Aura nodded satisfied with her knowledge, those from second years have already entered in contact with the students of other academies of their native and other galaxies due to the inter-academic, which unlike tournaments is an exam meant to help form bonds with their respective allies and to temper the young generation.
It's just that this time the magic ruin exploration would take that role to a certain point, since in the face of the benefits that could be found inside, alliances were as good as nothing.
"Do you think having gotten these two lotuses is a good price for one spot in the upcoming exploration?", asked Daimon with a calm voice.
"Mm", Arianna nodded, these resources weren't available in the market, while inside the magic ruin there might be higher ranked ones, it's a bet, let alone finding something useful, if one was unlucky there might be nothing valuable and those who enter might even die.
Daimon inwardly smirked, Aura obviously purposedly showed the snow lotuses while Arianna was still here, it was her way to say "she is trust worthy", so he also played his part.
"If you get the first rank and give at least three participants a good beating, then you can get a piece of thunder nimbus vine".
"But, if you get two pieces of it like the lotuses then… wouldn't you give the other one to Aisha?", asked Arianna, she wasn't as innocent to believe Daimon would put her over his own "sister" and Aisha is known for having lightning affinity too.
And she was right, but at the same time since Daimon was going to extort Lars to his heart's content with her help, she also deserved her share, that and Aura seemed to be genuinely interested in teaching her or she wouldn't have minded to celebrate that ceremony, so as his "disciple" he would also lend her a hand.
"One can only use one piece of the thunder nimbus vine and I already have wind affinity anyway", thought Daimon.
Arianna contemplated things for a second before saying.
"I already fought my match today, and since I'm the second rank, my only opponent left is Samuel, while I can beat his ass so hard, he will have to use some high ranked potions to recover, his spot is secured just like Alexander's, due to Arthur Jolbaris backing".
"If you need three people to be left in a miserable state that means the Earth Palace and the Furious Whirlwind academies need a spot, as well as one more for the friend of the guy from the desert coyote clan… if you can spare some drops of the stalactite milk and one petal of a snow lotus, I can get the cooperation of those two".
"Oh?", Daimon laid back against the couch interested in what Arianna was proposing.
"You mean the girls from the Ramir and Leeris families?".
"Yes, I'm pretty sure they will be able to do the job, now that his brother was humiliated, Caleb will try to occupy a spot in the top five so I'm pretty sure he will challenge Lana since she is weak against illusions, as for Gina, she has a personal feud with the son of the Faresh ancestor".
"That makes two spots, for the third one, one of my cousins will take care of the guy from the fire crane clan to get the eighth rank, he is part of the clan so there is no need to worry about compensation, I will just tell him this is an order from master".
Daimon nodded, a few drops of stalactite milk and a petal of a snow lotus were meaningless compared to the what he will get from Lars and Maxim.
Still, he couldn't help but feel disdain for the young generation of the Revy family, even if Arianna isn't taken into account there are another two of the Argent family in the top fifteen of the elite class, one of them is apparently strong enough to beat senseless the current eighth ranked.
But there is not even one from the Revy family listed there, which ultimately will cost him some resources as he lacked manpower among the second years.
Seeing that things were settled, Aura stood up, she still needed to check Arianna's body to see if there was any serious damage.
"Come with me I need to check on you", said Aura as she walked towards one of the many unoccupied rooms.
Arianna followed Aura in silence, closing the door behind her, she undressed leaving only her underwear before she laid down on the bed.
Aura's eyes glowed in a yellow light as, she palpated the muscles of her arms and upper back applying force in some of them, which made Arianna put on a slightly pained grimace.
"Master can't you be a bit gentler?", she said as she tried to stay quiet.
Aura raised an eyebrow before she changed target to her calves and thighs, while Arianna managed to not make a sound, her body trembled as a sign that her muscles were killing her.
"You didn't use the pills I gave you, why?",
Arianna had a troubled expression as she explained her reasons.
"I just need a couple of hours of sleep then my body will be at its best capacity… I wanted to save the muscle recovery pills for the exploration".
Aura nodded in recognition.
"Put on your clothes", she said as she handed her a bottle which she took out from her storage ring.
Master this is?", Arianna received the bottle and her mouth widened in surprise, inside there were about ten of the pills she needed to recover instantly.
She felt confused.
"If there were more of them, then why…".
"Why did I give you only those five and even told you there weren't any more of them?", said Aura with a smile in the corner of her mouth.
Aura is someone who has endured the hardships life has placed in her path, and she can affirm that the easy way is never the correct answer, but who would choose to suffer if they had the option to not.
That's why she did this little test to see whether Arianna would take the easy way or not, she has used the spells she taught her quite a few times already and yet she hasn't taken even one of the pills.
"I simply wanted to see the result of a little test, that's all, you can use the pills freely now, I will get more of them for you by the end of the week, so put on a good show tomorrow, okay?".
Arianna kept the bottle in her storage ring, not without swallowing one of the pills, although she didn't show it, her muscles have been killing her all this time.
"Go say goodbye to Daimon and the others, I will take you to your mansion in case someone tries anything funny, don't you dare to lose tomorrow or I will increase the harshness of your training times three".
Arianna which was finishing tidying up her clothes nearly tripped, what a joke she could barely follow up with the current regimen Aura created for her.
"Ahem, master please don't bully me".
Once Arianna finished dressing up again, she and Aura returned to the living room and after saying goodbye to Daimon and the others, Aura used space shift to take her back to her own mansion.
"Finally, I was suffocating".
As soon as Arianna left Liz threw her clothes on the floor as she walked naked towards the bathroom.
Daimon smirked, seeing the other girls doing the same he followed them just to be stopped in cold by Aura who appeared in front of him.
"I'm the first today, right?", she said as her cute wolf tail wagged.
…
Academic city at the area designated for the Jolbaris family in a big imponent mansion, Alexander was kneeled in the middle of the living room, his expression was a mix of confusion and aggrievance.
Arthur on the other hand was standing in front of his son, livid, earlier he found a package in the front of his door with a little ribbon.
When he opened it, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, inside of it there was a succession of photos of his son… being in the embrace of some random guy in the middle of an abandoned alley.
Besides that, there was a note which had a few instructions and demands, someone was actually blackmailing him!
So, he obviously let out his anger on Alexander, his son which is supposed to pass on his lineage was doing such kind of things behind his back, and the worse part is that he was discovered.
Not only that when he confronted it, Alexander completely denied it with a panic-stricken expression, what truly angered him was than in his eyes, his son fell on a honey trap of some kind, to the point that he was covering that man.
"If you don't want to talk then so be it, I don't care with who you… spent your free time, just have an heir when the time comes and that's all, also since there is some guy spying on you, you won't be leaving this mansion without mine or your uncle's supervision", said Arthur with a defeated expression.
"F-Father wait I…".
"Enough, I know you have been going to brothels but haven't touched a single woman there… I'm not mad at you for that, I'm angry because you were fooled and now, I need to clean up your mess!".
Arthur felt his blood pressure rising, he took a deep breath to calm down, since he couldn't bear to see his son right now, he set up a barrier with his mana, before leaving as there was some guests arriving right now at his door.
After his father stormed out of the room Alexander was furious, he also saw the photos and recognized the alley, it was from one of the many brothels he has visited trying to find a girl that fitted his likings, not a man.
"Whoever did is, I will rip you to pieces!", he shouted.
