Black Tower

The Five Imperial Schools used to accept students of all backgrounds. This even included foreign ones just so long as they possessed the requisite talent.

History says that this sparked up controversy between the Schools' faculty: the Professors' Council, and the aristocratic factions.

The aristocrats weren't pleased that the schools were teaching children who could potentially become their enemies tomorrow.

However, the schools argued that their objective had always been to nurture and train young practitioners. Ethnicity, race, or country of origin had nothing to do with it.

After much bickering, the matter was brought to trial before the Imperial Court and unfortunately for the aristocrats, they lost.

Nevertheless, that began a millennium-old feud between the aristocrats and the Five Schools, a feud which up till now... had really not been settled.

In recent decades, the quality of education offered by the Five Schools had degraded. Some young practitioners from aristocratic families now actually preferred homeschooling.

However, for the less fortunate middle and lower classes, the schools remained a symbol of adulation, a hope that things could become better.

Kaerndal

Haisam parted ways with Hade and Bartholomew almost the exact instant he knew about their intended destination. The pigmy made it absolutely clear that he sure as hell did not want to be anywhere near the Black Tower.

Nevertheless, he still gave them his business cards in case they ever found themselves in need of his services again.

Choosing to ignore the Euthorian native's quirky idiosyncrasies, like how he had begun to address Hade using honorifics such as "My lord" and "Almighty young master," Bartholomew accepted the cards.

Not only for the fair discount price offered to past customers but also because Haisam had proven himself to be a very capable and resourceful individual.

Once they went their separate ways, Hade and Bartholomew headed for the Black Tower which, despite being many miles away, could still be seen clearly from their viewpoint in the city.

...

'Woah!'

That was the first thought that crossed Hade's mind as he and Bartholomew stared up the one thousand-meter-tall obsidian tower poking through the clouds.

From afar, the tower already looked remarkable but seeing it up close was a whole new experience.

The tower was built using a metallic black, sort of slimy, substance that added a peculiar luster to the architectural masterpiece, making it feel almost as if... it were alive.

As he reveled under the tower's magnificence, Hade could not help but begin to wonder just what sorts of secrets he would discover within the towering behemoth.

The black tower was, after all, the Headquarters of the Five Imperial Schools in Kaerndal.

The tower stood in a compound roughly 300,000 square meters and was surrounded by walls measuring six to eight meters tall; walls which were manned by sentries stationed every one hundred meters around the enclosure.

"What the hell is up with this city and walls?" Hade could not help but wonder out loud.

The place looked more like a maximum prison rather than a school for young adults.

As he and Bartholomew approached the ginormous black gates of the compound, Hade distinctly felt the unabashed stares and glares of the sentries high up on the wall.

Under such intense pressure, it was difficult for a mere Mortal class such as himself to resist buckling or faltering. However, Hade was not just your average Mortal class...

He defiantly stood his ground and walked unwavering with his head held high.

Standing by the entrance waiting for them was a tall beautiful female with lustrous golden blonde hair and luscious pink lips.

The woman was dressed in a tight-fitting black and white military regalia and whatever points she lost in her masculine build, she more than just made up for them with her fiery, exotic charm.

"You must be Hade Ronen," said the beauty matter-of-factly once he and Bartholomew were both within earshot.

'How did she know?' Hade was genuinely taken aback.

No one outside of his family, Bartholomew, and Haisam knew of his arrival, the precaution of traveling in secrecy done to prevent another Nobu incident from happening.

It still wasn't clear, after all, what the rogue outlaw's real motives had been, or whether he had been acting alone.

'Do they have some sort of face recognition device I am not aware of? Or did Novin perhaps relay my appearance?'

Hade found his second explanation more plausible than the first, and it helped to calm his nerves a bit.

If the woman knew what he looked like because Novin had told them, it lessened the chances that she was a spy sent by the golden-eyed man to finish him off.

Paranoia aside, Hade found it particularly intriguing how all the male sentries guarding the gate maintained a certain radius away from the blonde woman.

They even went as far as to avoid even looking in the same direction as her.

"Yes, I am," Hade eventually replied to the inquiry about whether he was indeed Hade Ronen.

Following his affirmation, the woman proceeded to glance him up and down in scrutiny and it was this one action that immediately cleared everything up for Hade. He finally understood why all the other sentries were avoiding her as if she were a plague.

It wasn't that they stayed clear of her because she was too beautiful, or that she outranked them, no, the woman was simply unapproachable.

Even now, you could tell that she was struggling to keep her expression amicable. She clearly wasn't used to speaking to others politely.

Noticing Hade staring brazenly at her as if they were the same age, the woman's brows twitched.

'What a daring brat!' She thought inwardly before leaking a small pint of her aura to try and intimidate him.

The sooner the boy knew his place, the better it would be for everyone.

And so, for the next two to three seconds, the thick, overpowering aura of early Sage class saturated the atmosphere.

Sadly, Hade barely had any reaction. With him, she was going to have to try way harder than that.

No longer able to endure the silent exchange between one hard-headed boy and one surprisingly very immature lady, Bartholomew forcibly cleared his throat.

The blonde woman turned to him in surprise. Strangely, she only came to notice his presence after he not-so-subtly cleared his throat. She had known he was there but it was like she could not be bothered to look at or even regard his presence.

'Also Sage class!' she realized in demur.

"Hello," she finally greeted.

"My name is Captain Lora Blackstrand. I lead the patrols responsible for the base's First Level protection."

She paused, letting her gaze linger on Hade for a few moments before continuing:

"You'll have to forgive me but it's not often that we receive a student after the semester has started."

And it was certainly not often that she of all people was sent to play tour guide. That was what irritated her the most about this whole thing.

She was a respected early Sage class Captain yet here she was, escorting some aristocrat's spoiled bratty son.

"Ahh yes," Bartholomew replied. "Unfortunately, the young master could not make the opening ceremony. There was... an incident but I'm sure your higher-ups know all about it. Shall we get going?"

"We can... however, you can't," said Lora with a decently concealed smirk. She had enjoyed that.

"I'm afraid non-students and non-staff are not allowed on the base," she explained.

"You'll have to say your goodbyes to your master, now."

Lora emphasized 'master' when she replied. She couldn't help but look down on a man who had cut his cultivation short to serve someone else, what's even worse, someone else's kid.

Unfortunately, Bartholomew was not at all amused. He immediately gave her a chilling look, sending trevors down her spine.

'Damn it!' Lora cursed internally. She, too, was Sage class, was she not?

Ignoring the self-righteous Captain, Bartholomew turned his attention to Hade.

"Goodbye, young master," he said with a bit of emotion.

The old butler simply couldn't help himself. If you looked at it one way, he and Dedric had basically raised the boy. Now that they were not going to see each other for a while, a lot of emotions he did not even know he had came flooding out.

"Come on, old geezer, are you going to cry now?" Hade teased.

"Please do, it will make one hell of a story to tell Dedric the next time I see him."

Whatever tears Bartholomew had planned to shed vanished right there and then.

"Go show'em hell in there," he smiled warmly.

Teacher and pupil fist-bumped. Neither knew it then but it would be years before they saw each other again.

Hade turned to Captain Lora who had been unwillingly captivated by their somewhat heartwarming farewell.

"We can go now," he told her.

Lora scowled. Why did it seem like he was ordering her around?!

Tsk! She didn't know what it was yet but something about this boy simply rubbed her the wrong way.

"Open the gates!" she shouted to the patrols high up on the wall.

Soon, the huge black gates slowly creaked open and she walked on ahead, mumbling something to herself while a dark red-haired teenager followed.

Bartholomew half expected and half hoped for Hade to turn and wave before the gates shut but after a while, he gave up.

'Who am I kidding?' He thought to himself.

Hade had never been that kind of person.

Well, if he once was then the parasite soul dwelling within him had already altered that part of him.

...