33 Risen#re

Sergeant Ixel, felt her veins throb from the second she looked at Lirian, her intelligence report on him was very chaotic, if put simply.

Prince candidate was the first thing, a position that is usually given respect due to their regal bearings and exceptional responsibility, except in his case he was labelled as exceptionally disrespectful whilst also being venerated for his genius.

For every positive, there seemed to be a negative that made the positive vanish into thin air.

There was a list of accomplishments including the fact that he would frequently join in the classes of the 200-year-old students of the academy, in short, it had taken him 4 years and a few months to clear most of the 200-year curriculum of the academy.

Whilst also being able to defeat multiple cultivators in a, one vs many, battle, the list went on and on, but he was also known for giving his teachers mental breakdowns and shattering their confidence.

The academy had cycled out 23 teachers in the past 4 years due to his actions.

The most recent of things listed however made her feel anger towards him, and that was his disrespect of his Excellency Telamon a hero of the empire, if not for the base commander telling her to take it easy on him, she would have made him do all the cleaning by himself.

"What exactly is your problem?" she asked firmly.

"As you can see, I'm blind, I won't be very helpful in cleaning," Lirian said innocently waving his hands in front of his eyes, "Also I didn't make a mess so I won't be cleaning up after anyone else," he added condescendingly.

"Just get to the side and stay out of everyone's way," sergeant Ixel spat while frowning and dismissed him she wanted to admonish him but felt that it would only create unnecessary trouble.

Lirian walked away deep in thought, he had noticed that the pressure on him and his mother had lessened significantly, it started when the students starting telling him to make an apology to Telamon in a less serious way, it seemed more like they were doing an annoying chore instead of something important.

It was a slight shift in attitude but it made a big difference, and seeing that even someone completely foreign to him didn't take his complete lack of respect as a means to discipline him in front of everyone gave him even more to think about.

It seemed that someone big had spoken up for him, but he had no idea about who it could be, for now he moved away while keeping an eye out, metaphorical of course, on all of Telamons little spies.

There were a little more than 100 of them amongst the student, in every class of the school there were three scholarship students', they were either from the orphanages or unprivileged members of society that had talent worth investing in.

They were also the easiest prey for Telamon to lure and control, and he had felt several of their gazes fixed on him, with their childish amounts of killing intent that he found laughable.

If anything, he was certain that they were waiting for a chance to catch him when he was alone and of guard.

When the students finished cleaning, Sergeant Ixel told them the rules before leading them through the steel corridors of the base, to the barracks where they would spend the night before setting out into the wild.

As everyone settled down, she called Lirian forward, "The commander of the base needs to speak with you, to brief you on the situation."

Lirian nodded and followed after her, "Media, come with me," he called out.

Sergeant Ixel frowned, "I heard that you are the sole commander of the group, as such only you will be meeting the base commander," she said sternly.

"I assume that in the briefing there will be maps of the region, and I can't see," he said tapping his foot heavily against the cold steel floor.

"I need someone to do it for it me, surely that isn't a problem!" he said with crossed arms and walked forward not giving her any time to respond.

Media followed after Lirian, her hands slightly fidgety as she felt Ediths stare from behind, "Don't you think you should have asked Edith to help you instead of me?" she asked casting him a furtive glance.

Since the death of Ilma Eden, they all knew that something had happened between the two of them, after all, hickeys don't just appear out of nowhere, and the way that Edith looked at her made her feel like she had stolen something from Edith.

"Why would, I need her help?" he asked in a genuinely confused voice and shook his head.

"You're coming with me because you need some work done on you, Edith is already confident enough in herself," he said plainly not hiding his intentions.

"Oh," she muttered in realization, rubbing her elbow as she focused on the task ahead.

Sergeant Ixel quickly caught up, guiding them through the unfamiliar structure, of the base.

After many turns through twisting corridors, they stopped in front of a huge shiny steel door, once the sergeant placed her identification card against a scanned the door split into two and opened up, revealing a large room, with a very large and oddly shaped desk.

"You'll have fifteen minutes with commander Pexis," she said stepping into the room.

Sergeant Ixel walked in gesturing for Lirian and Media to follow in behind her, she walked to the base commander and saluted him when she stood before him.

"At ease sergeant," he said with a plain smile while welcoming Lirian and Media, he gestured for them to come closer.

He cast a curious glance at Lirian and Media, it appears that he truly is blind, he concluded to himself while casting a knowing glance at Media, in his reports he read, that she had made quite the mess of her expedition.

He found it curious that Lirian would choose the weakest link of the current candidates he would have expected him to bring Edith or Tobias, even that boy Cole wouldn't have been a bad choice, as his eyes furrowed when Lirian didn't move, but he quickly realized his mistake.

"Come closer, Sir Lirian and Miss Media," he said getting them to come in front of the oddly shaped table.

"My apologies for not tell you to come closer sooner Sir Lirian, it's been at least a century since the last I encountered a blind person," he said in a pleasant tone.

"I understand," Lirian said curtly, ", and I won't make a big deal about it if you refresh out fifteen minutes, we already lost about thirty seconds because of your mistake commander," Lirian said rudely, not even being tactful with his words.

The commander surprised Media, he didn't even look like he took the slightest of offence by Lirians remark.

'Good he understands that his time to analyse all the information in here is limited,' the commander thought, these fifteen minutes had the power to determine the entire course of the expedition.

"Yes of course, it was my fault," the commander said and lead them to the oddly shaped table, "However since you have an extra person with you I will have to reduce the time you have by three minutes," he added wondering what Lirians response would be.

"I thought the time would have been halved," Lirian said stroking his chin with a slightly disappointed look on his face.

The commander couldn't tell if he was disappointed because he guessed the deduction wrongly or if it was because he wanted the time to be reduced by half, but the fact that he determined that there would be a time deduction for bringing an extra person, told him that Lirian was indeed someone that thought before acting.

"It would have been halved had you not been blind," the commander added, when Lirians disappointed face remained the same he concluded that it was latter that disappointed Lirian, but he couldn't understand why Lirian would want the time to be cut in half.

In truth, Lirian wanted to make the intel gathering as difficult as possible for Media as possible to see how well she works under pressure.

"I see," Lirian replied with a small chuckle as if laughing at a joke he just made.

"Sir Lirian, would care to place your hands on the table and guess what it is?" he asked while pacing around the table in anticipation, he wanted to see how good the boy's intuition really was.

"Please just call me Lirian," Lirian said with a pleasant smile and slowly moved his hands down, he could tell in an instant that the entire table was filled with a very bumpy terrain, and as he slowly moved around it, he could feel lines that were cut into it with precision.

But the lines seemed to bend and curve with out any form of pattern or order.

There were different types of lines with many different thicknesses, some even had numerous breaks in the lines.

After a full five minutes of walking around and touching as much of it as he could reach without climbing on top of the table, he was confident in what he was touching, "It's a map of the world we currently on!" he exclaimed.