While the general went down into the underground facility to check on the Stargate devices with Minister Otto, Emery carefully made his way over and asked Headmaster Delbrand to check on Julian’s peculiar condition.
Under Emery’s amazed gaze, it only took the Headmaster no more than a few minutes to finally figure out what was going on, as evidenced by the unconscious Roman awakening from his deep slumber moments later.
“Julian, you are finally awake!”
A dazed look could be seen on Julian’s face as he tried to grasp what was around him. A few seconds later, he finally turned to Emery and asked, “Emery, how is the situation? What happened?”
At the question, Emery quickly gave a brief summary of what had happened up to the current situation to his Roman friend.
After hearing the explanation, Julian turned to Principal Delbrand and bowed his head. “Thank you for your help, Headmaster.” He said, looking pale and exhausted.
Nodding slightly as a response, Headmaster Delbrand then looked at the young man with a serious expression before saying, “You indeed have talent; however, the Domain was not something an acolyte should play with at all”
As he knew the other party meant well, Julian nodded his head readily. “Yes, Headmaster. I understand. It was a matter of life and death.”
The Roman spoke those words in conviction, and the Headmaster responded with a gesture that showed he understood.
On the other hand, Emery who was present was intrigued about the contents of the conversation between the two when he overheard it. He didn’t expect the mention of the word Domain, because according to what he knew it was a kind of power that was only practiced within the grand magus level.
It was not an exaggeration to say that he was astonished – dumbfounded even – to learn that Julian had something to do with such things, much less being able to wield such power.
The Roman seemed a bit anxious when he noticed Emery’s reaction. He whispered, “I am sorry. I will tell you more about it in the future. I promise.”
Before Emery could muster a reply, Headmaster Delbrand spoke again. “Since the matter is over, I will return to the academy first. Whatever the verdict given by the alliance, don’t stay here too long. Remember, all of you still have a tournament to participate in eight days.”
“Yes, Headmaster.” The two of them replied respectfully.
“Alright, then I’ll be off.”
As the Headmaster turned and was about to leave, Emery stopped the man. He quickly accessed his Spatial Space and took out a wooden box before handing it to the middle-aged man.
“Headmaster, these are all the magus’ spirit souls I have collected as well as their artifacts and storage rings.”
Hearing that, Headmaster Delbrand opened the box and saw the pearl-like orbs each on a glass container as well as rings lying inside. Closing the box, he smiled at Emery before returning the box to his hand.
Looking at the confused look that was given to him, he said in a nonchalant tone. “Officially, I’ve never been here. These are your spoils of war, so you can do whatever you think is best with them.”
The last words Headmaster Delbrand spoke before his figure disappeared left Emery and Julian flabbergasted. They both looked at each other and could see the disbelief in their eyes. After all, 10 elven magus’ spirit souls and their valuables were definitely a huge fortune for them.
“We’ll check it out later when the others are here,” suggested Emery, to which Julian agreed.
Alas, when Klea and the two others arrived after dealing with the orcs, the group was being called by the Royal Imperium, to give reports on their activities for the past seven days.
The Royal Imperium who represented the Magus Alliance in this matter did a thorough job. They were not simply looking for the truth of the matter. They were also here to pass on judgment that would shape the future of the Nexus faction, which was a monumental affair.
They couldn’t afford to be careless, much less sloppy dealing with this matter. Hence there were multiple questioning sessions held between the representatives of the faction who lived on the space station and the locals who inhabited the planet.
With the death of the Principal and many of the ministers, the chosen representation for the investigation were; Minister of Science Otto, Magus Wilf, and the Quartermain brothers Stildar and Shane.
As for Emery and his friends, they only needed to go through several short sessions before they were all cleared of any suspicion and fault.
In fact, what they had done was deemed to be an outstanding achievement.
“Your squad has successfully uncovered and greatly contributed to stopping the devious plot by our enemy”
Emery and the others received the highest commendation that surpassed their squad rank, and not just they will receive a reward from the alliance, this would surely reflect positively on their academy final exam scores.
Now that they had been cleared, Emery and the others were finally allowed to leave the planet and return to the academy. With their transport destroyed during the conflict, the group was allowed to return via teleportation.
At this moment however, Emery told them that he was actually curious about what would happen to the Nexus faction. “I was thinking of staying for maybe another day or two”
The suggestion was quickly supported by the others, as they all couldn’t help but feel responsible about the consequences of their actions – how it would affect the fate of an entire faction.
As they had to wait for the day that the verdict given by the alliance was announced, Emery and the others decided to find a private place to check on their newfound fortune.
The five of them surrounded the wooden box Emery placed on the table. They all couldn’t help but gulp when they saw its contents. Ten spirit souls and eleven storage rings belonging to magus-level figures.
“Damn! This is just absurd! I never even got a single magus-level treasure when I followed Lord Izta for five months on the frontlines!” said Thrax, unable to contain the enthusiasm that welled up inside him.
There were thousands of elven magus fighting in the war, but in comparison were also ten thousand human magus that matched them. So it was no wonder that the chances of a rank 9 fighter like Thrax getting one magus elf treasure were slim, if not non-existent.
But now, they have ten at the same time.
Looking at the anticipation on his friends’ faces, Emery smiled.
“Alright. Let’s see what we got!”