Chapter 81: Mother's wrath

After two days of sleep, the boy finally woke up. He was in a state of confusion and it took Eleftherios ten whole minutes to calm him down.

With his brain working at normal speed again, Ciaran had a hard time adjusting to reality. His thoughts were lightyears in front of his actions, and he had a hard time even moving.

The dryads put him in a body of water and had him undertake an advanced form of hydrotherapy. For the next ten hours, Ciaran had to relearn how to exist in the normal world. At the end of it, all three were mentally exhausted.

For the first time since he had begun living here, they decided to take away his privacy and slept with him. They refused to leave his side, no matter how much the boy protested.

Outside the children were very confused. For the past three days, the Maze didn't give them any Trials at all. Most were happy with the free time, some missed the training, and Ciaran's friends were worried because the boy was gone once again. The girls tried to ask the Maze to let them in, but they were completely ignored.

Even Camille was not let in. The boy was in a very vulnerable state, and any and all interactions with other people would slow down the recovery process.

Ariadne understood more than anyone what the boy was going through. His thoughts made little to no sense. It was like they were just random jibberish, but with time they slowed down, and she understood. He was thinking at a speed nonsustainable by her mind or his body.

After a whole week of intense treatment, he was back to normal, or at least to his new version of it. His mind was still thinking faster, but now he was able to control the speed, so his body could handle the burden.

Speaking of his body, he had reached Rank One, and he was far from the starting point of the Rank.

Thanks to his unique initiation, he was much more in tune with his body than he should have been. It was to the point that his teachers believed he could easily handle himself in a fight with other Rank Ones, even if he was to fight head-on.

"Are you ready kid? Today we will let your family in, but only if you think you can handle it." Eleftherios said, still worried about the boy.

Ciaran looked at him, stood up, and jumped around. He did a few flips and came toward his mentor.

"I am fine, still a little regretful I was pulled out so early, but otherwise fine." He said as he rotated his arms, showing his flexibility.

"Speaking of family, are we going to talk about your mom, and you know, the tiny little fact you forgot to mention. Like the fact she is a fucking GOD, and by the way, Sis put it, so are you. Like, how does that work? Should I make offerings to you?" Ciaran asked.

Eleftherios sighted. He knew the boy's curiosity would eat him alive if left unchecked, but he really didn't want to talk about it.

"How about this. I will never ask you again, and you will tell me when you are comfortable enough to talk about it. I have my own family drama, Bro, I know it's not the easiest of things to talk about. But, and there is always a but as you should already know, we will talk about it someday. Promise me!" Ciaran said, after recognizing the look on his Master's face.

He had a similar one after he learned about what his family had done to him. Well, after learning just a portion of it. And his mentors knew everything about what their Goddess of a mother had done to them.

"I will, we will Ciaran, that I can promise you. But no more talks of Gods, not until you reach the Archmage Rank, or at least Rank Eight. There are things better left unsaid before then." The dryad said, and before the kid tried to bargain, a woman and two girls were allowed to come in.

They came in with the grace of a group of intoxicated rhinos. They stomped their way to the boy, and before he was allowed to speak, his mother grabbed his face and twisted his head. She gave him a quick medical examination before she sighted. Then she smiled and slapped him so hard he was back in his early childhood.

"You think you can cause a mess and then hide here? You think you can worry your mother like this all the time and there wouldn't be any consequences, do you? Come here!"

She beat him, and she beat him bloody. Eleftherios was staying out of it, but twenty minutes later, the ass-whooping was still going strong. He was about to intervene.

"Stay out of this, I have held back for long enough." She screamed at him, and the beating continued.

He respected her wishes for five more minutes before he saved the boy.

"Your too soft with him, that's why he keeps getting into messes. Even now he will be punished, and this time we don't even know what that will look like." She said, visibly flustered.

'Shit, we forgot to tell her.' Both master and student thought in unison.

They looked at each other. Telling Camille the whole truth was completely out of the question. If she panicked so much about a little trip, how could she possibly handle the fact her son was at the mercy of a literal God.

The girls were staying quietly to the side. Sunny was a little startled, but Clara was completely shocked. She knew Camille since she was a little girl. The woman was always calm, and to her knowledge had never even slapped the bums of her boys. The savagery she had just displayed was more than a little telling of how bad the situation was.

"Allow me to clear up the misunderstanding Mrs. Clades. We know what they want from the boy, and so we put him on an intense training program, so he could reach Rank One on time." Verdania appeared and gave them an explanation.

She then pulled an envelope out of thin air and gave it to Camille. At that point, Ciaran just moisturized his body by absorbing the humidity in the air. He wouldn't make full-on ice armor, but putting a layer of water to soften the blows was manageable.

When Camille was done reading her eye was twitching.

"You forgot to inform me didn't you?" She asked, looking at all three of them.

After she got a confirmation nod from all three of them, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. She couldn't look at them.

"You should also know that the timeline has been generously extended. I leave at the end of the week." Ciaran said as he tried to calm her down.

And then he felt his Master twitch.

The boy looked at him and was surprised to see him avoiding eye contact.

"What? What haven't you told me, old man?"

The dryad looked at the woman smoking. She was glaring daggers at him.

"Well, when I beat the Counsel into extending the deadline, I kind of killed two of them. And so old man Silver said as a punishment you will be serving there for three years, not three months." He said, thankful for his diligence in training when he was young. If he was weaker than he was now, Camille would have probably kicked his ass as well.

Everyone stared at him wide-eyed, with their jaws on the floor. They were all shocked for different reasons. The girls were borderline terrified when they heard he killed two members of their highest governing institution.

Camille and Verdania were shocked they would be separated from the boy for so long. His mother in particular was on the verge of tears. She had just gotten her little boy back, and now he was getting stolen from her again.

"Who the fuck is old man Silver, and why are you listening to him? As far as I know, no one in the Empire can tell you what to do." Ciaran said.

He was most interested in who could boss around his Master. The dryad stood tall even against his own mother, and as impressive as that may sound, she was still a Goddess.

"He is the Empire's Magus and the defacto owner of this land. He usually doesn't care about small stuff like this, but since the old men died, he now has to find their replacements, and he hates to work. His whole family shares the trait of slothfulness. And he is the worst of them all, he didn't even think about the punishment, he just looked at the timeline, and said 'Make the months years'." Eleftherios said, annoyed at the whimsical old man.