Chương 299: A Growing Family

"Sir, are you sure this is a good idea?" An armored Justiciar asked his commander Willem Straus.

"Of course it is. I told you about the effectiveness of that potion," Justiciar Straus, commander of the Justiciars for the Argentum White Zone, answered.

"But, sir, we are out of our jurisdiction. We have no authority to…"

"My strength is my authority. I only brought my most trusted men with me today because this is such an important matter. Victor, don't tell me I misjudged you as one of my most trusted men?"

"Of course not, sir," Justiciar Victor Heel replied quickly.

"I am just worried that we are going after a B Rank mage who has the protection of an S Rank mage."

"He may be B Rank, but he's only reached that level with Mage Teft's assistance. Damion Wells is a paper tiger. No one can advance as fast as he has and have the experience necessary to fight the five of us here. And don't forget I am a true A Rank knight. You think I can't handle a B Rank mage."

"That isn't it, sir. We can't kill him, because Mage Teft will surely take revenge. And if we don't kill him, he will take revenge on us at some point. He may be B Rank now, but what will he be in a year, in five years? And what about that incident in the labyrinth, they say as a C Rank he fought off a B Rank mage and a bunch of other knights and mages."

"I investigated that event. Wells lured a group of goblins that dealt with the people that attacked him. He did very little in the fight. As for your other concerns, don't worry about how strong he will be in a few years, as we will be even stronger. With those potions we can train harder, fight longer and, if we can get someone to figure out how they are made or get that from Wells, we will be rich beyond measure and our influence will be such that neither Wells nor Teft will dare touch us."

"I understand your confidence sir, you are an A Rank, and he is B Rank. But the rest of us are C Rank knights, we really won't be much help to you at all. So, why bring us?"

"To help me track and fight that pesky C Rank Ferocious Beast of Wells."

"The Snow Hawk?"

"Yes. That is how I know where he is. He's been letting the Snow Hawk roam around the Benault Forest and I received a report he headed out there himself just this morning. If we can hurry, we can capture the beast and use it as leverage for him to give us information on the potions."

"I thought you were going to fight him and force him to tell you?" Victor questioned.

"That is my backup plan. Take a lesson from the nobles, the threat of violence is often more effective than actual violence. I need you all to contain the beast while I talk with Wells."

"And if talking fails?"

"Then I will just have to beat the answers out of him."

"I never imagined your body scanner could do something so wonderful as this. Quick, let's go show your mother!" Elicia exclaimed as she practically dragged Damion back to the living room of the apartment. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. When Sharon saw the image of the fetus on Damion's tablet, she was absolutely beside herself. Appearing even more overwhelmed than when her son had returned home for the first time in a year.

"Lemma see," Bethany said as the two older women were huddled around the tablet, evidently they were debating if it was a girl or a boy.

"Look Bethany, this will be your little niece or nephew."

"Wha's uh eece or eepheew?"

"It is like a little brother or a little sister," Sharon explained.

"Can I plway with them?"

"They aren't here yet honey."

"When?"

"Before your next birthday." Sharon was not sure if the little girl was excited at having a niece or nephew, or if she was just eager to have a friend to play with. Because of them being in hiding, the family did not go out a lot and Sharon almost never took the little girl to the park to play. She just hoped, now that Damion was strong, they could go back to their normal lives.

"Bethany, can you come here for a moment?" Damion called to his little sister from the couch he was sitting on. The little girl turned and rushed over to him, launching herself into his lap.

"Alright, stand right here in front of me," Damion said picking the girl off his lap and setting her feet on the floor. He then took out his body scanner and grabbed his tablet from Elicia so he could do a scan of his sister.

"What is that?" Sharon asked.

"That is the artifact he used to show us the baby," explained Elicia.

"What does it do?"

"It allows us to see accurate information about a person. I want to check Bethany's mana core, to see if she can be a mage and what affinity she has," Damion answered his mother.

"Isn't she too young for that?"

"I'm not going to start teaching her magic. But if she can be a mage, the earlier she learns to sense mana, the better." Damion used the body scanner to quickly scan his sister and check her affinity. The scan showed her magic core was still in development. However, living in a White Zone town and the first few years of her life in a Green Zone with an A Rank Realm Breach had helped to make sure her core was fully formed.

Since her core was still developing, the body scanner could not tell the Rank of Bethany's affinity or magic talent. However, judging by the definition of the Wind affinity glyph on the outside of her core, which was similar in clarity to Elicia's, Damion guessed his sister was probably around B Rank right now. If his solution to the Fixing the Flaw in Magic quest was correct, Damion needed to make sure his sister was not tested by the Mage Association until her core was fully developed.

He also had a theory that Bethany's affinity, core and talent would continue to develop as she grew and if she learned how to properly sense and absorb mana, she might just be the next prodigy of the generation.

"Look, see that, it's your magic core," Damion said to Bethany, turning his tablet so she could see. Bethany looked at the tablet, but she was too young to understand what she was looking at. The little girl had thought her brother was going to show her a picture of herself, but all she saw on the tablet was a bunch of weird images. When Damion noticed his sister's lack of care, he changed the image displayed to just show the outer scan of Bethany, which was a perfect likeness of her.

"Look there are two of you," Damion said, hitting the projection option on his tablet and making the image of Bethany appear above his tablet. The little girl giggled and swiped and hand through the image but found no substance. She giggled again and tried to clap her hands across the image of her face, but they hit nothing until they came together. Damion set the tablet on the floor and set it to full-size, allowing the small projection to become the same size as the original.

Bethany was quickly trying to figure out how to interact with herself, while Damion took his mother and Elicia aside to speak with them.

"Bethany has at least a B Rank Wind affinity."

"Really?" Sharon exclaimed. Excited that her little girl could also become a talented mage.

"Are you sure?"

"My scanner doesn't tell me the exact level of affinity or talent, but I should be pretty close."

"Then let's ask if the Adventurer Association can test her to be…"

"No!"