Capítulo 126: Feeding The Beast
"One of our squadrons happened to be on a mission on the Beast Continent, so they were able to gather some intel on what happened there."
"Namely, the battle between the S rank Sayuri Kinako and the supposed orchestrator of the invasion of the Academy, the S rank demon Kano Sanjiro."
Dignitas already knew of this. When he had free time, he would sometimes call upon his Teacher to ask her about the events prior to her returning.
She explained everything from how she was teleported to the Beast Continent, to her battle with Kano, to the sudden appearance of the Twelve Demon Generals, to Nomadian interrupting and taking all of them on, and finally, to the time traveling bird and the feathers they used to send her back in time.
However, Andrea didn't seem to know about the Twelve Generals. Either she was purposely keeping that bit of information out, or the guild didn't tell her. Because even if she was the heir to The Unseen, she was often kept out of a lot of their projects.
"We detected trace amounts of The Maiden Of Blossoms' mana on the tree in the Colosseum infirmary, and matched it with the data given to us by one of our scouts who happened to watch the final sequence of your battle against the Stone Demon."
"The result we came to was this. You were lended the mana of an S rank hero, alongside the physique of one, which allowed you to dispatch a seemingly unkillable opponent in less than a few minutes."
Mana Transferring was a commonly used technique, both in combat and for medical purposes. It functioned quite similarly to how blood tranfusions worked. If you were of the Prosperity Class (a name used to refer to the group of affinities that could use restorative abilities) or were of the same type as the one injured, you could transfer your mana to heal or boost them.
For the sake of knowledge, the Prosperity Class consisted of Nature or Light and their respective sub-affinities, like Plant or Holy. The lesser known "Blood" Affinity could also be defined as being part of the class, but magicians who wielded the restorative aspect of it weren't all that common.
"Right on the mark, I guess. No need to recite my other accomplishments. So what's your point?"
"My point is that with all these in mind, they have decided to label you as an outlier. We can't directly look into your status, unless you willingly show it, but we at least know that no student in the Hero Academy is at the B- rank."
'An outlier. That's the term used by Tthurians to refer to those stronger than their designated rank.' Dignitas thought.
If one were to think about it, everyone in the TGS were outliers. They showed prowess that couldn't normally be achieved by ranks of the same level, and could easily surpass the threshold for the strength expected of them.
At their level, D rank, they should only be able to destroy cars or other automobiles. And yet, they could display more than twice that.
"I see. But that still doesn't explain why The Unseen wants you to investigate me specifically. For starters, look at Elliott here." He pointed to the aloof cowboy sitting on the other side of the couch, inspecting Spiritshot. "His senses are on par with John Ailey's, if not better. Shouldn't that make him, or at the very least, John, an outlier as well?'
"That's easy. Someone wants you."
"Pardon? I'm getting enough of that from Lorelai."
"Not in the way you think. Our guild has received an increase in the commissions that require information on the abilities of the students from the various Academies around the world."
"Moving away from the world for a bit and focusing on the Hero Academy specifically… let's see. About sixty-five percent of the commissions are asking for your data, Leader."
Dignitas almost spat out his coffee. "Is that so."
In his hurry to keep his teammates away from prying eyes, he himself unknowingly attracted attention from the ones he was trying to hide them from.
Still, even with all of this in mind, there was no way they could reach him. He still had two and three quarters of years. By that time, he knew he would be able to stand against the guilds.
"Am I correct to assume the commissions are from well-known guilds? Or can you not tell me those as well?"
"I can't tell you, but it's for a different reason than you think. Thirty percent of the sixty five are all listed under "Anonymous" as well, meaning we don't know who sent them."
"There goes my goal of remaining hidden." Dignitas sighed. "Anyway, let's move away from the topic. I want to ask, is your stay with us going to be permanent?"
Elliott suddenly turned his attention to the conversation. While his only contribution to the talk earlier was just him feeding the beast, now he was interested in it.
"As long as you're still in the Academy, so possibly. Do you have any plans of leaving school early?"
"Not anything I'd tell you, hah."
"I figured as such. Even so, The Unseen's attention on you increased recently. I reported your successful mission to the guild, and they wondered how you were able to retrieve an A rank artifact so easily. There's barely a chance that they'll suddenly lose interest in you."
"Hey, even if it's for a different reason entirely, I'm glad you decided to come back to us. Welcome home, Navigator." Dignitas offered his hand.
Andrea took it in hers and shook it. "I hope you don't disappoint us. We'll be watching you very closely now."
"Yeah, yeah. With all that watching you're doing, you're neglecting the one person who's been watching over you." Dignitas looked to Elliott.
***
"Finally, Bigsby. I wonder what he's been doing with his prisoner that he took this long to message me back?"
"Hmm? What's that, Diggy?"
Dignitas and Lorelai were currently walking back home. The latter had refused to head home without him, so she waited outside at the entrance until he finished his business with the club.
"Nothing to concern yourself with. I'll be heading over to Bigsby's, so you should head back home. Are you still going to sleep in my dorm room?"
"Of course, no question! Diggy's clothes fit me so well."
Lorelai still had her belongings in Dignitas' room from when John, Curie, and the two of them brought them over. While she did have her own assortment of clothes to choose from, she could never stop herself from wearing the author's clothes when they were at home, using the excuse that "it was cold", and that Dignitas' ones were so warm.
"Well, have fun. Don't cause trouble while I'm gone." He patted her head.
"I'm not a dog, Diggy!"
After bidding farewell to Lorelai, Dignitas went in the direction of the Colosseum. Once he reached the road leading there, he took the first right turn into the same familiar alley.
Ring… the bells chimed as the door to Bigsby's shop opened. The shopkeeper seemed to have anticipated Dignitas' arrival, and left a handwritten note on the desk telling him to meet him in the back room.
Shrugging, he went behind the counter, where there was a door labeled "Backroom: Employees Only" left slightly ajar.
Pushing it open, he was wowed at the sheer collection of skill cards that assaulted his view the moment he entered.
Like a library, there were heaps upon heaps of skill cards stuffed to the many bookshelves. Just one of them contained probably ten thousand, if not more cards.
Resisting the urge to just steal a few, Dignitas navigated his way through the thick, dusty archive of skill cards, eventually making it to another door.
"Oh, you're here, kid." Bigsby said as he watched Dignitas enter the room.
The room itself was quite ordinary. It was colored gray all around, and there was no furniture, aside from the chair in the middle where an unconscious Makarov was tied up.
"You haven't done anything to hurt Makarov, have you? Who knows the amount of trouble you'll get into if he comes back to school all bruised."
"Relax, kid. Look, he ain't even got a single scar on him. I healed it all."
"What, so you beat him and then healed him? That's cruel, Bigsby." Dignitas' mouth widened in shock.
"I didn't, kid! Lay off, will ya. I didn't even touch a hair on his skin. All I did was try to tap into his mind with Mind Reading."
"And? No luck, I'm guessing."
"Right. Something's keeping me from accessing his past memories. A lock of some sort."
Like Curie, Bigsby was a Mental Magic user. While he did lose his eye in one of his dungeon runs, it was already broken, and as such the excess "brain power" that was taken from his eye left it useless. He couldn't see through it, so it was merely a hindrance.
"That's tough. Do you know how to remove it?"
"In all my travels, I've only come across this type of mental defense twice. The first was from a beast that employed defensive stances every second it could, and only attacked whenever it felt safe. The second was with a demon, the one who took my eye."
"From what I can recall, he had the skill "Mental Block," which supposedly nullifies any and every Mental Affinity attack."
"So how'd you beat him?" Dignitas asked.
"I didn't kid. I ran with my tail between my legs. I was young then, and paid for my insolence with the loss of my eye and my mentor."
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