Chương 424: (417) 6.31. You’re Not You When You’re Angry

As everyone disbanded from the trial, filtering out through the courthouse doors and immediately running around to tell all their friends about what had happened, Vin made a spur of the moment decision. Turning down Alice's invitation to see something new she'd been working on, Vin exited the courthouse just in time to see Golrim get slugged in the face by a seething beastkin.

Immediately, he recognized the Band as one of the frontrunners in the crowd who had tried to reach Golrim, and he frowned as he continued forward.

"That's for everything you've done!" the beastkin shouted, tears streaming down his face as a few other Bands grabbed him and pulled him back before he could hurl himself at Golrim's sprawled form.

"If you ever come even close to our village, I'll kill you!" Vin noted a few other Bands with murder in their eyes who looked like they were about to jump Golrim as well, and he sent out another quick pulse of Vibrate, warning them of his presence and causing them all to stumble and take a few steps back as they wildly looked around to try and find him.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow Golrim for a moment," Vin said, giving them all his best smile as he walked up and stood between the angry Bands and the former advisor.

"We'll be right back." Without a word, Vin silently cast Redirect Gravity, and Golrim shouted as the two of them flipped upside down and shot into the sky. Vin held onto the spell for a good couple of seconds, waiting until they were at least a half a mile into the air before canceling it. Once their upward momentum slowed down, just before they could start plummeting to the earth once more, he cast Create Cloud, catching the two of them on a small, fluffy platform.

"You know you're actually quite scary when you're angry," Golrim chuckled weakly, clutching the cloud between his fingers as he gave Vin his trademarked smile.

"Can I help you?"

"Exactly how much of this was orchestrated by your hand?" Vin demanded, crossing his arms as he stared down at the prone Logistician.

"After Curash, I probably know you better than anyone on Edregon. You might roll the dice now and again when the odds are in your favor, but you don't take chances."

"The whole point of me blindsiding you all was to give a layer of plausible deniability to hide behind as the Earthers continue advancing in levels and unlocking more powerful skills," Golrim said, pushing himself into a sitting position as he smiled up at Vin.

"Explaining any carefully worked out plans that may or may not have existed would somewhat defeat that purpose, now wouldn't it? My ribcage has runes carved into it to prevent truth-magic from working on me. Does yours?"

"You are seriously annoying to work with, has anyone ever told you that?" Vin asked, his frown deepening.

"But I guess your plan worked, so congrats. Are you going to be okay being exiled from your people?"

"Many of them come and do work in Terra during the day, so it's not as though I'll never see them again," Golrim shrugged.

"Besides, I already told you. My goal is to turn Terra into the greatest powerhouse on all of Edregon. As far as I'm concerned, being barred from one tiny sliver of it is no big loss."

"Mhm," Vin grunted, staring down at Golrim before deciding there was no point in trying to glean anything more from him. Golrim was arguably the best man at keeping secrets in all of Terra. And he had a point. As much as Vin wanted to know just how many of them had spent the day dancing like puppets tied to the Logistician's fingers, he supposed the end results of the trials spoke for themselves.

The majority of the Bands seemed to accept the punishments that had been handed out, and Terra wouldn't end up fractured like they had feared.

"Want me to drop you somewhere else? It looked like there was a line of people waiting to get a crack at you."

"No, you should drop me off where you took me from," Golrim sighed, rubbing at the bruise that was already beginning to form on his cheek.

"I wouldn't want the Bands to think you had anything to do with this, and it would do the ones who are grieving the most good to get some of their anger out on me. There's an old saying we advisors liked to share with one another back on my old world. Better to get punched in the face than stabbed in the back. Frank can patch up any serious damage if need be."

"Whatever you say," Vin said, dismissing the cloud and letting the two of them fall toward the earth. He may have waited just a fraction longer than he normally would have before casting Slow Fall, but he and the screaming Golrim landed without harm, surprising the waiting Bands as Vin actually did bring the man right back to them.

"Thank you, he's all yours," Vin said, turning to leave before pausing and casting a hard look over his shoulder.

"… Though I doubt I have to tell any of you what will happen if anyone seriously hurts him, now do I?" The waiting Bands all gulped in unison, many of their eyes flickering up into the air as if scared whatever force had ripped him and Golrim up into the heavens would come for them next. Vin received a number of rapid head shakes, and he nodded, turning and walking away for real. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Vin wanted nothing more than to go flop down in bed and rant to Lumel about how crazy the trials had been, and he sighed as he remembered that she was still out in the middle of her dream journey. She'd been gone for about a week and a half at this point, which meant she probably still had a couple of days left at a minimum. Deciding on the next best option, he headed off toward the forest dungeon located just outside of town.

"Now that's one hell of a story," Alka said, not even looking as she caught a thrown fist from a Slayer hopeful, twisting her body and hurling the poor girl overhead and right into a nearby tree.

"See, that's why I don't bother with any of that junk. Killing monsters is so simple and straightforward. Far easier than dealing with convoluted plans and the like."

"No kidding," Vin muttered, subtly casting Renewal and helping the groaning girl as she got back to her feet.

"How is this wave's crop doing? Anyone you have your eye on?"

"Nah, not this time," Alka said, motioning for the next combat classer to come forward and attempt to strike her. Next was a large man with a warhammer, who roared as he swung straight for her head. Vin was impressed that the warrior didn't seem to hold back in the slightest, but seeing as Alka had been putting them through the paces for a couple of days now, he could only assume they were all well aware of just how durable she was at this point.

"I think we'll get a solid dozen out of the batch though. Unfortunate that they'll basically just be filling the hole made by those who died during the battle for wave six." Despite the fact that they were speaking in Alka's ghost language, which would sound like little more than random moans and groans to any of the listening warriors, Vin winced as Alka so bluntly talked about how many Slayers had been killed, right in front of their potential replacements.

"Anyway, after all that craziness, I'm heading out again tomorrow morning," Vin said, watching as Alka flowed to the side, redirecting the force of the warhammer with a lightning-fast tap before driving her fist into the warrior's gut and causing him to drop like a rock.

"Any interest in coming with? Or are you too busy tenderizing your fresh recruits?"

"Sorry. I'll be busy with these sacks of meat for a few more days. Still no Lumel?" Alka asked, rolling the warrior out of the way with her foot before motioning to the next one to come at her.

"I'm surprised you're not suffering withdrawals yet."

"To be fair, I've been pretty busy," Vin admitted, shuddering at the memory of how much of a pain making those artifacts had been. That thought led to another, and he sat up against the tree, startled as he only just remembered something.

"Crap, my students! I completely forgot about Thomas and Shuvo with the trial going on!"

"You do tend to forget stuff pretty easily," Alka snorted, ignoring the scream from the man who she hurled overhead as she slammed him into the same tree as she had the earlier woman.

"What do you think? I decided to see if I could chop down a tree just by throwing people at it. That makes seventeen, but I don't think it's making much of a dent."

"That's ridiculous, and I fear for your recruits, but I have to go!" Vin said, blasting that poor man with Renewal as well before jumping up and rushing his way back to Terra. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten about his newest students, but to be fair, he had been a bit busy. Racing straight to their apartment, Vin knocked on the door, doing his best to collect himself as he waited for someone to answer. Rather than Shuvo or Thomas, it was actually Jess who answered, blinking as she realized who had knocked.

"Oh, Vin, fancy seeing you again! What's up?"

"I came to talk magic. Are Shuvo and Thomas in?"

"No, those two are off doing who knows what. They became pretty fast friends after Shuvo moved in," Jess admitted, hesitating as if she wanted to say more but wasn't sure how to go about bringing it up.

"Want to leave a message?"

"If you wouldn't mind apologizing for me forgetting about them the last two days, I'd appreciate it," Vin said, scratching the back of his neck.

"You might have heard about the trial? There was a lot going on, but I'll give them the formal magic speech the next time I see them. Along with a new spell to work on."

"I can do that. Though speaking of magic…" Jess scuffed her foot on the ground, fidgeting with one of her dangling earrings.

"…Is there any chance someone who has only just started putting points into magic could still become a mage? I ended up getting a look at that rock Shuvo left out on the table, and… well it's sort of embarrassing to say, but I got pretty into it. Though that's not that big a surprise, I've always been really into rocks and gems. I already ended up picking up the Spellcraft skill, and I have the Sense Earth spell memorized."

"I was actually going to ask if you had any interest in joining us," Vin admitted, beaming at the future mage standing nervously before him.

"Tell you what, Shuvo and Thomas should have both learned the Sense Magic formation I left here for them the other day. Let me redraw the formation for you, and when I come back from my next trip in a day or so, I'll start the three of you all together on the next lesson. Sound good?"

"That would be amazing, thank you!" Jess smiled, letting out a sigh of relief as she opened the door wider.

"You won't regret it, I promise!" Coming in just long enough to sketch out the runic formation for Sense Magic, Vin wished her good luck with recreating it within her mana pool, and suggested she snag the Meditation skill if she still had any skill points left on her. Alright, he thought, closing the door behind him as he turned and headed back to his own apartment. After today's events, I think I've earned a break from dealing with Terra's problems. A little spellwork, a quick dinner, and then some sleep.

And then come morning, we'll be off!