Chương 46: War

Ch 46: War

"With this, your vision should be restored, and I suppose this completes our deal for now," I said to Elitha as I gave her the newest version of the light sensor spell. While sitting cross-legged on the very center of the tenth floor of her tower, she took the large paper sheet I offered her, analyzing thousands of runes at once with her mana sight alone. She finished analyzing the spell in about two seconds and smiled at me.

"That rune matrix solution you implemented to the sensorial element is truly remarkable, little lamb," she said.

"But you've truly outdone yourself with the mana lenses that focus the light, though I see some room for improvement in the module that sends the information directly into my brain as an illusion." Elitha suddenly stood up, shaping her own version of it using nothing but her own mana and the very air as her canvas. The way she controlled so many variables at once was beyond remarkable, a level of precision and mental power that I could only dream of. And Sahirah... She was even more impressed than I was.

Even without exchanging a single word, I could tell she was staring at the way Elitha controlled her mana with a trace of envy in her eyes. Perhaps she suspected somewhere inside that she would never reach such a level. Though with the ridiculous amount of control training she was stubbornly doing every day, I sincerely believed she might actually succeed one day, even with the odds against her. Elitha turned toward Sahirah.

"Was the cosmetic module that projects an illusion that my eyes had never been gouged out of my face your idea, little kitten?" Little kitten? I had to forcefully hold my own laughter inside at the way Elitha had addressed Sahirah.

"I..." She glanced at me, asking with her eyes if the archmage had really gave her her own nickname. When I shrugged, she continued, "I thought that–""You thought I would be happy if I didn't look like a monster?" With a flick of her finger, a whole module of the spell had been erased, hundreds of runes disappearing as the light detection spell became simpler and more concise. Before Sahirah could even explain her reasoning, Elitha cast the light detection spell without the cosmetic illusion.

Two magic circles materialized on her face at once. I saw the complexity of the structure. The mana lenses, the matrix of light detection runes below, and even the simplified illusion module that Elitha herself had tweaked for more efficiency. The truly impressive part was that everything seemed to be working as intended. With a smile covering her face, she removed the bandana. I waved at those magic circles in front of her eye sockets, pretending it didn't feel strange at all.

"I can see again," she said, looking at me first, and then at Sahirah.

"Green and amber, your eyes are pretty, little kitten." Sahirah didn't know how to react to the sudden compliment the archmage gave her, but when I nudged her with a tap on her back, she spoke right away.

"A girl never thought she would receive a compliment from the archmage before she received it from her human." I cleared my throat.

"Not fair," I said.

"I'm pretty sure I said something nice about you at some point."

"Calling me a mana bomb girl does not count as something nice, Eric." To my surprise, as I raised my arms defensively when Sahirah's mana started leaking from her body as response to her anger, Elitha simply came near us, placing a hand over both our shoulders.

"Thank you for showing me something sweet for the first light my mind had seen in many years," said Elitha.

"As a reward I won't pry into those spells you created last night with your friend. But you should know that someone at my level could easily see through all the safeguards you have created so far." Wait? How could she see through layers of paper and glue? Maybe her mana sense was accurate enough to identify the runes even through cover, or perhaps she had access to a rune detection spell I was not aware of...

Well, the specific method didn't actually matter that much for now, and something else was much more important.

"Can someone in Lord Krosak's crew do the same?" I asked Elitha. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. She smirked.

"Not the people currently at his side, little lamb, but if you allow him to get reinforcements..." I let out a deep sigh.

"I suppose you're correct," I said.

"But since we are talking about Lord Krosak, do you mind teleporting us to the roof of your tower? I don't want to be in that ship when I tell Lord Krosak to shove the adoption papers up into his–""To politely decline the adoption." Sahirah corrected me.

"Have you forgotten about the last negotiation attempt that you yourself proposed?" Well, she wasn't lying. I would certainly try to negotiate one last time before bringing out the guns. But in all honesty, I didn't think I would succeed. Lord Krosak really wanted us under his wing, and unlike Principal Dickhead, he considered us extremely valuable assets and not a problem to get rid of for some stupid reason.

"Do the two of you have everything you need on you?" Elitha asked. Sahirah and I just nodded. The preparations for this almost certain confrontation had been finished during the morning. The teams had been positioned tactically on the school roof and in certain areas around that floating ship, and they all had leaders from the sales team with the activation keys for the wristbands. Sahirah was also carrying the special spell I had created for her on a shoulder strap she made for herself especially for this purpose.

Both her pockets were also filled with easy-to-reach spells. And even I had ensured my designs were all available in my Mind Library, ready to be loaded in the Casting Assistant in a fraction of a second. Elitha didn't wait even a second when we confirmed we were ready, and a spatial distortion simply engulfed us both. When my senses adapted to the new environment, I found Sahirah holding my hand, both of us standing on top of the tower with Navar's afternoon sun still shining bright on top of our heads.

"The human and the girl?" Someone from Lord Krosak's crew noticed right away, and when I followed the voice, I found a bunch of Greys staring down at us from the deck of the floating ship. The hull and the large stone disks responsible for the floating were near us, but the ship's deck was perhaps ten meters above. And with each passing second, more Greys leaned against the guardrails or poked their heads through the portholes to see what the commotion was all about.

"Is Lord Krosak one of them?" Sahirah was pointing at a group of well-dressed Greys staring at us from the deck.

"Nope," I said, remembering Sahirah had never met the Grey noble responsible for all our recent troubles.

"The guy wears a ring on each finger and a pendant the size of an apple around his neck, he's basically a walking Christmas tree." When Sahirah laughed, I only wondered what kind of miraculous translation Elitha's area translation spell had performed to convey that joke in her language and still keep it funny. Still, my amusement was short-lived as a voice I remembered way too well reached me from somewhere on the deck above.

"Get out of my way!" That same group of well-dressed Greys Sahirah had mentioned suddenly moved aside, making way for Lord Krosak. The moment his gaze landed on us, I could tell with a glance that he was enjoying the way his high vantage point allowed him to literally look down on us.

"Eric Nevermore," he spoke in a loud voice, extending his arms wide in a way that felt performative.

"I hope you brought the Nadiri girl with you because you decided to accept my offer." Deep inside, I was already preparing one of my speeches, seeking the impossible sequence of words that would allow us to get out of this whole situation without a wide-scale fight whose outcome was partially out of my hands.

"Listen–" Yet, Lord Krosak didn't even allow me to try my shameless talk this time around.

"Let me guess," he said loudly.

"You are going to say you considered my offer carefully, and decided to refuse me because you fear our visions of the future are not perfectly aligned." That wasn't exactly what I would have said, but it was close enough to scare me a little. What else was he aware of? At the very least, it was safe to assume he was aware I had hired a good chunk of the first year students to work for me as private soldiers.

I took a deep breath and said, "I suppose you already know I think this adoption thing is bullshit, so why don't we just–""Careful with what you say." He cut me off once more.

"As long as you don't disrespect me, we can always renegotiate terms and conditions, but if you cross the line..." I felt Sahirah's hand holding tightly around mine, the pressure of her grip nearly squeezing my fingers. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. If not for myself, I had to calm down for Sahirah.

"It's not my intention to disrespect you, Lord Krosak," I said.

"If you just allow me a moment to explain our side of–""Someone as smart as you certainly knows that you do not have any serious option besides–" Sahirah's grip got unbearable, then she let go of all strength at once.

"Shove it." She took a step forward, and uttered, "Get those adoption papers and shove it up into your pale Grey rear." She turned around with an apologetic smile as the whole crew of Greys stared in disbelief at the atrocity this pretty girl beside me had just uttered to Lord Krosak. I was supposed to be tense, but a certain invisible weight simply vanished from inside me as I forced myself to swallow my laughter. My good mood was short-lived though.

"An exotic one with a dirty mouth," said Lord Krosak.

"I cannot say I dislike that!" I knew instantly that there was nothing else to say anymore. In the blink of an eye I raised my hand, a custom illusion spell already loading into my Casting Assistant. Nearly two hundred runes took shape in glowing circles in front of my palm, mana already flowing up my arm to activate the spell. One of the rings on Lord Krosak's left hand glowed bright. He laughed at me.

"Protection against illusions is a basic requirement in my line of business." I didn't reply, my spell still active and running. When Lord Krosak noticed something was not right, three pairs of hands were already grabbing his coat. Yeah, my target had not been just him, but also his own crew members. They fell victim to my illusion, and were now trying to throw him off of his own ship into the long drop from deck to tower, believing he was an intruder who had invaded their ship.

Lord Krosak finally lost his composure and screamed.

"Where are the soldiers! Why do I even pay you!" Suddenly, a heavily armored Grey man Hasted himself near Lord Krosak, and with a single swing of his sword, three Grey heads fell to the deck, releasing Lord Krosak. Sahirah gasped beside me. I froze. Had those deaths been my fault? Fuck. How can they just kill their own people like that?

"Get them!" Lord Krosak ordered. That same Grey soldier who had just killed three people of his own crew jumped towards the tower's roof. Worse yet, another two followed. The Grey soldier with the sword landed a few meters ahead of us, his blade still wet with blood. He said, "I'm not a pampered noble with expensive armor like the poor fool you killed in the city, human. But it will be fun if you try to pull the same trick on me."

When the other two black armored soldiers landed behind him, they all started to advance toward us.

"I believe you," I said, already grabbing Sahirah tightly with both hands.

"What–" Before she could utter a single word, I Hasted both of us toward the edge of the tower, letting gravity carry us down all ten floors that separated us from the ground. Before I even began to worry about killing our momentum, I inklessly cast the communication spell.

"Sales team," I said, forcing myself to forget those three heads falling to the deck for now.

"Fire away!"