Harlan put on his best facade during the rest of his classes, the fact that 2 more of them had Sepul as the teacher didn’t help any.

He ran as fast as he could outside the academy as soon as his free period started, Sepul watched very closely, he never expected Harlan to be a runner, but he had been wrong about others in the past.

Harlan dove into the ground, his magic making it soft as water that he pushed it up and out, there was now a small mound where Harlan had dug 30 feet underground, the room was only big enough for him to sit in and little else.

“Child… You are safe… No harm shall befall you… Leave me to my grief… The champion of light protects you.”

Harlan was then kicked out as fast as he went to her.

He tried going back in one time, there was something he needed to say.

“Do not draw my ire child.”

“I just wanted to say I am sorry, I hope you can feel better, I’ve never been betrayed by my family but I know it would crush me.”

Then he willingly left, climbing back up the tunnel he made and filling the hole back in. The gate guards and other students who saw him had no idea what had happened, he seemed to have just dug a hole, sat inside for 5 minutes, and then walked back to the academy like nothing happened.

One of the guards wanted to at least ask, but his partner just held his shoulder and shook his head.

Harlan didn’t know how to spend his free period, drafting a will was now off the list, though he expected everything he had ever owned would’ve been forfeit anyway.

He decided the best option was just brushing up on his forms, he might not remember their names, but he felt he had at least a modest idea of what he would be going up against later.

One of the boys was weaselly and had a rapier at his hip, after his fight with Jaramis, Harlan wasn’t worried about him.

Next would be a larger boy, oddly enough he had a sickle as his weapon, Harlan felt like he should know the significance of it, but it was lost on him, it meant he had to deal with slashes, no thrusting.

Lastly was a girl, she was a Minos who was bullying a student from Ragne, after asking a few questions to make sure he didn’t have it coming Harlan decided that the Minos was overstepping his bounds and the boy was innocent.

She carried no weapon which either meant gauntlets or a mace, if Ibexians liked maces, Minos probably did too.

He got a knock on his door, he wasn’t expecting anyone yet.

Outside was Claudia and another girl, he knew the twins had friends outside of their group, he just never met them.

“Good evening, would you like to come in?”

“Harlan, if it isn’t a bother, would you be willing to help my friend? Sh-”

“Alright, what do you need?”

“I lost my locket.”

“Where should I start looking?”

“A bird took it, I was thinking of hiring someone when Lady Dyad mentioned you had recently learned long range divination.”

“I need to know what it looks like, if you have a strong connection to it then I’d like you to hold that thought in your mind and place your hand on my shoulder as I cast the spell.”

She did as asked and the three of them moved outside the gate and into the woods around the school.

They had been walking for about 15 minutes when they found the locket, unfortunately they also found a man standing there, having just pulled it from the bird's claws.

“I can’t let you take that locket, it belongs to my friend here.”

“How about you forget you saw me and I don’t kill the three of you right here?”

Harlan could feel it, the man never thought of letting them leave in the first place, questions swirled about who he was and how he had gotten so close to the academy without anyone noticing, but those weren’t important right now.

“Girls, let's just turn around and walk back.”

“NO. That was my mothers, I can’t lose it.”

“Just trust me, I’ll get it back for you.”

“I’ve never known Harlan to be a liar.”

As he had expected the man rushed at him almost as soon as their backs were turned, Harlan knew The Unseen wouldn’t let him come to harm, but he was in no real danger.

Whoever that man was, he wasn't some elite assassin.

Harlan kicked the man’s knee and his leg bent the wrong way like a Tytoan.

Then he relieved him of his hands with a half-circle motion not unlike what he saw Kleon do.

Not a drop of blood landed on the locket, Harlan had seared the wounds shut very quickly.

“You are coming back with us, or, you tell me who sent you, and I kill you on the spot instead of letting a torturer get that information from you?”

The man tried to spit on Harlan’s face but he could see it as it happened and knocked him out with a punch.

“Sorry you had to see that, I’m going to bind him in vines and bring him back.”

The girl was shaken by the sudden violence and how Harlan handled it.

“W-what would’ve happened if you hadn’t been here?”

“Depends, maybe this guy is just a thief, maybe he is something more, either way he is a bad fighter. Better not to dwell on things like that anyway, though I don’t think he wanted anyone to see that he had your locket.”

Claudia on the other hand, had a different mindset.

“Would you have really killed him if he told you?”

It would’ve been a crime, Harlan could’ve killed him in self defense, but promising a quick death for what could’ve been false information was frowned upon.

“Nope, I would’ve just passed along whatever he said. I’m not an executioner and I couldn’t possibly know if he was telling the truth, that isn’t my job.”

The gate guards drew their swords and asked questions before they allowed them back inside, the girl showed them something which caused them to allow her inside before him and Claudia.

“So, what is your friend’s name? I feel a bit silly that I never asked.”

“Willow Greenfield.”

“Oh? Niece of the duke I suppose?”

“Yes actually, how did you know?”

“She is too old to be his daughter, 9th Princess Cynthia only married him 2 years ago.”

“I am shocked you know that, I believed you kept out of conversations of that type.”

“She is a good friend, I met her before she was married.”

Eventually someone showed up and flashed a badge at the gate guards, then Alan and Alice showed up to take the prisoner and Claudia, they didn’t seem to care for her being around Harlan.

After Harlan went through his own interview, which passed rather quickly as the headmaster had spread how well he could show memories, he made his way to the cafeteria for dinner.

He wasn’t shocked that Claude and Claudia weren’t sitting with them, apparently their siblings had a talk with them, so it was just him, Adina, and Zella.

“So, Harlan, I heard you brought back a man with no hands. What did he do?”

“Tried to steal a locket, tried to kill me.”

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, he was weak, if he wasn’t I would’ve still been fine. Oh, since you are here, I wanted to head back to my parents farm every month, would you like to come with me? No need to answer now.”

“Isn’t that going to be expensive? I know you got all that gold from working, but still.”

“Zella, I have more money than I understand how to use, I could take a trip back home every week and not worry about the cost. The difference between just me going and going with everyone here wouldn’t make any difference. Adina, you are free to come with as well, it might help you to meet a family that isn’t a bunch of pricks.”

She jumped slightly, she didn’t speak about her family much for a few reasons, partly because she didn’t know how she should feel about her family, they were the only one she had ever known, and family was supposed to be of the utmost importance in Reino, nearly as much as faith; if she voiced her opinion on what they had done to her so far she risked losing their support for the academy, she didn’t have a coin to her name to pay for anything and she had no scholarship.

Yet both of those foundations she had been raised on were shaky to her now, being let outside of her cage that she didn’t realize she was in for the sake of hopefully killing a boy who would end up as her first and closest friend by her family that treated her like a decoration had been having a profound effect on her.

The fact that the boy was also linked to what should’ve been a heretic god on the other hand shook her faith in the religion she had been told unquestionably was right her entire life.

“I don’t know, I need to think.”

Harlan felt her conflict clear as day.

“Of course, you don’t need to go if you don’t feel like it, not a worry.”

“Well I would love to get to visit with you. I didn’t really get a good family the first time around, so I’m glad yours took me in.”

Everyone ate their meal peacefully, though they wondered if it would be the calm before the storm.

It wouldn’t have been the first time that Harlan thought he was ok before he broke down.

They made their way to the arena as a group, finding that the twins and Willow were also there.

He looked at the board, it seemed that the Minos reserved a spot before the last boy.

He saw the name, then he double checked, then he asked another person who was standing there, it read clear as day, Grenth Greenfield, he hoped it was a misunderstanding before, he hoped that Cynthia didn’t like the kid at least.

He waved to everyone and stepped into the ring, Mary had volunteered to be the judge for all 3 fights.

“When I beat you, I’m going to go right back to that kid and tell him it is your fault he is getting it worse now.”

“Do you like hurting people?”

“The weak should be trampled on if they can’t understand their place.”

Harlan wondered where this kid learned to be so dramatic, he laughed at him for sounding like a villain from a children's book.

“I agree.”

Harlan walked calmly towards the boy, either he hadn’t heard of how Harlan was, or he was simply that confident.

Unfortunately it was very, very, misplaced.

After the first lunge Harlan dropped his wooden sword and hit the boy right in the chest with a punch.

His heart stopped and his lungs seized from the strike, the second strike kickstarted his heart once again, though he lungs still hadn’t remembered how to pull in air.

“Point to Sir Fomoria. Sir Shalewreath, do you forfeit the match?”

After a minute of wheezing he managed to say yes.

The judge had the right to call any match, and the right to not call one as well.

When the Minos girl stepped in the ring after Shalewreath had been dragged off she was clearly afraid.

“What happens if I call this off?”

“Nothing, the only thing you lose is picking on someone who doesn’t want to fight back just because you can. I don’t want to hurt people, but I can, and I will, because others can’t or won’t.”

She stepped out of the arena, Harlan gave off such a confident aura to him that she doubted herself and vowed to be a better person, she didn’t want to spend the next 3 years looking over her shoulder for him.

She would later become good friends with the boy she had bullied.

It was another 20 minutes before the Greenfield boy showed up, his fight was set for 7 and Harlan’s others ended far quicker than expected, there was even a small crowd after it spread that Harlan scared a Minos so bad she quit before the fight even started.

“Good to see you’ve finally showed up, I was wanting a small chat after the fight if you would.”

“How about you earn it, fertilizer.”

“Let’s get this over with then. Oh, wait, how are you related to Cynthia?”

Grenth had a complex about his father being passed over for the position as Duke even though he was the firstborn, his father’s bad attitude came onto the boy with full force.

Harlan easily dodged the scythe strikes, occasionally he slapped the boy across the face, though Harlan put little force behind it.

Harlan had no intention of beating anyone bloody tonight, that was easy, just like killing was easy.

Every wound he would leave would be more mental, the first boy he short circuited his nervous system, a temporary but debilitating ailment, it looked a lot worse than it was, in an hour he could be back up and running without a single issue.

But, he would remember, Harlan wanted the people who he beat to look at every shadow and see his face, he couldn’t beat sense into people, but beating fear into them would be easy; perhaps when the fear grew too great, they could talk to someone who could actually set them straight, though Harlan didn’t really expect that to happen.

“You didn’t answer me.”

Grenth had been panting, 10 minutes already passed since the fight started and between the slaps and the heat he looked like a tomato, it didn’t help that he was on the larger side, it likely never effected him much, but he was too big to keep going like he was for so long.

“Are you done yet?”

When he didn’t answer Harlan finally ended it, not with a flashy move, he simply slipped behind him and gave a shove, though for Harlan a shove meant casting hover and then pushing him out of the ring.

“I’ll expect that chat later, I have other things to do tonight.”

Those who watched fell into 3 categories.

Those who were disappointed that Harlan didn’t show off what he could really do.

Those that were impressed at how easy Harlan kept up with Grenth.

And those who got dangerous ideas; Grenth was notorious, he didn’t have just one victim, he was in the double digits, now that he had been torn down so clearly they didn’t see him as a wall that couldn’t be climbed, now he was a tree that just needed to be cut down.

Sepul had been there watching the last half of the fight and as soon as Harlan stepped down from the ring the pair was already gone.

Harlan spent the entire night under the effects of a truth potion, though since he didn’t try to lie he didn’t even notice.

Cynthia would get a letter about what had happened from Grenth after 3 days, her letter from Harlan had arrived the morning after it happened.

She barely knew the boy, but she did know Harlan, and Grenth’s story of having been tricked into a fight just didn’t make much sense to her.

He wasn’t hers to raise, but she would keep an eye on him when he visited, Harlan wanted her to try and fix him, not to punish him, Harlan could do that all on his own.

She really did have to catch up with him, her oldest was already 9 months old and she wasn’t too far along on the second one so traveling wouldn’t be such a mess, she just needed to decide if that meant going now or going later.