who I am. I am curious how your Master knew, considering how brain dead you humans can act." Qan spit fresh green blood towards Kinsey.

"I told him." Kinsey deftly evaded the green blood and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Qan watched Kinsey depart, licking his lips and preparing himself for the torture that awaited him. The elf beside him finally woke up and immediately began begging for death, not even paying attention to his surroundings. Qan watched as the woman, beautiful beyond mere words, began hacking into the elf's legs with a savage grin, drinking his green blood and clacking her teeth like a spider.

A cold sweat ran down Qan's back for the first time in a long time.

Inside the Royal Palace.

The One True King had immediately been notified by the leader of his internal guards when the royal chef had been killed, and was also told that the chef was a magical being that bled green blood.

The King was in shock after finding out that one of his personal staff had been a magical being. He was led to the body and carefully examined the chef while the guards issued the maids and other staff away from the area. He carefully gathered his magical force to his eyes and examined the body but found no trace of magical power emanating from it.

"No one must know that the royal chef was a magical being, anyone who has witnessed this will receive an increase in pay as compensation for their silence. Anyone found disclosing this information will be dealt with as if they had betrayed me." The King announced to the present guards.

"Yes sire!" The guards saluted and removed the body from the scene.

In order to feign ignorance, he announced a man hunt for the murderer while ensuring no one announced who was murdered.

The Queen acknowledged her King as he entered the throne room, but did not stop dancing. She beckoned him to come forth and join her, but he could not bring himself to. She pleaded with her sweet voice, but her eyes were closed as if she did not believe in the words she spoke.

Inside the Magic Academy.

Anna had been doing continued research into the late Mind Mage Hallard's leather tome. Lacking a key to decrypt the cipher, she was forced to manually try and figure it out. However the more she looked into it, the more befuddled she became.

After a short while, her Master's voice resounded in her mind.

"Anna, since you are at the Magic Academy, bring to me ten senior inscriptionists of superior quality. Make sure their talents and primary magic are not all the same." Willem spoke his command and suppressed the connection to Anna.

Anna quietly closed the tome and stuffed it into her spatial spell. Gathering her things, she left the grand library and headed to the senior inscriptionists classroom where a lecture was currently underway.

After a quick jaunt to the classroom, she knocked on the door and awaited an answer.

A older gentleman with a refined aura opened the door and looked over the girl standing outside. He measured her ability with magical perception and found her power exemplary. Unfortunately that was not enough to join the class, and he attempted to turn her away.

"I am afraid we cannot accept anyone who is not commended by the intermediate inscription class. Please do your best and hopefully I will see you soon." The older gentleman sighed and began to close the door.

"I am here on behalf of the Grand Mage of Darkness, Grandia." Anna spoke loud enough for not only the older man but the entire class to hear her. "I come seeking ten of your best for assistance with his experiments. Compensation will be given, and potentially more depending on their value."

Whispers could be heard from inside the classroom, but they quickly died down as the class waited in anticipation.

"Please forgive my impudence, come in, come in. May I ask for proof of your identity as the attendant of the Grand Mage? I mean no offense but I must be sure, as their have been incidents in the past of false claims." The older gentleman began to sweat as he closed the door behind her.

Anna produced from her hand a pure black flame. The older gentleman, in order to prove her authenticity, manipulated his magical force and produced an intermediate level 'water ball' to engulf the flame. Lo, the flame did not extinguish, and he took it as proof of her relationship with Grandia.

"May I ask why this esteemed guest has visited this humble class again?" The older gentleman was now much more open and alert, compared to his lackadaisical attitude previously.

"As I have previously mentioned, I require ten of your best inscriptionists in order to perform high level inscriptioning my Master needs. A simple test will be performed for those who wish to join me, and the top ten will be chosen and will come with me. Now, who wishes to be a part of this elite group?" Anna took over the gentleman's desk at the front of the class and waited as every person in the class raised their hand.

The class was almost evenly split, with forty percent males and sixty percent females with one hundred and twelve students total in the class. Considering the lack of male mages across the Academy, this could be considered a feat among itself.

"Good, the test will be to create to the best of your ability the strongest magical scroll you can. You will not be judged on the level of the spell, but on the quality of the work. Therefore if you use a fireball to defeat a pyroclasm, that will be perfectly acceptable. Ready your quills." Anna had completely taken over the class, and the older gentleman did not mind even a little bit. He was readying his quill as well in preparation.

"I am afraid I cannot accept your participation, you are far too important to stop teaching your class. To take away such a person would be against the will of my Master." Anna told the dejected man.

Anna went around to each student and gave them a small vial to use. The vial contained a concoction of king bat blood, white tiger hair and astral spider venom. This was the material used for high level inscriptions.

The students prepared themselves by sending their magical force through their quills to the best of their ability.

"You may begin." Anna announced.