The guard at the gate waved us through without stopping us and I tossed him a gold coin. He fumbled with it for a moment, almost dropping it, then he smiled as he pocketed it. Gella shook her head at me and her smile didn't lessen.
“I know.” I said and she chuckled. “I said I know.”
Gella laughed out loud. “He's going to expect payment whenever you pass by! Ha ha!”
I had to smile at her laughing. “Is it because he was so easily trained or that I didn't do it before?”
“Both!” Gella said and kept laughing.
We came to a stop at the main building and went inside. No one stopped us and we walked down the side hallway towards the director's office.
“We don't have an appointment...” I started to say.
“She's been expecting you since this morning.” The secretary said with a smile. “Go on in.”
“Thank you.” I said and held a hand out to her.
“Really?” She asked, surprised.
I nodded and she took my hand, then I bent over it and kissed the back of it as I pushed my magic through it.
“Ohhh.” She moaned and closed her eyes briefly, then she opened her eyes and beamed a smile at me. “Thank you, my lord.”
I nodded again and let her hand go as Gella opened the office door for me.
“I actually felt you flirting with my secretary...” Mage Chasma said and her secretary gave her the same beaming smile. “...and she's unrepentant for taking a lord's attention, however briefly.”
“Why would I say no?” The secretary asked. “The rest of your afternoon is free of appointments.”
“Thank you.” Mage Chasma said and Gella and I stepped into her office and shut the door. “Did she tell you I expected you here this morning?”
“Yes, and I don't know why.” I said as we all sat down. “I only found out at lunch that Greta was offered her old job back.”
“She didn't tell you?” Mage Chasma asked and I shook my head. “That's strange. I asked her to.”
“Perhaps I can offer an explanation.” I said and told them what happened last night between Greta and myself.
Mage Chasma nodded. “She would want a little time away from you after that, if only to get her own thoughts together.”
“I haven't felt that electric jolt before.” I said.
“It's not something I've heard of myself.” Mage Chasma said and glanced at Gella. “Perhaps taking a sample size of partners to see if it's Greta's involvement or just your own magic strength?”
“Are you actually curious or are you just angling to kiss my lord to feel it yourself?” Gella asked.
Mage Chasma smiled at the blunt question. “A bit of both, actually. I've felt his flirting before.”
“I'm glad you were honest about it.” Gella said and turned towards me. “My lord, please recreate what happened last night.”
I stood and let the thoughts of the Hag float around in my head, then made a fist with my hand and my magic swirled around me. It shook a lot of things in the office and Gella stood to cup the sides of my face.
“My lord, calm down.” Gella repeated and I let the magic slow, then she leaned in and kissed me. Our magic swirled together, almost violently, because she was full of repressed anger as well. Several things in the office fell over and broke, then the desk started to vibrate. Gella broke the kiss and slowly moved back as sparks of lightning danced between our lips.
“Oh, dear.” Mage Chasma whispered as the magic stopped churning and everything stopped shaking. “That was... quite volatile.” She stood up and walked around the desk. “My lord, please try that again.”
I did so and my magic shook things a little, then Mage Chasma wrapped her arms around me as she kissed me and poured her magic into me. Unlike mine or Gella's violent magic, her magic seemed warm and comforting. Mine swirled with hers and combined, only for nothing to shake at all as it flowed around us.
Mage Chasma broke the kiss and moved back slightly, then we heard a loud snap of thunder as a thick bolt of lightning passed between our lips. “OHHH!” She moaned and sat against her desk, then she blushed deeply as she put a hand over her womanhood and the growing wet spot there. “I shouldn't have worn pants today.”
We were all quiet for several moments, then Gella laughed. “My... my lord!” She said and then caught her breath and spoke normally. “You can bring out the best in those around you.”
I thought about that and nodded. “Greta's passion, your ruthlessness, and Mage Chasma's comforting warmth.”
“Exactly.” Gella said. “It almost felt like standing in a warm bath just before the kiss ended.”
“It felt like a violent storm when you kissed.” Mage Chasma said. “And please call me Pavinca. After a kiss like that, I can't help but call you David.” She gave me a searching look. “I hope that's okay?”
“It's my name.” I said and she smiled at me. “By the way, I'm returning to school.”
Pavinca chuckled and handed me the papers on her desk. “Here are your exclusion papers. Being captured and turned into a slave can grant you a lot of leeway.”
“I'll be writing the exams.” I said and she nodded.
“I expected nothing less.” Pavinca said. “I do expect you to fail in the spell composition and math portions for the same, considering you have a completely different magic skill set.”
“I can fake it enough in the practical portions to pass.” I said.
Pavinca laughed softly. “All right, I'll let your marks stand if they go over the minimum you are required to have.”
“That's better than the entrance exam I took where I was given the minimum and that was it.” I said and she nodded.
“You better get to class.” Pavinca said and looked at Gella. “I hope you kept the passes and permission slips I gave you.”
“I did.” Gella said and took them out to show her.
“Keep them on you and you are allowed to go with David to his classes.” Pavinca said. “With you as a guard, perhaps the reactions will be less prevalent.”
Both Gella and I gave her disbelieving looks and she laughed softly.
“Just try not to kill them right away, please?” Pavinca asked.
We nodded and left her office.
The secretary waved at us as we walked down the hallway and then she gasped. “My lord!”
We stopped walking and looked back at her.
“You need to get a new living assignment, your books replaced, and have your Royal cafeteria card re-issued.” The secretary said. “You can come back here after class for them.”
“Thank you.” I said to her and we left the hallway and the building.
“I doubt they will give you a room, my lord.” Gella said as we went to the carriage.
“You're assuming the one assigning them will bow to pressure from the dead mages and their families?”
“Or is from one themselves.” Gella said. “Driver, we're staying until school ends. Pick us up a little after then, please.”
“Yes, ma'am.” The driver said and drove off with the carriage.
“I have Advanced Potions class right now.” I told her and waved towards the main building used for classes. We walked there and entered. It was only part way into the first class of the afternoon, so no students were in the hallways as we went to the right classroom.
Gella knocked and opened the door before I could and whispered about not letting me slip inside without anyone noticing, because that wasn't the point of returning to school.
“What is...” Greta started to ask as she turned towards the door, then she saw me. “DAVID!”
“Mage Marks.” I said and nodded to her and walked over to the desks, only to see a shocked looking Jinelle at my old potions position. I went to her old one and ignored the three angry faces on the other students. Lorna, her betrothed, and the other young blond man, apparently had family I had killed.
“What... what are you doing here?” Greta asked, nervously.
“Resuming classes just before exams.” I said and looked at the chalk board and saw that it was just a review day. “I suppose I didn't have to come if this is the last class before the exams that are apparently happening next week.” I gave her a blank look. “Thank you for letting me know you returned to work.”
Greta blushed and turned her head away. “I just... I needed some time to...”
“If you're working, that means you're not helping me with the modifications we planned to do for the next few weeks.” I said and she sucked in a sharp breath.
“David, I... I didn't think...”
“No, you reacted to something that could happen to anyone.” I said and stepped out from behind the potion workstation. “If I could call upon Jinelle to help me demonstrate?”
“M-m-me?” Jinelle asked.
“H-h-her?” Gretta said at the same time.
“It will only take a moment.” I said and walked over to the young woman. “I only ask for a brief kiss, Lady Marks.”
Jinelle stared at me. Her eyes went from my white skin, to my long white hair, and to my bright blue eyes. “What happened to you?” She asked. “You're supposed to be dead.”
“You didn't believe that.” I said and stepped close to her as she shook her head. “I was kidnapped and made into a slave, became a pirate and took over the ship, wrecked the Eastern Empire's shipping routes, and then returned here to find my entire life destroyed by the Mages Guild.”
Jinelle let out a sob and tears started to flow out of her eyes.
“No, your mother, grandmother, and aunt were not involved. I dealt with the confessed criminals in short order and will deal with the rest when they come to the capital to return to the guild.” I let my anger out and my magic surged out, rattling everything in the classroom.
“D-David.” Jinelle whispered.
I cupped the sides of her face and wiped at her tears with my thumbs. “May I kiss you?”
Jinelle nodded and I pressed my lips to hers. “MMMM!” She moaned loudly as she pushed her magic out and into me. Her magic surged out harder than any others I had done this with and it swirled with mine and mixed together. Vials nearby shattered as our combined magic lashed out and pushed everything away by about a foot, then a strong wind picked up and blew everyone's hair around.
I broke the kiss and moved back exactly an inch. The sound of thunder was very loud in the classroom as a bolt of lightning nearly an inch thick snapped between our lips.
“OHHHHH, GOD!” Jinelle moaned loudly as the magic entered her and her legs gave out.
I caught her before she fell and scooped her up into a princess carry as she cuddled into my chest.
“Iloveyou, Iloveyou, Iloveyou...” Jinelle whispered, over and over.
“What the HELL was that?!?” Lorna asked as the wind died down.
“A successful experiment and solid proof of concept.” I said and looked at Greta, who's face was pale, because she now knew she had overreacted to what happened. “I'll take her back to her room to let her rest, since this class isn't necessary.”
Gella opened the classroom door for me and I left with Jinelle in my arms. No one said anything until the door shut behind me.
“How can he come back to class like nothing happened?” A male voice asked. “He's killed hundreds of people!”
“He's killed a lot more than that before coming to the academy the first time.” Greta responded. “Why is this any different?”
“He killed our family!” The other male said.
“A criminal, by confession, that was dispatched by order of the Royal Family.” Greta said. “Are you going to join the guild in notoriety and continue their criminal activities?”
“No, but...”
“So, you think your family is better than others and their crimes can be forgiven, is that it?” Greta asked.
No one responded.
“If you didn't notice, he killed both men and women at the guild. No one was above being served justice, not even the exalted Mages Council and the Grand Mage himself.” Greta said and I felt a surge of magic from her. “They did horrible things to that man and his family! They robbed him of his fortune, his lands, and killed his future wife and his baby! What right do you have to say that your brother deserved to live after killing a baby! WHAT RIGHT?!?”
No one spoke again.
“Exactly. You have no right. So shut up and accept that your family was involved in horrendous crimes and promise that you will never seek retribution over it. If you try, he will kill you all, as he has proven by wiping out the rest of the Henrietta family and that banker's family.”
I nodded to Gella and we walked away from the still silent classroom. It didn't take us long for us to arrive at the dorm building that housed Jinelle's year of classmates. We entered and the dorm monitor saw us and nodded. She escorted us to her room and allowed me to bring Jinelle inside and lay her on the bed, under her close watchful eyes.
Her three maids came out of their room and stared at me with their mouths hanging open.
“Please.” Jinelle whispered when I tried to let her go. “Accept me.”
“I won't be signing any more contracts.” I said and tears came to her eyes again. “I am sorry, dear Lady. You know I cannot.”
Jinelle nodded and then she put her hands on the sides of my face. “A... a kiss goodbye.”
I glanced at the dorm monitor and she sighed. I nodded to her and looked back at Jinelle as I let my magic out.
“Ohhh...” Jinelle moaned as her magic surged forth without her trying to push it, then she pulled me down into a passionate kiss as our magic merged and sent out another push.
Gella caught the dorm monitor before she fell and the shocked looked on her face made Gella laugh.
I broke the kiss and moved back, the crack of thunder and the snap of lightning happened again, then Jinelle and her three maids made similar moaning sounds.
“You must be glad you're wearing a skirt.” I said.
“Yessssss.” Jinelle said and looked at me with half lidded eyes. “I... I do love you, David.”
“I know.” I said and gave her a light kiss and stood. “Enjoy your life while you can.”
Jinelle smiled sadly. “I understand.”
I nodded to her and to her dorm monitor, then Gella and I left. Now that I had some free time with the rest of the afternoon off, and having dealt with two of the three reasons I came back to the academy, it was time to deal with the last reason.
Gella walked beside me as we walked across the campus grounds towards the botany workshop. “I was wondering why you left visiting her until last.”
“It's going to be painful for Mage King because of what I'm about to do to her.” I said and Gella smiled.
“I have an idea.” Gella said.
“Perhaps.” I said and we fell silent as we walked the rest of the way to a fateful meeting that could be both therapeutic and disastrous.
Plz tell me there won’t be Academy Antics Take Two part 2 - ???
Btw, you’re really using the Tragedy tag 120% huh. David’s already lost his family and now he’s losing those he could consider friends or maybe potential allies.
Are you trying to make David break his emotional dam?
I’ve personally experienced what it feels like to have everything repressed just explode. And f*ck it hurts just as much physically as it does mentally.
I really hope David doesn’t go through that cuz of the Mage King💩
P.S. Thnx for the chapter!
🍪 He isn't losing her, she just made a mistake and messed up, right when she knew he needed her. It was kind of why Greta overreacted in the classroom when he left.
The dam could eventually break if things keep happening to set him off.
Oh, and I called the chapter that specifically to tease people about another run of the same chapter name beginnings. LOL
There won't be. It's just a tease.
While you are right that David didn't lose Greta per se, her overreaction has clearly left another crack in the dam, no matter how small it is.
It's only a matter of time and severity of a single incident before David Drake, the Marsh Man explodes
Edit - thank you for just leaving it at a tease. Those chapters always left me in limbo because of the same title. Sometimes I'd read a release right away, while other times leave it alone for days
@Solstice1309
I know I said this before but I really like your comments section!!!! So many interpretations and ideas. So great.
Me, too. I would have responded before now; but, the notification got lost in the shuffle.
I don't see this as being a betrayal by Greta or even her doing something wrong. She wanted space after finally realizing her feelings and never(?) being able to move past needing a contract (that her family would enforce - but equally, that she wouldn't try to stop them) and loving him. Not many people can love from up close and not enter into a relationship. It's like slow torture. Especially, when she would see other women doing what she wanted to do.
I get not telling him was messed up, but she's also not a potion maker employee or a slave. She can take breaks and time to do other things. Even if that's not for the good of David's current community.
The extra slap at the end for not working on the potions was too much for me from him to her, though. Did not like it. The slap about not telling him about her feelings and what she was thinking and doing was fine.
David was just reminding her that she forgot about the commitment. It wasn't really a slap in the face. When he told her that, she knew she messed up... as in, it's going to take longer to work it out now and help the slaves get back to normal... namely himself.
Thanks for the chapter!
Now that's a nice range of emotions.
Thank you for the chapter.
Damn it Cliff, you show up at some pretty annoying times... I really want to see how David treats her... Too bad none of the 'Ladies" would just say "Too hell with a contract! You are enough, David!" As that statement, and action, would actually show him the depth of their love and help balance him. Oh well.
It's difficult to break nobles from years and decades of indoctrination. They all believe that contracts protect them from abuse and being used, not realizing that those in the contract do it anyway (look at Selene and Vanessa).
@Bokuboy I know, which is why one telling David that he was worth more then a contract would show him that she trusts him to protect her, rather then a piece of paper that can be twisted by anyone, would be so powerful. Greta seems to be almost at that level. Helena was probably there, but wanted to play by the rules. Mage King would jump on it, but only because she would think it meant she 'owned' David...
Technically we can’t look at Selene and Vanessa cuz one’s dead and the other has no more screen time. Morbid pun intended.
@Solstice1309
Who said Vanessa was out of the story?
@Bokuboy
She isn’t?
Oh, you mentioned in a prev comment you had plans for her.
Well, let’s see how much she suffers. While it won’t feel unpleasant, it wouldn’t feel good either.
@Solstice1309
I expect Vanessa to be a fine example of what disrespecting David earns. She supposedly loved him, made pledges, broke those pledges and contracts, then turned her back on him because he wasn't constantly by her side. She now has lost the protection of being his, she has to live with her family being serf's for breaking vows and contracts, and has to live with the snakes she called 'friends'. Not only that, but she gets to see, vividly, what she walked away from as David gains more power and prestige while his followers ensure that she is never allowed close to him. I know if I was Gella, Hanna, or Farra I would ensue that Vanessa was kept away from him.
@RunedKnight Well, the only issue with these thoughts of abandoning contracts are that society would equally reject them. They would be labeled less than concubines and you already saw how that worked out, even with contracts and turning her into a “high lady.” Now with no contracts, perhaps no marriages, these women would lose all protection and rights from others in society and the (men) of the society would forget themselves and try to take advantage of them wrongly believing David didn’t care enough about them to make it (Facebook) official.
They have every right, rite, write to want or need a contract. Officially, it grants what is being requested and provides proof of both being “owned” by the other. Unofficially, it’s a status symbol and a warm blanket of societal acceptance.
@Coheed27 I understand that, however, society is using those same contracts to control the women. Vanessa's family, and GMH, used contracts to limit what David could do for the women, and to make the women be indebted to the family. David could provide the wealth, name, honor, prestige, and resources for a woman, without a contract, and she could freely enjoy it, without having to provide a percentage to her family for allowing her the honor of being allowed to sign a contract. David could have given Vanessa everything the contract stipulated, immediately and without the contract, but that would have removed her families power over Vanessa and David. Those contracts might have originally be there to protect the women, but all they are now is a means of handicapping others. Very few people would let a younger, or lessor, woman sign a contract that could result in them gaining more power then they had. Look at Vanessa's mother, she wanted a contract that ultimately give her control over Vanessa's body, children, wealth, and future. And she wondered why David and Helena disliked her and her greedy ways. Unfortunately most of the nobility, and royalty, are of the same mindset and seek to use contracts not to protect others, but instead to rob and bind them for their own personal gain.
(Eh, sorry for the personal rant, I just hate users like that. People that have no idea of selflessness anger me...)
@RunedKnight I totally get it. At its core is approved indentured servitude or slavery. You can do this, you can't do that, you have to pay us this, you have to produce that, etc.. it's kind of like the idea that as your boat rises (Vanessa) our boat also has to rise(her parents). While I greatly dislike them too, I understand their usefulness in their society(same with the old English marriage system). It provides protection from the outside, but not from within. It doesn't protect from being seen as an object to barter or the abuses that could occur within the contract. It just allows for remaining "valued and respected" by the society that they live in. Which could be a whole other conversation on why you would ever try to fit into that society at all, but it's really hard to buck social convention.
It's basically an advanced form of pre-nup with the parents getting something for "surrendering their daughters chastity".
It's gross….
@Coheed27 Sadly, I would almost agree if they had kept it at the "as your boat rises our boat also has to rise" stage. It was when they twisted it to that, as David build's the boat for Vanessa her parents and anyone that thought they could would take everything they could from the boat for themselves, and to hell with what it did to Vanessa's boat, but David still better build that boat. Basically, it would be like making 15 rudders for a one rudder boat, because every time he made one, mommy would take it for themselves, then b--tch that the boat still didn't have a rudder, and that David was useless at building a boat...
@Bokuboy So does that mean both Greta and Jinelle didn't want to be with him without the contract and that is why they aren't together? I understood it as a fake or lie contract is gonna be there even if he just takes her and I was just about to complain how stupid that is, as he has a reputation of killing people that try to take something from him and a contract is one way how to to that. I am confused about why this girls are all so in love with him but when he mentions the contracts they say oh no, maybe next time ?!
@Coheed27(replying to 5 comments behind. you mentioning other nobles thinking they can take advantage of his women with no contract.) how when he constantly kills people for just touching his boat or slave. who would be dumb enough??
@valci I mean he DESTROYED like 4 forward bases in the army and killed ALL the mages stationed there, yet people still try to take his shit. Now ask yourself if a beautiful woman with zero standing, and probably a reputation for being a slut because she engaged in “non-contract” relationship/sex, if those same men that tried to take all his sh*t wouldn’t try something with the woman. Also, this makes me feel like we are comparing women to boats lol. I know in context of the story, we are, but it’s weird to have an actual discussion about it.
To answer the other question : yes, Greta would have slept with David and she warned him knowing full well her family would have demanded, probably with physical attacks, that David marry her with a contract. Seeing how Jinelle is in the same family, it would have also happened that way.
@valci I believe that what @Coheed27 meant was stopping the women from having any rights or possessions. Different then physically stopping David's woman, more like freezing them out of the social circles and whatnot.
@Coheed27 Yeah, Greta is refusing a relationship because her family would DEMAND a contract, and Greta knows her mother would try to use that contract to steal from David, so she is giving him up and keeping him at arms-length to protect him.
@RunedKnight Protect him? You mean her family would be more logical.
@valci Well, him emotionally and her family physically lol
@Coheed27 As you have just exposed the issue in the story. Why are all the people in this world so ret*rded. They live in a noble society, where one wrong move and if you are not the strongest will get you whole family culled, and here comes a person that can do what even the royalty can't do and they still don't think with their heads??? This is so confusing, you make excuses that they are just so used to the nobles way, when it is the nobles way to be careful when treading with property of a dangerous family and do not wrong the Royalty in any way. Isn't is the same just even more dangerous when all the power is in a single man. You don't see nobles just trying to take a carriage a Royal just left behind because you know that they will possibly retaliate and kill you or worse kill your entire family.
It makes so little sense for the kids in the school to even stay in the room because they should have the common sense that he could be after them as well. But they show hate agents him. The mass murderer and still innocent vigilante. Makes me so confused why the chapters include the useless side characters that somehow think they have a say in how the MC acts when noone can currently stop him in any way
@Coheed27 why emotionally? He knows what they would do and why would he care as long as the women shares his feeling with is safe with him.
sry about that I know it was probably a joke. Just the last few chapters made the world more and more unrealistic based on the setting(In my opinion). Feels like problems that are real aren't being addressed but problems that should never exist or should be just ignored are being portrayed and amplified in the last few chapters. I don't even care that women that ˝like˝ him can't be with him. The reason why should be completely different. Instead of the contracts it should be the fear that if they get together and make a mistake or one of the family members makes a mistake he would kill them all. That should be the fear because he has been killing people for the smallest and biggest of things. So families should tell their daughters to stay as far away as possible from this maniac, because most people don't know why his is killing almost at random.
@valci I don’t really know how to explain inherent stupidity in “alpha” personalities in our own society, let alone one where magic exists. Power calls to all. Why do professional sports players act like babies and primadonas when they know it is bad for their image? They think they are better. As a better, they get leniency. Maybe they don’t truly believe David did all of that. Maybe they do, and they don’t care? Maybe, they loved their family(and the status their family had) so much that they no longer care and want to challenge David for their ruined pride? So, an equally interesting thought exercise is that if David didn’t exist to show the power he has from the lack of status he had, would they care if the head of the mage guild killed their family member? Probably, but they would have respected it more because it came from a recognized individual with power, status, and wealth. Not from a swamp rat who doesn’t know his place.
@valci I’m not gonna lie. Mike Tyson could have knocked out my brother but I still would have tried to attack him back. Logic fails in the face of emotion: passion, rage, lust, sadness, etc.
Emotionally for David because it would be another horrible mentally taxing experience that he could have avoided. Which pushes him further away from everyone. Greta doesn’t want him to disappear back into the swamp, she wants him to stay.
@Coheed27 Also, don't forget that this is a land where much of the "power" is political, connections, and perceptions. David is accomplishing so much because he is simply using his personal power, i.e. his magic and a sword, instead of the political power of just stopping a business deal or marriage contract. That is one reason David is so dangerous, he is fighting a war with himself as the only target, were normally people would be worried that enemies could harm their loved ones. As David now has no one that can be targeted as a weakness, and political attacks aren't worth his time, it has become a battle of slander and insults against sword and immolation spells...