Chapter 33: Draven got it, but at what cost?

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Draven got it, but at what cost?

Zenash sat back down.

"Fine."

Draven waited.

"I won’t decide anything today."

Draven breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you."

"That doesn’t mean I accepted your refusal."

"I figured."

Zenash rested both arms on the table.

"Now we have another problem."

Draven knew which one.

"About the man who attacked you?"

"That’s right."

Yruza shifted her posture slightly.

"The soldiers found remains."

Draven looked at her.

"Could they identify him?"

"No."

It was expected.

By that point in the story, Greydarn Malikor was not a public figure, so very few people knew his face and even fewer knew of his relationship with Elfin.

Draven was among those people, but he couldn’t say it.

Zenash continued.

"The remains were too deteriorated."

Draven kept a calm expression.

"I saw that."

"They also found signs of an extremely intense battle."

"And it was intense."

Zenash watched him.

"What we don’t understand is why someone so powerful was in Nerathis."

Draven remained silent, at which Zenash began to interrogate him.

"Did he say anything?"

"A few things."

"His name?"

"No."

"Where he was from?"

"Neither."

"What he wanted?"

Draven thought before answering.

"At first it seemed like he was just observing us."

Yruza frowned.

"And then?"

"He realized we distrusted him."

Zenash looked at him.

"That doesn’t explain why he tried to kill you."

"He asked us some questions."

"Which ones?"

Draven breathed slowly.

"He wanted to know if we knew him."

Zenash’s expression changed.

"Did you know him?"

Draven shook his head.

"No, of course not."

Another lie, but this time there was no artifact capable of detecting it in front of him.

Zenash kept looking at him for several seconds, so Draven maintained a calm expression.

"Then why did he ask that?"

"I don’t know."

Yruza spoke.

"Maybe he recognized Taliah."

"It’s possible."

The Valdegrim family was well-known, so that served as a reasonable explanation, at which Zenash leaned back in her chair.

"The investigators believe he was an expert S-rank mage."

"And they’re not wrong."

"How strong was he?"

Draven thought, much more than he wanted to admit.

"Stronger than us."

Yruza replied.

"That’s obvious."

Draven looked at her.

"Thanks for the compliment."

"You’re welcome."

Zenash ignored the exchange.

"Then how did you kill him?"

Draven fell silent, since this was where the difficult part began.

He could explain the fight, talk about the Sixth Demonic Path, the Shadows of the Forgotten, Taliah destroying the heart, and all of that was true.

The problem was what happened afterward.

Zenash continued.

"And more importantly."

Draven looked at her.

"How did you survive?"

There was a brief silence from Draven, at which Yruza also watched him.

Draven had prepared an answer, which wasn’t perfect, but it was the best he had.

"Your emergency object."

Zenash narrowed her eyes.

"It wouldn’t have been enough."

"It allowed them to find us."

"That was afterward."

Zenash leaned in.

"I’m talking about before."

Draven didn’t answer.

"The healers were clear."

Her voice grew more serious.

"Taliah shouldn’t have survived that long with those wounds."

Draven felt tension in his body.

"Maybe her body reinforcement..."

"No."

Yruza was the one who replied.

"The reports ruled that out."

Draven looked at her and she continued.

"Her body was stabilized before the soldiers arrived."

Zenash added.

"There were signs of advanced healing magic."

Draven remained silent.

"Did you use it?"

"I can’t do something like that."

That was true.

"Taliah?"

"She was unconscious."

Also true, so Zenash frowned.

"Then someone else was there."

Draven shook his head.

"I didn’t see anyone."

That could also be considered true, since Elfin hadn’t appeared physically as a separate person.

Yruza watched him carefully, but Draven avoided looking at her too much, since he couldn’t tell them anything about Elfin, the contract managed by Eje, or much less about becoming a vessel.

Zenash sighed.

"There are too many things that don’t make sense."

"I agree."

"That doesn’t reassure me."

"I wasn’t trying to."

Zenash looked at him with annoyance and then changed the subject.

"There’s something else."

Draven waited.

"Your feat was recognized by the academy."

For the first time since he had entered the room, the tension eased a little.

"Officially?"

"That’s right."

Draven settled into the chair.

"That fast?"

"There was enough evidence."

Yruza began to list them.

"The vocier’s corpse, the wounds produced by your daggers..."

Draven nodded.

"...the marks from the fight, the soldiers’ reports, and Taliah."

Draven smiled.

"That helps."

Zenash crossed her arms.

"A Valdegrim stating that you participated in the hunt carries considerable weight."

"That’s what I told her."

"Additionally, they used a verification artifact when Taliah answered the questions."

Draven remembered seeing some academics visit Taliah the day before.

’So that’s what it was for...’

Zenash continued.

"The academy accepted the feat."

Draven fell silent for a second, since that entire journey had worked.

"Then..."

"You can enter through the special path."

Draven let out a breath, since he had finally gotten what he was after, and Zenash watched him.

"Happy?"

"Of course."

"You seem more worried."

Draven lowered his gaze.

"I’m tired."

Zenash didn’t seem completely convinced, but she didn’t insist.

"When the healers allow you to travel, you’ll be able to go to Aster."

Draven nodded and Yruza spoke.

"After you recover."

"Of course."

"Completely."

Draven looked at her.

"I’ll do my best."

"No..."

Yruza kept a serious expression.

"...I mean it."

Draven understood the message.

"All right."

Zenash stood up.

"The conversation is over."

Draven also tried to stand, but Zenash spoke.

"One more thing."

He stopped and Zenash looked at him directly.

"If you come back in that state again..."

"Yes?"

"I’ll assign you a personal guard by force."

Draven opened his mouth, but then decided not to reply, so Zenash smiled slightly.

"Good."

Draven walked toward the door and, before leaving, glanced briefly at Yruza.

She couldn’t say anything, since Zenash was still there, but her eyes dropped for an instant to Draven’s reconstructed arm.

Then they returned to his face and that was enough, so Draven left.

He walked back slowly through the halls.

’I got in.’

That thought should have made him feel better, since for years he had planned to reach the academy.

He needed to be there because many important events would begin within its facilities.

Now he had access, but Draven couldn’t stop thinking about one thing.

’Greydarn Malikor.’

One of the central enemies and the man destined to become one of the most important threats in Valkaen.

Now Greydarn was dead and Elfin was inside him.

Draven stopped in the middle of the hallway, looked at his reconstructed arm, then placed a hand on his chest and felt nothing strange.

He hadn’t heard Elfin’s voice since Nerathis, but he knew she was there, since the contract confirmed it.

Draven slowly let out his breath.

He had secured his entry to the academy and everything had gone as he wanted, except for one thing.

’I wanted to get closer to the story to survive.’

Draven lowered his gaze.

’Not become the main problem.’

Draven closed his eyes.

He had managed to enter the academy, but the price had been occupying the place of the final boss of the game.