Bella looked at Evin, no doubt wondering if he was serious or not.
"If you really want to kill him, gather evidences of him slighting you. That ti he challenged you to a battle on your first day, those tis you found yourself having to fight him in combat classes, that ti he gathered the students of the Academy to hunt you, and of course, the ti he trapped you inside the Temple. Witnesses will also do but gather at least ten different people of varying backgrounds."
"And then?"
"And when your case is complete, marry ," Bella said. "You'll be a noble then and you can challenge Decatur to a duel of honor. Make your case public, so he won't be able to refuse you, and kill him during the duel."
Evin's face flushed at the idea, and he couldn't find a response imdiately.
"What?" Bella asked, sounding oddly annoyed.
"I an… you just ntioned sothing very serious very casually."
"You wanted to kill a Count, I told you how," Bella hmphed. "And don't think I'll allow you to marry just so you get to kill boy. I may love you, but I at least have so pride left in ."
"I… Of course."
Bella smiled and kissed Evin's lips.
"Well, tell your grandfather you'll try to get proper permission, and that if that doesn't work, you're going to buy rcenaries for them," she said. "We'll worry about Decatur later."
…
Two hours later, Evin and Bella were standing outside a classroom, working on the things he needed to say. A quick visit to Leanne taught him he needed to bring the Academy's permission to the Bureau if he were to leave the country, aning he needed to talk to the Chairman.
Hearing it, Evin almost wanted to stop, since the Chairman was one of the people he suspected previously. But under Bella's insistence, he had to co talk to him. Well, Evin was sure he was going to be refused, considering the Chairman's intentions, so he was just going to ask if he could leave without providing the reasoning.
"He's coming out," Bella said from his side.
The classroom door opened and Kent walked out of the room followed by a few 4th year students.
"Sir," Evin greeted, urgency filling his voice.
"Oh, Evin and Bella," the man replied. "What brings you here?"
"I wanted to talk to you about sothing, in private."
"Bella too?"
"She'll wait outside."
"Sure, let's go to my office then."
The Chairman was slow to make their way to his room. He wore a gleefully anticipative expression, as if he couldn't wait to hear what Evin was about ask him, but for so reason, he delayed the visit as long as he possibly could. He stopped thrice to speak with teachers and students about sothing completely inconsequential; and even when they made it to his office, he insisted on brewing so kind of special tea for himself before sitting down.
"Well, then, you seem to be in quite a rush?" Kent asked.
Evin had to push down a curse at the comnt. "Yes, but of course, please don't let my problems hurry you." Though, he couldn't quite keep the sarcasm away.
"Sorry, sorry. I just noticed you were busy now," Kent smiled. "Well, what did you want to talk about?"
"I wanted to go to the North for a few weeks and wanted to get permission from you."
"Hmm? Why?"
"Personal reasons, sir. Sorry."
"Mmm… You know I can't just let you leave without a proper explanation, you know?" Kent asked.
"I know," Evin grunted. "But I… I really can't talk about the reasonings. It's a desperate need, sir."
The Chairman humd and took a sip from his tea. Evin was sure the Chairman knew why Evin needed to go. Even if he didn't know the exact reasons, he definitely had guesses. Or, he could've been the one behind the attack on his family. In that case, he'd imdiately deduct why Evin suddenly wanted to go.
Evin felt like a fool, sitting here talking about his escape to his potential enemy, but he felt like his enemies would learn about his escape regardless. If they had a High-mage specializing in illusions, it wouldn't be weird if that person was sitting in the room next to them. It was a worrying thought.
Evin had to make a habit of using magic to sweep a room to see if there was soone invisible standing sowhere in a room, but even then, he couldn't be completely sure.
'This whole fucking ss is really tiring …'
"A desperate need, but you can't tell what exactly…" the Chairman spoke, frowning.
"Yes," Evin said, cursing inside for not being able to tell if the Chairman was acting oblivious or not.
"Sure, why not," the Chairman smiled, and started writing on so paper.
Evin looked at the Chairman's smiling face, trying to detect a joke.
"Don't make that face. It's a desperate need, right? I trust you enough, so I'm not worried about you becoming the North's mage. I'm more worried about you leaving without permission, becoming a fugitive."
The logic added up, but Evin still couldn't make himself trust the man.
"Ah, but of course, I have so conditions."
'There it is…'
"I'm sure you'll be fine, but you'll need to take the next month's materials from your teachers and privately study them," the Chairman added. "I can allow you to leave, but I cannot allow you to neglect your studies. And don't try to cheat out of this one, I'll ask every teacher if you've t them or not."
"I… of course…?" Evin replied. "I'll visit them after this."
"Well then. Good luck on your travels," the Chairman said and gave Evin a permit. "Show this at the Bureau and you'll be good to go. Oh, do you need anything for the trip? No? If you do, don't hesitate to ask. Well, off you go."
Dazedly, Evin picked up the permit and walked out of the room.
"How did it go?" Bella asked. "Is that the permit?"
"Yeah?"
"Holy shit, they actually let you leave like that?" she also seed to think it impossible.
"Yeah, but I'll need to take care of my studies while I'm away," Evin replied. "He was rather particular about that, so I'll have to visit my teachers. I really don't wanna lose the permit because I didn't do that."
"But are you… still going to leave? You can still hire those rcs, you know?"
"I will," Evin replied. "I don't want to trust anyone, and honestly, I didn't wanna ask the Chairman too. But I'll be back in a few weeks at most so don't be sad… Wait, actually, I can be gone for only a day if Rith agrees to portal there. I rember her talking about how it costs only a few hundred gold so I should be able to afford that!"
"Sure. Yes, of course, you're right. I'll go talk to your grandfather to hear if they're ready to go yet. You can co after you're done talking to Rith," Bella said.
Evin nodded and started visiting his teachers one by one. The first two asked him to get so book from the library to read upon, so Evin decided to just visit them all and then get the books later. But just as he was about to leave the library with a stack of books in his hand, he was t with the Chairman.
"Oh, Evin. I'm so glad I managed to catch you before you left. I have so more news about your leave."
"You can't not allow to go!" Evin imdiately panicked, thinking of the worst.
"No-no-no. You're still allowed to go," the Chairman shook his head. "I've got different news. Actually, I reported about your situation to the higher-ups. They almost imdiately replied and told that you can't go alone and told to keep you here till they send soone to accompany you."
"Oh," Evin breathed out a sigh of relief. "Wait, but who are they sending?"
"Don't know," the Chairman shrugged. "But they should arrive here in the Academy by today evening, so you can get to know them then."
"Alright… I'll be back to et them then…"
"Don't worry about them sharing with others whatever you're trying to hide. They'll accompany you, make sure you're fine, and co back with you. They won't even speak of their experiences to the kingdom, so you can make them your confidants if you want to."
Evin's mont of relieve didn't last.
'Of course, that mage's just there to observe for the kingdom… I guess it's fine if it's just that, but I can't be sure they're not soone the Chairman himself is hiring to check up on …'
Countless questions popped up in his head one by one, each more worrying that the previous.
Evin asked.
Endra said.
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