Alen had been following Raze ever since the two of them had traded a few words with each other. The interest from one to the other seemed to be strong, and Raze knew that, but he thought he had managed to dull that sincerity when he had told the other the truth while a particular device was being used.
When looking at that device from Alen's hands, it had also brought back a bad memory for Raze since those same devices had been used during Raze's own trial. It was what they had deemed as undeniable evidence due to their enchantment, but obviously something had gone wrong at the time.
'I was careful, I looked and searched around the area to make sure if anyone was following me, and still I was unable to detect him.'
"I guess you're quite surprised, have you never been followed by a high-star mage before?" Alen commented.
It was true; while Raze was only at the three-star level, there were a number of spells that could be used that would allow a person to travel undetected, at least to him. Since he had been in Pagna for so long, having the advantage over those that knew nothing about magic, he had somewhat been mistaken. Even fooling most mages, Raze would have been fine, but Alen was a talented individual.
"Now, you snooping around the academy and using a secret room, that's not exactly a good look. I doubt someone who is doing these in good faith would act like this, so I guess you don't mind if I capture you, do you?" Alen proceeded to put on two pairs of white gloves, which had red magic circles written on them. Once they covered his hands, he flicked his fingers, and a quick fireball shot out right toward Raze. It was fast but small in size, too fast for Raze to react in his current body; if he was in his Pagna body, it would be fine. When the fireball touched the corner of his shoulder, though, a whole barrier had lit up, and the attack had disappeared. The effect of the new enchanted blazer he had received managed to work.
"Oh, nice blazer you have there," Alen commented.
Raze needed to act fast, and as he did, he moved both of his hands. "The Push of the Wind!"
The desks from the side were lifted off the ground and went flying right toward Alen. His response to this was just to punch the desks, and as he did, both of them erupted into flames on the spot. After getting rid of the desk, Alen proceeded to swing his hands again and again, several small flames were shooting out, and they had hit Raze perfectly despite him attempting to move out of the way. Each time they hit him, his enchanted blazer was activating, stopping the attack, but he knew the build-up of attacks would soon take away the energy shield; he needed to do something and fast.
'I can't use a lot of mana; if I do, my whole body will disappear. I have what I need from this place right now, but since Alen saw everything, he could very well inform the others to run an investigation into this room. If that happens, I could lose access to all of the items that I had stored. On top of that, they will run an investigation into Kelly; I have to find a way to win this fight.'
The best thing Raze had in his arsenal was Dark Magic, as a three-star mage, could he overcome someone like Alen who was a five-star.
"Those gloves," Raze said. "You fight like Enaxx. They allow you to use fire spells without the need for saying enchantments. Even your style is just like him."
"Of course, my style is like him," Alen held his hand out, and a larger fireball compared to the others that he had made appeared in the palm of his hand. "He is my mentor, but what makes this really interesting is how you would even know that."
Alen was getting ready to throw the fireball, but before giving it his all in a fight one more time, Raze had one idea that might work. Judging by the way Alen had talked a few times, he didn't seem like an unreasonable person; in fact, it was quite the opposite.
"I call in on my favor that you owe me right now!" Raze shouted.
Immediately, that had stopped Alen in his tracks; the fireball disappeared from his hand, and he stood there in place. He was a bit dumbfounded, unsure of what to do.
"You call in… the favor?" Alen repeated.
"You said, one time due to the bet that occurred, and for me giving you information about myself that I could have one favor from you. You equally told me that you were a man of your word."
"I promise you, what I am doing right now is nothing that is intended to harm the academy in any way. I was just here to get my own belongings. You can use your device again if you don't believe me."
"However, as for the favor, I want you to ignore this, pretend as if you saw nothing here, and let me go, to not tell anyone about what happened."
Immediately, Alen started to scratch his head, as he was clearly conflicted by the current situation.
'I gave him that favor; I expected him to use it to help him punish someone or something like that, or maybe help him with some business, but I guess he really is using it in the perfect situation right now.'
'I really can't think of a better time he could use it to force my hand.'
In his mind, Alen was weighing up a number of things. How well would he be rewarded for bringing in this mage, or maybe it was nothing. However, his family, his father had told him one thing, that they always kept their promises.
"Favors, promises, these are words that people need to keep meaning into. The rules of these words must be followed to give them power; otherwise, they will mean nothing. Our bloodline will mean nothing."
"And pledges of loyalty, pledges to change the world filled with rules will mean nothing. I will honor my favor to you and allow you to step away from this. So you better head back to the event quickly."
Alen felt a slight distaste in his mouth for doing this, but if anything, he was more curious as to who this person was, and without a doubt, this event should also bring the two of them closer together in the future.
Seeing the actions, Raze was quite surprised that it worked, and in a way, he wasn't. He knew that some mages were like this. They followed a set of rules dictated by their history. Even the academy itself was something that lasted longer than that of the Grand Magus and was full of rules set by different families who ran them. It was just that a lot of that history was forgotten and was replaced with the new world power and order.
As Raze walked past, Alen did nothing, but Raze himself stopped just a few meters short.
"Your teacher Enaxx, I have one word of warning for you, you should look out for him; the Grand Magus aren't as great of people as you think they are."
