Welldark B1 Ch. 08

In other words, he would be out of here in the same semester that the newly arrived students would first participate in the tournaments. "So, you want to check out who could potentially take your spot?" I asked, still not really sure what made him so curious about us.

"I guess," Erik yawned for the third time. "I've been the number one for two and a half years. If I make it the whole three, then I'll be one of the longest standing 'champions' in Welldark's history." He slouched to the side, against the backrest, and added, "'Course everyone who gets to defend the title for that long is a lazy bum like me."

"Don't we have five years maximum?" I asked. "I don't really see a reason to rush things."

"Right?!" Erik suddenly seemed very energetic. "What's the big deal with getting done so fast? Like, don't get me wrong, classes are pure torture, so being exposed to them for extra years is just masochism, but taking more classes per day to get done as soon as possible? Who does that?!"

"It is the efficient way to live," Esther stated.

"Alright, so you do that," Welldark's strongest King rolled his neck. "You'd probably get along well with my Ace. She already graduated last semester and now she has nothing to do but nag me to hurry up as well. I mean, Almighty bless her soul, she is looking out for me, but-"

"Erik, once more molesting other students with your chatter, I see," a new voice joined our table. I took the small break in conversation as an opportunity to take another bite of my salmon.

The man now joining us wore a black robe that fluttered with his steps. It was open at the front, revealing a black shirt, black pants and black shoes. All of his clothes were tugged away properly and fit him perfectly. If he had been as pale and lanky a fellow as Erik, I would have squarely put him in the gothic category, as far as aesthetics went. However, he was quite broad and the monochrome clothes seemed to hide just how much muscle he had under there. His skin was of a light brown complexion, too dark to only be a tan. His head was clean shaven, his eyes an inversion of the norm - a black sclera with purely white iris and pupils. When our gazes crossed, the lack of colour almost felt like it would burn itself into my retina.

Behind him walked a woman in clothes of the same style. She had white, backwards combed hair and pointy ears of the short half-elven variety. Her green almond eyes and snow-white skin left no doubt that she was one of Aclysia's older sisters. Judging by the rest of her looks, she was also a member of the man's Anomalia. Her hands were orderly folded in front of her stomach and she carried with her that diligent aura of a trained maid.

"Imrult, buddy, no need to be so stuck up," Erik retorted swiftly.

"Master Imrult, to you, cur," the bald man turned his nose as if he had just smelled something bad.

"Then it is Unus Erik for you," the same answered and stretched his legs out to the side of the table. I doubted that was an official title. He had simply put the Latin word for 'one' in front of his name. "Anyway, since the Master of Order has arrived to sap the fun out of the situation, I'm gonna go elsewhere. Good evening you two, Esther, Karitas. You'll have one after this bore leaves."

"A thoroughly unpleasant person," Imrult said, loud enough that Erik could hear it while he walked away. Then the Master of Order, one of Welldark's 13 branches of education, turned to us. "I hope the venue finds your agreement, students of promise."

"To be honest, it doesn't," I responded with a smile. "Not big on displaying wealth so blatantly."

"It is too bright," Esther echoed the point she had stated earlier.

"The lower classes have to be shown that something better awaits them if they work," the Master of Order crossed his arms behind his back. His posture was so straight and rigid, one could have used him as a support beam. "And if they find themselves unable to do that much, they should at least see how much beneath their betters they are."

'I already dislike you,' I couldn't help but think. Meritocracy was a fantastic thing and putting a giant golden palace in place as the carrot was doubtlessly effective. However, just because I liked the fact that elites existed and people could work to become such elites didn't mean I liked those same elites being this openly snobby.

As a matter of fact, I properly despised it. Reaching the top of the hierarchy came with responsibilities and one of them was not saying anything remotely related to 'how much beneath their betters they are'. Another one was to not flaunt any superiority, real or perceived, by building palaces that were this absurd level of sparkly.

"Careful, Master of Order," it was Esther, who spoke up next. "Callous arrogance has led many to paths of regret."

"You are a descendant of the ultimate arrogance, Lady Esther, I don't see any world in which you lecturing me is in order," Imrult responded. My hands turned into fists under the table. "Yet your family continuously produces promising people. I have high hopes for you. I approached you to save you from Erik's doglike simplicity. Closely inspecting your attire, however," his gaze disapprovingly stuck on her cleavage for a second. How somebody could disapprovingly look at a cleavage was beyond me. The same gaze wandered over to me. "It seems another bad influence has already made its way to you."

"You will cease mentioning my family or insulting who I care about, impudent Imrult," Esther warned, her eyes a sea of sulfuric yellow parted by a thin black line.

"Impudent? I'm respecting your unnecessary wish of disassociation. The only impudent thing here is your lack of self-awareness. I will be direct, because I know your family values it. In that, their better values stick with you, it is evident." Once more, he glanced at me. "Associating with a barely accomplished man. Your publicly improper behaviour has reached my ears and..."

"...you're here to preach about it, got it," I interrupted, having heard enough of the arrogant waffling. Esther had said her warning, he had ignored it, and now I felt perfectly justified in reason and timing to stand up for my girl and our relationship. I started by standing up literally. "How about you take all of the 'direct' criticism you have and write a long, wordy letter with your best ink and the most overpriced paper you can find and mail it directly to..." I closed my eyes and materialized a small paper bin, which I then proceeded to hold up to his nose. "...here?"

Now that I was in front of him, I realized that I was about half a head taller. Not overly significant, but satisfying regardless. Whether that or my ridicule bothered him more, I wasn't quite sure, but I hoped it was the latter.

"Karitas Desia," he said.

"Do not use my last name please," I said. "You may not know it, but it's a girl's name. It's odd." That was not even half the reason why I disliked it, but it was a part of it.

"Desia, meaning origin and popularity," commented Omnius, the golden-eyed Master of Magic, who just strolled on by with a plate in his hand. Following him was his Anomalia harem. At least that's what I presumed the entourage of goblins, gnomes, elves, humans and a single lamia was. They were all remarkably well-endowed in the chest area and there was a tendency for shorter women. "As I am sure you were aware, Imrult."

He didn't seem to be intent on joining our conversation, instead Omnius strolled on to another table and just watched us. I only now realized that he wasn't the only one. Much of the room was paying attention to our conversation, even if I doubted many of them could hear it. I wouldn't have been surprised if people had been watching us since Erik started walking towards our table.

If this was now a stage, I would perform. With so many beautiful women in the audience and an opportunity to show off my quick tongue AND defend the lady of my desires, how could I possibly resist?

"Of course, I am aware," the Master of Order grunted.

I glanced over to Omnius, who smirked and back to Imrult. I got the feeling that the Master of Magic knew a bit more about me than I was comfortable with. At the same time, it appeared that the Master of Order knew less than he thought. Whether I was right about both or neither, I couldn't confirm in this situation. Instead, I continued with the performance.

"I don't know if 'of course' is something you should be saying," I immediately chimed in, dismissing the paper bin. "Seems to me like your perception of the obvious is rather awful." At this point, making an enemy of him was something I embraced. The acceptable discourse line had been crossed already.

"And what would you base that on, student?" Imrult raised one of his black eyebrows.

"You call me barely accomplished, but here I stand, invited to the same place as Esther, for the same reason as Esther, so I would say our accomplishments are even there. Would you call her barely accomplished as well?"

"You only beat her in a weakened state. It was, by itself, an act against protocol."

"So, you accuse my partner of being a bad judge of her own power? She agreed to fight me, if you are aware."

"I am and I would, and I would call her a bad judge of character to boot, given your presence as her partner tonight."

'It will be more than tonight,' I thought, but didn't pursue that line of argumentation. "Would you extend that accusation to lady Derilea? It was she who asked Esther if she wanted to continue, after all. Surely, the headmaster's Queen can judge what is a challenge worthy of getting a privileged position for and what isn't."

That shut Imrult up for a second, which was already a point in my favour. "Lady Derilea... did not follow the proper protocol," the Master of Order finally stated. I actually was surprised he was willing to fling even this little mud at his employer's wife, who also doubled as the effective head of the bureaucracy.

"As always, you take rules far too seriously," yet another voice entered the conversation. This one was so deep, so intense, that I felt someone was giving a concert on an e-bass right next to me.

Towering at least two heads over me, the bull of a Headmaster stopped next to us with crossed arms. They were as thick as logs, bursting with muscles that no sleeves could contain. Large, white horns with black tips grew from his temples and curved forwards, casting shadows on his dark eyes. He was tall enough to block out the chandelier.

He was radiating raw power, enough of it to make me gulp instinctively. The ability to exert Astral Capacity that way was an intimidation technique few had the necessary strength to even try learning. Exposed to it, I felt like I was shrinking with every passing second. Regardless, I stood my ground and kept my smile. With a stern expression, he looked down at me for several seconds.

Arustius Taurus then gave me a crooked smile. The pressure ebbed away until it vanished completely, leaving me to take a relieved breath. "You got guts, young man," he simply said. "You will need those. Regardless, you should be more respectful of your teachers."

I could have gone with the whole 'he started it' routine there, and be justified, but Taurus was obviously there to end it. Making an enemy of one Master was enough trouble. Having the Headmaster and father of my current secondary love interest get a bad first impression of me was inadvisable, to put it mildly. Only Aclysia suddenly developing a liking for people that had bad blood with her father would have made it minorly worth it. That was a very doubtful development for the well-behaved half-elf though. Speaking of the maid, she was following her father, together with her mother.

"I'll try my best to be as patient as can be," I backed down with a promise. Good enough for Taurus, who turned to his Master of Order.

"Imrult, I always appreciate your goal to keep things properly running, but you know that the rules are meant to be interpreted, not followed like a divine dictate."

"In the name of discipline, our students require more scolding," Imrult said and sighed, breaking his straight posture to pinch the bridge of his nose, "but I will oblige, Arustius. For the sake of peace, I suppose," with those words, the Master of Order walked away. The woman that had accompanied him didn't follow, instead joining her mother and sister.

Esther suddenly stood at my side. "You make difficult decisions because of me," she whispered.

"They're not difficult if it's because of you," I promised with a smile and she took my hand. We both looked up to Taurus. That he was still standing there made me believe he had something he wanted to talk about. He looked back, his smile vanished behind the usual stern expression.

"...Enjoy the rest of the evening," he then suddenly declared and stomped away. That felt a bit anticlimactic. While Derilea and Imrult's Anomalia member followed Taurus, Aclysia bowed and then joined us at the table.

"He likes you," the half-elf told me.

"That's good?" I was not as certain about that, but who was I to doubt the word of the daughter?

We sat back down, Aclysia got some food of her own, and then we spent approximately an hour just talking about things. Eventually, I decided to mingle with the other guests. My goal was obvious and Esther already knew it without me needing to say it. Like I had promised, the centre of my attention was her. Along with that promise had gone the admission that I was going to flirt with other women at the party.

So, I went and tried to do that.

While it was true that it was forbidden for upperclassmen to approach freshmen, the reverse was perfectly fine. A freshman seeking out the attention of someone who had been at Welldark for more than a year was a-okay. That doubtlessly caused some shady fringe cases, but that was a problem for the law-enforcers, not me. I only cared about making some acquaintances tonight.

No such luck. No matter who I approached, I was forced to quickly realize that they were taken. The Anomalia mark around the ring fingers was omnipresent. The left finger in all but one case. I spied a single woman where it was the right hand that was marked, making her the leader of an Anomalia. Thankfully, I saw it before I wasted my time talking to her.

It remained true no matter when I thought about it: there was absolutely no way I would be anything but the head of my Anomalia. Not only did I see it as my path in life to care for a harem of girls that loved me first and foremost, I could also not stand the idea of sharing any of them with other men. Sharing them with the rest of my harem of, hopefully, universally bisexual babes was right up my alley though.

Whenever I noticed that a girl was already taken into another man's Anomalia, I continued the conversation normally. My thirst wasn't so big that I would just rudely cut it short in the name of flirting with the next woman. Especially since I had two waiting for me to recharge my joy with. Which was something I had to eventually do, returning to the table with an unenthusiastic stride.

Letting out a long, disappointed breath, I sunk into my chair, arms dangling to the sides. "Well, that was time wasted on nothing," I complained.

"Perhaps it is a lesson that will teach you to remain by my side," Esther jokingly reprimanded me. "Here, unsuccessful Karitas," she stabbed a strawberry on her plate with her fork and slowly moved it over to me, "have your consolation."

I would have preferred her cherry, but I would take the strawberry for the time being. Opening my mouth, I let her place the tasty fruit in my mouth and used my tongue and teeth to hold it while she drew the fork back. Its sweet taste was reinforced tremendously by the method of delivery. "Thank creation that I am so easy to please," I said after swallowing.

"I offer you another gift to raise your spirits." Esther seemed to be in a good mood. She moved her chair closer to mine, then placed one hand on my neck. It was a possessive and gently massaging gesture. "Only one, pick wisely."

"Hmm," I hummed, while the lady of my desires presented another strawberry to me. "I will take this then," I said and placed a hand on her thigh. At first I was only in contact with the silky surface of her dress, but my hand soon found the slit at the side of her legs. I pushed under her skirt, just as I took the strawberry. Kept pushing over the even smoother surface of her thick thighs, until I hit another, less luxurious piece of everyday clothing. Unable to control myself, I trailed a finger over the outside of her panties. Daringly, I found the gap in the middle and trailed upwards until I felt a little bump.

Esther inhaled in a quick burst, coming along with a suffocated, surprised moan. Then she bonked my forehead with the flat side of the fork. "This is too far," she informed me, as her skin flushed with lust. At least I was pretty sure it was only lust, none of her gestures betrayed embarrassment or anger. Whether I liked it more or less that she reacted to me getting this close to her maidenhood so infinitely less emotionally than to getting almost kissed, I didn't know. Well, once I had that kiss, this attribute of hers would remain and that was definitely something I looked forward to.

I obliged and went back to the less risque position on her bare thigh. Esther seemed content with that. That she was still showing all of her left leg to me and Aclysia didn't bother her in the slightest. Instead, she stabbed another strawberry, this time for herself.

My head turned to the left to take a look at the half elf, who seemed affected by this display. "You two share a truly lewd bond," she said. It was probably meant to sound joking, but she bit her lower lip, transforming it into a somewhat envious comment. The pretty pink thing was so full, I really wanted to feel it on my lips or somewhere further down.

"I can let you in on it," I smirked, basically echoing my offer from yesterday.

Aclysia shook her head. "I am not quite that comfortable with public displays of... affection, Karitas," she admitted. "Over the clothes is fine but... yesterday was already further than I thought I would want."

"Well, I proved you wrong then, didn't I?" I asked, pushing the envelope. If she had the capability to be fine with a bit more exhibiting, then it was in my interest to get her there. All of the kinks I could awaken, I would, especially if I shared or benefitted from them.

Before Aclysia could formulate a proper response, the music in the room swelled up. Pianist and violinist intensified their playing, the volume rising at a quick pace. Finally moving from her watching position, the songstress stood up at the helm of the band. She required no microphone, magic instead carrying her voice through the room.

There were no lyrics, at first. Only gentle notes, harmonizing with the tune of her bandmates. The three of them got synced up, while the guests moved towards the clearing in the middle of the hall. I stood up, following the trend. "It seems it's time for the main program. Shall we?" I asked, first offering my right hand to Esther, then my left to Aclysia, just like I had done atop the stairs.

They were happy to take them and use me as support as they also got up. Esther made sure her skirt sat correctly, before we marched towards the circle cleared for dancing. At the edge of it, Aclysia let go and took a fluid bow. "I will be honoured to have your second dance, Karitas," she said. It put a slight smile on Esther's face. It would have put one on mine as well, if I wasn't already grinning.

"The honour will be all mine," I assured, while Esther and I moved onto the dance floor. People were getting ready at the moment, swaying only softly to the music. It had not yet transformed into a proper dancing rhythm. "You love having a servant, don't you?" I whispered. One of my hands landed on her hips, hers was placed on my shoulder, the other two of our arms joined, the fingers intertwined. We warmed up by doing some basic steps together.