26 Mother

After they watched Claude match, Levin and Alex both headed back to his office. As they seated at the sofa and enjoy the cup of coffee. They could not help but talk about Claude chance of being number one in the Academy Ranking.

"He won't participate I'm sure of that..." Levin said

"I know, but it would really please the old man." Alex sighed

"Then why don't you force him to participate, I'm sure he'll do it if you ask," he replied

Alex laughed making Levin wonder what was so funny about what he said, "What's wrong?"

"Levin, I've never force Claude to do anything nor have I ever asked him to do anything when he was a child. No, that his almost a man do you think he'll listen to me?" He explained

"You have a point..." Levin replied leaving him to think of what they could do in order for Claude to participate in the Academy Ranking, as he was in deep thought he suddenly thought of something. "Why not asked Aria?"

"Aria?" Alex wonder.

"Both of them are cousins, right? Plus, Aria is older than Claude, Claude always listens to those who are older than him. Plus, he does have great respect for Aria since she the only one in your family not crazy about power and fame."

"Or... We can force him not to work in the lab if he does not participate in the Academy Ranking. But if we do that it might take us years to find out about the mysterious item we found last time. Plus, I'm worried if we do that he might run away and head back to the Hunter Association."

Alex ponders on what Levin suggested, maybe asking Aria to force him to participate wouldn't be a bad idea since even his grandfather couldn't force Claude to do anything. However, the two of them weren't that close for Aria to just butt in into Claude's life. He sighed as he realized there aren't any options at all to make Claude participate in the Academy Ranking.

"By the way, when will you tell him?" Levin asked

"About what?" Alex wondered

"About his mother, I know he never asked about it but isn't it about the right time. Sooner or later he needs to know the truth." Levin said

"I don't know, I haven't thought about it yet. The fact his fine without knowing anything about his mother I didn't see the opportunity to tell him," he replied

"But don't you think everything is too strange, I mean... What happened to her was quite unexpected?"

Both of them stayed seated in peace for a moment as they thought back what happened to Claude mother who was their close friend. The fact she was a strong Caster Hunter to sudden vanished and declared death was too unexpected. She was even stronger than the two of them put together yet she was declared dead after she gave birth to Claude. It was something they could not expect at all, the worst part was her body was not found at all.

"Alex, are you still investigating what happened to her?" Levin asked

"I am but until now I still haven't found a clue to what happened to her, every time I'm close to finding out something someone seems to be getting involve and turning all my leads into ashes," he explained

"What do you mean?" Levin asked

"It seems someone does want us to find out what happened to her..." he replied

It shocked Levin to find out something so frightening, he wonders who could have such guts to get involve and dare challenge, Alex.

At the same time, Claude was heading to the cafeteria with Leo when a group of students surrounded them.

"Hey, aren't you Claude."

"That right it's him, his the one that defeated all his opponent in less than a minute or they ended giving up."

Claude ignored all of them and continued walking ahead until someone bump into him causing him to pause for a moment.

"I see you become so famous now boy."

Claude looked up and was not surprised to see who it was. Yet he was not bothered by his presences and continued walking ahead.

As expected, Claude ignored him again however this time he let it be and walked away as well. He and his group then step out of the cafeteria to avoid any trouble.

"Ivan, why did we just let him go?"

"Yeah Ivan, we can take him down easily."

"You idiot, weren't you aware of someone presence inside the cafeteria?" he replied

"Who?"

"Aria was there..." he frowned, since with her there means he can't do anything against that boy. Plus, rumors said they were seen together this morning. He was in deep thoughts wonder who the boy could be and what was his connection with Aria.