Austin's POV:
'That went well...'
With light steps, I kept walking through the hall back, my disguise back on as I passed through the varying levels of demons.
'With this, I've closed that problem.'
For now, Lanora will be silent until she gains the confidence that she can stay by my side as an equal in music, and that, according to me, will take some time. This will give me breathing space in her department. The only unforeseeable thing that will arise from it is if Lanora tells the situation to Elda. Now, that will be a slight problem.
Of course, I can play around with the fact that I have done nothing wrong. All I did was play some music with her, but the fact that I hid this fact from Elda will definitely raise some questions for her. In any world, a brother silently meeting his sister's friends isn't normal, especially when the said sister loves you.
Leaving all that aside, there are still some more girls left for me to deal with. All of them are vying to get to me, and the most difficult one to deal with now is Nathalia. Just as the girls try to set up surveillance on me, I too do the same. With the system by my side, I can become the best stalker in the world.
'Not what I intended...'
At times, I can keep an eye on my girls and know what they are up to. After all, being the time bomb they all are, things can get really messy if some slip-up happens. Anyhow, getting back to the topic, the problem here is the fact that Nathalia is done preparing her gift for me, and by custom, accepting it means gaining her love.
And truly accepting that is another bomb I can't deal with. Even now, I have barely kept Nathalia from spilling her secret desire for me to Elda. If she does propose, she will definitely speak of this to Elda, which will quickly spread to Grace and Nora, and now I don't want that happening at all.
'I have to be delicate in this manner...'
Not only is Nathalia a bloodline lover of mine, but she is also the prime target, so there is no chance of me rejecting her. Well, I can reject her and take the path that I first took with Scarlet. That should be the normal way to slowly start as friends.
But sadly, Nathalia isn't Scarlet. I have spent ample time with Nathalia to know that if I reject her now, then it will leave a severe scar on her mind, and things might get very messy from there on. She is younger than Scarlet, and truthfully, Nathalia isn't Scarlet; thinking so will only be my undoing.
'I need to tread on this lightly...'
For now, I am fine. I did reach out to Nathalia, and she only wants to meet after some time. It would seem that she first wanted to get her heart ready before proposing to me, and after all the work she did, things would be very bad if I rejected her.
Closing off at my final thoughts, I headed back to my faction.
"Looks like everyone's training well..."
I spoke out as I entered inside the common training center for the major key players of my faction.
"Well, it's nice of you to finally grace us..."
Alex spoke as he did some pull-ups, seeing him struggle brought some happy times to my day.
"Well, I have some things I had to do."
I responded as I took a seat on the side, my gaze focusing on all my members. Alex with his body workout, Jacob using heavy weights, Mark at the side holding his sword, his body completely focused as he seems to be trying to open his mind's eye to the sword, Amon on the side sitting in guided meditation, but the moment I entered, he started to walk up to me. I raised my hands to keep him quiet for now.
Then my eyes turned towards the girls. Emma is surrounded by her pets, trying to make them do synchronized battles, helping them achieve better synchronization among themselves.
'She sure is trying hard.'
My eyes then moved towards Sana, her new daggers twirling around her hands, as she seemed to be trying a new sort of move.
'Looks like the daggers have begun their work.'
Then I looked towards Rina, her well-built body swaying around as she kept focusing the power of her legs to try out new moves. But the thing is, her focus isn't ever present, because ever since I entered, her eyes seemed to be leering towards me, while her focus seems absent.
'Guess she finally accepted those feelings in her.'
Not a good thing for me, but then again, I can't go on to completely control their life. If I wanted, I could have kept Rina from finding out the truth much longer, but that isn't needed. She ain't my toy, and I care for her. Whatever future comes to her will be of her true nature. The only thing I have to do is to somehow control her confession and love.
'Truly, I am stupidly making things harder for me...'
Berating myself, I turned to look at Zora, who seemed to be doing light body practice. As crazy for research, as she is, I have already given her the ultimatum that she has to take part in some exercise to keep her body fit and ready. Sadly for her, all she could do was follow my words because I sponsored her.
Now the reason that they are all gathered here is due to me saying so. I asked them all to gather here and to lighten their bodies up.
"Speak," I said, to which Amon nodded his head. His actions became subservient as he spoke.
"I have completed the mission."
"Did everything go well?" I asked.
"Indeed," he replied. A string of silence fell between us until I finally asked, my eyes still focused on the group.
"Did your revenge go well?"
This brought a red tint to Amon's eyes as he spoke.
"It did." Even though his voice was small, I still detected the peace in it. With the help of Ron, Amon seemed to have finally gotten what he needed. It came with meowing a favor to Ron, but that's something I can quickly write away because it's a small one compared to the happiness of my friend, one loyal to me until the end.
Amon is among the few who are willing to dip into the completely dirty side for me. If right now I were to command him to slaughter everyone here, he would do it in a heartbeat, even though he considers everyone here a family to him. That's how loyal he is, and he minds no dirty work that comes his way.
"I'm happy that you finally got what you needed," I responded as I stood up. My hands patted Amon as I gave him a light hug. Leaving the hug, Amon wiped away the tears from his eyes, and for the first time in a long time, I got to see a clear look on his face.
"I will live the end of my days for you," Amon spoke in a small voice.
"I know," I responded in a small voice too as everyone started to gather around me.
"How's the situation in the Academy?" I asked.
"Very weird. At first, everything is good among all the different species after the war, but now some unseen tension seems to have been built up," Alex spoke with a frown. His eyes turned to me as he asked, "When are you going to tell us about the reason for our current actions?"
"Soon," I spoke as I kept looking through everyone here.
"A storm is coming, and to get above it, things need to be done. So, from now onwards, I will be letting you all into the other life of mine that stays hidden." My voice brought surprise to some while others seemed to have expected it.
"What should I do, master?" Mark asked, his knightly aura spreading forth, to which I shook my head.
"The current you is too weak to take part in my plans outside the academy. What I need is for you guys to keep things in check here," I said, disappointing the faces of all.
"How strong do we need to be to truly enter inside?" Alex asked, and my eyes turned snake-like for a moment.
"Origin Level 10 is the starting point," my words earned a collective gasp, the mark I put being impossible for them to reach. But in fact, if I want, I can easily get them to that range, with the fairy realm at my command and all those exotic plants. It will be easy to get these guys to Origin Level 10. But I have no plans on doing that. All of them getting to Origin Level 10 so quickly at such an age will only be detrimental to them.
"Does this mean you are...?" As Alex asked, his voice trailed off, but I nodded my head as I replied, "You're right, I am indeed Origin Level 10," My words earned a stunning silence.
