Baston cursed his own negligence after looking at the old book. It wasn't because the excellent result he got from the last quest from the town, but the old book gave the new quest yet he didn't bother to look at it since his mind was listless for a whole week. Unknowingly, after the quest from the town before, the old book seemingly granted a new one which was to get a good result at the exam. Since he didn't attend the class, the result for his performance was the worst.
The perfect rewarded him a puppet, the excellent rewarded a new elemental magic, and the good one gave him a consumable item. After that, the bad one only gave him a quick information which he couldn't prove if it was real or not. Right at the moment, he got the worst result for the first time and the old book rewarded him a penalty or punishment. Baston slapped his forehead, thinking he could avoid it yet he was too drowned by the sadness so in the end, he faced his own consequence.
The description about the worst result was delayed fatal attack. He as the holder of the book would be given one month before the time expired and the attack automatically launched against him. The punishment of
course could be initiated earlier if he wanted because in the end, the penalty would fall upon his head. He couldn't dodge nor avoid this harsh punishment. Beside that, the attack would make him lost consciousness for one week before he could wake up. After that, his body would be fully healed just like he never got one in the first place. Even though so, he shivered after knowing his fate
would be like this.
"It's too late to regret. I wonder if I can use some protection spells so that it won't hurt so much…"
He was thinking like that, but surely, the old book already anticipated it. It was stated that he must accept the punishment, so Baston
believed even in complicated way of magic, the penalty still could bypass anything until it struck him completely. Sighing, he then laid down hopelessly in the bed. There was no way to avoid his punishment, so the best thing he could do was to prepare himself.
"Let's see… I need to ask for a healer to stay beside me when the punishment commenced. It would be better if there was a bed nearby so after I lost the consciousness, someone just needs to put me at the bed. By the time a week pass, everything will be alright…"
While Baston was formulating his personal plan, he started to check if there was any message left for a week. Since he didn't have many friends in this academy, only Panto and Alicia that bothered him with some messages. There wasn't much for Panto because he sometimes delivered some rumors that he just heard within the perimeter. Perhaps, the merchant boy thought something on it could be related to the cult so it was better to collect everything than regretting in the end. As for Alicia, there was one message for him which was inviting him to her house for vacation.
He was wondering if this invitation would spell doom to him or not. The last one he went together with Alicia; her proclaimed lover bothered him so much that the quest popped up only as a means to solve the
trouble. What if there was Clark waiting at her house? What if another person like Clark came up from nowhere before he misunderstood his relationship with Alicia? Truly, girl was one of his sources of problem. Even though so, there was also a possibility of new quest when he went to her house. Baston already knew if he happened to go somewhere else, there would be a high chance that the old book gave him a quest. By then, there was only one thing he needed to do. He must go there to find out his own quest.
Time passed quickly until it was the day when Alicia went back to her family house. After the hard exam, the students could get a free time for many days to relax themselves. It was different from a holiday before when he went to Farbarus City. That time was just for a few days while at present, the holiday could be prolonged to a month. Many noble students would choose to go back or turn into vacation while forgetting all the hardship. The rest one from merchant and commoner class decided to go back first to their families before trying to work at the outside. For them, the experience was
priceless.
The merchant family usually would arrange some works for their children so they would know many things to learn. As for commoner and poor, they would try to get some jobs since they could get some money from it. For
them, survival was the most important and the money could help them adapted quickly to the outside. They might have a hard time, but luckily, Baston had already much money to spend. There was still some money left but it was enough for now since he didn't use it too much. It was because the matter of food was already handled well by Panto and Alicia.
Once again, Baston felt his status was hugely different from Alicia. The carriage had more wealth and the space was bigger than before. The experience he had when riding together to the academy meeting plus to Farbarus City with Panto was quickly defeated with this one. It was just like a personal bed, but it was moving with the carriage. Not to mention the comfy and soft
couch, he got this one alone with no one to disturb him. Alicia told him that her family might misunderstand something if they shared the same carriage, so they could only go with each one of the carriages. Incidentally, Baston preferred this way since he didn't need to open the conversation. If both of them were in the same carriage, it would be very awkward.
The place they went must be far and further than what Baston had experienced before. In order not to get bored, he started to look at his reward. The excellent result from the quest before gave him a new elemental
power. At present, he already got ice and flare. These 2 elementals were very
helpful and powerful if he could develop it through his levels. And his third elemental he got from the old book was gale, a developed magic from wind elemental. It sounded weird but he couldn't care much about the name.
The gale elemental was surely the increased performance from the wind with the sharp property. The wind magic actually could achieve this one too but still, it would lose its sharpness because the gale magic was the
best one. When using it properly, it could reach the sharpness of dagger or swords. One could imagine what happened if some killers or assassins had this type of magic. They didn't need to bring any weapon since their magic would be their deadly weapon. It would slash and tore the flesh of human quickly without leaving any trace of what weapon they used. It would be very bad if such a thing happened yet fortunately, it was very rare for people to have this elemental without being a part of certain noble bloodline.
Just like Versance and Herbiens, their families had a talent of ice and flare magic on their bloodline. In order to keep this thing safe and precious, any family member could only marry with the chosen one which had
already been decided by the head of family. They must choose the most prestigious candidate with much power so their magic would become more powerful than ever. Of course, they also expected much loyalty since this element was quite rare. They didn't want some people from family became a stallion and spread their own bloodline to outsiders. It would be very unacceptable.
The matter of bloodline was very complicated for noble, but since Baston wasn't a noble to begin with, he didn't have such a trouble. Anyway, he wouldn't show this new element to the world easily. Unless it was an emergency, it was very wise not to display such a dangerous move. Benefits came from the attention but too much attention also wouldn't be good. In the
meantime, Baston used his time to learn more about this magic until he reached his
destination.
"Young master Baston. We have arrived…"
One of Alicia's guards came to tell Baston personally. The fat boy thought he could climb down from the carriage, but it kept moving toward the big gate. The guard indeed told him they arrived, but it was still
much more to really get to the main house. It was because the area was big, just like an estate. After entering the area, he could see many guards bowed down to the carriage. Even the workers around did the same as the guard which implicated the status of Alicia. It took for a while until they stopped
completely.
Everyone stepped down from the carriage. While Alicia headed first to the inside, the guard told Baston to wait in the nearby place at first. It was because as the guest here, he should keep his attitude and waited until the lord of this house welcomed him. Although he was branded as Alicia's friend, it didn't mean her family would acknowledge him. Baston nodded, knowing how much complicated the treatment of noble in this world.
Alicia herself went inside and entered the study room. The butler of the family had already informed her to meet directly with her father at there. She walked and knocked the door. Even though the man was her father,
there was still some pressure because the man had strong attitude to his family
member.
"Come in…"
After hearing the reply, Alicia came forward and stood in front of the table. Her father was still looking at the document before putting
it down and looked at his daughter. The man stood up and hugged her.
"Alicia, welcome back. You must be tired after the trip but there is something I want to verify first."
"It's nothing, father. What do you want to know?"
"It's like this…"
In short summary, her father wanted to know more about the incident at Prius Academy. When Alicia began retelling what happened, the man nodded happily. He was satisfied that his daughter could gain a merit on early
days. Although he worried his daughter had an accident, but considering the protection item she held, it should be able to shield her away from the danger.
"Father, I have a request…" Alicia interrupted her father's thought, "I already invited one of my friends to come with me back home. The
thing is he was interested in our library. I wonder if he could go there and read as much as he could. You don't need to worry about the leak of our information because he just wanted to seek general one."
Alicia's father was pondering for a moment before he answered, "Let me see about that first. I have to know the identity of your
friend first."
Alicia frowned but it was the best she could do for now. The matter about Baston who wanted to go to their library was just a lie from her. She wanted him to check whether the information and knowledge they got was
useful to him or not. Considering what the cult was doing nowadays, she worried if someday, this shady organization would hurt the kingdom very much. The best thing she could give to Baston was like this, even though she didn't know if the fat boy would appreciate it or not.
After his daughter excused himself from the room, the man called for the butler, asking him to investigate what was the true identity of the friend that Alicia invited here. Instead of believing what his daughter told to him, it was better to seek the truth by deploying his many resources. Who knew if this friend had hidden intention or purpose here?