"Of course! I don't mind at all," Colette says, gesturing to the well-dressed elf.
From the back of her surprisingly tidy closet, he pulls the black nun robes and hands them to Vol. Apparently, he's both Colette's butler and bodyguard, as appointed by the elven council.
"What do you need them for?" she asks, interestedly.
"It's rather complicated."
I have a hunch that there may be some form of magic embedded in the clothes the nuns wear. Something that keeps out the celestial light. That would allow them to communicate with the gods in the celestial realm without the migraines we've been experiencing every time.
We're lucky that Colette still has her old nun robes. Otherwise, we'd have needed to steal some from the church. That could have gotten rather messy.
As we wave goodbye to Colette, we proceed up the newly bricked streets of Rosewood. We soon pass the massive chains keeping the academy in place, and take the "elevator" up to the academy entrance.
Entering the main hall, I notice that the long cracks in the academy marble are still there from when Elizabeth's sword struck the floor. It's good to be back.
"Ma-master Vol!" a man exclaims, stunned.
Here we go again.
Once half the academy has finally finished greeting Vol, we enter his old office, where he lays the girl's clothes out on a table.
Vol leans over the table, studying the robes carefully. I notice that his eyes have the same far-away stare that they did when he was confirming my collapsed mana store.
"Thoughts?" I ask, as Vol studies the robes carefully.
"Nothing," he says, looking confused, "There are no spells or engravings or anything."
Was I wrong? Is there really nothing special about these clothes? I trust Vol's judgement, but something still feels off about them. I can't quite put my finger on it, though.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elizabeth approaching the robes.
"Any ideas?" I ask her as she kneels down.
Silently, she takes hold of a loose thread, slowly unravelling it until it pulls away. She holds it up under the light, rotating it slowly.
"Elizabeth?"
"Look," she says, rotating it again, "This side isn't reflecting any light."
Vol and I move up beside her and look closely at the thin thread as she rotates it.
She's right.
One side of the thread reflects light normally, but the other seems completely dark, even under direct light.
"How very interesting," Vol mumbles, "I wonder how that works."
"Unfortunately, we don't have time to study it."
There isn't long until the meeting of the greater gods and figuring out how to make this could take weeks or months.
"Let's unravel the robes," I decide. "Then we'll use the thread to make something to cover us."
"Eh, Seb, I'm not sure there are enough threads in a child's clothes to cover Elizabeth and I, too."
That's true. I guess it came to this, anyway.
"Fine, let's keep it intact. I'll wear it as is. We can steal some more robes from the church in Tayde for you two."
"I can ask Jonas," Elizabeth suggests, "He won't mind robbing them."
Work for me. Less dirty work.
Leaving Vol's office, we find the entrance hall packed. We were only in there for a few minutes, though. Somebody probably tipped off the council.
"Welcome back, Vol."
An elf who looks to be middle-aged steps out from the the perfect line of councilmembers. How old does an elf have to be to look middle-aged? Vol is 1400 years old, but barely looks 30, so this man might very well be nearing 3000.
Finally, somebody older than me.
"There's no need for this," Vol says, "I'm just on my way out."
"You're leaving? Again?"
"I'm in the middle of something important."
"And what is it this time? Destroying another port?"
The council doesn't seem too happy. A few of them glance annoyedly at myself and Elizabeth.
"No, nothing of the sort. Now, if you'll excuse us," Vol says, leading us toward the exit.
"Hold it."
A group of soldiers blocks our path to the exit.
Vol looks back at the councilmembers, his eyebrow raised.
"You have been given free reign for too long, Vol. You have abused your position. You will stay with the academy or you will face expulsion from Rosewood."
I know the council aren't the biggest fans of us, but they've been generally supportive of our work so far. Why are they suddenly making such an extreme turn?
"In accordance with paragraph 4 of the council foundation article: 'Permanent expulsion of a former council member is not permitted except in the event of high treason.'" Vol retorts. "What exactly do you claim that I have done?"
The greatest magic researcher of all time, founder of Tayde, is also a former elven council member? I guess that explains why everyone seems to revere Vol so much.
Still, if what he says is true, I'll be interested to hear exactly what their reason is.
"You have vouched for the permanent stay of Sebastian Malt, knowing full well that his collapsed mana store would attract monsters and heighten spawns in the area."
Wait, what?
"You have concealed this information despite the appearance of a greater monster and the destruction it wrought upon us in its search for the individual known as Sebastian Malt, Stencil Marakov, and Shawl."
Wait. Hold on.
"You are therefore guilty of harboring and protecting the man responsible for the obliteration of the elven capital city, Rosewood."
What the fuck?
The only ones who know me as Shawl are Elizabeth and Vol. Seeing as neither of them are likely to have talked, the most likely option is...
"Since when does the council take advice from nuns?"
I guess Vol arrived at the same conclusion. The Cyrene must have sent some of their nuns to Rosewood to rat on me.
"You don't deny it, then!"
The council doesn't look too taken aback. I guess they weren't really trying to hide were they got their information.
"I don't. It's the truth," Vol replies, sternly.
Murmurs run through the crowd. Concern, fear, anger. I guess I can understand where they're coming from. Vol continues in a voice that covers the entire room.
"I promised to help Sebastian with the creation of an artificial mana store, to prevent his immense leaking mana from affecting the world around us. Not only have I done that, revolutionizing mana research forever, but I have also created one of the most powerful mana weapons in current existence," he says, holding up one of the newly created manacasters, strapped tightly to his arm.
More murmurs and hushed discussions.
"Your efforts may be valuable, but that is irrelevant to-"
"However!" Vol interrupts the councilman, "Sebastian and I have equal share in the effort to create it. The creation of both the AM-store and the manacaster would have been impossible without his assistance."
"That's-"
"And might. I. Remind you. Sebastian and Elizabeth are responsible for the permanent removal of two of the worst creatures in existence - the biggest threat to all life - the greater monsters. However much damage the greater monster caused here, it would have been a thousand times worse, had it not been for them."
Technically, Elizabeth is responsible for two and I'm responsible for, like, one and a half, depending on how you count. Vol is pretty damn good at this speech thing, though.
"That said," he says, calming his voice, "If you judge that we should leave Rosewood permanently, I see no reason to object further. If the council has truly fallen so far, I see no reason to stay, regardless."
Jesus, dude. Way to rile up a crowd. The chattering around us is so loud, I can't even make out what people are saying.
The older councilman who had stepped forward to speak is looking back at the rest of the council. I'm starting to get the sense that they were making an empty threat. Thinking about it, how stupid would they have to be to banish the greatest magic researcher who ever lived, let alone one who just invented a powerful new weapon.
I bet they thought he'd stay. I glance over at Vol. I see the corner of his mouth turn up slightly before falling back into a stern expression.
I might be good at manipulating individuals, but when it comes to crowds, Vol really is a master. From what I can tell, a lot of people here are on Vol's side. And even those that aren't seem to have realized that they're about to lose one of their most valuable assets.
"Very well," the councilman says, "You have... argued your case well. Considering your contributions and the eradication of the greater monsters, we have - *ahem* - come to the conclusion that you have sufficiently outweighed your - uh - less... acceptable actions," he finishes quickly.
I guess they've decided to make an attempt at reconciliation. Or maybe they're just trying not to lose face. Either way, it's pretty pathetic and half-hearted.
"Good. Now, if you'll excuse us," Vol says, turning back to the entrance.
The soldiers glance at one another, then slowly part. The council says nothing as we leave, and we don't look back.
"That was very dramatic," Elizabeth says, as we proceed down the main street toward the gate to Tayde.
"Ah-haha, I guess so, huh~" Vol chuckles, looking awkward. "Sorry about that."
"Nothing to be sorry about. That was pretty fun," I say, "I didn't realize you were on the council."
"Ah, it was only for a short time, when I was about 200 years old. I'm the youngest elf to have ever been on the council, so people keep going on about it, even though it was only for a few years."
It's difficult to get a measure of "youngest elf," but 200 does sound quite young, at least in comparison to the others.
"Why did you stop? From what I just saw, you seem like you'd be a pretty good politician."
"Haha~" he laughs, gesturing to a guard to activate the gate to Tayde.
"It was the speeches. They make my voice all hoarse," he jokes, mimicking the voice of the older councilman as he walks through the open gate.
I take a step through it, then nearly bump into Vol's back on the other side. Elizabeth steps up next to me. Together, we look out over the glittering ocean. Our view is obstructed, however.
There, just outside the port, is a ship around the size of a cruise liner. Gold decorations line the polished wooden hull. My eyes fall on the flag flying high from the masts.
The royal crest.
Uncle.
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