Dame had stopped in his tracks as he heard one of the main disciples talking to him. He had always paid attention to Ricktor in particular; when the two of them fought, he noticed that his skills were beyond that of anyone else among the main disciples.
That was somewhat expected to be the case with who his father was and the fact that he was the son of the biggest Dark Faction clan that currently existed.
"His position being risen suits me," Dame answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Just to let you know, I am not confirming or denying what you stated but just giving you an answer as to why I might help Raze.
"However, I want to ask you something. With everything that is happening right now, with the Dark Faction forcing several clan disciples to fight to the death in order to create the strongest disciples they have, do you think differently of them now?"
Ricktor let out a single loud laughter that clearly echoed through the halls, but he didn't seem to care who heard him or not.
"Shouldn't you know what my answer was before asking this question? If I answer that my opinion has changed, then how would you know whether it's to your liking or not? Do you just assume that everyone is loyal to their clans or the ones that raised them? If anything, you, whoever you are, are the more interesting one for being here."
There was a slightly unnerving feeling that Dame could feel coming off Ricktor. He was wondering what this feeling was, and it hit him. He reminded him of one of his brothers.
If he just replaced Ricktor with the thinking of one of his brothers, well, he knew now how he felt about his clan and his family.
"Well, a situation might soon occur where you will have the chance to rise, and the decision to make might be a hard one for you. I'm not sure if you are one to owe someone for doing you a favor, but I'm sure things will turn out in your favor if you follow the right path, just remember that."
With those final words, Ricktor left Dame, throwing the head into the room and heading back to the training area.
Watching Ricktor train, although the others couldn't notice it, there was almost slightly more vigor in his punches, kicks, and swings compared to before.
A short while later down the corridor, Tinson had found the room Raze was in. He couldn't hear any noise coming from his room, to the point he wasn't sure if he was inside or not.
When taking a peek, though, he could see Raze swinging his sword slowly through the air. Then he would try to do a faster swing the second time, making the same formation and keeping the form he had before at the same speed.
What was amazing was even when the sword was swung at a fast rate, no sound was made. Tinson had experienced this a few times before.
'Is there something special about that sword? Wait, come to think of it, that's a metal sword, that's not even a wooden sword. How did he manage to get that in here in the first place?' Tinson thought.
'I knew it, he has to have a way to get things in here somehow, either working with someone or something like that, I have to ask him.' Tinson took three short breaths and then rushed in.
Immediately he slid on his knees, ripping part of his clothing and scraping his skin, but he didn't care as he quickly placed his head on the floor.
"Sir Raze, I wish to speak with you, a request that I need to ask."
Raze turned around, taking slow breaths. He had been using his Qi for a while, and using a large amount of Qi control was quite tiring on the brain. So he decided to take this chance to have a break.
He was honestly quite surprised to see someone entering the room with him. Taking a peek at his face, Raze recognized who it was and sat down crossed-legged on the floor.
"You already escaped with your life before, have you come wanting me to give you death? If it's because you can no longer take the pain of food, you can ask someone else to end your life, I'm sure one of the sin disciples would be willing to do that," Raze stated.
"That's not it!" Tinson replied, keeping his head plopped on the floor. "First, I would like to apologize for attacking you before. Honestly, with everything going on, the fear of what was going to happen to me and my friends, I chose the route that was easiest and went against you, but I know that is the wrong thing to do, and if I could turn back time and kill myself to stop myself from doing something like that, I would!
"What I would like to ask, Sir Raze, is about another matter. You were right about one thing; I'm starving, me and my friends, all of us feel our bodies weakening from lack of food and water, and I don't want to assume.
"But I was wondering if there is any way you can help us."
Raze started to break out into a small laughter hearing this.
"Is this some other trick?" Raze asked. "You really are so shameless to ask the person you tried to kill, to now save you and your friends. Why would I ever choose to do something like that?"
"Because you are in a position to do so!" Tinson replied. "Right now, it's not just me and my friends, but everyone left in the Redhead band group is starving. This situation, it's clear it was brought to us by the academy.
"We don't know why they are doing this. At the moment, their anger is pointed towards you, but everyone is slowly realizing that the true ones to blame for all of this are the academy!
"I think if you were to provide us with food in this pivotal situation, it would allow us to be loyal to you, to follow you wherever you go, to create your clan to help you in any way!"
The proposal sounded interesting, Raze had to admit, but he found it hard to believe that a bunch of students would have a change of heart. Sure, they would be in his debt, but to do whatever he wished. What if he ordered them to go against the academy? If he wanted to take over the Dark Faction and become principal, that was one of the things he needed to do to learn more about the Dark Faction founder.
"Do you realize what will happen if he decides to feed all of you, right?" Dame said, leaning by the doorway.
"Right now, the academy is doing this because they want everyone to go against each other, so only the strongest will survive. If Raze decides to feed you and the others as you suggest, and the academy turns up, and the situation isn't what they expected, they will turn their eyes towards Raze.
"In a way, saving your lives, all of it, would be him going against the academy. So we have to ask, if he does provide you with food, would all of you be willing to go against the Clan heads?"
Inwardly, Dame was smiling because the situation was playing out exactly as he predicted. His plan to take down the Dark Faction Academy.
