Seed of Titan-Chapter 213: A Brief Leave

"What book?" Alancho asked after dousing his gaze.

"Christo said it’s his family’s ancestral book. It supposedly contains the wisdom of past family heads, but from what I saw when he flipped the pages, there were many cryptic notes as well—not just advice."

Alancho scratched his chin. "Hmm, long-standing families do often have a tradition of preserving their ancestors’ insights, though the medium varies—it can also be engravings, paintings, or even digital records. But the question is, why did he show you his family’s book? I doubt its contents are relevant to you or your situation back then."

Glancing at Ailem, Drai knew there was no chance he’d get away with lying, so he decided to admit the truth.

"Actually, there’s a single page there that’s relevant to me, which was the reason he pulled out that book in the first place."

Raising a brow, Alancho prompted, "Explain."

"I’m sorry, Uncle, but I can only say that it’s related to my class."

Drai’s words briefly stunned Alancho, who then looked at Ailem again, only to see her nodding in confirmation.

"I suppose you won’t tell me what your class is either," Alancho said.

Smiling helplessly, Drai replied, "Yes. I’m sorry, but this is for the sake of my parents and myself. I’m not trying to protect Christo or hide anything that might incriminate me."

"Is this why you tried to keep this particular matter to yourself earlier?"

"...Yes."

Ailem hadn’t interjected, so Alancho ultimately gave Drai a nod and said, "Very well, I won’t pry further. Now, how have you been? Are you getting along with your squadmates?"

Drai didn’t immediately reply as he was taken aback by the abrupt shift in topic.

"What’s wrong? Is it strange that I’m concerned about my personal recruit’s well-being?" Alancho asked, slightly grinning.

"No, I’m just surprised that we’re done with the important questions."

"Well, there’s not much more to ask. You clearly have no clue what the insurgents have planned or are currently doing. You’re also in the dark regarding certain matters involving Christo. I believe just these two facts will suffice for your release."

Drai thought about it and arrived at the same conclusion—there wasn’t much else Alancho or the ones detaining him needed to know.

"So, how has it been?" Alancho asked again.

"It’s been alright. My squadmates are pretty entertaining and the food’s decent, though I could really use a lot more meat. The daily morning PT doesn’t do much for me, but the squad training has been pretty interesting. Frost and Captain Ailem also arranged a rather personal training room for me, which really helped. If today’s events hadn’t happened, I think I could say that I’ve been enjoying my time here," Drai concluded.

"What a shame that your detention ruined your contentment," muttered Alancho as he shook his head.

"Well, it’s not just the detention, there’s also Frost getting badly hurt right after he offered me some help, and there’s also Colonel Lugos who was intent on blaming me. And luckily I didn’t actually see the bodies of those who got killed out in the field—that would definitely leave a sour taste in my mouth."

Alancho’s face darkened a bit as he said, "We’ve truly been caught by surprise this time. Don’t worry, Drai, we’ll do our best to prevent similar incidents in the future."

Drai merely nodded, secretly thinking that he might just flee this place if every excursion turned into a slaughter. It wasn’t because he was afraid of clashing with insurgents, he just found it to be bothersome, especially if he somehow got blamed again. However, an idea suddenly dawned on him. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

’If they attack in droves, won’t I be able to collect decent quality essence in no time?’

Almost immediately, Drai shook his head as he realized this thought was dangerous, both in its nature and implications.

Across the table, Ailem quietly looked at him, wondering what the young man was thinking to suddenly emanate a subtle particular stench.

Meanwhile, Alancho continued, "Regarding your squad leader, I believe he’ll be back on his feet soon. I’ve even arranged for my family’s healer to come and treat him since we believe his insight would help a lot with our investigation."

"That’s good to hear," Drai said, silently praying for the lieutenant’s speedy recovery.

"And about Lugos, looks like I need to have a serious talk with him, along with a number of other colonels," Alancho added, his voice much colder. "Word is that dissension is brewing among my men. I know I haven’t been directly commanding them like I often did in the past as it’s been years since any major conflict occurred, but that doesn’t mean they could undermine my authority."

Drai looked down quietly, seemingly meek before Alancho’s subdued fury, but in his mind, he was actually hoping that Alancho would end up brawling with his colonels in public so he could watch. It didn’t matter whether it was a duel or one-against-many, Drai only wished to witness Alancho fight again much more seriously than he did back at his personal arena.

"Alright, I think we’ve talked enough," Alancho eventually said. "We’ll return you to your cell for now, but expect to be released tomorrow at the latest. Do you have anything to say before I leave?"

"Uhm, how’s Nat? Is she alright? I’m not sure if I should tell you this, but she hasn’t responded to any of my texts or calls after I visited your house..."

"Oh? That’s odd—she seems fine to me. She’s been attending her private lessons and training as usual. Maybe it’s just that time of the month, Drai," Alancho speculated nonchalantly.

"Yeah, maybe... Well, that’s all. Thanks a lot for the help, Uncle."

"Don’t mention it. By the way, Ailem’s fine with it, but make sure to call me ’General’ in front of others lest they trouble you otherwise."

"Ah, okay. Thanks for the warning."

Following this, Alancho stood up and walked away, while Ailem prepared to walk Drai back to his cell. But as Alancho opened the door, he suddenly turned to Drai again.

"I just remembered, I think you would want to contact Auri or even that fellow Max after you get your comm back. But maybe they’ve already contacted you first."

Clearly puzzled, Drai blurted, "Huh? Did something happen?"

"Their family estate was attacked earlier, and if the reports are accurate, there were multiple casualties. It doesn’t seem to be related to the insurgent group, so the police are handling the investigation."

After saying that, Alancho finally left the room, leaving Drai stunned.

***

Two days later, Drai could be seen walking leisurely outside the facility. He had just requested a short leave a while ago so he could meet with someone.

After his release yesterday, his return was greeted with a bombardment of questions by his squadmates, and even Gramps and Ghost threw in a few questions. Drai answered most of them honestly, only keeping out the bits related to Sol’s excessive torturing and highly personal matters concerning himself or Alancho.

When Drai mentioned the pendant and the emblem on it as the main cause of his detention, most of his squadmates had mixed looks. In Danny’s case, however, he tried pouncing at Drai in response but was quickly stopped short by the combination of Cubes’ steel net and Mandy’s sticky mixture. And upon seeing the ladies’ seamless coordination, Drai couldn’t help but suspect that the two had been doing that countless times already ever since Frost was away.

Regarding the suspicious pendant, although Drai had explained the matter, he somehow felt that his squadmates still didn’t fully believe him. After all, he hadn’t informed them of Christo’s circumstances in detail, only the gist of it. Only after he mentioned Alancho and Ailem questioning him did their skepticism seem to lessen a lot.

Afterward, Drai was informed of what had become of their squad after Frost’s injury. He was told that their leader position was temporarily assumed by Gramps, who seemingly thought nothing of it. Gramps was also the one leading their squad training that day, although he did it without ever moving throughout the session.

Despite that, Drai admitted that Gramps wasn’t as incapable as he projected himself to be, as each of the smaller sessions he conducted effectively targeted the squad’s weaker areas, including reactive defense and rapid non-violent pursuit of multiple targets.

The most notable aspect that was missing after losing Frost was their ability to immobilize targets. If the target was relatively close, Cubes and Mandy could still effectively restrain them. But when there were multiple of them at a distance, the limitations of their methods became glaringly obvious. If it were Frost, he could simply flex his fingers accordingly to freeze them all in place in a flash.

Drai felt that Frost’s ice conjuring was so versatile that it’s probably only limited by mana consumption. Yet, Drai had never seen their leader running out of mana, presumably because the squad had never engaged in a prolonged or particularly intense battle ever since he joined.

"Are all ice mages like that?" Drai wondered while walking to his destination, a coffee shop near the facility. "I’ve never seen one in arena battles, and the only person I know who uses ice is Irene, the timid girl from the other newbie venture party—what’s their name again? Swifties? I wonder what they’re all up to now. But that Irene girl, I never actually saw her in action, so I don’t know what her ice skills look like. Maybe I’ll just ask her if we ever meet again."

While his thoughts wandered, Drai soon arrived at the coffee shop. It was much larger than the one he frequented with his friends in the academy, and it was also more bustling. Drai noticed that at least a third of its first floor customers belonged to the army too. Soldiers and officers were seated throughout the establishment in their respective uniforms, some alone and others in small groups.

After ordering coffee, Drai walked to the second floor and headed to a corner where a bearded figure with sunglasses and a wide frame was sitting alone.

"Mind if I join you, sir?" Drai asked.

Setting his comm aside, the man replied gruffly, "Did the army force you to attend manner classes too? Just sit down already, would ya, lad? I don’t have all day. Even now everyone is looking for me."

Drai chuckled and took a seat. Looking at the man’s conspicuous disguise, he shook his head helplessly before turning serious.

"Alright, tell me about the attack, Max."