I hid myself being a veil of illusion once again as I followed Cornelia and Helga into the inner keep, amused by the gaping mouths of the defenders as they looked at Helga and Cornelia in shock, trying to understand how two students could make such a difference — unaware that so-called lich was just a decoy, and even then, it was only destroyed due to my efforts.
I was more than happy to let the girls take the credit, of course. The stronger they were assumed, the less suspicious their eventual growth would become.
Most of the shocked gazes turned toward Helga, of course. Cornelia, with her explosive growth and reputation for an even more explosive temper, wasn’t too much of a shock. Well, at least compared to Helga, who had been infamous for her chosen magical expertise, her lack of combat ability, and her commoner status.
As they walked through the gate, Helga’s name had been whispered again and again until it turned to a soft buzz, but no one dared to walk toward her. How could they, when they created such an intimidating visage moments earlier. Cornelia just threw a dismissive glance toward the discussion, too used to such treatment even before her latest power-up.
Helga’s walk turned stiff with shock despite her attempts to appear nonchalant, too unfamiliar with the spotlight to feel comfortable about it. Though, her observers were too distracted to care about such things, lost in their elation about the sudden end of what they thought to be a desperate last stand.
As we got nearer toward where Titania and the other teachers responsible for the defense efforts were, however, the direction of the gaze started to split, half of it gazing toward Marianne, who had just revealed an equally shocking power by delivering an overwhelming assault toward the attacking lich, revealing that she was much more than a healer.
As Cornelia walked closer to Titania, the rest of the teachers looked at their three students with shock, unable to believe their display of power, outclassing the threat they could output even if they had been working together. Some of them looked anxious to question them, but when Titania took a step forward, they stayed silent, aware of the hierarchy between them.
“Good work,” Titania simply said as she looked at Helga, aware of her connection with me thanks to our earlier discussions about the school defenses, before turning back to other teachers and continued discussing the next steps of action. However, as she returned to circle, she made sure to leave enough place for two people to join, wordlessly elevating their position from students to leadership.
With her silent acceptance about their place, the rest of the teachers were unable to say anything. After all, among them, only Titania had direct access to the mysterious Headmistress, meaning her decisions couldn’t be questioned by the other teachers.
Not to mention, by apparently saving them from almost certain death, it was hard to argue that it was not an unearned victory.
With a chuckle, I disappeared toward deeper into the city, leaving Cornelia and Helga to deal with the fallout of their sudden power reveal on their own. After everything that happened, they deserved to have my trust about handling such a situation without me being ready to intervene, especially with Titania there as insurance.
I went deeper into the city, finally ready to cure myself of the annoying wounds I had received in the process of punching through the reality while teleporting, which continued to annoy me even after curing the surface layer of the wound I had received. Combined with the remnants of the decaying energy of the necrotic bolts I had faced against, it was truly a bother.
With that, I once again went to Titania’s room, easily passing through the wards, most of it already established by me in the first place.
With a sigh, I quickly prepared myself a bath and jumped in, even as I filled the water with healing energies. A rather extravagant spending of mana all things considered, but with Zokras’ attack failing spectacularly, I didn’t expect the Eternals to attack. With everything I could detect about their strength, if they had any intention of actually doing so, they could have easily done without Zokras, or could have supported his attack with more than just a few tricks about monster hordes or a few assassins — though, admittedly, quite high-leveled ones.
[-649 Mana]
As the healing energies slowly infused into my body, I dozed off in the bath, waking up only when the healing energies starting to deplete, only to refill it again, repeatedly until I was once again back to my perfect condition, then I started napping.
Only the opening of the door awakened me from my nap. From the darkness of the room, it was clear that it was already evening. I sighed as I stepped out of the tub, using a simple spell to dry off completely. Meanwhile, I could hear the footsteps of four people walking inside, each familiar in their own way. Cornelia’s sharp yet elegant steps were reminiscent of a dagger, Helga’s soft, almost hesitant walk, Marianne’s soft and elegant stride, and Titania’s steady steps are confident enough to lift the weight of the heavens.
The fun was about to start, I thought with a big smile even as I opened the door, not bothering to put anything. At this point, I had nothing to hide from any single one of them, nor I wanted to hide any single relationship from another.
I wanted my magical girls to know each other.
Properly.
As I walked inside, naked, four identical shocked gazes turned toward me, immediately destroying the ethereal and confident aura they had been wearing outside, their blush climbing upward as their gazes bounced between each other. The shyness remained in their gazes, but a competitive expression was added to it.
“I hope everything is in order with the rest of the faculty,” I said even as I walked toward the nearest chair, acting like my nakedness was nothing out of ordinary.
“As expected,” Titania said with a shrug, her attitude showing that during the tribulation we had just faced, it was definitely not one of her priorities, her abilities to intimidate the rest of the teachers a given even without her political strength in the school.
“We have just become professors,” Helga interjected, unable to prevent a hint of disbelief from infecting her tone, unable to believe the small miracle that had just happened. Her reaction was understandable, as while her power had risen significantly in a short period to allow her not only to match but surpass most of the faculty, before the latest battle, she had no opportunity to compare her strength with the other members of the faculty before the battle, and during the battle, she had more important priorities than trying to understand her own proper place in school’s power structure.
Well, with the crisis resolved, she had all the time she needed to understand the proper pecking order, and her own superior place in it.
“All of you?” I asked as I looked at Marianne and Cornelia.
Marianne just nodded, agreeing with it. Cornelia, on the other hand, shook her head. “It’s only an honorary position for me, I still need to go back to take my place as the head of the family,” she said, her anger apparent even discounting the ball of fire that appeared in her palm almost immediately the moment she spoke.
“Oh, yes,” I said, letting my smirk take a vicious edge. “We need to go have a talk with your uncle about how to handle the transfer of power,” I added, reminding her that I was ready to assist her in solving that particular problem. It shouldn’t take more than a day even under the best of circumstances with my current abilities.
I didn’t really care about the additional power Cornelia would receive in the process. At some point, her position as the head of a noble family, even one of the stronger ones, lost its importance between the necromancers, angels, and mysterious organizations determined to fight against the gods.
With everything, the power and the assets of a noble family were nothing. I was helping simply because Cornelia wanted it, and at this point, it was easy enough for me to ensure to keep one of my girls happy.
I turned to Marianne. “Any thoughts about your own position?” I asked.
“Not really,” she whispered back in her cute shy tone. It seemed that even after having a threesome with Titania wasn’t enough to break through her regular shyness, even when she was putting on an extremely amazing show once the fun properly started. “Being a professor in Silver Spires is a better role than leading my family,” she added.
“It certainly is,” I said, not bothering to highlight one important fact. It was not actually better for a regular professor, but Marianne suddenly found herself as a part of the most influential political clique with a lot of battle merit, which changed the equation completely.
Moreover, for anything except undead, her combat capabilities were utterly lacking, and as a healer, the stronger the combatants around her, the safer she was. At least Cornelia could defend herself against most of the threats — at least enough for me to arrive if I could find a better way to use the Teleportation perk, without nearly killing myself in the process.
I pondered about whether to tell the ultimate fate of Zokras, escaping successfully while paying a great cost in the process, but ultimately, I decided against it for two reasons. First, after making such a big show about his own fake death, I didn’t expect Zokras to act, as we weren’t his only enemy, not after disappointing the organization as well.
Second, I still didn’t want to reveal the full extent of my abilities when it came to soul manipulation, and if I revealed it here, there was a high chance it would find its way back to the headmistress. Titania’s loyalties were still on that side, at least for now.
I had asked a few more questions about the role Marianne and Helga would take in the operations of the school, while they answered.
Then, there was a lull in conversation as the girls shuffled their seats, their gaze dancing worriedly between the different surfaces. The room was large, but not enough to comfortably house five people, not when girls tried to stay distant from each other, each feeling self-conscious with the implied promise of our situation, which was enhanced by my naked state.
It was time to stop with the trivial stuff, and focus on the important things. “So, girls,” I said with a wide smirk as I leaned back, displaying my shaft for them. “How about we play a little game, to relax after such an exhausting battle?”
[Level: 31 Experience: 489893 / 496000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 58
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 6324 / 6324 Mana: 7595 / 7595 ]
SKILLS
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Tantric [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
Expert Craft [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (1/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Cornelia - Level 21/25]
[Helga - Level 17/21]
