"Please, I’ve already spoken to three people today who have asked for my services; everyone needs to calm down a little."
When River heard these words, she looked at Atlas’s eyes with a smiling face and then approached him and said, "I will be with you for the rest of your life." and left.
She left nothing behind except an open-mouthed Atlas in astonishment.
A message came from Nyx instantly that said:
[Ok...That was creepy even for me.]
Atlas tried to realise what was going on, but couldn’t find an answer and was content with saying "Umm..."
[You’ve earned yourself a stalker, I think we’ll call it ’Atlas Worshipper’] came another message from Nyx.
"My lady, stop joking. I don’t want any kind of follower anyway, just people to fight side by side, and I can’t have a stalker following me on top of that. All I did was save River, not much else," Atlas replied.
Immediately after that, he took one of the training swords in the training grounds and stood in front of a railing to work.
At that moment, he could feel the stares from the entrance of the training grounds, but strangely, he chose not to turn round. It would be fair to say that he was clearly startled.
He could start working now. He had a very short time. The raid had to be made soon.
While he was doing things to improve himself even more and practising the things he got from Perseus, Cordelia had a different job.
After her return to the Academy, she had summoned all available Sages to her command. Before long, each of the 7 Sages had gathered in Cordelia’s room at the academy.
There was no one in the room except the Sages.
[Sage of Eternity, Cordelia
Sage of Life, Cassandra Leonardi
Sage of Earth, Talon Seymour
Sage of Illusion, Constantine Ascelin
Sage of Death, Cain Sterling
Sage of Seals, Bellatrix Karlene
Sage of Nature, Juliet Simone]
Cordelia was sitting at the head of the table, and the other Sages were kneeling before her. It was clear who the master of the room was.
"Lady Cordelia, may we ask to what do you owe the sudden summoning of us?" the man with jet black hair and tired eyes said. This was Cain Sterling, the man who was addressed as the farmer and had the nickname Sage of Death.
The smile on Cordelia’s face strangely frightened each of them. Every time this woman smiled that sly smile, someone was either killed or, worse, every single Sage had a job to do.
"The reason I called you here is that I want you to protect someone and give other orders. Or rather, I’m going to choose one of you," Cordelia said suddenly, apparently not wanting to go on Atlas’ raid, but wanting to send someone else there.
The six Sages on their knees were, of course, surprised to hear those words; none of them had ever received such an order from Cordelia before.
"May I ask who it is?" asked Cassandra, the embodiment of blood magic, the woman nicknamed Sage of Life.
"It will be my personal student, Atlas," Cordelia replied and then added, "It could be you, Cassandra, he is a child you will love."
Cassandra moved her head slightly when she heard these words and finally had to lift her bowed head and look Cordelia in the face and ask, "I beg your pardon, my lady?"
"I believe you will like young Atlas, after all, he saved the lives of your nephews, he almost died, he had to stay in a coma for half a month because of it."
"My nephews?" questioned Cassandra, the beautiful woman with the dull gaze could hardly believe what she was hearing, she was beginning to worry.
"Indeed. Unfortunately, one of the devil worshippers tortured your nephews," Cordelia said.
Cassandra stood up abruptly after what she had just heard and fell to one knee again under the gaze of the shocked Sages, suddenly realising the disrespect she had shown.
"Atlas saved your nephews. He is a young man with only three magic rings yet he went against a sixth-grade magician, but I suppose you must have heard the rumours, after all, you don’t seem surprised that he is my personal student. I haven’t managed to teach him anything yet, but that’s okay," said Cordelia.
"I won’t lie, my lady, we thought these rumours were just a misunderstanding. Could you tell me what happened, please? With a little detail," Juliet said, the white haired Sage of Nature.
"On the way to the Academy, a caravan line of a hundred students was attacked by assassins foolish enough to show themselves. By the time Abraham left to help, Atlas had already killed every single assassin using both magic and aura," Cordelia said.
Cordelia continued her speech amidst the astonished looks of each Sage:
"When he took the test, he changed the alchemy question we put on the written test for students to get wrong and wrote down the recipe for a slimming potion. He was a wizard with three magic rings and a level one aura before he even entered the academy. Such a huge potential." Cordelia added.
Then she chuckled and said, "However, it turned out that he was someone who also possessed white flame and black ice. I had to take him as my personal student. A person who can use both aura and mana together, which even I have never seen, a person who possesses both black ice and white flame. It would have been foolish, even for me, not to take him under my wing."
"Incredible," Talon said suddenly.
"Incredible indeed. On top of that, I learnt that he found a Sage’s Diary," Cordelia said, and then added, "He found it in a dungeon, I learned from Dumgrith. Since he questioned him. Would you like to know how he used this diary?"
Each Sage nodded their head without waiting.
"To learn the first and last name of every devil worshipper in the world. He chose to spend the Sage’s Diary, perhaps the most powerful item in existence, on the races of the world. In this way, Cassandra, he managed to save your nieces only a few minutes before they almost died, and was instrumental in their complete recovery. Is that explanation enough, my dears?" said Cordelia.
By the time the great woman had finished, only the shocked Sages remained.