Death, Devotion, Dissonance

"This? Exploding Myrmis. Dozens and dozens of exploding Myrmis," Aran shrugged, "The Southern bastards always seem to find some kind of new fucked up way to try to win their battles. The previous fight included a bunch of hostages and this time, they invented suicidal explosion deliverers. A bunch of ant-men wearing a coat decorated with Talismans of Explosion… I was wondering why the little red bastards were wearing clothes that time around. Thought if the South was finally introducing Myrmi rights or some crap."

Aran told the story in a pretty casual way, but Leanne could hear how sick and tired of the war he had become.

"Is it that bad in the Southern Front?"

"Sigh… Who knows? The higher ups say that we're winning... and honestly, I rarely ever hear about us losing a battle… but unfortunately, we can't really do anything with these victories, you know? With everything I've seen, I'm afraid that we'll most likely end up losing at this rate."

Aran's story supported what Leanne heard before. The country, of course, only ever talked about the good side. The Kingdom's infallible defense against the Southern menace; the countless victories they've snatched from the enemy; the brave souls that protect their beloved homeland. Of course, the people believed the country's words. But anyone that actually went to the war had a differing opinion, just like Aran here.

"Hmm, while the South possesses an endless supply of cheap labour in the form of the Myrmis, we don't have anything of the sort. Our soldiers still die and our mages still hurt…" Leanne said, while glancing at Aran's hand. "How did you survive in the first place? I really find it hard to imagine surviving such an abhorrent tactic."

"Ah… that. When I noticed what was happening, I decided to kill the enemy griffins who were controlling the Myrmis. That stopped the main bulk of the Myrmi army to break free from the griffins' control and stop their suicidal march. You know how cowardly the Ant-people are by nature…" Aran paused. "Sadly, some of them still managed to overcome their fear... and out of love and loyalty to their Queen, still exploded near me. My barriers couldn't hold any longer and my left arm was blown to smithereens."

"With that secret spell of yours?" Leanne asked.

Aran was quite famous in the kingdom as a mage. He wasn't some young prodigy who possessed a Conditional Absolute, or someone gifted with an easily nurtured Mana-core. But he did possess one spell that every mage in the kingdom feared and also wanted. An instant death ability that practically cost no mana to cast, yet at the same time, practically unavoidable.

"Yep, that damn spell that the country's trying so damn hard to wring out of me, those bastards," Aran cursed, a bit too emotionally compared to his usual standards.

"I'm really sorry for your hands, Aran. I really am," Leanne sighed as she held his metal prosthetic.

"It's not that, Lea. I really couldn't give a damn about my hand."

"Then?"

"I found two Talismans of Listening inside Arza's room yesterday. Pretty well-made ones as well, I probably wouldn't have noticed them if I didn't specialize in scouting and detection."

"What? Seriously?" Leanne exclaimed in shock.

'Wait, doesn't that mean that it was there when I brought Evin to the room? Should I have scoured the room for something like that?'

Obviously, she didn't think to check the room for such things at the time, because… why would she even think of that?

"Now that they can't harass me anymore, I guess they've decided to harass my child now…" Aran sighed, his annoyance and tiredness seeping from his breath.

"How did Arza take it? Is he okay?"

"Yeah, you know the boy. For better or worse, he's really not the type to care about these things. We met afterwards, and he just told me how he tried to punch Evin coz he was lying, and about how the boy dodged the attack very masterfully," Aran chuckled, "Sigh, sometimes I really wonder how Arza turned out the way he is."

Leanne didn't know how she was supposed to feel about the punching part, but she did remember how striking of an impression the boy had left on her when they first met. Leanne found the boy a bit hard to grasp at first, but she soon understood that Arza was one of the simplest boys she'd seen in her life. It was just that his simpleness was simply too bizarre for others to accept. But aside from that, he was also charismatic, true to himself, energetic, and most of all, incredibly talented.

Arza was the polar opposite of the mess of convoluted negative emotions that Evin was. But of course, Leanne couldn't really blame Evin for how he turned out. When life repeatedly showed one only its darker sides, then one's thoughts tended to steer towards those things. With Edmund as his father being an obvious influence of the ugliness of society and the entity inside him teaching him who knows what, it was inevitable that Evin would turn out to become a little ugly on the inside.

'Wait, now that I think about it, were those Talismans meant for Evin?' a sudden thought appeared in her head.

"Aran, could you tell me how Evin took the news?"

"Hmm?" Aran paused and seemed to contemplate a bit. "Now that you mention it, he reacted quite weirdly. He definitely didn't panic like I expected him to… Hmm... I can't be completely sure, but he looked kind of relieved?"

"Why would he be relieved?"

"I don't know," Aran shrugged. "And besides, I could still be wrong."

Leanne stopped walking for a bit, to think about the matter more deeply. Aran was familiar with this habit of Leanne's, so he decided to wait alongside her.

'If he seemed relieved, then that could only mean that Evin knew about those Talismans beforehand. He found them before Aran did, and became scared, thinking that there was someone out there trying to stalk him, but then he'd hear about Aran talking about how the Talismans weren't for him, thus the relieved look.'

Leanne thought a bit further and guessed that Evin knew about the Talisman's functions as well… or at least guessed at it. Evin could've learned about it either through the entity inside him, or he could've deduced it himself. If he was completely ignorant about it, then the most logical move was to get rid of the Talismans.

But this line of thought started to feel a bit unimportant to Leanne. It really didn't matter whether Evin knew about it or not beforehand, since he clearly knew about it now.

And considering his negative personality, Evin would probably think that the thing was meant for him. Even after Aran came in and declared that the thing was not for him, Evin would still feel suspicious. But honestly, Evin knowing about all these things wasn't really something of importance.

The problem was the entity inside him.

'Would it think that the Talismans were there for it?

'Seeing a bunch of random people trying to expose its secrets, it would naturally think that its existence was exposed because of someone… And as far as it's concerned, there are four individuals who know about Evin's talent to Imagination Cast: Edmund, Kon, Jun, and me.'

The first three were almost automatically disqualified, as none of them were proper mages. This left only one person to reveal its secrets and blow the whole incident way out of proportions…

Suddenly, a passage from an Archeologist's diary about dealing with items of unknown origins popped up inside her head.

[Never, in any circumstances, offend or slight a UMO (Unidentified Mystic Object). A certain group of mages tend to hear this warning and think to themselves, 'You can't offend an object, that's preposterous!'. The Archeological Community calls these people, the 'Curse Testers'. Little do they know that some ancient objects consider even these harmless remarks as an insult towards its being. And, heh, don't even get me started on the people who actually do something offensive to the UMOs.]

"Shit…" Leanne murmured as a cold shiver seemed to run up her back.

"What happened?" Aran asked, noticing that Leanne finished thinking.

"I think I fucked up."

"How? You wanna talk about it?"

"I probably shouldn't... If I speak to you about it, then I'll probably be in even bigger trouble," Leanne shook her head. "Sorry, could you leave on without me? I need to hurry somewhere."

"Alright. But if you need any help, ask," Aran said, and the two separated.

Leanne walked towards where the Academy staff were gathering with wide strides, thinking of her situation.

Obviously, Leanne never intended, or even thought, to reveal the entity's existence. Even if a Full-core High-mage personally guaranteed her safety for it, she wasn't going to dare offend what it was inside Evin's head.

But the only other person that knew about Evin's situation was Chairman Kent. And even then, the man should only be thinking of Evin as some kid who was just awfully talented at Imagination Casting. It was a rare thing, but it wasn't something impossible. There really was no need for Kent to bring in these Talismans and whatnot.

'Seriously, what the hell is he thinking?' Leanne thought as she arrived at her destination, which was a special area on the spectator's terrace.