Weeks passed. I returned to my lessons at Norwich and neared the end of my studies at Mystile under the Trambelio Family. Moreso because the lecturers finally got fed up with me stealing and improving their formulae for basic fundamental magecraft. When they realised their offers for apprenticeship and adoption were hitting a wall instead of actually doing something, they threw a hissy fit and 'graduated' me... which was just a politically safe way of telling me to fuck off.
Other than that, nothing of any real note happened. I doted on my sister and my mother, went on a little unhealthy number of dates with Luviagelita that often ended in exercise of some kind, and spent some time exploring London with my classmates. I even managed to get Gray to accompany me to a new cake shop that opened on Slur.
The usual, so to say.
Yet, beyond a doubt, life at the Clock Tower had changed. For better or for worse, I still had no idea even now. The grand truth continued to elude me, and I wasn't particularly interested in actively pursuing it either. Politics were so terribly boring unless I was putting someone in their place.
My clash with Touko however, was undeniable. I had, for all intents and purposes, made a Grand back off through a clash of mystery.
That earned attention, whether that attention was given willingly or ripped by force.
It started with hushed whispers and wayward glances among the student body. Then, their gazes no longer met mine. Even the other Norwich students subtly avoided me. On more than one occasion, I saw my fellow students and magi changing directions the moment they realised their path would lead them near me. Other times, it was conversations that stopped the second my presence became apparent.
Honestly, as William, I was more than used to this sort of ostracization by my peers. Their loss, that was my sole reaction. Still, the fact that Svin and Flat, or the other permanent students of the El-Melloi Classroom remained unchanged made me happier than it should have.
Then, there was Yvette, who made a proper show of gathering every letter from noble houses in my mail and burning it in a massive pile twice every week. Once, I managed to read them before she found them, and her actions became almost adorable.
Among those letters were... offers. Marriage offers. Adoption offers. Research grant offers. Sponsorships. Offers that came with carefully veiled but stupidly audacious threats of political sabotage or outright assasination and grievous bodily harm.
The Barthomeloi (Aristocrats) offered adoption and marriage.
The Trambelio (Democrats) offered elevation and sponsorships.
Both made their threats.
Somehow, I'd falsely hoped just how spiteful and petty a person I was. The moment threats came into the equation, any chance of an offer being accepted were tossed out the window and shot in the bloody corpse. They failed to realise that THEY were the ones being honoured by me, not I by them.
The most annoying change came in the form of an offer from Policies... but I'd made a point of leaving these thoughts at the door when I came home.
So, with a sigh, I emptied my mind and sipped my tea, propped up on a hardy sun lounger in the yard. Yes, yard. After some begging and rigorous argument, I managed to convince my mother to move into a small, separate, suburban home a block away from Norwich. I told her I took a loan through work... even though the money came from my pockets.
A neat, little two storey house laid with brown bricks, complete with a slanted roof and barred windows. It had three bedrooms on the upper floor, a neat little dining room and kitchen on the first and a walled backyard. Sort of like Harry Potter's childhood home.
For me, it was nothing.
For my mother, who'd spent most of her adult life going from shitty rental to shitty rental with two kids to look after, it was the sort of thing that made her break down crying. I'd never be able to forget that sight. I definitely didn't cry a little, not at all.
"You know, you spoil her too much."
I looked at the adorable child sleeping on my lap, head resting against my chest, "She deserves everything."
My mother sat down beside me, right on the raised patio. She smiled, and I noticed that her wrinkles were fewer than last time.
"Don't come crying when she starts getting distant in a few years."
"...That won't happen." I eyed her suspiciously.
"Mhm. Coincidentally, what happens when she gets a boyfriend?"
The answer came faster than she was expecting by how she suddenly shivered.
"Murder. No, Total annihilation." I sipped my tea. "There's no one worthy."
She fixed me with a chiding gaze.
"... I... just murder, then?"
"Henry Smith."
"...Okay, I cripple them permanently."
She didn't answer.
"Two bones?... One? Background check?"
Suddenly, Mama Smith giggled. She held her forehead and kept giggling.
"I don't get what's so funny. I'm totally serious here. Murder. Murder, it is."
With a huff, I sipped my tea again.
She was underestimating my resolve, dammit. I was definitely going to traumatise whoever even laid eyes on my little sister. If not, then I had to give up the right to call myself a proper older brother.
Watching her wipe away tears, I earnestly considered telling her the truth. But that thought was gone as soon as it came. I'd long made my decision in that regard. Even knowing the truth was dangerous in this fantastic place. There was no need for that conversation.
"So mam... how's life?"
My mother raised a brow. "That's new. I thought you'd forgotten all about me over that girl."
...We see each other every day. That was what I wanted to say, yet, right now, I knew better.
"You really should meet her."
"Anyway..."
No luck, huh?
For some blasted reason, my mother was terribly apprehensive about Luvia. She avoided meeting her and all my efforts at making her do so ended in failure for one reason or the other. Her being an actual noble seemed to put my mother off.
I sighed, and listened.
"I've been getting back into painting now that, hm, well, I have more time."
...
"Don't look at me like that. I was pretty good back in the day. There's just something about painting... It's like making a new world on the canvas."
"That sounds pretty cool."
"Hm, it is. Ah, Ellie's been helping me. Though I'm afraid she usually just ends up spilling everything or taking a stumble. But, hm, that's lovely too. I have all the time in the world."
"You deserve it." I nodded, sipping my tea.
Mama Smith laughed and shook her head. "Alright, it's time for you to head out. Give me my daughter back."
"No, she's my baby sister first."
Though I said that, I carefully handed the sleeping child over. I fixed my blazer, and checked my pants for my wallet, keys and phone before bidding them farewell. Well, only my mother, Ellie was still fast asleep.
When I left the front door, I briefly lowered my aviators.
With our proximity to Norwich and the Clock Tower, it wasn't strange at all that some of the other houses belonged to practitioners of magick. As such, my bounded field went unnoticed among a litany of others.
It worked on the same principle as my Infinity along with an alarm system, a self-mending Bounded Field like most of the higher-class ones. The only issue came with supplying it with mana, but Reines helped me acquire a cheap mana battery that needed me to refill it almost daily but worked well enough for my purposes.
The second anyone even tried anything, I would be alerted and be on their ass like that one Spiderman and Shocker scene.
"All good."
Somehow, winter had already arrived. When it was raining cold water that came straight from Satan's nether regions, the chill winds were there to remind you what time of year it was. I took to wearing two layers of clothes, a cotton sweater and a blazer on top of my shirt, but even then, the air seeped into my bones and felt like someone was dragging a sharp knife across my beautiful skin.
Breathing out a cloud of air, I wrapped my beige muffler around my neck and put on my gloves as I stepped down the porch. Outside, a black sedan awaited me.
I raised a curious brow.
That was a first.
Od began coursing through my body.
"Wait! Hal! Stop! Stop! Itsa me!"
"Mario?"
"No, Yvette! Your concub-"
She ducked under a handful of snow.
"Ice cube play needs to be done in a safe environment, seriously, I'll freeze my pretty boobs off if you do this. You don't want that, do you~?"
...
"What pretty boobs? Where?" I snorted as I made my way over to her. "I think you're safe."
She made a show of shaking her head from side to side. "How mean! How mean! Or..." She winked slyly, "maybe you want to help me massage them for growth~?"
"Oh, a hundred percent. But, I'm taken. Sorry, not sorry."
"Geh!" She leaned on the car's hood... the freezing hood, "I keep telling you someone from her family shouldn't have any issues with concubines! Why do you hate meeee so~?!"
...Hm.
That was an interesting thought.
"So... what do you want so early?"
"Nuthin~ I just wanted to drive you. Recently, I feel you've been giving me the cold shoulder. I mean! We haven't even gone on one date since that time we almost died to a daemon!"
She sniffled exaggeratedly. Her crocodile tears failed against my deep-seated shamelessness. Once she noticed, she resorted to her feminine wiles.
"I'll forgive you for a kiss...?"
Unfortunately, the lunatic goth lolita had none.
I entered the front seat, and after a sigh, she finally got in to drive.
That was when she chose to say something actually important.
"You know, you haven't asked me about my Lord once."
I cast a glance her way.
That was true.
Where the other two factions tried both the carrot and the stick to get me to join after finally recognising that my talent matched my ego, the Neutral Faction made no effort to contact me whatsoever. I was yet to meet even a single representative... other than Yvette of course, who freely admitted to being a spy under no pressure or interrogation.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to recall the name of the leader of the Neutral Faction, "Meluastea... right?"
"Correct~! Karmaglyph Meluastea Deluc. Lord of Kischur and Astea."
Not one but two departments? Neither Lord Trambelio or Lord Barthomeloi directly held two. Maybe this Neutral Lord deserved some respect after all. Who was I kidding? Of course he did. He was one of the Twelve Lords.
"Kischur is Mineralogy. Astea is Archaeology. Kischur used to belong to the El-Melloi, I think Reines still holds a grudge!" Yvette hummed with the radio, bobbing her head up and down and side to side as she drove like bloody Harely Quinn. "But mmm, don't misunderstand. I think you realise fealties to the Twelve Lords aren't as defining as we like to think they are."
That much was true.
At the Iselma Towers, Inorai's objective was to cripple her own subordinates. An objective I'd unwittingly completed for her by destroying their workshops and their land. That had set them back a couple of generations according to my Professor.
Yet, there was no grudge to be held. Against someone like me, they simply could not afford one.
"Anyway! Forget that boring stuff! When are we attempting double-suicide next? You have to take me! As your lover, it's my right!"
...
...
I sighed.
"Maybe I should have just walked."
-
Hope you enjoyed.
You can find 7 chonky chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap. They'll be 10 by next Sunday.
Need two more, fr.