Nobody left.
We were young, inexperienced in the ways of life, but clearly Crow had read through us like an open book and nobody knew how to act.
I wasn't sure even Yom was saved from his wrath this time.
"We are somewhat fucked aren't we?" -Aurelia
Yes, we were fucked, but what I was feeling was completely different from the others.
I felt like I let down the only person I'd never wanted to let down and it hurt. A lot.
"He'll come around. We just need to tell him the truth." -Yom
"Easy for you to say, he's your brother. We also can't exactly tell him everything." -Auriel
Yes… we couldn't tell shit at all.
After the academy started, when he wasn't talking to any of us, duke Morvane had reunited us all and explained his theory.
We all knew about the prophecy, or part of it.
But when the duke told us that with all probabilities, it was referring to Crow, he also made us sign a secrecy agreement. An agreement that even forbid ourselves from talking about it.
I was thinking about what to do, how to salvage the situation… but nothing came to mind.
"He also probably decided to speak up now because he knows about there being a traitor among our families… it's not exactly good that he can see things we can't inside a dungeon, it only makes him look suspicious." -Yom
Yes, that also was something I was thinking about.
"On one side, I'm his brother, so he's bound to trust me a little. Auriel I honestly don't know, but he probably decided your taste was good enough to bet on your honesty…"
That moment. That fucking moment when Crow's tongue danced with Auriel's kept playing in my mind every time the two of them spend even a second alone.
My mana started to flare outside and Yom proceeded to talk like it meant nothing.
"Aurelia will be spending time with him in his study group so he probably thought that he could not keep up lies forever."
He then turned to me, judgment clear in his eyes. I knew he didn't like me one bit, but honestly I didn't care. As long as Crow allowed me, I'd take all his time for myself again and again.
"And you. Although I don't like you one bit and I disapprove of your tactics to woo my brother, I think he thought you already knew him well enough to let you in a little bit."
He never broke eye contact and neither did I. He could say what he wanted, but I was genuine in my behaviour.
"At least you will now probably be banned from his bed. It's a good time to let him meet and hookup with someone else."
"If you think I'd allow someone else to even lay eyes on him, you are sorely mistaken."
He scoffed like I was nothing before his eyes.
"And what will you do? Do you still live in the delusion that you are stronger than him?"
His words hit me hard. Nobody said it out loud, but everyone knew it. If any of us went against him as we were now, we would all die.
"Yeah, that's more like it."
_____________________
As I suspected, the twelve statues were depiction of the twelve paths racial attributes, so I decided that the thirteenth was probably a high human.
Each of the statues had laithathic inscriptions and the more I looked at the writings the more I felt something old awaken in me.
But it wasn't enough.
The inheritance the two high humans had gifted me was stirring, asking for more, but after writing down the thirteen inscriptions and who they were referring to, there was nothing else I could find on this floor.
It was also almost time to meet up with the others, so I decided to stop there and go meet the kids.
Truly, my new ring was a gift from the gods themselves. Adding the fact that everyone seemed to be in a terrible mood to my new gains made me even happier.
"Should we just leave?" -Yom
"And waste a precious opportunity for four of you to acquire a bonded artefact? Brother I didn't take you for an emotional fool."
I laughed at my own jabs, if there was someone who had any right to be upset in any way, it was me.
And this kids were all looking worse than me.
"Stop thinking about useless thoughts, really. I never trusted any of you to begin with, for all I know, I'm the only one that's not a traitor."
Rovan stomped right in front of me, the boy was angry, which it only made me laugh harder.
"What did you do to make their morale plummet so much? It's impossible to work with unwilling soldiers!"
My eyes, previously shining moons turned sharp in an instant and I moved before anyone could react.
In a heartbeat, I was right in front of Rovan, my hand dangerously close to his heart. Nine tails of green fire coming out from my back, flicking happily and greedily moving towards Rovan.
The man shuddered.
"I can get a confession from you at any given moment. I can make you lose your mind without you even realising. I can torture you all in ways that are unthinkable even by human standards, you can call me monster for all I care."
My tails were now flickering violently and releasing will 'o wisps everywhere.
"I can't outright kill you, but who would dare kill me?"
Everyone shuddered at my words, that was on its own an admission that at least for the moment, I was untouchable.
"I will help you get your fucking artefacts, I will tend to you like the children you are and I will save your asses again and again if needed. And that's only because there are too many fun things I want to experience."
I retrieved the pressure I was unknowingly releasing and dispelled all the [foxfire].
"So get your acts together before I change my mind and decide you're no fun to hang around with."
With my last words as both a warning and motivation, the teens got back in formation, only this time, it seemed I had a guard.
A guard I completely ignored. If the man didn't want a chance at getting a bonded artefact, it was his own loss.
We finally descended the stairs going to the second underground floor of the labyrinth only to be engulfed by complete darkness as soon as all of us reached the final step.
The air was still and beyond the presence of the twelve heirs I could feel nothing else.
"[guiding lights]" -Auriel
At once we found ourselves in a room devoided of any furniture, there were however numerous columns with writings I immediately recognised, but didn't react to.
"The guide I received from dad said that this room hold various secret passages that lead to different types of monsters we will need to fight to get to the other side of the labyrinth. We should start looking for anything that might be the switch to open one of those passages."
"No"
My words were unexpected by everyone.
"I will now strip all of you of the sense of sight. Don't fight it."
"What? Why would we-"
"I didn't ask for permission Rovan. I'm now taking the lead of this dive. When one of you kills every single monster on a floor except the boss, you can talk again."
That shut down every possible complain.
"[Fraud's blindness]. Now sit down and wait it'll take some time."
Without wasting anymore time, 9 doppelgängers came to life, each one with papers and pen, and each one immediately run towards one of the twelve columns writing down everything inscribed in the columns. Noting every repetition and one by one started to call for me.
"Boss! Look here!"
One would laugh hearing his own voice calling himself boss, and that's exactly why I made them do it, we were all having fun.
"Boss! Here too! I think-"
"Shush, they are blind, not deaf nor stupid."
"Well, they are stupid, but they sure aren't deaf!"
We all started giggling at our own antics, to everyone it would seem like a scene directly out of an horror movie, but this only made it funnier.
And the best thing was, after I dismissed the doppelgängers and absorbed all their knowledge back, my inheritance gave me a wonderful gift, a gift even the system acknowledged.
[you recovered a lost language.
Generating skill: Mastery of words.
Drastically boosts learning ability towards languages.]
Thanks a lot system.