Panto had a good confidence of his own judgment after seeing what happened today. He thought only he was involved with the cult before, but something occurred that made him surprised. Beside him and Baston who knew a little about the cult, he found out that Alicia also knew about it. The girl came from nobility lineage with the rank of duke. Slowly, he felt an indescribable event would happen.
At least, what he could summarize was the cult must be very different from many criminal organizations. In the prosperity of the kingdom, it was imperative that some evil people lurked behind the shadow. If it was
just a common one, people like Alicia wouldn't care about it. Such a noble being only focused on the greater one who could threat national security. Eventually, this one was also deemed to be the most threatening.
The enemy of my enemy was my friend. That statement was right and he happened to think so. What he couldn't be sure yet was why he became the target of this enemy. Baston told him the reason and he only knew
someone might have a grudge against him. That wasn't right because dealing with him would be easier which the person really didn't need to involve with the cult. His only conclusion only pointed to his family. In the business world, the competition was very fierce and it usually left many people in shambles. Either he or his competitor that would win while the rest could only follow or just dying directly.
"Too bad I can't go home for now. Once I go back, I will just need to talk with my father…"
Even though so, he was glad that there was a strong backer from his side. Not only Baston who hid his true power, he also had Alicia. He didn't dare to talk to everyone that he had friendship with her. Just a mere acquaintance was already enough for him. He was still timid, but he gained a little
confidence whenever there was Baston nearby. Now, he also had companion from
noble side which made him felt more peaceful.
"I'm glad I take the initiative to ease my relationship with Baston. Now, it seems I can't just send only one dish. Well, just add it with one appetizer and one dessert."
Panto's mind only revolved around the money since he was child. His father taught him well with business ability, making the timid boy thought as long the money was involved, everything would be possible. On the other hand, Alicia ate her lunch at her own room. After being told by Baston
before at the cafeteria, she felt it was an order to go to safe place. She believed it was like that after she knew she wasn't the only one who had an information about the cult, even though it was just only a minuscule. The noble girl didn't know Panto before, but when she checked the information, she was also surprised, just like what Panto experienced right now.
"The name is Panto, a son of the merchant. His ability is average and he has timid personality. What I don't expect that he bullied Baston a few times before…"
It was silly that Baston worked with Panto, but Alicia'svmind was much more complicated since she was born into nobility. The game of politics had already showed her the darker side of people. When she thought
further, she was shocked that such combination clearly made a nonsense partner, yet it was a very good of disguise. People would think that both of them were
enemies and Baston would have a grudge inside his heart. They would never think that Baston and Panto created such a drama from the beginning. With this playing, no one would suspect them and they blended well in this academy where the strong and the weak existed.
"Very clever…" Alicia smiled, thinking while eating her lunch.
There wasn't much to report because further information was the same thing as before. Baston was deemed as the weak boy in the academy while Panto just occasionally bullied him, but not too much. The girl pondered that the simple report she had certainly proved that they blended well. Surely, Baston wasn't just a simple boy. Even though she founded a clue, she still
didn't know much about the cult. Also, whether there was any hidden intent or not, Alicia wasn't sure about the purpose of Baston here. She could say he was in good side for now, but she couldn't predict what Baston would be at the future.
"Well, it's quite interesting…"
For now, she would just play along then. The cult Baston talked about would soon reveal themselves anyway. Of course, she also needed to stick her role as the informant because Baston believed her as the one. If not, he would suspect her and the little lies she had would be broken. Alicia also had already collected some suspicious organization around to make her worthy of
being the informant.
"I believe he won't suspect me, right?" the girl smiled over her deceit, "As for the boys before, just let them suffer for a while."
Alicia looked at a few boys back then who knocked Baston's table. Not only they didn't apologize, they just left the place like an
ignorant one. As the noble, she felt she needed to teach them a lesson as not to make trouble for the future. She just needed to use her family power and the event before would be considered finished then.
At the other place, Baston was so full that he didn't want to move from his bed. He just finished 2 plates of food and felt sleepy right
now. To think that he thought he needed to go back to his little sandwich before, but suddenly, his wasted food came back to him and even multiplied into two plates. Such a fortunate moment which he really needed to cherish it.
Baston then burped, flipping his old book to see if there was any interesting news. Since it worked just like computer tablet, it could
display some news but the function was limited since the academy wanted to let the students focused on their lessons and not any misleading news outside. He checked and there was nothing new, so he went to the last page before he was fully dumbfounded.
"The quest has already been completed with perfect result? I even haven't done anything yet…"
Baston really couldn't believe but the reality was in front of him. Since the old book stated the completion, then it must be really done.
He rubbed his eyes repeatedly and finally; he realized it wasn't a dream. Before he accepted the reward, he pondered what made the quest finished so soon.
"Is there any girl other than Alicia that was interested on me? Should be not…" Baston shook his head, "The result was good before but suddenly it went to perfect. I only met Alicia yesterday and there's no contact today."
The fat boy didn't realize before that Alicia approached him on her will. Because he was too busy looking at his wasted food, he never noticed who were the people nearby. Baston was thinking that perhaps, Alicia was too imaginative or just had a crush on him. Still, he didn't believe Alicia had a feeling for such a poor fat boy, so the other choice pointed that Alicia must be imagining things. He only talked about the cult without much description and she suddenly took an interest.
Baston even thought that if she ever had a boyfriend, then it would be a bad luck because as long there was a clue that the boy had a contact with other girl, she must be thinking too much, leading that her
boyfriend might already cheat on her. It would be very troublesome to explain it then. The girl might be smarter than anyone else, but she would bring some catastrophes on her relationship.
"I better avoid her if I can…"
Anyway, the matter regarding Alicia was up to herself and he was just a passerby. The quest had been completed automatically since the result was already a perfect one and he only needed to accept the reward. He
wondered if he would have amazing magic again on his body, increasing his levels to be stronger than before. Eventually, it was out of his expectation because the reward was something else.
"A puppet?"
There was a sudden rush of information when the reward manifested in front of him. Baston then looked at the puppet which had the size just like his fist. It might look worse, but the thing was really a perfect reward. The
puppet basically could transform into anything. It could change its whole body to look like human as described by Baston. The puppet also could turn itself to smaller size like rat or bigger size like elephant. Any further than the limit was impossible since the puppet had limitation on it. By the way, this thing could only get out and transformed for 6 hours. After that, the puppet would return to the old book before it could be summoned once again at the next day.
He examined the puppet and found no special thing on it. Still, he wouldn't underestimate it since it had the same power as him. Basically, it could grow stronger as long as the puppet master also grew stronger too. He then tried to establish connection with the puppet, slowly transforming it into what he had in mind right now.
In front of Baston, the puppet turned into a beautiful girl. It was fake Alicia, but the face and everything was the same as the real one. He then tried to lift her hand, albeit it was still too stiff. If he ordered the puppet to walk, she would be busted soon because it wasn't just like ordinary people. For this, he could only train himself better everyday. Baston then tried for the puppet to talk.
"Actually… I like you… Baston… Will you… become… my… boyfriend…"
The words were incoherent just like a robot. Baston shook his head that the first confession must come from the puppet and it didn't feel quite good. If everyone knew he needed puppet to be his girlfriend, he would
become a laughingstock forever. Not to mention if the real Alicia knew it, she would be disgusted and thought he was a creepy one.
"No… No… No… It's just an experimentation. It doesn't count…" he coughed, "By the way, let's try another thing."
The puppet then transformed into everything Baston could picture of. He even made it into a bird and after learning how to fly skillfully, it then flew out from his room. Baston wanted to know what was the range limit for the puppet. When it almost reached the perimeter of the academy, he could sense the connection was almost lost so he hurried the bird got back inside the academy.
Baston was afraid the puppet he just got as the reward would be lost. If it really happened, he could only cry out his stupidity by then. Since he knew more about the puppet's limit, he then focused himself to experience better about its movement. At least, he had to overcome this so people would think it was the real thing and not the puppet when he used it.
Meanwhile at other place, the broken instrument before was being checked but the technical staff didn't find any defect on it. They even tried a few times and compared it with the others. Looking at the past record,
there was a high score on it followed by poor scores after that. The teacher also explained it was done by the same student which came from poor side. When the staff heard this, they assumed it was indeed the fault of the instrument, but they didn't know what the cause. Because of this, they just simply replaced it with the new one and the problem was solved.
Some professional mechanic might find what was the wrong about it, but since they were just a simple repairman, they couldn't detect it completely and just made it with the new one. The old one would then get recycled back after further process. Like this, the trace of Baston's magic simply disappeared and the record was reset.