Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Atlas, Bahamut

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*vwoom-Click* *fwoosh* "This way, please." The masked butler quickly led us into a wide hallway after opening a large double door with a special medallion.

We had been walking for several minutes at that point, winding our way through several colossal hallways before eventually splitting away from the main crowd and coming into a smaller but calmer area with only butlers and maids.

The butler leading us, however, seemed to be of quite a high ranking, as everyone from servants to the servants ordering around others made way for him.

No matter how you could twist it, he was assigned to us in order to cater to us. The issue with that was that his methods were.. a little odd.

"If a young servant catches the Lord's eye, please do let us know." He casually motioned toward a young, slender woman with deep blue scales, giving us a bow as we walked by. "None of the maids here would be upset to serve a man of your stature and demeanor."

The young maid quickly glanced up at me before I turned back to the butler. "I have plenty of maids already. I do apologize."

All throughout our walk, he kept a close eye on me and essentially told me I could have whatever I set my sights on, be it a painting or a woman, but I couldn't care less about any of it. All it did was make me wonder how much they knew. -Would a Whyte actually get this kind of treatment.. or...-

But rather than the butler cutting off my thoughts, my ears were met with the voice of an older woman. "Hoho~, there's no need to be so modest~..."

Looking ahead of us, I quickly met eyes with an ancient stage woman with large, partially feathered white and blue wings, wearing a purple dress and no mask.

When I first saw her with my space mana, I figured she was simply some daring, wealthy guest; however, that was clearly not the case. "Is it that you aren't satisfied with our servants?" She quickly motioned the butler away as she walked up to us.

"That isn't the case. I apologize if I caused a misunderstanding."

"Hoh? Then why are you refusing?" She approached us quite confidently. "With just a word, I could gather any number of beautiful women, from slaves to high nobility."

The forced smile behind my mask quickly disappeared. "No, thank you. If I wanted someone, I could get them myself."

But even with my blunt rejection, her confidence remained unwavering. "Well, with your strength and looks, that may be true, but power and authority aren't omnipotent."

Seeing her sly look, I played along. "You speak like you know something that is..."

Her smile immediately widened. "Well, of course! What else would Bahamut be?"

My suspicions quickly eased, although not completely. "I'm not sure.. but I do believe that omnipotence may be a stretch."

"Hoho~!" Her smile instantly turned ecstatic. "In that case, I do hope you are willing to stick around for the auctions finale... I believe it will be of great interest to you."

I instinctually tilted my head in confusion before quickly straightening back up. "May I ask what it is?"

But instead of responding, she simply put her finger over her mouth. "All I will say is that it is very real." Quickly spinning back around with a smile, she gestured to a maid ahead of us and had her disappear into a room. "In any case, why don't I show you two to your booth? We still have some time to drink and talk more privately before the auction starts~."

Giving me a quick glance, she started down the hall, but even though my gut was trying to tell me something, I followed her.

All until we finally made it to the booth.

*Vwoom-Click* The moment we got to the door, she motioned me to it and had me tap my rose gold token against it, causing it to nearly instantly unlock and swing open. *fwoosh*

Inside the door was a large room with two large couches, a table with several chairs around it, a bar with countless alcohols behind it, and two large seats centered in front of a glass wall covered with external curtains.

It was quite impressive, but there were also people, 3 hidden and 3 showing themselves.

From what the butler mentioned earlier, they were the security group assigned to this room, but it was quite odd for some of them to be hidden, especially to still be eyeing us like they were.

But thankfully, it was cleared up quickly. "This is your security group. They are the mercenary group known as The Blue Sun, led by my sister's youngest." She quickly motioned to the low ancient stage man in the middle who had a similar wing and scales color pattern to her except with slightly more blue. "But, in case you aren't satisfied with that, there are three others who were sent directly from Akri."

The three people I was watching with my space mana immediately revealed themselves, clearly displaying the medallions on their clothes before promptly disappearing again.

"They have all taken vows to not share what is spoken about in this room; however, in cases where a vow isn't enough, there are plenty of silencing artifacts spread about that you may use freely."

-Interesting... They've really thought of everything...- "In that case, thank you in advance."

"Of course." She quickly gave a shallow but formal bow before straightening up and walking to the bar. "Now, since that is done, why don't we get to our talk... *clink* Do you like piotita?"

Immediately nodding, I walked over to the table and sat down with Krystallo.

As the woman walked back over, she set a wine bottle in front of each of us before sitting down as well. It looked to be fresh piotita. "I apologize for the late introduction, but I am Poniriá Chalastís, the eldest daughter of the Chalastís family." She momentarily lowered her head again before pouring herself a glass.

-As I thought...- *vwoom* Quickly activating the silencing magic, I followed suit. "You can just call me Vasilias."

"And I am Krystallo." Krystallo gave a slightly nervous greeting before reluctantly opening the bottle and smelling the inside.

"Hoho~, it is my pleasure to finally meet you two. I have heard quite a bit about you both from your grandmother over the last few years, but it turns out she truly wasn't exaggerating her praises." She momentarily eyed me before finally taking a drink. "Although she did tell me you were strong, I didn't expect it to be at the point where your aura makes me feel a thousand years younger."

Finally beginning to ease up, I let out a light chuckle. "Haha, I am simply an anomaly. It would be best to not dwell on it too much."

"Hah, well, it is certainly reassuring..." Taking another quick sip, she finally set down the glass and put on a more serious expression. "On that note, why don't we get to the more pressing matter."

Seeing her quickly push more mana into the silencing artifact, thickening it greatly, my expression also turned serious.

"Last night, I caught wind that something was going on within the academy that I was unaware of, and was told by your Mother that you knew more than anyone... So I would like to hear what is happening first hand if you wouldn't mind."

I paused as I glanced to the side before turning back to her. "Alright." I took a calm sip of piotita before continuing. "When was the basement of the academy constructed?"

"When the academy was first built."

"And its purpose?"

She momentarily gave me a confused look before continuing. "It was originally meant to be for artifact storage, but it was changed to a space rune as it was being built. Unfortunately, though, it was never finished."

-No wonder they looked so similar...- "So I take it that you didn't know what that space rune was changed to?"

She immediately shook her head.

"Well, yesterday, I had the displeasure of seeing it." I momentarily used silencing magic around Krystallo as I went to speak. "They had turned it into a device that could alter the memories and dispositions of young dragons... The deputy headmaster would have a few professors feed students an amnesia drug, bring them down to that rune, and-"

*SHATTER* The clear glass in her hand exploded before I could finish, and with it, my suspicions of her vanished.

-I know that feeling...- "It was all done on the orders of the Holy Kingdom, and no matter how much you want to deny it, the academy is full of people just like the deputy. With Bahamut's lack of presence for so many years, many dragons have begun swaying away from him in favor of the human gods who they believe can answer prayers or in the promises of land and riches that the Holy Kingdom says they will provide, even if they must poison the next generation for it."

The fire in her eyes quickly grew several magnitudes before she finally let out a heavy breath and leaned back in her seat. "Hooh... I apologize for my lack of composure."

I quickly nodded. "Don't worry about it."

There was a long silence before she finally continued. "Do you have any idea how long the academy has been corrupted?"

I quickly shook my head before glancing to the side with a displeased expression again. "I can't know for sure, but seeing how deep they have dug, it cannot be a short period... Regardless, I plan to clean them out in about a week."

She gave me a conflicted look immediately. "How can you be confident you will get them all?"

Slowly standing up, I looked across the room at her nephew. "I can't. I can only be sure to cut the snake's head off."

She quickly looked at him across the room as well as anger had once again filled her eyes. "No. In some situations, it is best to also pull out the roots."

*VWOOM* Violently releasing her aura, she snatched her nephew from across the room and gripped his neck.

The fire in her eyes had quickly returned. "I knew the tree had begun to grow, but I never would have suspected the roots had run this deep... It seems my family has been too negligent."

Although Krystallo was still enraptured by the taste of her drink to be anything but confused as it happened, my expression was cold. -To blatantly spy on our talk like that... Even if he isn't related to the Holy Kingdom, he must be out of his mind...-

Poniriá looked like she wanted to snap his neck but quickly managed to wrangle her anger. "Vasilias... No, Sir Vasilias, I apologize if it may be an inconvenience, but I would like to meet again after the auction to continue our discussion." The air around her quickly turned cold. "I want to ensure that every last root is pulled from the ground."

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