12 C12 unexpected surprises

"One of your students has taken the test to rank up, he went from e to d rank, and is in the process of going from d to c rank." I raise an eyebrow and look up from my food, Alvana sits at the table and I raise my other eyebrow, that's odd, it's only been a week since I started training them, they might make d rank but unless it's the top five I doubt they would make c rank for at least a month. "It's easy to get up to c rank but only after that does the hunt truly begin." She nods and the waiter comes by, she orders soup and some fish, which prompts me to wonder how long she's intending to sit here "the thing is, I'm here because of a woman. Your teacher found her way to me last night, and asked me to do you a favor, it includes getting a bigger class, but something she said is making me cautious. Who are you? You're eighteen, but you've managed to make it to get a rank of SS in our guild, you have managed feats that many people twice your age don't have the ability to brag about, you appeared in this city without anyone's knowledge, and you are the son of Vallen, reportedly your father was the last of your kind, but here one sits, and there was another that died before we could find either of you." I put my fork down and look at her for a moment before turning around, I show my tattoo and after checking it's authenticity she sighs "my mother was a whore. Was being the operative word there, Salem Vallen knocked her up by accident one night and so he made her an honest woman... he was supposed to anyway. He left her with knowledge that he was going to make some money, that way they would be able to live happily with their children. His path led here, and here it ended for almost a year, then he moved on, on to his death. My mother struggled for three years not to turn back to her old profession but when the mayor of our village raped her she... fell to depravity. She still tried to give my sister and I food lives but she didn't care how she did it anymore, she even killed a men when it wasn't necessary. She loved my father, and after his death and her rape she went insane. Do you want to know how I know this though? I was born with a mind that captures all things. I remember every single minute from the second I was born to this exact moment, I remember that when you walked in three men fingered their knives, but decided that you were protected enough that they didn't want to try it. I remember that when I walked in those same three people played and made sure that I didn't notice them... sadly it didn't work. As for my interest in the pleasure palace, I have a penchant for magic and wish to know how it works, but no book I've read so far can give me a passable explanation of how we, as humans, use magic to make techniques and skills. I've seen quite a few theories as to how it happened, between a split in humans and non humans where the magic users veiled the non magic users from the tragedies of the real world, to us naturally being able to use magic but we angered the gods and now it's been stripped from us, in that case we wouldn't be able to use our techniques or skills, since they are derived from magic." I shrug after a second and go back to eating, she's got this look on her face that reminds me of a mother who's watching her sons imagination run wild "do you like magic? I can do lower level magic, it's part of my technique, I also know of a few ruins that carry some books of an older civilization, do you want to go there?" Any if those things would've rare on their own, so why is she offering the to me "don't get me wrong, I can't read them they're literally from another time, the words aren't even the same as our language. Some of them have grow. Spirits that can communicate, and some are just books, you've got to be able to figure out which one a book is." She retreats to her own food and we spend the next minutes in silence, Alvanas' son comes in and hands over a paper, and sits down beside his mother, she reads it and hands it to me, on which I see that my student has successfully become c rank "number six? Impossible, I've watched him closely because of his background, he didn't have this kind of skill when I started training them, even now he shouldn't be able to do this. I had worried that he might be a spy sent to watch me, but you wouldn't let him rank up so quickly if that's the case, unless he wasn't yours in the first place..." I lean over and pull my bag up on the table, I've taken to carry I g it since I started studying magic, it holds my students backgrounds as well though. "Let's see, sixth place is, Samuel liht. Born in Veraor, raised in the merchant city of Albion... he has no fighting background. Are you sure this is my sixth student?" I look at her son as I say that and he shrugs, the paper says that it's my sixth student and since he would have had to sign it he should know "he said he was your sixth and gave me the proper identification, including a name tag." He raises an eyebrow, promoting me to answer his unasked question "Alex, have your father come over, I need him to reinforce my armor." Finally someone who has a normal name. Wait, Is she going to take me to the ruins?