CHAPTER 24: Ninth Icon (2)

My heart rate speed up slightly, but I kept my face blank.

"Ok.." I said slowly.

"And because of that blunder a lieutenant named Maxwell is one step away from being suspended." Continued the figure after which he clicked his tongue. "What a mistake, and she had such a great record before that."

"And what does this have to do with us?" Replied Alistair.

"Playing dumb huh," The figure chuckled once again. "Ok, I'm game."

At this point I was starting to get used to how bright the light coming from the window was so I could make out some things in the room.

The desk the Ninth Icon had sat at looked very peculiar, it was transparent but didn't look like glass or any other material I had ever seen before in my life. But strangely enough, once my eyes were able to make out the desk, I could be wrong but, it felt like there was energy radiating off it. 

I looked up at the Ninth Icon just as he turned around and for the first time, I saw his face.

He had a confident bordering on arrogant face with spiky black hair, and as he grinned at us I could see through his lips that he had two long sharp canines. Then as he opened his mouth to continue speaking with us I saw that it wasn't only his canines that were sharp, all his teeth were the same, the only difference was that the canines were slightly longer.

"Hypothetically, let's say that two of you were responsible for that incident."

"Obviously we're not." I quickly put in.

"Of course you're not," replied the Ninth Icon smoothly. "But for our hypothetical situation let's say that you were."

I thought for a moment before nodding my head. "Ok let's go with that."

"Then as I was saying, I wanted to get to know the people who outmaneuvered her, and lucky me the same people had been trying to meet me." he finished with a confident grin. 

He then looked at his XOC. "Half of the time we have has been used, use your remaining time wisely."

"Ok," Alistair nodded his head. "Now that I have my answer we can talk about why we wanted to meet you." Alistair then looked at me and nodded, almost like he was saying 'go for it'.

I took a deep breath to psych myself up, walked up to the desk then bowed my head. "We want our faction to work under your faction." 

The room once again became quiet. Since what felt like minutes had passed I raised my head slightly to look at the Ninth Icon, and the frown I saw on his face made my nervousness skyrocket.

"And why would I allow that?"

My heart flew into my mouth as soon as I heard the Ninth Icon's words.

"Let's say that I hypothetically control most of the Underworld in Freestone. and my hypothetical parents are very important figures in the criminal world. If I have all that then why would I need you?"

The Ninth Icon then continued. "I mean I have any number of people under me and countless others begging to work for me, what makes you any different, what makes you unique?"

Alistair opened his mouth to speak but the Ninth Icon raised up his hand to silence him. "Don't give me some crappy backstory telling me how determined you are and how you'll never give up, or maybe say you'll be eternally loyal, I've heard that bullshit one too many times to give a flying fuck."

He then looked at me. "I already know everything there is to know about both you, Alistair and your,' he raised his arms and used two fingers on each hand to draw quotation marks in the air, "'faction', that is if you can call it that, and I don't see any reason why I need you."

I was beginning to get mad so I smacked my hand on his desk in anger. "Tell me, what do you know about me?"

Ninth Icon smirked and walked over to this desk and sat down on it. "I thought you'd never ask. First of all, your name is Alex, you are the firstborn son of the Shampa family that are nobles in a country to the west of this continent. You were disowned by your family and sent to the Test Zone of Freestone," He looked at me with pity in his eyes.

"What a terrible thing to do to your child, and they knew how bad the Test Zone is. But then again you were a source of embarrassment to the Shampa family, always causing trouble and getting into fights, beating the servants and ordering people to be killed for the littlest reasons."

He then paused and thought for a few seconds. "I take it back, they were right to send you to that hellhole, you more than deserved it."

"Now where was I? Oh yes, you later met Alistair and created a faction that you called Hydra and with that, you entered the criminal world. But to survive even though there are only three people in your faction, you made a deal with a drug kingpin to transport the drugs he sends you to his dealers in Freedom City."

He then paused and added. "Hypothetically."

My mouth had at some point dropped open and I began to fear this person, he had basically talked about my whole life, which made me feel scared.

He then turned to Alistair. "Now for you," a frown then appeared on his face. "I couldn't find much about you which is very strange, it was almost like-"

Suddenly Alistair interrupted him. "Who cares who I am or what my backstory is, none of that is important. What is important is that I want Hydra to be a subordinate faction under you and do all the dirty work you're not willing to do, and in return we'll have your protection. But I must note that this is all hypothetical."

"I'll ask again," said the Ninth Icon. "What do you have to offer me, something only you and no one else can do for me?"

When we didn't have an answer for him he sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "I was expecting both of you to be more prepared than this, but whatever, I'll give both of you the benefit of the doubt and wait until after you come back from your field trip, I think it was to The Pink Sea, then I'll ask both of you the same question once again, I hope you'll have an answer for me then."

He then got off the desk and sat on the chair behind it before turning it to face the window wall. "You can show them out now Rachel."

"Yes Ninth Icon sir," said a voice softly. "I'll do that right away."

Alistair and I started turning around the moment we heard the voice behind us, and once again Rachel had been behind us but neither of us noticed.

Rachel then extended her hand toward the door of the office. "If you would follow me."

"Wait!" I turned around and looked at the Ninth Icon. "Your name isn't known to most of the students."

"Yes, and?" he replied. 

"Can you tell me your name?" 

He didn't say anything, then after a few seconds of him not answering I turned around and walked toward the door.

"Acad," I turned back around and saw him still staring out the window. "Jason Acad."

I nodded my head, and with that walked out the door and left the office.

-

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"Good evening students, and welcome to Monster and Beasts 101." Said Instructor Cross cheerfully. "This is the last class of the week, and you probably won't have any other official classes for several weeks, at least until you come back from The Pink Sea."

Once he said no classes for a few weeks all the students in the class began cheering.

"But the good news is that I'm going with you on this trip," he then smiled at us evilly. "We'll have so much time to have unofficial lessons."

The class became as quiet as the grave once he finished speaking.

"Anyway, today will be a short class, and I'll only mention a few things, first of all being the subject of if the undead such as zombies are safe for consumption?"

"The answer to this question is technically yes, but I wouldn't recommend any of you students to try eating it." Instructor Cross seemed to remember something that happened in the past and shivered. "You might not die but that doesn't mean it will be pleasant for you or your belly."

"The last thing that I'll say is something I've mentioned many times before," Instructor Cross looked around at the students. "All monsters and beasts possess cores, and when you kill one be sure to bring back its core since they sell for a good amount of money. But I'll say this, be very careful with undead cores. The energy they possess is the opposite of Hani and if a mistake is made it can have disastrous consequences for any Ranked. And with that, I'm done. Enjoy the weekend, we head out for the Pink Sea first thing on Monday."

Instructor Cross then stepped off the podium and walked out the classroom door.