Chapter 341 – Moves And Countermoves
“Wait!” A familiar voice cried out.
It took a moment for Damion to recognize the voice, since his head was being drowned in a bubble of water the sound was distorted, but he knew who it was.
“You know him?” A second voice asked, this one too was familiar.
“Of course! That is Damion!” The first voice said.
“This is not your son. Did this person cast an illusion spell to fool you… I suppose it is possible. He teleported into the room, used Water Mastery, what else might this assassin be able to do?”
“He has an artifact, a bracelet that can change his appearance,” a third voice said. This voice he recognized as Elicia’s, which meant the first voice was his mother and the second voice, the one holding him in a Water bubble to drown was likely his teacher, Helga Teft.
Using the Magic System Inventory, Damion pulled his Metamorphic Bracelet off, which released the spell altering his appearance. As soon as his appearance reverted to normal, the Water bubble vanished and Damion fell to the floor, coughing out a bit water.
“Sorry about that Damion,” Mage Teft said. “When you teleported inside, I was not sure what to think.”
Damion coughed a few more times and nodded his head, trying to say he understood. At least now he knew why he was not able to wrest control of the spell with Water Mastery, it was because he was trying to fight an S Rank mage.
“Are you alright dear?” Sharon asked as she and Elicia helped Damion to his feet.
“I’ll be okay. I was not expecting to run into you here, Mage Teft.”
“It had been a while since I stopped by for a visit and I wanted to stop by before I go on a prolonged trip.”
“Oh? Where are you going?”
“Many places. Each of which I hope might be a place to build our future White Zone.”
“Don’t you think choosing a location before we actually have… the required foundations is getting ahead of ourselves?”
Damion had to be careful, his parents as well as Bethany were in the apartment, and they were not aware of Realm Breaches. He felt they should know but telling them was risky. The wrong word spoken outside the apartment, near a knight or a mage, could lead to unwanted complications.
“It will take a while to secure any one of these places. Also, it might be a while before we can find what we need, if we ever do.”
“Can our plan work if we don’t?”
“It will be more difficult and will be slow, but not impossible,” Mage Teft told Damion.
“What are you two talking about all secretly?” Sharon asked, causing both Mage Teft and Damion to look over.
“Just complicated things for our future school. Certain things cannot be said out loud,” Mage Teft told her.
“Come along, dear,” Sharon said to Bethany, picking her up and heading out of the room. Caleb on the other hand had already returned to his tablet, working on the design for the school. This left just Elicia in the room with Damion and Mage Teft.
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“I should really get going, but I want to ask, Damion, where did you get that artifact?”
“Leland made a prototype for me and I improved it. Pretty impressive right?”
“Indeed. An artifact that can change your appearance, and not use illusions, most ingenious. I do hope he isn’t planning on mass producing those.”
“No. Just this one for me, so I can move around more freely.”
“Good. If that ever fell into the hands of people with bad intentions, then who knows how much trouble it would cause.”
"Before you go, can I ask you about the Protectorate?”
“You want to know why they are targeting you?”
“It would be nice to understand.”
“Honestly, I don’t think they are targeting you.”
“What?”
“I think someone is using their name to shift blame.”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? I mean won’t they get angry at their name being used in such a way?”
“Of course they would. But that is assuming they are still around. The Protectorate’s name has not been mentioned in… well… a long time. For their name to be suddenly dropped like this, smacks of someone trying to cover up their own crimes in the name of righteousness.”
“Commander Wren told me the name had been popping up being used by a group that, well, is using it as a cover for themselves.”
“The Assembly told him that to keep him from asking questions and to keep you from asking questions too, but I think they suspected I would tell you eventually.”
“So, I don’t need to worry?”
“I wouldn’t say that. In fact, you should be more worried. Only the most powerful mages would even know how to use the name of the Protectorate and even then, only a handful would dare.”
“So, we’ve narrowed down the suspect pool,” Damion said with a smile.
“Oh yes. After all, there are really only two groups of people that would go so far as to try and kill you.”
“Sorin and Bianco,” Damion said, sure that his guess was correct.
“Yes. And it just so happens that it was Headmaster Sorin and Eddard Bianco who put forth the claim that the Protectorate ordered the attack on you.”
“Covering up what they did.” Damion said, feeling a rush of anger coming over him.
No doubt, their reason for targeting him was because Mage Teft had killed two of their most promising heirs. Since Mage Teft had no heir, and he was her prized pupil, he of course became the focus of their rage. Using the name of the Protectorate was probably their way skirting the issue with the S Rank Assembly. There was no way the rest of the S Rank mages would go along with revenge against a youngster, he hoped.
“Yes. They used your body scanner as a pretext, which is ironic, considering if they knew what we were planning it would actually be evidence against us. Don’t worry. I believe I have enough friends on the Assembly to keep Sorin and Bianco at bay.”
“Does at bay mean I don’t need to worry about another attempt on my life?”
“No overt ones at least. I have demanded to see proof of the Protectorate’s order.”
“What good will that do? They will just have something made up and present it as proof.”
“If they had succeeded in their initial plan, of a malfunctioning magic cannon or a rogue A Rank mage looking for revenge, they would not have needed proof. But you survived, and because of that you have thrown a wrench in their plan. I doubt they had prepared the proof I am asking for and now they are struggling to create it. Unfortunately for them, I have all the proof I need to show they lied.”
“How’s that?”
“What do you think they would show as proof?”
“Copies of messages or orders from the Protectorate.”
“Exactly. Only, the Protectorate has been silent for quite a long time. So very few people are aware of what such messages look like.”
“Can’t they just look up past messages and orders from an archive? I can’t imagine such things would have been thrown out.”
“Right you are. But I swapped the true messages from the Protectorate with obvious fakes. When those two try and present their own fakes made from examples of what are in the archive, they will be in for a surprise.”
“Sounds like a lot of work,” Damion said. “Is it really necessary to go through so much effort to trap them?”
“You think I should just kill them like I did their grandchildren?”
“No. I was just wondering if there was a simpler way to make them stop targeting me.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Tell them I have an in the event of my death message that sends out to all registered Adventurers that the Mage Association is purposely crippling future magic generations with their testing crystals.”