Jaylin got a general I.D. 

Although his last name wasn’t the most...appealing, there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

Mhmm, nothing. Sure.
Exilis’ sense mist was currently eyeing a certain man rushing to the infirmary within the sparring grounds, shards of ceramic covering his arms.

Jaylin smiled, his crystalline blue eyes glittering like diamonds.  I have no idea what you’re talking about, Exilis.

Exilis wasn’t shocked in the slightest. What else would one expect from Jaylin? Except scamming innocent mortals with his looks, and trying to get people to make the first move so he can attack them under the guise of self defense? This was nothing different.

 

There was one day until the monthly assessments. But Jaylin could wait. In the meantime...

Jaylin walked out of his lodging, his empty smile flattening back into his natural frown. His lodging was located near the main lobby.  Stepping into the brightly illuminated room, Jaylin walked over to the small snack bar. Though it was nowhere near as filling or healthy as the canteen’s food, it was rather convenient to eat here than go all the way back.

Jaylin stood in front of the snack bar and ordered a small bowl of pickled vegetables.

The employee was fearful of Jaylin’s cold voice. She passed the small bowl to Jaylin in a quick movement. She stared at Jaylin back as he walked away, suddenly wondering if the youth always looked so thin and weak.

Exilis would’ve asked why Jaylin would ever eat food, a substance he neither needed, nor had the capability to enjoy, but he already knew what Jaylin was planning.

Sighing, his sense mist floated over to Jaylin’s shoulder as the man sat down on one of the tables. He began eating his pickled vegetables, not giving the slightest glance to the woman in her dark red monthly assessment coat sitting in front of him.

All the rookies sitting nearby winced in sympathy. This poor kid, he sat next to the Fire Queen without even realizing it.

Exilis laughed inwardly and the rookies’ sympathy, thinking back to both the canteen and the Izelix guild. 
This seems to happen a lot.

Carmen Ushivisc’s sharp eyes glanced up from her salad, hostility overflowing. 

Contrary to Exilis’ expectations, she didn’t snap at Jaylin, but turned back to her salad and continued eating, not giving him the time of day.

Jaylin did not take the initiative to speak, nearly finishing half of his pickled vegetables before he looked at her.

He looked to be confused seeing her there.
“Oh. I didn’t notice someone was here.” He raised his eyebrows slightly. “Your presence is quite small.”

There was hisses around the lobby, as the rookies inhaled sharply.

This ‘poor kid’ seemed a little dense.

Although only people with strong senses could accurately sense magic presence, there was still an intuitive feeling when a stronger magic presence was near. Only those who specialized in hiding their presence, which Carmen did not, could have a presence disproportional to their ability.

To put it simply, he was calling her weak. She looked up from her salad slowly.

Exilis strangely felt her expression was a bit...blank.

She tilted her he’d to the side calmly, her slender fingers still wrapped around her fork.

“Is it? Maybe I’m getting better at hiding it.”

Jaylin shrugged expressionlessly before he continued eating his pickled vegetables.

The witnesses were shocked. Why did both of them seem a little dense? No one had ever interacted with Carmen closely enough to determine her personality. Her entire being seemed aggressive, like she would burn you alive if you got close.

A long period of silence passed before Jaylin stood up. For the past few minutes, Jaylin had just been picking at his food, not eating anything.
Carmen looked at him as he stood up and asked, “Is something wrong? 
Jaylin didn’t respond as he walked over to a nearby metal trash bin, dropping his bowl in there. The blue glow of a seal immediately disintegrated the bowl into ash. Jaylin looked at Carmen, speaking calmly as if he were simply stating a fact. “Your face made me lose my appetite.”

The surrounding rookies trembled once more.
Who speaks like that?!

But the Fire Queen’s only response was -“I apologize.”

Everyone: Σ(T□T)

These two facially paralyzed freaks! You’re ruining the atmosphere by existing!

But of course, they could only yell this inside their hearts.

---

Jaylin strolled through the halls of the probationary lodging, going in the direction of the main cavern.

You’re acting is improving by leaps and bounds, master.

He rested his elbow on Exilis’ hilt, which was received with a:
Hey-!

Which Jaylin completely ignored. That girl. She’s a dead end. Too docile.

Exilis was dumbfounded by the man’s logic. Why don’t you just attack her?”

Jaylin mocked him in righteous tone. I’m no monster. I do not kill unprovoked.

Exilis doubted the credibility of the first half, but he could tell Jaylin, though the manner he conveyed it was a bit silly, was serious. The man had rules he enforced on himself.

‘Do not attacked unless prompted to do so.’

If it weren’t for Crasieus¹High god; God of Runes, in case you forgot. Jaylin wouldn’t have collecting as a hobby.
The only thing he’d have left was his aggression. That bloodlust he held towards to anything alive.

Jaylin left loopholes in his ‘rules’. He knew that he wouldn’t be able live as a calm soul for very long before he broke his own rules and got out of control. So he left gaps. Gaps that could be abused while he told himself that he was still following his rules.

As long as someone ‘prompted’ him, he could attack them. He was fooling himself. He knew that if he broke the rules once, he would keep going, and going. Until all this time he waited would be for nothing.

Jaylin sighed, hoping for luck with Christopher later on. Right now he had to go over to the B-Cadre living quarters. Amiya invited him to spar.

While he was walking, Jaylin rubbed his chin with a thoughtful frown. Does sparring count as provocation...-

You can’t kill him master, he’s important.

Ah. Well... Jaylin shrugged ruefully, seemingly lamenting the missed opportunity.

Exilis could tell Jaylin hadn’t completely abandoned the idea...Master. You can’t just kill the 4th Ranker. You’ll be breaking character as an oblivious weakling.

The title doesn’t mean much when I don’t know what it means, Exilis.

Well, I don’t know either. This is why you keep Amiya alive. His exposition.

Touché.

As the banter came to an end, they reached the end of the B-Cadre living quarters. Jaylin hadn’t been brought here the first time. As he entered the door a huge room entered his vision. Chairs and tables littered the edges of the room as a majority of the recruits huddled together and chatted. Jaylin guessed that these spicy chicken members were the ‘outsiders’.  The people brought in by Kados. 
Most of them were on their phones. Of course, Jaylin did not know what they were until Exilis explained it to him, but he could say he had a decent understanding of phones now. The ‘outsiders’ were filming the hard work of all their fellow members. 

This could easily be beneficial for the B-Cadre, it they weren’t displayed on the intranet with comments like:

[Kain is such a great leader! Everyone is working hard!]

Though they didn’t say anything directly opposing Ren, they clearly didn’t support him. The outsiders of other cadres and families all jumped to speak up.

 [The B-Cadre benefits so much from having Kain around, yet that old baggage leader wants to cling to his position? Quickly get rid of him]

[Sir Kados quickly get over here! Your boyfriend is being bullied by Mr. Ren]

[Ren? Wait who?]

...

Kain sat curled up in a blanket, scrolling past the comments. Although he felt pride, he did his best to suppress it. He had a job to do. Ready to shut off the unnecessary source of arrogance, he suddenly saw a live video currently being filmed. Live videos were always something to pay attention to. No one else was aware of this, but Kados wasn’t as simple minded as he seemed. The intranet was created so he could get a reliable source of information about the going ons within the Striped Devils. One might argue that information from the cadres or hired spies were more reliable, but that was entirely unreasonable.

Why would the very people who tried to overthrow him give him useful information? And any spies willing to investigate the Striped Devils were on good terms with the group. No way they would help him either. Although the intranet wasn’t entirely reliable, it was a lot better than the cadres or spies.

The old foxes of this industry were no fools. If he was too obvious about his plans, Kados would be revealed immediately. The man made a fuss about keeping his reputation clean, putting his all into public opinion, simultaneously weakening everyone else by forcing them to care about it too. It was at this point everyone believed he was a retard with bullshit luck.

Honestly, Kain couldn’t blame them, because he was pretty sure the guy was exactly that. Whenever he planned his schemes, he always created intricate yet slow spreading webs of planning, each connecting to another, that would tie the entirety of the Striped Devils in their devastating grasp.

And then after he finished all of that, he would go back to normal. He would genuinely care about public image and would even fall for Kain’s amateur seduction. Yeah Kain looked good, but there was only so far that could get you.

As someone well versed in these types of things, Kain suspected him of being possessed immediately, but he couldn’t find any signs every time he changed into the scary version of himself. Kain had no choice but to put the idea aside. He had other plans to focus on. 
Kain opened the video and the words “-new member!” rang through the room.

What?

Kain convinced Kados to choose the B-Cadre after a few weeks of trying the A-Cadre. Most thought it was too much for Kain so he quit, and that was fine. Nobody needed to know his true intentions.
Kados tried to keep a steady flow of weaklings going to the B-Cadre. As much as he tried to do this, it wasn’t like he could completely restrict Ren from recruiting anyone himself. Anyone not brought in by Kados or him is a potential danger.

Kain watched as an average looking youth walked into the room, his hair covering his eyes. Staring at him, Kain felt speechless. This guy... looks so weak. Has Ren gone insane?

Jaylin looked up at a muscled woman asking him for his acceptance card.  Taking a moment to take it from his pocket, Jaylin handed it to her. The woman looked it over then handed it back. Luckily, she didn’t seem to know the ancient language.

“Another Reserve?” She asked.

Jaylin nodded, grabbing the card back and planning to find Amiya. As he was leaving the woman spoke up again.

“Wait.” He looked at her questioningly as she continued.
“Why did you join the B-Cadre?”

Hm. A measure to sort out the outsiders. Why don’t they just tell all the members the truth?

I wouldn’t know, Exilis.

You don’t know anything.

...

“Hello?” The woman looked somewhat annoyed now. 

Jaylin responded truthfully. “Ren brought me here.”

The woman’s face brightened visibly. “That’s great. If you want to spar with someone, just go over and ask them. But don’t get hurt.”

Jaylin was about to go find Amiya, who was in his private training room within the B-Cadre quarters. Which apparently this ginormous training room qualified as. Interrupting his plans, Ren’s voice called out to him. The woman who looked at his card saluted Ren quickly, which he waved off calmly.

“Hey kid. What’re you doing here? The monthly assessment is tomorrow.”

“Amiya asked me to come spar with him.”

The surroundings grew quiet. 
Amiya was an incredibly popular figure. The current 4th ranker staying with their cadre brought them a sense of elation every day. 
And now... some random kid was invited to spar with him.

Ren nodded calmly before he introduced Jaylin to everyone in the room. “This is Jaylin.” Ren, who looked up the last name when he got back, gracefully left it out. “He’s a recruit I brought back.”

Kain watched as disappointed comments scrolled through the upper corner.

[Man, I had high hopes but he turned out to be one of Ren’s supporters.]

[Oof, well never mind he’s nothing special.]

[Can someone tell me who Ren is?!]

Jaylin brushed his hair out of his face. The bright light above the training room seemed to form a halo above his head as his innocent blue eyes sparkled in the light. The people watching the live video seemed to subconsciously adjust their opinions.

[Maybe Ren tricked him or something...]

[Yeah we could always explain everything later.]

[How could such a pure child be one of Ren’s supporters!]

Kain, however, felt a sense of crisis.

This kid... seemed to be exactly Kados’ type.