The Ancient Genes

Max stood near the door with an ugly expression before finally taking a step forward and pushing the door open.

Norek who was standing behind with a smile followed after Max.

"Creak!"

As soon as Max entered the room, his eyes met with another pair of aged eyes. It was a pair of deep and profound looking eyes which seemed to have seen many things.

Max continued to look at the old man who was sitting opposite to the headmaster with a cup of tea in his hands. 

The old man had white hair and there were slight wrinkles on his face showing his wisdom. He was wearing loosely fit clothing but it still couldn't hide his muscular build. 

"You are finally here." The headmaster's voice entered Max's voice and he flinched.

"It was not my fault. I couldn't have let them beat me for no reason." Max spoke with an honest face as he slowly turned to look at the headmaster. He didn't do anything wrong.

"What did you do now?" Headmaster said as his eyes widened.

Max suddenly felt something was wrong here, wasn't he being called for the trouble earlier. 

Max immediately looked at Norek beside him to see the guy standing there trying to hide the smile.

'Damn it!'

He had misunderstood the situation. He shouldn't have tried to be honest.

"What did you do now?" The headmaster asked with a grim tone again as lines began to appear on his face.

"N-Nothing." Max forced a smile on his face.

"What did he do?" The headmaster asked as he tilted his head towards Norek.

Max turned to look towards Norek, he wanted to shake his head. But he could feel an intense gaze on himself and didn't dare to.

"He declared a war on the Nobles." Norek replied in short.

"Pfft!"  The old man who was drinking his tea couldn't hold it back and immediately sprayed it out.

William, the headmaster who was sitting right opposite to him was showered with tea from head to toe. His face really looked ugly and the chill in his eyes made Max avert his gaze.

"Hahaha!!!!" The old man burst into laughter as if he had heard the funniest thing in his life.

William stayed quiet and didn't speak anything. It seemed as if he was waiting for the old man.

The old man laughed for a good while before finally coming to a stop. He then looked towards Norek and the guy left the room. He then shifted his gaze towards Max and spoke, "Aren't you afraid kid?"

Max didn't know the person but he definitely wasn't an ordinary one. To be able to receive respect from the headmaster like this was speaking for the old man's status itself.

"Afraid of what? I didn't do anything wrong. Why do I need to be afraid then? The Academy will protect me if I am innocent." Max replied, he tried to be innocent as he didn't know who the old man was. He needed to be the good one here.

William's face twitched as heard Max speaking.

"You are sly….indeed just as William said." The old man said and this time Max's face twitched.

"But, drop the act. We all know how things work." The old man said calmly.

Max sighed, this old man was talking business, Max could sense the change in tone. He slightly tilted his head to look at the headmaster who just nodded his head, directing Max to say what he wanted.

"If you know then why don't you try to change how things are?" Max asked with a calm look

 "It isn't that I like it. But no one dares to raise their hands. Nothing can't be done with how things are." The old man replied.

"The weak don't dare to object, the strong don't need to object." The old man added.

Max could find sense in his words. The weak who were the commoners here were afraid and no one dared to do anything to the strong ones, the nobles who the old man was referring to if Max got it right.

This was the capital, there was no way that someone would dare to offend a noble here.

 That's the reason that Max was able to use the suppressed feeling of people to his advantage and further planned to bring these people onto his side in an attempt to revolutionize the system.

"What do you suggest then?" Max asked, he could feel there was a motive behind this old man's words.

"Well, nothing. I was just wondering if someone would go against the system and raise his voice," the old man said with a smile.

"Well, I can do it. What will I get in return?" Max asked, he was going to do it anyway. Since this old man was asking him for the same, he didn't mind profiting a bit from him. Besides, he didn't have anything to do with the old man. He didn't have to do him a favor for free.

William sitting opposite to the old man wanted to strangle Max when he heard him speak. 

The old man asked with a smile, "Will one of the Five Ancient Artifacts do?"

The words sent a bolt coursing through Max's entire body and he immediately looked towards the headmaster.

'Damn it! Are you kidding me?!' Max really felt this was the worst first impression he could have possibly given.

"I am the Leader of the Kingsman, one of the Ancient families and the Headmaster of Orca Magic Academy, Rayford Kingsman."

The designations that this old man had sounded like thunder in Max's ear.

He could only sigh, things were done and it couldn't be changed. Besides, he didn't think that the old man would be so narrow minded to take one thing for his entire character 

"Go and join the Disciplinary Committee tomorrow. It will help you to avoid getting detained by the knight of House." The old man said. The Knights of House wasn't under his direct control. It had 12 Noble Houses support and things could go bad if they issued a warrant. "Do a good job kid, I am looking forward to it."

Max nodded before making a bow and planning to quickly get out.

"Wait!" The headmaster finally spoke before Max could get out of the room.

"You are suspended for a day. Get out of the Academy, right now." The headmaster said in anger. He didn't want anymore trouble, who knew what more would Max do while staying inside the Academy not to mention if he got caught by the Knight of House without being the member of the Disciplinary committee today, it would spell another disaster.

Max looked at the headmaster and swallowed back the words that he was about to say. He might as well go in search of a house to rent since he didn't get a dorm.

When Max left the room, William looked at the old man and spoke, "He would die if any one of the houses gets offended by his behavior. Even though they might not do it openly, no one knows what will happen in the dark."

Max knew this very well too. But he was willing to take the risk.

"How strong is he?" The old man asked with a smile.

"Should be around, Advance stage." William replied and he was almost right. Max's strength was indeed around the advanced stage, but was approaching the peak phase.

He had faced two opponents stronger than him until now. One was in the red light district of Ishtar. The man was around the beginning of the expert tier and had lost his sanity, acting on pure instinct. Max and Derek had defeated the man together. The second was Eida, one of the 12 stars who was a bit stronger than that man but had lost to Max due to underestimating him. Max had almost died in the battle though.

"Hmmn….tell the Mage King that no one at the level of Master Tier Mage and above are to interfere with the Younger generation in the Academy or this old man will visit them very soon." The old man replied.

William's eyes widened. Did he confuse between expert and Master?

But the smile on his father's face meant that he didn't.

"Will you really give it to him if he succeeds?" William asked with a sigh.

The old man didn't reply to him but suddenly spoke, "Do you know there has been a successful child in one of the families who had managed to raise the Artifact?"

William's eyes widened, he could imagine things turning bad now. If the Families decided to keep the Artifacts for them what would happen to Max and the others.