A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 291: Time Passes

Chapter 291: Time Passes

When School returned that week, we didn’t do any tests as we should’ve done normally at the end of the month, since we had just come back from a break, and it was deemed a bad idea to do such a thing to first years.

But they said that they would do that in the following years, just not the first.

Anyways, the next month rolled around, and the kidnappings slowed down considerably, though they still happened. At least one person per week went missing on estimate.

It’s possible that more had disappeared, but they probably hadn’t been reported.

I didn’t concern myself with it though as it didn’t mean much to me, even though I fit the profile for someone to be kidnapped.

My strength should be far more than enough to deal with anyone who tries anyways. In fact, if I do get kidnapped, I might even let myself be kidnapped just to deal with these idiots so I can stop hearing about them.

...

Nah. I can’t be asked to do that shit. I’ll just kill one of the perpetrators and bring him in or something. I don’t want to get involved in this mess.

And throughout the whole month, I was able to do just that.

I stayed in open and public areas. And even when I was going through the slums to mee Eric, whom also knew about the recent happenings, we changed meeting locations to a different location.

We also donned cloaks as well just to add to things. He actually already wore one, but the point was it was safer in general going forward. Even after this kidnapping fiasco resolves.

And at some point in our training, Eric asked if something had happened to me, because my rate of improvement had increased dramatically.

I figured I could trust eric of all people with this information, so I told him about what happened in my treasury regarding my Soul and my Soul Scroll.

"Oh, so that’s what that was." He exclaimed in understanding.

"What? What what was?" I asked in confusion, not knowing what he was referring to.

"Well, not many would have been able to see it, but, at around the same time, a weirdly dual coloured beam fell from the heavens and entered some mysterious subspace. That must’ve been what helped you at that time."

"Really? And you’re sure that these two incidents are related?" I was sceptical of this, but it would make sense if true.

"Yup. You must have received some kind of blessing from a pretty powerful from what I can tell. Oh, you’ll probably want to let the Illuminati know also. You did kind of expose their location with that."

He speculated with excitement, but became a little more serious but still playful as he reminded me to apologise for compromising the Illuminati.

"I’ll do that next week." I promised to apologise. I then told him, "And, I did actually gain a [Blessing] after that incident."

"WHAT? You did???" This was the second time that I had genuinely shocked him. Maybe not as much as last time, but I still did.

"Yes. Although All I know is that I have one. It literally doesn’t say anything in my Soul Scroll. It’s just there." I clarified, since I knew he would ask about it.

"Wait really? Nothing? No information? No description? Not even who’s blessing it is?" He threw a slew of questions at me, which I expected.

And I just responded with a simple, "Nope, nothing."

"Huh, that’s weird. Gods and Goddesses typically want people to know that they’ve received their blessing. There aren’t many that would keep it hidden. Hmm..."

Eric started to stroke his bright golden blonde beard in contemplation as he likely tried to think about possible deities that fit this bill and would do such a thing.

*Cough*

I coughed to get his attention. We were still in the middle of a lesson, and I wanted to improve as much as possible.

"Hmm? Oh, right. Sorry. I’ll contemplate later."

With that little apology, we went back to our lessons.

The following week, I went to Morrigan and apologised for the mess that I undoubtably caused with calling that beam of light down into their secret base and exposing it.

"Ohhh, I see. So that’s what that was. Do you at least know why it happened?" She asked for further details, to which I happily obliged.

And upon hearing what I had to say, she was shocked. Not just by what she learned was in my inheritance, but also the [Blessing] that I got also.

She sat in contemplation for a little while before she dismissed me. She reassured me that I wasn’t in trouble, and that it was probably time for them to move anyways.

What?

Move? Move what? And how? A subspace big enough to house Goddess knows how much of a base they have?

I was flabbergasted by that thought, and Morrigan chuckled seeing me fry my brain trying to figure it out as I left.

_

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The end of that month quickly came and we took our monthly progress checks, which I once again passed with flying colours.

My Finance classes were going well, and I was learning a lot more about the economy of trading.

My Combat classes were also going quite well, and I was even beginning to outpace and beat practically everyone with ease. Even the teachers were starting to be unable to keep up with my abilities.

They then approved my request to go to the Diamond rank classes since I felt I wouldn’t be able to learn much more here. Not to mention, it would also take me to a level more appropriate to my actual strength. Based on the results from the Guild test that is.

As for my Etiquette classes, I felt that they were going smoothly, seeing as they were getting very complicated. Still, I was doing very well.

I hadn’t seen the Duchess’ nephew at all since the break was over, which was weird. He hasn’t been reported missing or anything, so he must be grounded or something. Probably being kept at home so as to not cause a scene.

Either way, the month soon ended and it was the last month of the year. We had two more week of school left before we got the rest of the year off.

Those two weeks went by pretty quickly also. In our last lessons, we were given free reign to learn with the others in our class however we wanted.

Finance was the only class where I benefitted, since my other two classes already did that.

Regardless, this time was good for me, as I was able to increase several Skills and become more adept at handling situations. At least I hope I have. I haven’t actually tried any of this outside of the classroom before.

Either way, my abilities had improved considerably.

[Grace] had gone up two levels, and all of my [Space] Skills had gone up by one as well, apart from a couple that went up by two.

Aside from things that happened whilst learning, David came back at the start of Umbryal month, and I was there to welcome him back thankfully.

We filled him in on the kidnappings and he promised to help keep Asty safe, just in case.

As for what he and his company did? They went out to another major city to acquire some goods. That was why he was gone for over a whole month. It was far away, and there were a lot of goods to move.

That’s why they had two Gold rank parties protecting them the whole way. And that was a good decision as well, since they actually did their job and scared some wild beast-kin away at one point.

Something else that I found out about was what was happening to the dungeon.

Apparently, it had been taken over by a demon of high standing, and they had locked the place off, because they suspected the EXP was being siphoned by the demon to gain power.

This became public news just after school had ended, and just before the Coiled Moon festival. It was discovered a couple weeks beforehand, but the higher ups wanted to keep this on the downlow until the time was right.

Unfortunately, it somehow leaked, which they tried to stop, but gave up once word spread.

The dungeon was closed off until further notice, and apparently the raid would happen some time after the festival concluded, since it was an important event for Serpentine.

And this would be my first time actually attending one of these properly. I was never invited, nor had any money to buy anything from the stalls at that time.

Not to mention I was an orphan, so nobody would’ve served me anyways. But here, that wasn’t the case. Here, I could do what I wanted freely, without prejudice.

And I would be spending the week with my friends also. Which is all I could ask for for my first time at this festival.