"Master, what is going on?"
Despite all that was going on, Magus Xion still flashed him a smile, strained though it may be. He beckoned Emery and said, "What's with that look? Let us talk inside."
With one gesture from Magus Xion, Yuria nodded and walked away to give them some privacy, letting Emery and his master talk undisturbed.
"Long story short… let's just say our plan didn't really go as well as we hoped."
"What do you mean, master?"
"I thought my master would be satisfied with the stone I gave to her. At first, she was fine with the arrangement, but I should have expected that after she felt the power brimming within the stone, she would inevitably wish for more… It's the same case as before."
The news certainly gave Emery some worries. When he saw his face, the magus gave a slight smile and said.
"Don't worry too much. It wasn't as bad as it sounds."
The magus explained that after receiving the stone, the grand magus had been busy cultivating inside her chamber for several months. She has not come out yet, and the one who came to make demands to Magus Xion was her henchman.
"What did they want?"
"Well, they wanted me to help catch you… At least, they wanted to make sure you wouldn't leave the academy until my master came out of her training."
"But... Master, if they are willing to go as far as hurting you… how could it not be bad?"
"Ah, yes, about that… I expected that, really, I never did get along well with my master's followers after all. However, there's no need for you to worry. They wouldn't go as far as killing academy students… As I said, this should be nothing to worry about, however, I suggest you stay here within Terra palace throughout the year…. Just to be safe."
From the explanation his master gave him, Emery was certain Magus Xion was still hiding something from him. However, considering how much the magus was devoted to his master, attempting to push for more information would only hurt his master. There was nothing to be gained from pressing him on.
Emery took a deep sigh. In the last 9 months of his time on Earth, Emery had trained so hard. Now he was confident enough to fight any rank 9 head on. But now, he had earned the attention of someone as scary as a grand magus.
Due to this situation, Emery may also need to hold off from visiting other places, such as Golden City or Zodiac City.
It appeared this was the risk he had to face after receiving such great fortunes from the Khaos Space.
Once again, Emery found himself unable to do anything. All he could do was hope that his master or his friends wouldn't get hurt because of him.
Not long after he thought of his friends, a series of familiar shouting could be heard from outside, followed by the sounds of footsteps. Yuria walked into the room, followed by a few people.
"Thank you, senior Yuria, for welcoming us."
Yuria entered the room alongside his two friends, Thrax and Chumo.
Looking at Emery already inside Thrax quickly shouted.
"Emery! Why did you come here earlier all by yourself? You should have picked us up!"
When all Emery could respond was a puzzled stare, Yuria explained she had sent a message to all his friends to come here and practice together in this place, hence the two of them decided to come. When the two approached to greet him, Magus Xion explained.
"Lord Izta told me to help you all for your third year, Yuria has also prepared some things for you, that's why I think it would be best for you all to train here."
Once again, Emery found the magus' expression to be a bit suspicious. However, before he could do anything, Thrax had already voiced his excitement and asked whether they could start training right away.
They were about to start training, but Magus Xion looked around, wondering where Klea and Julian were. Emery could only give a wry smile.
"They must have something else to do right now… I am sure they will come later-"
The Thracian however quickly interrupted.
"I am not worried about our beautiful Klea, but that roman, I saw him go together with that Harlight chick! We can just forget about them for now, Emery."
Emery decided to ignore Thrax's words for now and resolved to solve the fracture between his friends before telling the Thracian not to waste time and start practicing.
The group walked out to the courtyard, where two dozen warriors clad in gold armor from head to toe were already waiting for them. The magus told the three to spar against the warriors to have an idea about their current progress.
It was already pretty late when they started, hence their sparring practice was finished in no time, with each of the three showing their skill towards Lord Izta knights.
Seeing the fights, Magus Xion nodded in approval. Satisfied with Emery's progress, he announced that he would start give pointers for Emery and his friends first thing tomorrow
The skies had already started to darken, the red hues of the sunset giving way to the calming dark of the evening. Once again, Emery looked towards the direction of the gate, still harboring hope for his two friends who had not yet arrived.
"Stop worrying about them! Argh, this is a repeat of the Zaiueo acolyte incident all over again! Let's just get Gerri and our friends in regular class to join the team!" Thrax shouted.
After the first training session was done, Thrax decided to unleash his anger by drinking, and their host, Yuria was more than happy to provide some good drinks.
"My master treated you like his own brothers, certainly I will do as he asked."
While drinking, Thrax expressed his anger and laughed his heart out afterwards. From the looks of it, he would spend the entire night drinking. Emery, however, was not in the mood for drinking anything. He decided to slip away from the dining room and return to his room to cultivate [Nature Grasp]. In the future, there were going to be many challenges waiting for him. He needed to get stronger as quickly as possible
Emery did not think to count how many hours passed while he concentrated on training, but as he decided to use his spirit reading just in case, he once again found a disturbance in space. A figure was moving around softly under the cover of darkness.
All the walls in the room Emery were in suddenly turned into pitch black. From the darkness, smoke slowly seeped out and formed into a figure.
"You are Emery aren't you? I came to take you away."