When people were doing good things and it also involved the money, they would act as fast as possible. The same applied to Panto when Baston handed the list. It described all the names that he needed to eliminate.
Considering these thugs would disturb his business, Panto would be very happy to clear them out. With the power of money, he hired several mercenaries and quietly took out many of these criminals from the society. Baston didn't know the progress, but he believed the boy wouldn't disappoint him.
Since Levan's quest was already finished, then there was only one matter to solve. If the merchant was easy, then a noble woman like Claire Versance was hard. Baston successfully postponed his answer, but he knew that woman would soon visit him. There was a possibility that she would use any option when he rejected the invitation. Although she was a great wizard, she wasn't wise enough like Angus. Perhaps, the young were arrogant while the old was full of wisdom. In case of bad ending, he had to make sure she didn't get offended.
For a few days, Baston was in high alert of Claire's incoming. Once the woman visited him again, then he could play the drama. The
waiting finally gave its result when she knocked his personal room at Prius Academy. Normally, not anyone could do this because the monitoring and security
was tight after the explosion incident. If she could treat the academy like her own home, then the principal must already give the permission.
"How are you doing, Baston? Too bad you lost the battle against Alicia," Claire started.
"I'm fine. Thank you, Miss Claire…" the puppet disguised as Baston replied, "I wonder why you visit me in your busy time?"
"Well, I'm still waiting for your answer. I wonder if you already think it thoroughly."
"Before that, I want to know what will happen to my study? I'm also afraid many classmates will be jealous over this invitation."
"I see. If you want, we can also suppress the news about you…"
Regarding what Prius Academy thought about Baston, Claire never cared about it. She was sure the academy would act neutral but the one who would have some opinions must be the students and teachers. The most should come from the noble factions since they felt belittled by Baston if such person with the lowest status suddenly gained the unreachable glory. She knew the
society was complicated so once the news regarding the fat boy spread, the atmosphere in the academy would suddenly change. By then, many would bully him
and Baston surely felt it wasn't worth it.
In Claire's head, this poor student must be very timid. That was why he felt conflicted when accepting the invitation. What she didn't expect was Baston didn't think such invitation was interesting. He just wanted
to delay as much as possible if rejection was impossible to do. When Claire saw the hesitance on his face, she felt she only needed to push a little more. As for the rumors that would spread out after, she didn't believe her family couldn't handle it
"Baston, I heard you are from the noble family in the beginning. Because of inheritance, you are kicked out and suddenly become a poor person. Don't you want to regain your status back? When you have enough strength, you can come back to your family and confront them straightforwardly."
The fat boy still didn't show much expression, but deep inside the old book, Baston was dumbfounded when he heard Claire's description about his family. The matter about his real identity of fallen noble was a complete lie, yet it seemed some people took it seriously. Although there was
no proof, but they seemingly chose to believe it. Not to mention such a strong magic with rare attribute, there was no way a person with poor class could have it if not because the parents. This thing circulated within noble and his story changed into various versions.
Since the misunderstanding already happened, Baston was happy to continue. He didn't reply but he controlled the puppet to clench the fist. This subtle movement was seen by Claire and the woman thought her
conclusion was right. As a person who already experienced much more from the
drama created by nobles, this event often occurred. She smiled while thinking she already won him successfully. Unfortunately, the fake gesture by Baston really fooled Claire well. Sometimes, a person who thought too much often made everything became complicated.
By such means, Baston continued with other gesture. The controlled puppet wanted to speak, but suddenly, his stomach produced grumbling sound. When this happened, Baston quickly looked down at the floor. Everyone could see the fat boy was embarrassed but, in the reality, the puppet just stared down expressionlessly. Claire who saw that got laughing because in this
serious conversation, his stomach destroyed the atmosphere.
"Do you want to eat something? Let's go outside and find quiet place," Claire chuckled.
"I'm very sorry, Miss Claire. Because I'm too nervous, I forgot to have breakfast. Until now, I have not eaten anything."
"It's alright. Let's go…"
The woman grabbed Baston's hand and suddenly, the scenery changed a few times until both of them were outside the academy. He was amazed by this ability of great wizard. It seemed she jumped over many spots in mere seconds before they finally were just a few meters from the front gate. Claire didn't jump again because she was looking the best place to eat lunch while
having discussion over her invitation. Although she was sure Baston had already
agreed, she wanted to show friendly attitude.
Unbeknownst to Claire, Baston proceeded with the next plot of drama once they were outside the academy. Just after walking a few steps, Baston and Claire felt a big magic was casted nearby. The woman quickly left
Baston and landed at the rooftop of one house. From her place, she could see such big ice magic was brimming with enormous power not far from her. Although people might need run for a few minutes to go there, Claire was a great wizard to begin with so she deployed all her magic and stamina to jump and run to that place. Once she got there, she could see a young beautiful girl deployed blizzard magic in empty plot of land. When Claire saw her, there was an urge to make her into his personal disciple. Such a young and beautiful girl with great talent of magic was very precious.
When she took a step closer, the girl seemingly noticed her. There were only several meters more between them. Before Claire could greet the girl, the ice sheet blocked the vision and the same girl suddenly disappeared. Claire was shocked and she then hurriedly went to the empty spot before trying to track her. Alas, the trace simply vanished. Even with her strong magic, she couldn't detect the girl. Thinking that she might lose such big talent, she
widened her monitoring into few kilometers, but she still couldn't find her. The girl before just looked like a ghost. Claire was in a daze before she came back to Baston.
"I'm very sorry, Baston, but it seems we have to postpone everything for now."
"Take all the time you need and I hope you will forget about it…" Baston wished inside his heart before showing a frowning expression, "What's happened?"
"I saw something exciting..." Claire was ecstatic, "It's very urgent so I need to look for any clue regarding the big magic we sensed
before. You know that we had rivalry with Herbiens family for many centuries. If they knew we were interested of what happened before, they would do everything to hinder us. So, it's better to move first in order to gain the initiative."
"Alright… Alright…" Baston nodded repeatedly.
Although her explanation was less and confusing, Baston actually knew the truth because he was the perpetrator of the event. He noticed the woman didn't give him much attention again. Even just now when they were having conversation, it looked like Claire didn't want to waste any more time
for him. She really wanted to rush ahead into somewhere despite the invitation she offered before. Baston didn't dare to hold back her anymore and just let her roamed to far away. With this, he gave a thumb up to himself.
If he couldn't reject the invitation, then he would just divert her attention. Just as what he planned before, directing her eager look
into someone else was very successful. Baston knew Claire was interested on him
because not only he had ice attribute as his magic, but the level of his magic power was also stronger than average noble students. Because of this combination, she felt the need to invite him in order to strengthen Versance family. Rather than looking this talent went somewhere, it was better to snatch it first so no one could have benefit except them.
Baston couldn't run because his magic power had a high score in Claire's mind. But what if the fat boy provided someone with even higher score than him? If the difference wasn't too big, perhaps the invitation would
be still ongoing. But if the difference was big enough, then surely, Claire would rather pick the best rather than a fat boy like Baston. That was why he deployed one of his puppets and transformed into beautiful girl. With young appearance and noble temperament, any boy must suddenly fall in love with her. Still, the puppet not only had a beautiful face, but it also must have a strong
ice magic. With Baston's strength at the moment, it wouldn't be enough. Luckily, there was a way to trick Claire into believing him.
Long ago, he got Blizzard Insignia as consumable item from one of the quests. Baston kept it inside the old book after all this time until he noticed this thing could save him. Even though he didn't know the range and the damage, it was worth to try it since he was also curious. So, in the end, he ordered the puppet to remain in one location while he guided Claire to go outside. By then, he would use the insignia and he who was far from it could accidentally see the blizzard magic. He chose an empty patch of land, thinking the scope of consumable item must be weak. However, when he used it, he
realized he was wrong. Just in front of the gate, he could feel such dense magic, penetrating into his soul terribly. Thinking it would be bad if he continued, he stopped it forcibly.
By the time the insignia stopped deploying, it soon disappeared. As a consumable item, it was very strong enough to kill many innocent people. If only he kept the magic ran, he didn't know how many people would be frozen. When the puppet gone, he looked around and found many spots suddenly grew ice shards. The temperature went down quickly but it wasn't enough to kill someone. The residents around had already fled quickly, afraid someone used magic blatantly to kill them here. Baston really felt sorry about what happened. He didn't mean to make a great impact, but after what he had
done, he could only hope the next time he used another insignia, he would be very careful.
There were no casualties fortunately. When Baston looked further, the ice was getting concentrated. At the center where the puppet first used the insignia, it should be the worst one. Of course, he didn't want to
check until there because Claire must be busy at that location. It would be foolish to confront her again after he successfully escaped. There were no other options except returning to his home at Prius Academy. On the way back, there were many officers rushed ahead to the center. These people worked for the kingdom to manage and protect the land from anything that could threaten them. Baston was confused why these kinds of people came here because their area of operation
usually was in the capital or any other big cities. This small town should not belong to their scope. Baston thought this matter was because of his insignia, but after another thinking, they should not be this fast. The fat boy wondered what happened to this town.