Chapter 84: Investment 84: Familiar Faces
Investment 84: Familiar Faces
Word of the siege had, unsurprisingly, already spread through Adonite Academy’s student body by the time Elliot and Seria descended from the headmaster’s tower, and they found the rest of their friends waiting in the courtyard below, having clearly abandoned whatever classes or activities spring break had briefly interrupted the moment news reached them.
"There they are." Deria was the first to spot them, breaking into a jog across the courtyard with the others close behind. "We heard your family’s estate got hit. Everyone okay?"
"Mostly," Elliot said, some of the tension in his shoulders easing at the sight of familiar, trusted faces. "It was close. Too close."
"Define ’close,’" Futaba said, arms crossed, expression sharp with concern beneath her usual bravado.
"My mother and sister were taken as leverage for about an hour," Elliot admitted. "We got them back. Nobody in my family was seriously hurt, in the end."
A ripple of quiet, relieved exhales moved through the group.
"And the fragment thing Jin mentioned when he filled us in?" Edith asked, studying Elliot with clinical curiosity that didn’t fully mask her genuine worry. "The one Skion supposedly hid in bloodlines?"
"Bonded," Elliot confirmed. "Permanently, apparently. I’ve got a piece of a primordial being’s essence living somewhere under my ribs now."
"That’s either the coolest or most horrifying thing I’ve heard all week," Taumus said, "and this week already included watching an Imperial obliterate four resurrected Bug Lords with a single spell, so that’s saying something."
"Speaking of Jin," Rose said, glancing around the courtyard, "where is he? I’d have expected him front and center for this conversation."
"Meeting with the headmaster separately," Seria said. "Something about coordinating whatever training Elliot needs with whatever the Imperial council’s willing to authorize for a first-year student who technically shouldn’t have primordial power at all."
"Must be nice," August said dryly, "having an actual government body debate your training curriculum. The rest of us just get yelled at by Professor Xuyie for showing up late."
"I’d trade you happily," Elliot said, managing a tired, genuine smile despite everything.
"No, you wouldn’t," Taumus said. "You’d last about a day before missing your new mysterious primordial roommate."
"Fair point."
Deria leaned in, studying Elliot with unabashed curiosity. "So what’s it actually feel like? Having a piece of some primordial being living inside you?"
"Warm," Elliot said, considering the question seriously. "Patient. Like something ancient just settled in and decided to wait until I earned its trust before doing anything useful. Which, given how the siege went, took considerably longer than I would’ve liked."
"Sounds exhausting," Edith said.
"You have no idea."
Leonard, who had remained quiet at the edge of the group throughout the exchange, finally stepped forward, expression unusually serious.
"For what it’s worth," he said, "if this Architect intends to keep coming after you and your family, the student council stands with you. All of us. Whatever resources or support we can offer, formally or otherwise."
"Leonard—"
"I mean it, Elliot." His golden eyes carried none of their usual theatrical intensity, only quiet, sincere resolve. "You’ve saved this academy’s students twice now, without hesitation, without asking anything in return. Consider this the council settling at least part of that debt."
Elliot felt something tighten in his throat, gratitude and lingering exhaustion tangling together into an emotion he wasn’t entirely prepared to examine too closely in front of the entire group.
"Thank you," he said finally, voice a touch rougher than intended. "All of you. I mean that."
"Don’t get sentimental on us," Futaba said, though her own eyes suspiciously bright. "We’ve got a decent reputation for badassery to maintain, and crying in a courtyard doesn’t exactly fit the aesthetic."
"Speak for yourself," Deria said, wiping unabashedly at her own eyes. "I cry when it’s warranted. This is warranted."
The tension of the past several days finally broke, just slightly, into something resembling the familiar, easy camaraderie Elliot had grown to rely on since the dungeon expedition—friends who had bled alongside him, who understood without needing lengthy explanation exactly what kind of weight he was now carrying.
"So," Edith said eventually, once the group’s collective composure had settled, "what’s the actual plan going forward? Because I assume ’wait around nervously for the next attack’ isn’t it."
"The headmaster wants to start training immediately," Elliot said. "Whatever this fragment actually lets me do, apparently I’ve barely scratched the surface of it. And there’s still the matter of figuring out exactly who or what this Architect really is."
"Count us in," Rose said simply, the rest of the group nodding in immediate, unhesitating agreement.
Elliot looked around at the assembled faces—friends who had, in the span of a single academic year, become something closer to family than he’d ever expected to find outside his own household—and felt, for the first time since the siege began, a genuine, steadying flicker of hope.
"There is one more thing," Seria added, glancing sidelong at Elliot before continuing. "The headmaster believes House Reingard’s fragment isn’t the only one this Architect is hunting. If that’s true, it’s possible some of you, or people you know, could already be connected to this without realizing it."
The group fell quiet at that, the weight of the implication settling in.
"Cheerful," August muttered. "Really. Add that to the growing list of things I didn’t want to know before lunch."
"Better to know than not," Rose said evenly. "If any of our own bloodlines carry something similar, I’d rather learn it from Elliot’s family’s experience than from a burned-down manor of our own."
"Grim, but accurate," Deria agreed.
"Then I suppose training starts for more than just Elliot," Edith said, straightening with renewed purpose. "If we’re all potentially standing in this Architect’s path one way or another, I’d rather be prepared than caught off guard the way House Reingard was."
Whatever the Architect intended, he clearly hadn’t accounted for exactly how many people now stood ready to fight alongside Elliot Reingard.