Blackmail of the First Degree

There was nothing special about Magic Arts Class today. It was only the old man teaching us how to better control our soul and mind, an important ingredient in Magic Arts. At this point I was already able to control it at a whim, so I didn't have much use for this lesson. I was alone in this aspect though, being the highest ranking student in Magic Arts, and now that I think about it, I was also at the top of Martial Arts Class and Cultivation Arts Class; I suppose that's another reason I was able to get out of the murder. Having high prospects makes one more flexible in doing things others would think of as evil. Although if I were truly exposed as Pulchra's murderer, it would still end with my head rolling so I would never let that out until I had the power to back it up.

If I had a choice I would never expose it, but I didn't. I still had that time limit in the form of detectives working against me. Thankfully, from what I heard when I went to the bar, the Fortune Nine Sect was in the middle of dealing with a much more pressing case. They were hunting down a duo called the Demonic Jungle Brothers. Apparently, they were involved in some kind of taboo methods of trying to ascend to Gold Class, using sacrifices of other humans. This meant that they were Iron Class, so the Fortune Nine Sect would have to take their time when dealing with that. That was the only reason I hadn't tried my luck with running away yet.

Though even if I did try to run away, I would probably just die to some Wild Beast. They say you have to be Coal Class to have a decent chance of survival in the wild, but even then it's a risk. And since I'm stuck here, I have to work with what I've got. Right now that meant getting this old man on my side. I've been thinking about how to deal with him for a while. I needed him because he was called the strongest Elder, but how would I do that? I didn't know anything about him besides his stern and disciplined approach to teaching. From this, I could surmise he was someone with principles similar to mine. He most definitely had a bottom line, but I was sure it was lower than most. Experiencing the cruelties of life will do that to you.

So then how should I approach him? Well, when you start getting closer to your death date, you naturally begin to place your hope in younger generations. So I needed him to put his hope into me, to the point where he will help me with what I needed to rise. But how to do that? I have already shown great prowess in Magic Arts, but have I shown him how I would fair in real combat? No, I haven't. It would be silly for him to, in a world of Fruits and cultivation, consider a brawl between kids as real combat. Real combat had not only a conflict of different powers but also the stakes of losing one's life.

So I already had an idea in mind. I was a part of the faction, so it wouldn't be strange if I were to report certain things to the old man before Convir. For example, what would happen if I returned the body of a Stone Class Fruit Cultivator that ambushed me in the night? My potential would skyrocket in the mind of this old man. And I was sure if he thought that my dedication to the sect was worthy as well, we wouldn't stunt on helping me in the aspects I needed. And then I also had a favor from Telferr that I could redeem when necessary.

With that in mind, I decided to leave the Magic Arts classroom. But just as I was about to go into the trap door after the other students who already went down, I found myself unable to move. The place was always dark, even after everyone got their heads over the idea of seeing in the dark, in their own ways of course. So my sudden pause wasn't noticed by anyone, instead, they just kept on going down the trapdoor while discussing what they would eat in the Food Hall.

I immediately activated my Genesis Sight to observe the situation. My four limbs were encased by long trunks of wood extending farther than I could see. I tried breaking them from the inside, but it was futile. And I wouldn't even try to use my Crossbow Bolt Fruit, because I already had an idea of who was doing this to me. It was the strongest Elder in the sect, the old man who refused to tell us his name.

Unable to break free, I decided to focus on my other senses. I heard some things moving around behind me and then a sudden bang of light pushed away the darkness. My eyes were blinded momentarily, but it wasn't long until I got used to the light and observed my surroundings. Simply put, it was a mess. Before this, I just thought that the random objects on the ground were obstacles to train our ability to use night vision correctly, but it looks like I was wrong. The room was covered with books of all kinds and a lot of random objects made of wood. The walls were lined with mathematical equations, and words that held no structural meaning to me. There were corkboards of all different sizes with papers pinned to them. Some had yarn connections, but most didn't. The roof was what was most interesting to me. On the top of the roof was a mural.

The mural had what looked like a jungle background and then one giant tree that stood in the middle of them all. It was actually less of a tree and more of a giant bean sprout. Either way, this bean sprout held what looked like a blood-red bean, no doubt a Fruit of some kind, and a man draped in black harvesting it. Once my eyes fell down the bean sprout, I noticed something interesting. It was decorated with intestines, heads, limbs, bodies, livers, lungs, and just guts of all kinds. As you went farther down the bloody mess grew greater, exposing the fact that the bean sprout grew on the mangled corpses of others.

Just as I was trying to figure out what it could mean, I heard the rough, yet smooth voice of the old teacher answer this query of mine, "The mural has been here since I was a student of this school. I do not know its true meaning, but if I had to guess, I would say it was predicting some future event."

This made me wonder something, so as if not taking notice of the shackles I found myself in, I asked, "Why can't it be a showing of the past?"

He, still a disembodied voice, said in response, "That is easy to explain. Would you spend so much time dictating a scene of the past or a scene of the future? Which would be more useful? The future would be. And an expert in the Time Branch would be able to peer into the future with ease. So, while I know not the purpose behind doing such, it must be a mural of the future."

"Hm, while I do think it's more likely for it to be a showing of the future, it would still not be wise to underestimate the power of the past. History can have a bigger impact than you would think."

"Haha, of course I know this. You need not worry about my wisdom, you should worry about your current situation." He suddenly walked in from of me, his entire body in view. He stroked his beard as he continued his speech, "You have been the most transparent about your activities as of late, so it is easy for me to tell. Are you trying to stage a coup d'état? Or are you a spy of the Pulchra Family? Maybe you are actually from a different sect, sent to take us over. Which is it I wonder?"

So my actions have reached him? Certainly, I have been as opaque as possible in my movements. To most, it would just look like me being questioned by others and having to explain myself to them. It was a difficult task to connect it to me actually trying to gain others' allegiance. This old man was either incredible in his ability of discernment or placed me much higher than others. Either way, I was at a disadvantage now.

Thankfully I was already too deep for him to kill me outright, that would definitely cause outrage from the people I was close to. But that didn't mean he couldn't do more discreet things once informing Convir of my betrayal, like if my Firearm Genesis Essence area was suddenly closed off to the public or I was banned access to the library. He could screw me over again and again until the time when the investigators arrive came around and at that point, I would really be done for. So I had to avoid the possibility as much as possible.

I feigned confusion and said to him, "What do you mean? If you are talking about me communing with others, you have the wrong idea. I'm just trying to clear things up. Who wants to be thought of as a murderer?"

He smiled widely at my response, "I thought you might say such things. Ok, how about this, I will just tell you outright. I have the Wooden Spy Fruit at my disposal. This Fruit makes me able to take any piece of wood and turn it into a spy for me. I have been using this Fruit to observe you since your little talk with Convir. And the things I've seen you do aren't things that you do if you only want to clear up a misunderstanding. Don't get me wrong, you hid your fangs deeply. It's just you tried a little too hard when talking to Beulus, and that was when I understood your goal. You can continue this faux ignorance of yours, but it won't change your position."

So that was it. Being only a Dirt Class Cultivator did put me at a huge disadvantage in defending myself from those types of attacks. I have tried my hardest to make my personality shift seem like it was caused by Pulchra's death to avoid such attacks, but it looks like this old man sees deeper than most. It could be that he was bluffing and didn't have such a Fruit, but it wouldn't matter anyway. He had the power to make me do whatever he wanted. I was more interested in why he was trying such civil methods, so I decided to just give up on deceiving him any further.

"Then what do you want? If you just wanted me gone then you could tell Convir and get it over with. But instead, you told me you know this. There is only one reason that anyone will tell another they know a secret of theirs, for blackmail purposes. So go on, tell me what you want from me."

He chuckled a little at my reaction and responded, "You do get straight to the point, I like it. Listen Quis, it is not like I am unwilling to switch my allegiance. I just want you to prove to me you are strong enough to have me support you. And I also want one other thing in exchange for not telling Convir about your little insurrection."

He turned around and stared at his mess of a room as he said, "You see, when I was a Dirt Class Fruit Cultivator like you, I was very interested in the Magic Arts. So much so that I started to experiment with it, and I was good at it too. I discovered something very interesting. By just using my mind, soul, and Genesis Essence, I was able to replicate the effects of the Fruits I was using. Unfortunately, once I ascended to Stone Class, while I still could use Magic Arts to increase the power of my Fruits greatly, I wasn't able to replicate them anymore. I have spent the rest of my life trying to replicate what I was able to do as a Dirt Class, but to no avail. But here you are! You are so very talented in Magic Arts, so I want to experiment with you. I want to see if you can replicate the effects of only Magic Path Fruits, or also Technology Path Fruits. And I also want to observe you while you do it. I want you to be my experiment rat."

Well, this was definitely intriguing. I always felt like something was off when I connected the Magic Arts from this world to my old world. In this world, you can replicate certain skills from my past world like night vision and bind. But you aren't able to do things like healing others or shooting fireball with only Magic Arts? It didn't make sense to me. So you actually were able to, but this begged the question, how come he was unable to do this anymore after ascending to Stone Class? I also wanted to know. I wasn't against this at all. But I'd better make it seem like I accept begrudgingly, lest he have another idea in mind.

I made a sour face before settling it and said calmly, "I guess I don't have much of a choice... Alright then, when do we begin?"

He smirked at my response and said, "I'll begin tomorrow. I have some things to set up today, so go ahead and spend today preparing yourself mentally. It won't be easy."

The trunks around my hands retracted freeing my limbs as the old man started going through boxes like a giddy boy. It was the first time I saw him so excited, I guess he might be able to make progress on his studies so he didn't care much about keeping appearances right now. I decided to leave without saying anything more. I had something important to do after all.

I had to finish Capcis' enslavement.

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Capcis' POV:

I was upset.

I went this entire day waiting for some praise of any kind, but nothing. It was really difficult for me to get those students to change their opinions of Quis. Yet he only met my eyes once the entire day. But... maybe I didn't deserve praise for my work today. Was what I did so difficult? I bet that any other person could easily do what I did today. In fact, I bet any other person could do what I did much more efficiently. I bet Pulchra could do it with a single sentence... I miss her.

Just as I was going through another bout of sadness, I saw Quis come into view. He wasn't just walking with other things on his mind like usual though, he was looking at me. As he got closer to me, I could feel my hopes rise higher and higher until those words exited his mouth, "Oh, hey Capcis. I noticed the different reactions of the students today. I assume that was your handiwork?"

Huh? Why didn't he sound appreciative at all? Don't tell me I actually messed up. Oh no. Maybe I made his impression worse in the eyes of the students. Did I really make things worse? I really am the worst. I can't do anything right. I fail at everything I do. Why can't I just be good at one thing that I do?

First I make the mistake of yelling at Quis who was obviously going through a very tough time in his life. Then I can't even make it up to him by explaining his situation to the students? And I expected some sort of praise for such stupidity? How dumb can I be? First Pulchra and now Quis. I was a horrible person and an even worse friend-

In this wave of negativity, my racing mind was put to a stop as a warm feeling went through my entire body. It was similar to how Pulchra used to treat me, but it felt even more comforting for some reason. It came from the top of my head, the comforting warmth. It said, "You are someone important to me." It was what I needed to hear. It was at this moment I realized my eyes were closed, and I opened them up.

I saw Quis putting his hand on my hand, and smiling sweetly at me, "You've done a good job Capcis. I'm proud of you."

These words sent not only a flush of emotions throughout my body but a flush of memories as well.

Ever since I was a child, I was never able to connect to others. The only people that I felt truly connected to were my parents. That was true for my entire childhood until I went to this school. I was so worried on the inside. I would be leaving the only people who understood me for an entire year. I wasn't sure I would be able to make it. But then I met Pulchra.

She wasn't like the others who avoided me once they realized I couldn't talk to them as well as others. She saw this side of me, and instead of dumping me away like all the others, she worked with it. She wanted to get closer to me. It was an amazing feeling, to make my first friend. She helped me get to know others, and while they were all nice to me, non of them came close to Pulchra. But then she became distant. She stopped talking to me altogether after a week of this. And after two weeks passed it didn't even feel like I was on her mind at all.

I tried to help her. I conspired with the boy she couldn't stop talking about to get her back to normal, but that failed, in the worst way possible. She was gone. Permanently. But he was still there. I tried my hardest to help him, as he was the only one who understood my situation if even a little. I had to try and help him, yet I said such rude things to him. Yet he still forgave me. He was too kind to me. It was the first time anyone had been so kind to me. When he was suffering just as much if not more than me, he was still here to comfort me when I was at my lowest. He was the only one here for me. He put his hand on my head and said he was proud of me.

I couldn't bare to look at him. Not because I was afraid of rejection like normal, but because I didn't want him to look at the tears of happiness that were rolling down my cheeks.

I this moment, there was nothing besides me and him.

I felt... I felt so...

I felt so content.