Chapter 46

Soon it was time to have lunch. There were no classes the entire morning as the teachers were busy allotting classes to the students and planning the classes to be taken for the second half of the day. Sean was planning to have his lunch at the Academy cafeteria and Danny accompanied Sean to have lunch together. Once they entered the cafeteria, Sean went towards the counter to place order and received his food and went towards an empty seat and placed his food. Soon Danny joined him with his own plate filled with food and the two started eating slowly. Sean who was quiet back in the classroom took the initiative to make small talk and steered the conversation towards the current affairs within the Golem city.

Danny explained the power distribution within the Golem city in a more detailed way than Wendell. Apparently in Golem city an alliance has been created between the Faulen clan, Merlin clan, Wilson clan and Blackwood clan. These four clans were the rulers of Golem city and they conduct the city administration and security through city administrators and city enforcers respectively. The four clans did not directly involve in the maintaining control on the city and cared only about the income earned from the city. So long these four clans receives money from the city they don't care how the city is functioning. Such matters were taken care of by representatives selected by the four clans who are responsible for the city's proper functioning and ability to generate income as well as maintaining proper security and order within the city. Danny went on to explain about the three mages clans - the Faulen clan, the Merlin clan and the Wilson clan and Faulen clan is the head of the alliance as they were the strongest clan within the city despite the other three being a large clan.

Sean posed a question regarding a matter which he found doubtful. "Why don't these four large clans take active role in controlling the city and leave it to city administrators. Don't they fear that there would be a possibility that some medium level clans would try to join hands together to take over the city?"

Danny looked at Sean and said "Like I said, they don't care. All they care about is to provide them with a certain percentage of income every month. Otherwise they would pull back the city guards and enforcers and this would make this city incredibly weak and prone to attack from neighbouring cities. You probably don't know much about the mages clan. These clans only care about improving their skills and levels as magicians and give very little importance to outside power struggle. The mages require lots of money over the course of their training and hence give importance to money. They employ city administrators for the sole purpose of managing the three clans business. Blackwood clan is the only clan which involves themselves actively in the city and hence till date no medium level clans even dared to try to take over the control of the city".

Meanwhile within the student council office Carmella could be seen in her desk with a bunch of papers which she was reading and signing and opposite to her was a beautiful woman in her mid-20's seated quietly waiting for Carmella to finish her work. The woman had a luscious violet hair with a bit healthy tan skin along with beautiful purple eyes and seductive lips with purple lipstick which accentuated her eyes well but her facial expression was sharp which proved that she was a woman who had survived at the top and was used to living under constant pressure making her extremely cunning and intelligent with shades of ruthlessness. With the way she carried herself one could see that she was from a rich background as it was filled air of nobility. Finally Carmella completed her work and looked at the lady before her with a smile and said "I have selected a team to escort you back to the capital Ms.Cornelia. I have also made arrangements for you stay at my mansion for today night. I'll introduce you to the team at my place and by then I'll also have a contract drafted for you".

Cornelia smiled at Carmella and said "You are as stiff as always Carmella. There is no need for you to talk to me in a formal way. You can just call me Big sister Cornelia like you used to". Hearing this Carmella made a wry smile and said "Ms.Cornelia, I can't call you that way anymore. You are soon going to be the fiancee of the crown Prince and by norm I should have called you princess. By the way, why don't you have your guards guarding you. You are soon going to be the Princess and potentially the future queen of the Arcadia Kingdom. If someone knew that you were without your guards you could be in danger. There are lots of competitors to earn the favour and become tied to the royal family through marriage much less there are competitors wanting to become the first wife and potentially the future Queen of the kingdom as well. You also have enemies within the royal family, after all the fight for the crown is still ongoing between the five Princes and the support from your family towards the Crown Prince is a thorn to the other four Princes".

"I see you have done your homework Carmella. It's as you said, my position might look good on the outside but I am currently walking a fine line. One wrong move and death might be a form of kindness for me. Apart from selected few people, I don't trust anyone. Of many ways to get me, getting my guards to betray me is probably the most easiest one for them to do. That's why I chose to come to you. Once I successfully enter the capital and into the royal palace even if the other Princes want to try something they would not have the guts to do that in the Palace. There won't be much problem for me in becoming the Queen so long I stay alive, after all with the backing of my Hall family it will be simple for Crown Prince Voight to ascend the throne" said Cornelia with a smile.

"Good to know that I am one of your trusted aid Ms.Cornelia. Well you don't have to worry about your safety, I will have my best people guarding you on your trip to the Capital. Once you become the Queen don't forget about me Ms.Cornelia" said Carmella while smiling a bit at the last.

"Oh ho, Carmella, getting to the point already huh!!. Don't worry I won't forget about my cute junior once I become the Queen. By the way where is Lucy, I don't see her anywhere?" asked Cornelia while looking around trying to see her another cute junior. "She has gone out to complete a mission and will be with us today night" said Carmella without much change in her expression while inwardly calming down her heartbeat and breathing pattern so as to not let Cornelia find any irregularities. Carmella knew that Cornelia absolutely doted on Lucy back when they were still kids and was also her mentor during the early stages of their training as warriors.

Meanwhile in the Academy Cafeteria just as the students were eating, an Academy teacher came in a hurry and shouted to grab the attention of the students. Everyone within the cafeteria looked at the teacher. Sean and a few other new students who had paid attention to the orientation immediately knew the teacher's identity. He was their teacher who would teach them the Geography of the continent. Since he only thought for one term of the first year most of the other students had forgotten him.

"Have you seen this kid" said the geography teacher. "His name is Albert. He is a new student in the Academy. He was supposed to come to the class today but was absent. Since I knew him personally I went to the place he was staying only to find him missing. The owner of the inn said that he had not seen him since yesterday afternoon. However all his luggages were in his room. Once again I will repeat, this boy's name is Albert. Has anyone seen him yesterday or today?". The geography teacher was showing a picture of a fairly good looking kid about 12 years of age via memory crystal which also had his personal details.

Sean looked at this with confusion. 'Isn't he only been missing for a day. Why are they so agitated. Wait a minute, he does not have a family name, in other words he is from a normal family. These people don't try to spend too much money and would generally return quickly. I doubt a 12 year old kid would spend money on entertainment, much less I doubt he even has that much money.' As Sean was deducing he felt a connection, albeit only for a moment and felt a deja vu when he tried to recollect the information and suddenly it hit him and his face turned serious.

"Danny, what do you know about this boy Albert?" asked Sean. "Wait a moment" said Danny and took out a memory crystal from his spacial pouch and searched for the details.

"Albert is from a normal small time merchant family and lives with his parents and elder brother. It seems like he is the only one with the potential to become a warrior in his family and his father who happened to know the geography teacher asked him to obtain a seat for application. He is a third level warrior and has trained in bronze body martial skill and cross sabre technique" said Danny while looking at his information.

Sean who heard this obtained a crucial piece of information and his face was even more serious while thinking 'An unknown enemy is far dangerous than a known one. I had better put a face and a name to this mysterious serial killer.'

Meanwhile within the residence of Faulen clan three other heads of city enforcers were standing before the head of the city enforcer of Faulen clan. The Faulen clan's head enforcer was reading the damage report which was compiled by Damien and Kompos who were head of city enforcers affiliated to Wilson and Merlin clan. After reading the report he looked at Damien and Kompos and asked "Did you find any clues? Are there any suspects?".

Damien went forward and said "There are only a few suspicious points we have identified as most have been destroyed by fire. They are..."