33 Risen#re

One day earlier.

Hinata sat in the waiting room of the office, there was a long line ahead of her, most of them were familiar faces.

In the academy, there were many different cliques, the nobles with higher status families formed their own circles, the normal nobles had their own circles, the students from extremely wealthy backgrounds would intermingle with the nobles but they had their own groups as well.

Then there were the candidates that held the most diverse group, although that diversity did come with a price and that price was talent, prove your ability and they'd be happy to let you in.

But if you lacked talent that made you stand out or stand above others in any field, they wouldn't even cast you a second glance and humiliate you for trying to get close to them.

Lastly was the common students, those that were in the academy on scholarships, and even then there were another two cliques, the students with parents and the orphans.

Hinata used to fall in the last clique, until she broke into the first-mortal-grade, and was accepted into Lirian's group.

But the more time she spent in Lirian group, the more she felt like an outcast, there was no chance for her to contend with the wealthy students, she came to the academy every day with a packed lunch made by the mother in the orphanage, while the students in Lirian's group would casually spend several credits every day on their exquisite dishes.

They would always pay for her to have a meal of her choice, but she didn't like the feeling, it was like they were giving her charity.

The hardest part of it all was that they would act like it was nothing at all, not a single one of them had ever brought up the topic of her bill, it was like those few credits that she would die to possess wasn't even worth a second thought in their eyes.

At that time the only rock she had was the headmaster, that always treated her well and gave her advice with a loving smile.

The effectiveness of Telamons advice was more than apparent, she might have been talented but she knew that it was only thanks to the headmaster that she had progressed so much faster than anyone else.

As she waited, she watched another familiar face leave the headmasters office.

Most of the students present were orphans or underprivileged students, like her, they too got advice from the headmaster occasionally, but she knew that she was the special one here, as she would get to visit the headmaster the most frequently.

It was all because of her talent, the headmaster told her that she reminded him of the empress.

Hinata believed in destiny, and Telamons words to her made her believe that she could be the next empress, they were from the same planet, and now they shared the same teacher.

She knew that she couldn't become a candidate now, it was too late for her but she could aim to achieve fifth-grade before turning 400, in doing so she could become a princess just like the empress did.

Time ticked by slowly as she waited, the headmaster told her that he had a special surprise for her today and when it was finally her turn, she entered the room eagerly.

The room was still the same as it had been the day, she first came here to pick up her cultivation technique, the walls held their shiny white look, and two chairs were placed in front of the headmasters with, with only a single bookcase in the back.

It was the only place in the entire academy that didn't mock her poverty, she took a seat as the headmaster motioned for her to come in.

"I've been reading about your progress in class," Telamon began with a sincere smile, "It's always a pleasant surprise to find a talent when you aren't expecting it," he said warmly.

Hinata blushed and looked down, just as she always did, it was always nice to have someone compliment you.

"Thank you, your excellency," she smiled warmly, "May I ask what your excellency called me for?"

Telamon nodded, "Give me your hand," he said reaching out his own.

Hinata complied without complaint, as she felt the headmaster take hold of her hand, she felt a small prick on her wrist as a few drops of blood slid down her wrist, she felt some a small object enter her skin.

"Your excellency," she cried out in alarm.

"Don't worry," Telamon comforted her, ", when they give you your watch at the base, take that chip I put in you out and insert it into the watch."

"That way I'll be able to keep an eye on you at all times to make sure you're safe," he said with a voice thick with concern.

Hinata had never felt so touched in her life, she tried to hide her face away as tears made their way into her eyes, there was never I single person in her life that she felt was truly concerned for her safety.

"Thank you so much your excellence," she said while trying to hold back her sobs.

"There's no need to cry about something like this child, this is what any decent person would do," he said in a soothing tone, as he calmed her down.

"Now then there is something I'd like to give you," he pulled open a drawer on the desk and pulled out a foot-long brown box.

Hinata took it in her hands carefully and almost immediately she felt her energy points stir, six of them in particular, all the ones that the headmaster had been telling her to focus on opening.

"This is a basic mage technique," she cried out hastily placing it back on the table like it was a treasure she found too precious to touch.

"That's worth far too much your excellency, I- I can't accept it," she shook her head hesitantly, but deep inside she felt a deep hunger festering for that technique inside her.

Telamon nodded, poor students were so easy to manipulate especially when they understood the value of something.

"Very well then, if you can't accept it like this then how about you do me a special favor, and in exchange, this will be yours," he pointed at the box.

Hinata was very tempted, she had just felt the difference between an elementary and basic technique for that brief instance and it was intoxicating to her.

With an elementary technique, she had to hold on to the scroll, yet with a basic technique, she held its container and it already affected her.

"I'll do anything you ask me to," she said with an evident hunger in her eyes.

Telamon smiled secretly before telling her what to do.

When he finished Hinata looked at him with shaking eyes, she couldn't believe what she had heard, a small part of her wanted to run and tell someone, but she knew that if she did the oath that she took with the headmaster all those years ago would kill her before she could get one word out.

Once she left Telamon looked around the room with a satisfied smile and turned on his heel, he put his hand against the wall, and a door materialized before him.

He took a step through it, into a cozy and luxurious corridor filled with ornaments and rare art pieces hanging on the walls, he took slow steps on the red-carpeted floors as he took in the lovely pieces.

He walked through a large open door and stepped into a wide room with an open bar on the side, as he poured himself a whiskey a figure covered in black robes came up behind him.

The figure bowed down respectfully, "Your orders master?"

Telamon looked at the zealot he had raised with satisfaction, "The plans are in motion, have the others move out, the planet isn't far from planet Xelia so it won't take too long,"

"Take everyone with you, you'll be meeting up with another group before you reach the planet," Telamon then told them a code that they would have to use code when they met up with Efrideet's zealots.

"Make sure that Lirian does not escape, and if you can, kill the other candidate Wentian, I heard that he was looking into me," he commanded.

"I live to serve," replied the zealot and he turned to leave.

When the zealot in black left Telamon couldn't help but feel it was a pity, as an ex-advisor, he wasn't allowed to have his own special task forces, due to the secrets of the empire he held it would be considered high-treason for him to have even a small force under himself.

It was painstaking work for him to raise a few zealots without alerting anyone, and after this, they would dispose of themselves, they knew their purpose.

They couldn't allow for any trail to lead back to him and so they would do what they had to protect their master.

He had only managed to create 14 of them over the years without being found out, and he sent them all out to handle this mission, he couldn't afford the slightest room for error.

For something this delicate, he could not afford to hire anyone to carry out the deed like he did when the children on the transport vessel were being brought to Xelia, this time he had to be careful with his every move.

If he hired someone, then he'd have an entirely new problem to deal with.