43 The Cages

*Knock*Knock*

"Come in" Mr. Philippos said without raising his head from the file he was reading

"You called us, sir?" Mr. Stylianos said

"Ah, you've come" He closed the file he was reading "Have a seat"

Mr. Zissis, Mr. Stylianos and Mr. Antonius sat on the empty seats before them and waited for the dean to address them

"I believe you have heard of the news about the contrastive element, correct?" He asked them

"Yes, sir" Mr. Stylianos nodded "By now, there should be no one who hasn't heard of it"

"Good. Now, I want to ask for a favor" Mr. Philippos' face turned grim "Can you turn away the Cardinal families if any of them were to come here?"

"Now, that's one big favor to ask for" Mr. Zissis said

"It's not about the 'favor' for me" Mr. Antonius spoke up "It is, what excuse would we give them - the Cardinal families, I mean"

"That, I do not know. But I'm sure you can handle that, right?" Mr. Philippos asked

"If I may ask, sir. Why us and not the other instructors" Mr. Stylianos asked Mr. Philippos

"Think about this. If any of the Cardinal families come here, they would ask of three people..." He said

"Head of the Senior sector, Head of the Junior sector and the Ability instructor" Mr. Antonius muttered "I get it now"

"Fine. Suppose we handle the four cardinal families, what are we going to do about the fifth one?" Mr. Zissis asked

"Don't worry about that. If the Cages come, I'll handle it myself" Mr. Philippos said "You may go now"

"Yes, sir" The three of them left the office

"Christos, your son is a real pain in the ass" Mr. Philippos muttered with a bitter smile on his face after the other three had left

...

"Why did you concede? You " Raya asked her friend who was lying on the bed at the infirmary

"Isn't it obvious? He is stronger than I am" Rhea said "Besides, I want to know what it feels like to have a disciple"

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A/N :- Rhea's actually stronger than Orpheus. He just took advantage of her unstable mental state (due to the shock of revealing so many elements) to win her in the duel.

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"You are weird. You know that, right?" Raya shook her head

"I'm weird. Hmmm... How about we go train after I recover?" Rhea smiled, sending a chill down Raya's spine

"I didn't mean it in a bad way. I just meant..."

*Bang*

They were interrupted by the loud bang of the room door. Turning towards the door, they saw five people in hoods, panting heavily.

"How the hell did they know it was me?"

"I told you all to wear your masks. Didn't I?"

"The mask is our alter ego, Andrian. We can't wear them here or they will be traced back to us"

"Um, guys..." One of them turned back and saw two females staring at them, dumbfounded.

"We're in the academy. How can it be traced back to us?" They still continued arguing

"You guys!!"

The rest of them stopped arguing and stared in the direction Aella was pointing at

"Who the hell are these lunatics?" Rhea sat up on the bed

"Who is she calling a lunatic?" Aster growled

"To think I wanted to look for you, but here you are" One of them walked forward and pulled down his hood

"Orpheus? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be recuperating?" Raya gasped

"Shh! Don't yell my name like that. They're going to come here" Orpheus said in a hushed tone

"Why didn't you just teleport, rather than going through all the trouble of being pursued by the whole school?" Rhea asked

"I didn't think I'll become a celebrity" Orpheus scratched his head embarrassedly "Besides, I'm just recovering from the duel"

"Yeah, about the duel..." Raya said

"So, that's why you came here. I didn't think you were serious though. How can a pupil be stronger than his master?" Rhea raised her brows

"I was dead serious" Orpheus nodded his head "You have good knowledge of your elements, while I was just learning while fighting"

"Fine, but on one condition" Rhea smiled "You'll teach me that wing stuff"

"To be honest, I don't know how I did that..." Orpheus chuckled nervously

"Alright, then. Be on your way" Rhea proceeded to lay down on the bed

"Wait... I'll teach you." Orpheus said with a wronged expression on his face "But this isn't fair. I won the bet. Aren't you supposed to keep to your side of the bargain?"

"What bargain? I don't remember signing any" Rhea said with a straight face

"The bet you agreed to in the presence of everyone" Orpheus said

"I don't remember agreeing to anything" She maintained her poker face

"But... c'mon"

While the both of them were bickering, Raya, along with the four beast, looked at them with twitching brows

"They bonded pretty quickly for people wo were fighting each other like their life depends on it hours ago" Raya muttered

...

On an island, isolated completely from the outside world, dwelt a city. The city as a whole was a peaceful one with the chirping of birds as a song to everyone's ears. It was the first place anyone on vacation would love to go

A large mansion with walls inferior to just that of the city was situated at the city's center. The mansion was the largest building in the city and could be spotted from several kilometers away

Two burly men stood at the gate of the mansion, letting in only people dressed in maid and butler clothing. The tallest of the two men had a long scar on his face the ran across his right eye.

After letting two more people in, a young man walked up to the two and immediately got stopped in his tracks

"What do you want?" Braun, the tallest of the two men asked him

"C'mon Braun. I'm still allowed in here without permiss..." he got interrupted halfway through his speech

"That was before you got banished. Leave now" Braun said in a firm tone

"Alright, I need to see Lord Cage. It's an emergency" the young man said

"We'll pass the message across..." Braun stopped talking to look at Brock, who had been quiet "What is it?"

"Mmmm" Brock nodded

"Wow! I'm still amazed at the range of Lord Cage's domain and telepathy" The young man marveled

"Just shut up and go in" Braun opened the gate for the man to walk through

"Thanks. See ya, fellas" he walked through the gat, into the compound "This brings back memories"

The man walked on a straight path and arrived before the mansion with another two men standing at both sides of its door

"Howdy" The young man smiled

"Good to see you again, sir" The men bowed and opened the door for him

"Nice to see you too" He walked into the mansion, going through series of guards before arriving at a large door located at the top of the mansion. This door had only one man, who was releasing a suffocating pressure, guarding it.

'Lord Cage found a strong one huh' the young man furrowed his brows on sensing the man's aura

"Lord Cage will see you now" The man, dressed in a butler's uniform, opened the door for him

The young man walked through he door, entering the largest room in the mansion. The room had a large space at its center with bookshelves on each side of the room. A long table and a chair sat before a glass wall, and the chair sat a woman with closed eyes

The woman had a long brown hair with a perfectly fit body that would make men drool on first sight. She opened her eyes immediately the two men entered the room

"Charlie, what did I say about returning to this city?" She looked at him with a thick killing intent emitting from her body

"Lord Cage is as beautiful as always" Charlie smiled, not affected by the heavy pressure that she was releasing "I've come for a bargain"

"Bargain?" She suppressed her killing intent "Let me hear it. If it's useless, I'll make you lick your asshole"

"The bargain is for the reinstatement of my position" Charlie said

"And what do I get in return?" She asked

"Information" Charlie answered

"If you want to tell me about the contrastive element situation, there's no need" She waved her hand back and forth

"As expected. Lord Cage's information network is vast" Charlie chuckled "What if I told you that the demi god no one seemed to find is that boy?"

"What?!" She gasped "What do you mean?"

"Uh-uh" Charlie shook his head "It's a bargain. Remember"

"Shit! That's true. This is why I hate bargains" She cursed "Flint, coffee please"

"Yes, Lord Cage" Flint bowed and walked away

"Ah, yes. About the bargain" She tapped her hand on her chin "Fine, I agree"

"Nice doing business with you" Charlie smiled "Anyways, the demi-god that underwent the strength trial who even you did not seen to find is the boy with contrastive elements"

"Now it makes sense. He was hiding in that academy" She nodded her head

"That's no all. The interesting part is that the boy is just an advanced magus. A recent one at that" Charlie said

"Which means the trial he took was for his advancement into the advanced level" She muttered "Then why was it on that level of difficulty?"

"No one knows." Charlie shrugged "The boy also beat a veteran advanced magus just a week after his trial"

"Hmmm. This is one talent I cannot let go of" She said "Take some representatives and pay a visit too that academy"

"Reason for visit?" Charlie asked

"Isn't it obvious? To invite him, of course"

"Yes, Lord Cage"