Trash: Chapter 107 Conflicting Reports (Patreon)

Chapter 107

Conflicting Reports

Sometimes you expect a certain type of change, or something to move in a semi-predictable pattern, like rain flowing down the window. Yet, sometimes those predictable patterns meet minor variables that cause the flowing water to veer off ever so slightly.

This was one such occasion. What I had expected to be a Skill change in some way, either a forced change, or an offered change related to my Stringed Instrument (Violin) Specialization Skill. After all, this was the Skill I had been using when I felt like I made my way through a mental blockage and got to a next realm. A realm where I could have a direct impact on slimes.

I’m assuming it is a good thing that I could in fact play an instrument so well that I caused slimes to burst apart, effectively rendering them as inert particles. Despite my mind wondering if they would rather commit suicide than listen to me play. Still, I was confident in my notes and the fact that I was playing something close enough to music that what I played was not terrible. At least, I don’t think it was terrible, but I did feel that my notes had a little something extra at the end. A level of precision and power that made them particularly hard to ignore.

That’s when I scanned myself looking for any changes. To my surprise my Skills section stayed the exact same. Yet, I knew something had changed. My level of Skill had grown from level 37 to 39, a marked improvement overall, but far slower than the speed at which I had been growing at last week.

I would need to talk to Madame Bloom about the slower rate of increase. As this increase seemed to be along the lines of what I experienced before I earned my Class. If this was the rate I could expect to grow at now that my Class was fully settled, then I could understand why Madame Bloom was so insistent that I push myself last week. Yet, that level of growth couldn’t explain the strange sensations I felt while playing. For I could almost feel understandings come to life within me. Even now, I could feel the faint tingling sensation in my left hand, something that I now knew meant that something in me had changed. Yet, I couldn’t see anything. That’s when I scanned up and finally saw a change. A real change, not just a minor increase in level, but a deep fundamental change that my mind couldn’t quite understand.

My eyes scanned the system’s noted changes once, then twice.

Then finally my mind read the changes, even though the words did not quite make sense.

Name: Catarine Bloom

Age: 16

Class: (Unique) Culmen Vitae* (5/5) (Maximum Potential 7)

Magic: Life (5/7) – Class Linked Only, Holy (2/7)

Seals: (2 / 7) – Holy Sword of Slaying seal, Divine Notes of Precision

Looking at the changes, the only real change came from the Seals section, where my Seals rose from one to two, and I received a second unique Seal called Divine Notes of Precision*. Seeing the change, I realized a few things and had a few more questions come to mind.

For things I realized, it seemed that each of the Seals had an ‘of’ qualifier to them, as if linking a type of power to an action. I would need to talk to the Royal Seals Master himself to see if this was something he was also aware of. I also assumed that this new Seal was somehow bound to my left hand, the part of my body that still has a lingering tingling sensation. Almost like I was somehow branded internally after touching a live electrical socket.

Looking back, the feeling in my hand now, is similar to what I felt in heart on Saturday night, where I felt a burning sensation and shattering over my heart. At the time I thought it was related to the threat to Luna, which it was, but there might have been something deeper associated with it as well. Here, I felt the deep resonating connection to music, leading to my pushing myself to that next level in understanding.

The more I played, the more Madame Voyou pushed, and the further I seemed to go down the Bardic path. Despite somehow not being a Bard at all. Honestly, I don’t know what this new seal does. The last one clearly allowed me to add heat to my blade, making it easier to slice through the skull of a Death Eater. While this new one didn’t seem to have any real magical association with it, despite it having the Divine moniker. No, this one seemed like it helped me twist and curl my fingers faster, and more precisely. Truly hard to explain, other than I felt that my fingers could now find the needed notes on an instrument the same way my fingers used to be able to touch the tip of my nose while blindfolded. This was just something that I now knew, and yet I felt that there was likely more to this new Seal. There almost had to be all this talk of Seals and now I could hit notes cleanly? That seemed lacking.

“Come on, last little bit,” Madame Voyou commented, bringing me back from my personal confusion and back to the tasks at hand.

In the end, it was a mess. Of the apparent twenty-four slime filled jars that Madame Voyou had prepared for class, seven of them were cracked or damaged beyond repair, forcing the escaped slime to be dealt with. A fact that Madame Voyou just quickly reacted to by picking up her own violin, giving a quick look around to make sure it was just the two of us, then she played a melody that sent waves of Wind magic infused notes at the exposed slimes, causing those slimes that had escaped to be destroyed instantly.

One could easily tell when the slimes were rendered inert by Madame Voyou’s performance. There was a slight sheen that would appear on the slimes when they were close to dying, as the color seemed to fade from the ground upwards, growing darker at the base, with a thin light sheen of film of tiny bubbles at the top. Then finally the film at the top would seem to burst, at which point the consistency of the slime would change, going from a sort of chunky vertical formation to that of a resting balloon, then the balloon would seem to burst, and it would just be water. Well brackish water that smelled of salt, sulfur, and decay. That’s where I came in and removed the foul-smelling substance before it sits for too long and let its rotting stench linger.

After a bit, I could see that this too was training. Everything from separating the still intact slime jars and moving them to safety, to the destruction of what she referred to as slime samples, to the stages of decay that could be seen. Every part of this process was invaluable, and for a moment I almost wondered if Madame Voyou had planned for this exact event to happen. There was just a bit too much eagerness in Madame Voyou’s enthusiasm for getting rid of slime cultures. The way she seemed to smile a tad too brightly at the way I made the inert slime remains disappear via my Trash Skill. The way she almost seemed to be pushing me to see the limits of my own Personal Skill.

Finally, after what felt like an hour of cleanup on our part, but was only half an hour at most, people began to form at the other side of the door. It was odd, as my Divine Music Resonance let me know that there was an opening, a long pregnant pause that only comes when people of authority are present. Looking towards the door, I see that people wearing the same outfit as those who screen me while I entered were now at the door. Though these people seemed to have more medals and flashing golden buttons, likely denoting authority and rank.

“R.O.W. council members,” Madame Voyou commented, spelling out the acronym for Royal Order of Watchers and letting me know that the person coming was high enough to be an apparent council member, proving that my assessment of them holding some type of rank was correct. Though I could tell by the sudden shift in Madame Voyou’s posture that she knew whoever was on the other side of that door. “Brace yourself, and whatever you do, let me answer any questions they might have.”

That cryptic warning was all that I got before the person on the other end of the door, came in Holy infused Skills blazing as he held up his walking stick that seemed to amplify his light generating spell. For a moment the light was so bright that it felt like I had come out of a long winter to suddenly stare at a fully awakened summer sun that blazed brightly in the sky.

Then I had to hear one of the most pretentious sounding voices cry out, not for Madame Voyou and me, but for those that were still gathered on the outside of the classroom.

“Do not fear, for I will enter and cleanse this room of its taint,” and like that the glowing light became ever so much brighter as the person generating the intense burst of radiance took one step forward, entering the room and joining us.

***

(Aiden Lightken)

Spontaneous awakening of a dormant bloodline. Such claims were the stuff of legends. Myths and fables passed down from the days of the first awakeners that are told to say why some families are better and more prosperous than others.

You have a hard life? No bloodline? Well, that is because your fathers and ancestors didn’t apply themselves enough in school, and why they fell short. You though, you still have a chance, for until the day you officially earn a Class, you can awaken or even produce a bloodline, if you but push yourself. Become strong in mind and body, and you too can awaken your long-lost ancestry. This was the propaganda that was being pushed at the schools.

The truth is that most people could not and would never awaken a bloodline, that if a bloodline existed it would have been awakened by now. That the world wasn’t right, it wasn’t just, and above all it didn’t believe in rewarding hard work and effort. No, the world was a far harsher place than that, and Aiden being a Chief officer of the Royal Order of Watchers knew this fact all too well.

A renowned member of the Lightken family, his family were once great slayers of some of the most dangerous Death Eaters. His ancestor alone was credited with taking out a tier V Death Eater singlehandedly thanks to the bloodline power that flowed through Aiden’s very body. Yet, Aiden could never get his bloodline to awaken. The truth is, after his great great great grandfather’s expeditions, very few other Lightken’s awoke the potent bloodline within them. Yet, out of respect for his ancestry and family legacy, people like him were allowed to join secret orders. No longer strong enough to form a fully working royal house, like the Blooms or DiVoratores. Aiden’s family now consisted of dispersed members frequenting different knightly orders, spreading their seed far and wide. All in the hopes that one day, a Lightken will awaken the dormant bloodline power residing within their body, allowing them to be able to establish a house. A fully recognized political entity capable of voting, having political sway on resource allocation and development. The only real condition being that a founding member of the household has to have the bloodline active within their body.

An impossibility for the Lightken family, for their house had been disbanded for generations now. The only real claim to power they had was as individuals, only the strength of their individual accomplishments truly mattered. While they were able to keep the Lightken surname, it ultimately was a sign of shame for those in the know. A sign that they were once great, but had now fallen onto hard times as a family. In a way, it would almost be easier to have no name, or be a ward of the state, then they wouldn’t have the failed family legacy waving over their heads.

That was why, when he was first shown the frightened boy, this Quin Mossey who seemed as guilty as a peddler trying to pedal four-dollar notes from the Royal Kingdom of Iberia, Aiden thought it was a prank. Yes, the boy clearly seemed to believe his claim, that at his age, just before he was old enough to choose a Class, that he had somehow awakened a bloodline power. Not just any power, but a power that he described as the exact same power that his ancestors wielded, well he thought it was a prank. He thought the boy was coached, that someone in his team was yanking his chain in an attempt to get him to mess up, to lash out.

Aiden had seen similar pranks get played out over the course of his career. Pranks that harped on the idea that one day, a bastard child would appear from nowhere and unify the family. That was why it was encouraged to go around and spread one’s seed as much as possible, in the off chance that you create your own house again. A joke meant to disguise the idea of promiscuity, a belief that Aiden himself had long since grown past, though he did have his dalliances as a youth, which is why he couldn’t comment too severely on the younger generation of Watchers.

Yet, there was something off about this boy. Despite being frail and almost sickly, there was a strange familiarity to him, that Aiden couldn’t quite shake off.

Aiden’s logical mind told him that this was all a ruse, that it was too much of a coincidence, and after a certain point it is no longer a coincidence and clearly a set up. Which was why he was so harsh with his interrogation of the boy.

A boy who claimed to have awoken his bloodline on Friday, the day before the whole event at the arena. He did put on a convincing performance, Aiden would give him that, for his fear did seem real. Also there was no sign of deception when he spoke, meaning that he was either a seasoned liar, something that is not too improbable to believe of a lifelong arena kid, kids who were raised by fallen family members of the war efforts. But just because the kid believed he was telling the truth, didn’t mean he was telling the truth. There were ways around the truth, everything from Persuasion type Skills, to straight up Memory Rewriting Skills, anything was possible and Aiden had seen them all in use.

That was what made this whole case so disgusting, the fact that Salvatore Malocchio, once the respected lead of the underground arena. A noted proprietor of supporting the children of war vets was not only linked to having transported Death Eaters, but was also found to have many Persuasion Skills. Nothing that required magic, and they were somewhat explainable in the fact that he was a showman, but looking at the totality of circumstances, it seemed particularly damning. Also, the fact that there was now a kid that was taken in by Salvatore who now seemed to confess to a crime.

The crime he confessed to was relatively minor given the other crimes that were being uncovered. This boy’s crime, of knowing that Salvatore Malocchio was a Death Eater transporter, something he claimed he could see due to his newly awakened bloodline. His defense was that it only opened on Friday, and he had no time to get accustomed to the Skill to know what he was seeing, when he saw the horrific soul patterns of Salvatore Malocchio, the monster transporter.

Hearing the claim, Aiden thought that this would be a perfect lie, for most standard detection orbs, particularly those that are mobile and used for establishing checkpoints at schools and public buildings are weaker. They only go so far as to tell the person’s true name, their free Skills, Class Skills if any, and if a Personal Skill and Bloodline Skill are awakened. They don’t go so far as to tell what the Personal Skill or Bloodline Skills are.

That was why Quin Mossey also passed the first check, he did now have an awakened bloodline, something that according to his public records had not happened when he first entered high school. Meaning that the awakening was relatively recent.

Again, the problem was that there was no way for Aiden to fully see if this boy was in fact manifesting the Lightken bloodline powers. Something that he knew was too good to be true, which is why he fought so vehemently to deny it as a possibility.

For a moment, Aiden thought it was over, that he wouldn’t be able to test the boy. That’s when fate seemed to step in and provide him with the perfect opportunity.

“Hey, uh, sorry about this,” a large and overly muscular man declared. A man who was easily manhandling a boy who looked completely frightened.

“And you are?” Aiden asked, seeing the man clearly a teacher aggressively manhandling a student who looked like they had been in a recent scuffle as their clothes were all torn up.

“I’m Mr. Karl, the dean of discipline here, and I believe this kid needs to be rescanned as I saw him at the arena on Saturday, he was entering the ring, when his shadow bubbled under the lights. After which a Death Eater emerged and began its rampage inside the arena,” the burly man declared confidently. Yet, Aiden could tell that the man was lying, thanks to his Truth Evaluation Skill.

“You saw this, with your own eyes?” Aiden asked, to clarify.

“Yes, I need you to rescan him. I will also take the scan again if needed.” The man, Mr. Karl replied.

While that was why they were here, this was a blatant misuse of their time and resources. For a moment Aiden was about to dismiss the claim, but that’s when the boy spoke, sealing his fate.

“Wait, I’m innocent. I didn’t ferry any Death Eaters,” the boy cried out, a note of panic in his voice that was understandable given the circumstances. Yet, there was just one problem, he too lied. Suddenly, this whole process became cumbersome as he had not one, but two liars. One lied about witnessing a crime, while the other lied about conducting said crime. For a moment he thought about the process, but then a slight smile broke out on his lips.

“Very well, let’s put him in the holding cell, while we prepare to take two soul scans,” Aiden declared, and with that, he took the now quivering boy and manhandled him, until he entered the holding cell. The moment the new boy, who lied about his assistance with Death Eaters, entered the same holding cell with the boy who swore he could now see if someone transported Death Eaters, Aiden waited and watched for a reaction.

In the end, Aiden was not disappointed with what he saw next.