Chapter 58: Addressing the matter

Arthur remained quiet for a while after Karl said he wanted to speak with Leon and Mira before making a decision.

Central Academy had originally been the obvious choice.

Arthur still trusted the connections he possessed throughout the Capital, but William’s warning had made him reconsider.

After thinking for a moment, Arthur finally looked toward his old friend.

"Why Sovereign Academy though?"

William answered without much hesitation.

"Because Abel is there."

Arthur’s attention sharpened immediately.

"Abel?"

"He’s the Vice Dean now."

That genuinely caught Arthur by surprise. Whatever answer he had expected, it clearly had not been that one and the surprise quickly gave way to satisfaction..

"When did that bastard become Vice Dean?"

William snorted.

"Maybe you’d know if you hadn’t disappeared from everything for decades."

Arthur ignored the remark while Karl looked between the two of them.

The name meant nothing to him, but judging from Arthur’s reaction, whoever Abel was, he clearly wasn’t some ordinary acquaintance.

"Who’s Abel?"

William leaned back slightly.

"An old teammate of ours."

Arthur immediately added,

"Our old petty mage."

William gave him a look before continuing.

"We were part of a team called Dragon’s Vanguard."

Arthur’s face soured almost instantly.

"Still a ridiculous name."

"It was a good name."

"It sounded stupid fifty years ago too."

Karl’s attention had already moved elsewhere.

Dragon’s Vanguard...

He knew that name, during his previous life Karl had encountered it several times while going through old Human Alliance records.

The group had appeared around a number of major incidents decades ago, but most information concerning its members and activities had been heavily restricted.

He had never paid much attention beyond what he could access at the time.

More importantly, nothing Karl had ever seen had connected Arthur Reed to Dragon’s Vanguard.

That alone made the short exchange considerably more interesting than either old man seemed to realize.

William eventually returned to the actual point.

"Abel was our mage, and he eventually became one of the strongest mages in the Alliance. Now he’s Vice Dean of Sovereign Academy."

He looked toward Karl.

"If you go there, Abel will keep an eye on you."

Arthur fell quiet again afterall with abel Sovereign looked like a much better option now.

Old friends and contacts scattered throughout the Capital were useful, but Abel was someone Arthur and William had personally fought beside for years.

If William trusted him enough to bring his name up now, Karl would have someone directly inside Sovereign Academy capable of watching over him.

Karl understood the advantage, but it still did not change what he had already decided.

"I want to talk to Leon and Mira first."

William nodded.

"Good, I wanted them here anyway."

He raised one hand and snapped his fingers and space shifted inside the villa, and Leon and Mira appeared almost simultaneously.

Mira reacted first, her body tensing for an instant before she recognized the familiar surroundings of the Reed estate and relaxed again.

Leon was considerably less concerned.

He looked around the room, found Karl, then Arthur, before eventually noticing the unfamiliar old man standing beside him.

"Who’s the baggy old man beside Granduncle?"

Karl slowly turned toward Leon.

He just called the First Marshal baggy.

William looked at him.

"Baggy?"

Leon finally noticed the way Karl was looking at him.

"...Who is he?"

Karl answered before the situation became any worse.

"He is William Malfoy, the First Marshal of the Alliance."

Leon frozen for a moment and then his posture became noticeably straighter almost immediately.

"You look very respectable for your age, old sir. Salutations."

Arthur laughed while William simply watched Leon for another moment before letting the matter drop.

The brief amusement disappeared as William shifted his attention toward all three of them.

"Enough, let’s move to the main matter now, the academies can wait for now." ℯℯ𝑙.

An old rolled parchment appeared in his hand.

"I brought you three here for this."

William placed it across the table and slowly opened it.

The parchment itself looked ancient, its surface worn with age, but faint golden light still moved through the material.

Countless names covered it, each seemingly embedded into the parchment rather than written with ordinary ink.

Leon leaned slightly closer.

"What is it?"

"A portable copy of the Divine Proscription, I took it from a Divine Priest I killed years ago."

William lightly tapped the edge of the parchment.

"It updates alongside the real one."

The names began shifting almost immediately.

Several lines moved aside as three new names appeared among the golden writing.

Karl Reed

Leon Wood

Mira Vayne

None of them showed much surprise, Arthur had already explained what their golden horns meant, and all three knew they had been placed under Divine Proscription.

Karl’s attention instead moved past their own names and he searched through the nearby entries once.

But something was missing.

"Atherion isn’t here."

William looked toward him.

"Who?"

Karl did not answer immediately, he checked the parchment once more, making sure he had not simply overlooked the name.

There was no Atherion Fitzalan and none of the other people who had escaped Forgotten Cave appeared either.

Karl looked back toward William.

"This updates automatically?"

"Yes."

"Has it ever been wrong?"

William considered that more carefully.

"Not as far as I know."

Karl pointed toward the parchment.

"If someone was genuinely placed under Divine Proscription, could their name simply not appear?"

William shook his head.

"No."

Karl’s gaze returned to the three names.

"Then why are only the three of us here?"

William frowned slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"We weren’t the only survivors of Forgotten Cave."

That was enough to make William turn toward Arthur.

Arthur released a quiet sigh, already understanding exactly what part of the story had become relevant.

"I was going to explain that part myself, personally."

William gave him a look.

"You left out quite a lot."

"I hadn’t finished."

Neither of them pushed the exchange any further and asked Karl to continue.

"Atherion Fitzalan survived, along with several members of his group."

William’s attention returned to him immediately at the surname.

Karl went on before he could interrupt.

"According to them, the Fitzalans were involved in opening the dungeon in the first place."

William looked toward Arthur once more and Arthur gave a small nod, confirming Karl’s words.

The atmosphere inside the room became noticeably quieter.

Leon leaned over the parchment again, checking the names himself, while Mira remained beside him and carefully followed the golden writing.

Leon eventually straightened.

"So we are the only unlucky ones, it seems."

William did not respond immediately.

His attention remained on the parchment for several seconds as he considered everything Karl had just told him.

The Divine Proscription had updated and Karl, Leon and Mira had appeared.

Other survivors from the same incident had not.

William eventually looked up.

"I don’t know why but it certainly is no matter of luck."

Karl had expected as much, if the answer had been that obvious, Arthur would likely have reached it already.

The Fitzalan survivors only made the entire situation stranger.

William’s fingers slowly moved along the edge of the parchment before he began rolling it closed.

Whatever had happened inside Forgotten Cave, simply surviving the incident clearly had not been enough to place someone under Divine Proscription.

Karl, Leon and Mira had been singled out.

William finished rolling the parchment and looked toward Arthur.

"Well, it seems the Fitzalans also deserve a visit."

Arthur said nothing against that.

Considering their connection to Forgotten Cave had now become relevant to the Anathema marks themselves, leaving them alone without finding out exactly what they knew no longer made much sense.

William returned the Divine Proscription to his storage space.

The faint golden light disappeared with it, leaving the room looking completely ordinary again despite everything they had just confirmed.

William remained quiet for a moment and then his gaze moved across the three younger people standing before him.

Eventually, his attention settled on Leon and a slightly dark smile appeared on his face.

"Well... I suppose I’ll just have to dissect you three and find out what’s so unique about you guys."

Sorry for the inconsistent updates lately! I’m currently dealing with some important exams, so my schedule has been pretty packed, and I’ve only been able to manage around one Chapter a day.

I really appreciate everyone’s patience and continued support during this time. Once my exams are finally over, I’ll have much more time to focus on writing.

I’ll try my best to make up for the slower updates with a mass release and hopefully, increase the regular update rate to around 2–3 Chapters a day afterward.

Thanks for sticking with me!