Chapter 2 - A shocking event

It was Monday, three days had passed since the brawl with the four delinquents that he dropped in front of Scotland Yard and he had been waiting for something for quite a while now. Thus, the teacher wearing his black hat and suit was barely capable of holding Vicent's attention.

There weren't many schools in England where he currently resides, and the ones that are worthy of studying at were even fewer, it was due to this reason that when the weekend ended he would return to the district of Westminster where he attended the lessons of Westminster School.

There was a catch though, usually, the earliest one could enroll was at the age of 7, so his father had to lie in order to make him enter, fortunately, the British administration couldn't really oversee and make sure that everything is in order, that plus his slightly older appearance was enough to fool anyone there of his real age.

While lost in his thoughts, the teacher suddenly stopped writing on the board and put down the chalk. "Okay kids, time for lunch, be back by 10." Saying that he sat at the table and opened a book to spend the time.

A bushy brown-haired kid with freckles on his face walked over wearing a smile, like Vincent, he was also wearing the suit uniform that every student there had to wear.

The two greeted each other and left together while holding small pots where their lunch was stored.

His name was Jason Frye, and apparently, his granddad had some connections with the queen, which was why he managed to enroll at Westminster School, he and his sister were a terror duo, they had unnatural inborn agility and perception that at times managed to fright Vincent.

It was impossible to play hide and seek with the two, it was as if they had eyes behind their heads and as if walls were no different than nothing in their eyes, they could clearly see through them with easy quickly find whoever they were looking for.

"Hey, did you hear of Jack the Ripper? I saw in the newspaper that he started a new killing spree at Whitechapel, my granddad has just recently come back from India and warned me and my sister to stay away from that place no matter what."

"What does it matter if that maniac is back? Your grandfather is surely overreacting, how long would it take till Scotland Yard fish him out? There's no way the crow will stand still as someone terrorizes the streets of England."

While the two were talking, a girl sneakingly approached the two from behind, her slim figure easily hiding among the bushes to avoid prying eyes.

"Haha! He does overreact sometimes, but a grandpa is a wise man, did you know that he was the first generation leader of the Rooks?"

"That gang who punished the factories using kids as slaves some years ago?" Vincent was stunned by what he had just heard, how could this be?

"And that's not all."

The voice came so abruptly and in such a ghostly tone that Jason almost peed his pants at that moment. Vincent merely smiled, he wouldn't get scared of that, but still, he couldn't help but praise the girl, once again her topnotch skills were enough to avoid his senses.

He was willing to make a bet that if she chooses to become a thief, there wouldn't be many capable of preventing her thefts, and none would be able to catch her.

"Lydia, you are aware that this place is for boys only right?" Vincent teasingly smiled and asked her.

"What? Will you give me away? Besides, the only thing they can do is throw me out." She shrugged and sat behind the bench where the two were seating, thanks to the bushes around it was a perfect hiding spot. "I came to eat with you two, it was too boring back at my school, the girls just don't know how to have fun."

"Tsk, what do you know about fun, you're brute!" Jason shook his head and munched the steak held in his fork.

"You say that, but you always came back looking for me when those bullies were picking on you, haha!"

Jason's cheeks were flushed red as he turned his head to the side in order to avoid being looked at by Vincent and his sister.

Vincent could only smile at this, as always, when those two were around he felt like life gained a few new colors, they had this refreshing aura around them that never failed to amuse him. Not only that, Jason and Lydia Frye were the only friends he ever had, and hopefully, their friendship would never change.

Later that day, after saying goodbye to the Frye siblings, he left for his home in this district, during school days he would spend his time there with his family, while on the weekends they would go back to their main home.

When he arrived he was surprised by the sight of his father outside, usually, he would never leave his study, as it was where he took care of his company decisions and financial management. This time, however, he was talking with a man that he had never seen before.

The man was wearing white clothes, a navy jacket commonly used by captains of the royal navy, he had two pairs of hand cannons, one pair was strapped to his chest, the other two to the left side of his waist whereas on the other side, a saber of high quality lied silently in its scabbard.

Surprised by the complexion on his father's face, Vincent frowned and muttered a few words. "Aikhen Langustia." In answer to his call, red shadows surged from underneath his feet, it was an incantation in the language of the Elder Ones, it was meant to summon chaos and give it form, through it, one could coat himself to momentarily increase his speed, or even travel in the shadow realm.

The stronger one was in the Chaos Scripture Formula, the more time he could spend in this form, and more abilities could be used. It was something that he acquired in a lucky chance hundreds of years ago, unfortunately, he never managed to completely master the scripture, had he done so, there was no telling how strong he would have been, maybe even the lords of hell would have trouble when facing him and that was based purely on a guess, as he had no way to know the real extent of the Chaos path of Destruction.

This time, he chose to travel the shadow realm. The shadow realm was a different layer of reality that overlapped the one where the mortals lived, it was a dangerous and wonderful place, it hid the ruins of the Makers, and housed countless species of beasts from another era, thankfully, they avoided largely populated areas, so it was safe to travel in it while inside cities.

Vincent stood next to the shadow of his father, and sat down, in order to hear the echoes from the other side, he needed full concentration.

After some time, the words finally managed to reach his ears.

"... I thought the Brotherhood was wiser than that." It was his father's voice he sounded angry and somewhat nervous.

"It isn't our fault, the universe acts in mysterious ways, we couldn't predict something like a member of the order going crazy while we were occupied with the war to the north. Our enemies were desperate enough to forcefully start a confrontation between the Indian army and the British royal army just to cover their actions, as such you must comprehend the importance of our mission there if the templars had managed to put their dirty hands on that 'Buddhist' scripture and the sword of the monk, they could have plunged this world into darkness once again, we are lucky that our Chinese branch was on the track already and managed to send someone in time to destroy the relics." The man who spoke seemed angered by his father, but the tone of his voice was one of someone trying to find excuses, maybe even an apology.

"Humph! Not only the order once again destroys the relics, but you're also blinded by it like our ancestors were! Have you forgotten the lessons? The history?! The American colonies had also fallen for this trap, that bastard Haytham had even managed to pouch members of our order after that shameless operation to recover artifacts of the ones who came before! And as such history repeats itself! Another calamity in India and another person betrays us! If this continues, the order will fall before we even have time to blink our eyes, Léon!"

"I'm very well aware of the history, Thomson but-"

"But!? What 'but'? I saw the reports Brunschvicg, 8.0 on the scale! Thousands must have died because of our order actions! It was the same with the disaster of Lisbon in Portugal, the explosion in the Curuçá river in Brazil, and the Siebold typhoon in Japan! If this continues, I assure you that not only I'll leave the order, I'll make it so that the queen is made aware of everything and make them pay for their actions! Even if I'm sentenced to death for it!" Vicent's father turned with his hands clenched and enraged face and went back inside.

Léon Brunschvicg could only stare at him with sadness in his eyes, in the end, he just turned back and left.

Vincent was, of course, aware of most of those events, as they had been very famous worldwide, his father was speaking of natural disasters that shook the world after all, but now... it seemed that they weren't so natural as everyone thought. And it also seemed that he didn't really know his father. Harrison Thomson, what secrets have you been hiding? At this point, he started to think that maybe his mother also wasn't made aware of this matter.