L.E. Miranda
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SSR - Book 2 Chapter 25: Discussion
🕑 Added 2025-04-03 00:21:38 +0000 UTCRylan sat down on the couch with a calm expression and fixed his new robe. He raised his gaze to the professors and Nathan, who were in the middle of finding their seats.
This might be annoying.
There was no good explanation for how he and Gerard had managed to clear the Dungeon. Once the Dungeon’s level had been made clear, their plan had shifted from ‘clearing the Dungeon’ to ‘using the Dungeon to become as strong as possible.’ However, because of its unique ability to lock them inside, alongside the Basilisk’s capability to keep sending waves of strong enemies after them, they had been forced to try their best for the right to live another day.
And now, it was time for them to face the consequences of that.
Gerard sat down to Rylan’s right. Elizabeth quickly sat down to his left. Sarah and Aelfric remained standing behind the couch. In front, Alice and the others sat down on another couch or plush chairs. She stared straight into Rylan’s eyes with a complicated expression. Rylan stared back.
“I’m sorry,” Alice suddenly said after a few seconds of silence. Rylan blinked. “In the end, we weren’t of much help.”
Rylan looked at her guilty expression and grinned. This was a somewhat cute line of thought.
“No,” he replied. “You were helpful.”
Alice furrowed her brow.
“Without you here, Father and I wouldn’t have been able to enter the Dungeon to clear it. You protected the town for us. You ensured the safety of not only Aelfric and Sarah, but every other citizen of Cantavega. Besides, you guys arrived days earlier to keep the monsters in the Woodlands under control. Thank you. You did well,” Rylan continued.
Alice kept up her stare. Her expression didn’t relax.
“…How did you do it?” she asked, glancing at Gerard. “Based on the mana levels within the Dungeon and the fact that the Boss was a Basilisk, you shouldn’t have been able to leave with so few injuries.”
Rylan narrowed his eyes. Had she determined that Gerard’s power wasn’t enough to achieve these results? Unwilling to reveal any of his inner thoughts, he readily nodded.
“Yeah, the Basilisk was a pain in the ass. I had never fought something so dangerous.”
“…But you managed to kill it. Even after spending twenty-four hours running away from the enemies inside.”
Running away?
Rylan nodded at her with a grin. There was no need to correct her. The less she thought of this incident, the better. It was still too early for him to let the world know about his full abilities.
“It was difficult. But we managed to do it. I don’t know what to tell you, professor.”
Alice let out a sigh.
“I’m just glad you’re both safe. Even if I don’t really understand what happened,” she looked at Gerard. “I’m sure the Headmaster would be delighted to offer you a position within the Royal Magic Academy, Gerard.”
Gerard only shook his head.
“Maybe someday, but not now. I still have duties to this town. I’ll have to refuse, Miss Alice.”
Rylan glanced at his father. This was in line with his expectations. Gerard had always hesitated to leave behind his hometown, where he had built his family. As Cantavega’s strongest Mage, his responsibilities were great, and would only increase because of the Basilisk Wilds incident. Now, Gerard would be even more unwilling to leave Cantavega for good. Rylan grinned.
I don’t mind it.
It was good to have a safe place away from the capital and the Astassier family’s full reach. Elizabeth likely felt the same way. Cantavega was where she and Gerard could truly be themselves without needing to worry about others. To confirm his suspicions, Elizabeth smiled at Gerard’s words.
Alice sighed again.
“So be it. Please turn to us if you ever change your mind,” she replied before turning to stare at Rylan once more.
Rylan raised an eyebrow.
“…Yes, professor?”
“You’re stronger. To the point where I don’t even know by how much. What Level have you reached?”
Rylan beamed at her.
“Can’t a man have some secrets?”
Alice scoffed, closed her eyes, and slowly rubbed her temples.
"Rylan. This isn't a joke. You’ve got so much mana that all you need to enter the Third Circle is a bit more knowledge and experience with magic. At the same time, it's obvious you didn’t neglect your physical stats when using up your Free Points. What the hell happened to you?"
Rylan shrugged.
"I just fought whatever found us. The XP piled up."
"And how exactly did you fight and kill those monsters as a Second Circle Mage?"
"Father helped me."
"That means you shared the XP. How many did you even fight?"
Once Rylan shrugged again, she let out a deep sigh, staring at him with narrowed eyes. Rylan only grinned at her. The room went silent.
“…Fine, it’s not like you have to tell me," Alice stated after almost ten seconds. "But I’m only the first person to ask about it. There will be many more. That will only give rise to more questions. Right now, we need to come up with a good way to explain this entire story.”
Rylan nodded. It was true. The fewer people who knew about what had truly happened here, the better. On that note, he was thankful for the distance between Cantavega and Caer Rhelon, since it would take some time for the news to spread because of it. To contain the aftermath, they needed a believable story about this whole thing. Suddenly, a voice he hadn’t expected resounded.
“I believe I can help with that.”
Rylan snapped to look at Nathan, but Elizabeth was somehow even faster.
“What the hell are you talking about, Nathan?” she asked with a frown, her voice brimming with distrust and hostility.
In response, Nathan only gave a calm stare. Deep in his eyes, Rylan could see contempt but also craftiness and satisfaction.
“Our family wields enormous influence over the capital’s noble and military circles. Any story, if told by us, would be much more believable than if you tried to explain things on your own,” Nathan replied, turning to look at Rylan with a grin.
Rylan narrowed his eyes.
Finally showing your hand, huh?
It was unlikely that Nathan had been anticipating this exact development all along, but he had managed to react to the circumstances.
And if he and Gael truly predicted this…
It would mean that the Astassier family was more formidable than he thought. Either way, the game was now truly starting.
“I am willing to offer you my full support, nephew,” Nathan continued. “Whatever you decide to do, our family will help you no matter what.”
“In exchange for what?” Elizabeth snapped. “Do you really think we can’t tell that this is just part of your plan to convince Rylan to join the Astassier family? Stop the bullshit.”
Nathan looked at her, his gaze a degree colder.
“Why would I ask for anything in exchange? I’m just trying to help a family member. Joining our house or not is his choice. Either way, I’ll support him on this.”
“Family member? Yours?” Elizabeth replied with gritted teeth, her voice almost a growl. “My son is part of the Flameheart family. Not part of yours.”
Nathan frowned, the aura around him slightly changing. Elizabeth kept up her stare, clearly unwilling to back down in the least. The moment the situation was looking like it would take a turn for the worst, Gerard laid his hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. She looked at him. He only shook his head slightly.
At the same time, Rylan looked at Nathan with some interest.
Even if I don’t join, is it? Are they just trying to build up some goodwill?
It was the right move. Even though Nathan could have taken advantage of the situation to create a more transactional relationship, such as helping Rylan spread his story in exchange for joining the Astassiers, Nathan had chosen to start the process to have Rylan join on his own. The main difference between the two methods was, naturally, the degree of loyalty he would feel.
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Rylan only smiled calmly.
“That would be very helpful,” he said to Nathan. “Which means that we should now move to the story. I accept your help.”
Elizabeth clenched her jaw but said nothing. Rylan understood her perspective, but it was true that the Astassier house could be of much help in a situation like this.
No matter what they offer, I won’t join anyway.
If they only wanted him to join their family to use him, there was nothing wrong with using them in turn.
“The simplest path,” Rylan continued. “Would be to say that all Fifth Circle Mages here were the ones who cleared the Dungeon, as a team. I also went in and Leveled up with Father’s help, but left once I realized I was in over my head. ”
Alice immediately shook her head.
“Rast Vaard already knows we stayed behind as you two entered the Dungeon. We can’t go with that.”
“Rast wouldn’t tell anyone anything,” Gerard intervened. “I trust him. We only need to give a brief explanation and tell him to keep quiet.”
Alice looked at him with a conflicted expression.
“Even if that’s true, it would be better not to risk it,” Rebecca said, speaking for the first time in this conversation. Everyone looked at her, making her blink. “We only need to come up with something more elaborate.”
“The more complex a story we come up with, the easier it will be for one of us to mess up some details when telling others about it and give rise to suspicion,” Rylan replied. “We wouldn’t be able to control Rast’s actions if we went with the simple story, but it would be even worse if one of us accidentally made someone suspicious.”
Rebecca hesitated, then slowly nodded.
“Another alternative would be to do what I did with Evenon, but I doubt it would work nearly as effectively,” Rylan continued.
He had advised Gerard and the others to spread as many outlandish, baseless rumors as possible, to the point that truth and lies mixed into an unidentifiable mess. By reducing any story’s credibility as a whole, they had contained the information’s spread. Back then, it had been their only choice due to the number of people who had witnessed the battle firsthand. However, this situation was different. Only a few people were aware of the plan to raid the Dungeon, and it was likely that none of them knew that the Dungeon had already been cleared.
The room went silent.
“I think we should go with the simple story,” Alice said after a few long seconds. “I agree with Rylan’s point about messing up. I’ll believe in Gerard’s opinion about Rast. If things escape our expectations, we’ll see what we can do. Even though the story wouldn’t really explain how Rylan got so much stronger, maybe it’s better to leave it that way. I feel like coming up with a half-hearted excuse for something we don’t even completely understand ourselves would be stabbing ourselves in the foot.”
Rylan nodded with a smile, as did Gerard. The others slowly did the same. They continued to discuss the specifics of the story. Alice tried to obtain more information about what had happened inside the Dungeon, but Rylan didn’t budge. In the end, the story they had decided upon was a simple one - Rylan and Gerard had hidden within the Dungeon and fought off whatever enemies had found them until the professors noticed something was wrong and entered the Basilisk Wilds. Then, they all worked together to defeat the Basilisk, with Rylan having only played a minor part. It was an effective tale, one that unfortunately had been suggested by Nathan.
After many minutes, Rylan stood up. The discussion had come to a close.
Comments
L.E. Miranda
You might be right. Let me add some lines to this chapter. I was so caught up in "what story should we tell the people" that I forgot to elaborate on the more obvious point, which is "how tf dis you get so much stronger?" Let me go fix it.
Mitchell Calhoun
Kinda feels like they handwaved away him getting so much stronger. It’s basically to the point where it shouldn’t be possible. This isn’t some other student, he kinda does owe them a bit of an explanation even if it isn’t a true one.
thaughton2
Nathan has "I'll poison your mother for leverage" energy.
