Da was back at the clan base again, on one of the lowest floors in the room filled with intense heat and a path leading directly to the Clan head, his father. Just like before, he was seated on his own in the sa position, facing away, while Da sat on top of his feet and calves.
"I assu you have an idea of why I called you here," the Clan Master stated. "You have done a good job. If I'm honest, you managed to complete a task I never expected you to complete."
Da felt like if it were anyone else, maybe they would have taken this as an insult, and in a way, it was. But he was fine with it, as long as he could keep his father off his back and stop using him as a sacrificial lamb, as he had done before.
"It appears that I was wrong. I thought that you might not be suited for the next position as clan head. But after your performance, being able to perform miracles, I am considering you for the position again. There is a good chance that you may be able to do sothing for the Clan after all."
It was a complete change of heart for the Clan Master. Clenching his fist, Da wasn't happy with the result. If he was going to be considered for the head, that would an he would need to be involved in more tasks surrounding the Clan as well.
When in reality, he wanted nothing to do with the Clan. But how could one of the Clan leader's sons just up and leave? It would be an embarrassnt to the family, and he would rather have his son die in war than leave on his own free will.
"I have also heard that you have managed to acquire quite the talented alchemist, this Dark Magus person," the Clan leader said. "You have a gift for attracting certain people to you, I will give you that. I just hope you don't upset this person. Bring them in close to you and welco them into the Clan if you can.
"You may go, and expect to hear from soon."
Walking away and out of the room, Da was hoping that he wouldn't.
The next day, Da had trouble sleeping, thinking about what his father had said, but he tried to ignore that as he looked forward to the future and everything else he needed to do.
One of them was a eting he had scheduled with Alba. It was at the sa place as before, right outside the three-tiered red restaurant. Da had t with Fixteen and entered the building.
They headed to the private room where Alba was already waiting, and she had another person with her, with a black mask covering his face, standing at the back of the room on her side.
"Don't mind Jax!" Alba said. "He's just here to keep company, and he gave so interesting news saying that people have been talking about the Dark Magus, about my Dark Magus," she winked.
Sitting down, Fixteen placed the bottle of pills on the table. It was hardly full because there were only six pills left, since each of them had taken a pill during the battle.
"Yes, we had t up with him recently. He had brought the pills you asked for and had even prepared so for . I'm sure you heard about my success on the battlefield," Da answered.
He had learned from Fixteen that word had sowhat spread through the city about the pills from Dark Magus, which was the aim in the first place. So he knew what was on Alba's mind.
"I have no further information on him, other than the fact that we will continue to et up exclusively once in a while."
After that, Da didn't really stay for chit-chat like he usually would have done. Neither did he have a drink; he stood up and bowed as if he was already ready to go.
"Hey, wait, what is this? I asked for ten pills, and you're just going to leave like this?" Alba asked. "I wanted to talk more about this guy."
"I'm sorry," Da said. "I have important matters to deal with now, and we might have to et less often now."
The serious look on Da's face made it so Alba wouldn't press anymore. It was a face she had hardly seen on the young man, so she would take the six pills and leave it at that.
"I want ten more of these things," Alba shouted. "And the four that you took yourself. I'll deliver the money to the usual place."
There was a reason why Da had decided to leave early, and that was because he wanted to et with the Dark Magus again. Having missed him yesterday, he had sowhat felt like he might not see him for a while again.
'Although he said he would try to learn the skills for a while before he went, he will soon realize that those skills will take years to learn, and decide to head back. So I should try to grow my relationship with him more.'
Heading to the inn, a knock was given on the door, and he and Fixteen were called in. When they entered, they could see the young man in a robe, starting to draw sothing on the floor.
"Are you making sothing else?" Da asked. "Did we interrupt you?"
"Actually," Raze said as he stood up and dusted the excess chalk off his hands. "I had decided to head back and just finished."
For so reason, Da felt a little saddened about his new partner leaving so soon. Perhaps it was because working with him was a large distraction from everything else he had to deal with.
"It's a sha you have to go so soon, but I knew that you would need to leave sooner or later. At least we can say goodbye here," Da said. "And I have to say, thank you for everything you have done to help."
For Raze, he didn't feel saddened by his leaving; instead, he felt more determined and confident. He had now learned five of the ten descending steps and how to connect four of them together. He had also learned three formation of the sword techniques, which would be enough to get him through the Academy.
"We will et again. Although we might have to find a new eting spot, for now, let's just try to et in the sa place," Raze said.
Raze had drawn the magic formation he had ford in his head, which was written by the forr Dark Faction leader. He assud it was what would send one back to the cave. He was confident but wasn't a hundred percent sure. However, going to the portal the sa way he had co would be rather risky.
Using so of the gold coins, Raze had purchased so regular power stones and placed one on the ground. Activating his magic, the circle lit up, and right above, a dinsion had opened in front of them.
"He really can just open up a dinsion from anywhere; these guys must be way ahead of what we can do," Da said out loud, and Fixteen couldn't keep his eyes off the portal either.
"I will see you all," Raze said, stepping through.
Stepping through the portal, Raze was zapped in and zapped out. When he landed on the cold ground and could feel the chilly air, he felt like he was in the right place. Looking ahead, he could see the entrance of the cave and the mist that covered the entire area
.
"It looks like it worked, and I'm back after all," Raze said to himself.
"Oh, so this is the world that you're from, it looks different to what I expected."
Hearing a familiar voice, Raze's heart sank. He slowly turned his head around to see the handso young man with curious eyes looking around the area.
"Da…"
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