The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

By the end of the Free Duels, Oscar had racked up three wins and zero losses. His opponents were not more advanced in the Middle Apprentice realm, so his advantages in Reis and Anima control brought him victory.

However, the issue of being unable to control the Ein in his Anima completely independent of his actions was still bogging him down.

Emily had something to do, so they parted ways, leaving Oscar alone in his thoughts. Walking across the grassy hills, he noticed Elder Saul crouched down and planting some saplings.

"Hello, Elder Saul!" Oscar greeted the elder with enthusiasm.

Elder Saul stopped planting and looked up at Oscar. "It's almost nighttime; you look to have fought in battles all day. Go and rest."

Oscar was about to leave but then had a thought.

"Elder. Have you seen Frederick at all?" Oscar could not find any trace of Frederick, and the dorm manager was tight-lipped about students' activities for privacy.

If anyone had a clue, it was Elder Saul, who roamed around the Outer Hall.

"I have not."

The elder's denial was unexpected, and Oscar's face darkened. It was worrying that Frederick was not spotted even by Elder Saul.

"That green-haired boy has not appeared anywhere. Unless he somehow comes at the very off-hours."

Elder Saul saw Oscar's downcast face and sighed. "Is there anyone else that may know of him? Was he close with anyone else?"

Oscar's expression went completely blank. That was right. There was someone else who was close to Frederick. His aunt, Ivanka Klein.

"I'm an idiot!" Oscar screamed.

Elder Saul ignored Oscar's outburst and went back to planting his saplings. "You should go tomorrow. Rest is important."

"Thank you, Elder Saul."

"You're a smart child, but you often miss what is obvious. " Elder Saul lectured.

"I will keep that in mind." Oscar bowed and went on his way while Elder Saul carefully watered the fresh saplings he had planted. The elder's face was peaceful and smiling.

Within the dorms, Oscar quickly closed and locked his room. He sat down and pulled out the book given to me by Margaret Ward. It was a gift from his master, Draven.

The book looked very simple, with scratched-up and faded papers and a rough black cover. Oscar's eyes gleamed with anticipation as he opened up to the first page.

"Huh?"

A folded-up paper fell from the book. It was sandwiched between the cover and the first page. Written on the folded page was, 'To the temporary disciple'.

"Master still calls me his temporary disciple. What a stubborn person." At this point, Oscar regarded himself as Draven's permanent student. "One day, I'll make him call me his true disciple."

Opening up the letter, Oscar read on.

"To my once prisoner and temporary disciple, Oscar,

Once you're done reading the letter and the book, burn it all. I don't want the slightest chance of the contents being read by anyone else.

I watched as you crazily survived and learned Reis in prison, and I saw your matches during the Grand Gathering. You're stubborn, but I like that stubbornness.

Once you've returned from your excursion, you'll be ready to begin the next step in Reis. Be warned; this will be an agonizing and long process. If you fail, you fail.

I won't tell you to take care of yourself. You decide for yourself if you've had enough. A big wave is coming, do what you can to stay afloat.

-Draven Ciaran"

"A big wave….Certainly, that seems to be the case." Oscar stared deeply at the book. Even his crazed master said this would be painful; the thought of it made Oscar involuntarily shudder.

There was no backing down. Oscar regained composure and resolutely began to read. His eyes quickly darted through the small number of pages, reading it completely to the end.

THUD

Oscar closed the book, pondering on the contents he read.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

…….

Later in the morning, Oscar went to the Commune early and burned the book and letter in the fireplace. He had spent all night memorizing every single word written in it.

The flames consumed everything, turning them into ashes.

Having followed the instructions from Draven, Oscar wiped his hands clean of the ash. He didn't want to appear dirty for later.

His destination was the Record Hall, but the question was, how could he get there? The last time was because Ivanka was guiding them, but from what Oscar could tell, it was in an area forbidden to students.

The only ones who could go there were the elders and guards of the Pavilion.

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There was one person who had some authority in the Blue Ocean Pavilion. The issue was if he was willing to help him out.

"Elder Saul!" After sprinting out of the Commune, Oscar headed straight for Elder Saul's small cabin. Outside was Elder Saul, resting on his usual spot in the reclined chair.

Elder Saul's face twitched in annoyance before opening his eyes to look at Oscar, making the boy feel nervous as if he had offended someone he shouldn't have.

But he had already come here, so he had to take the chance and explain what he wanted.

"You want me to take you to the Record Hall?" Elder Saul sighed.

"Is it not possible?" Oscar groaned.

"No, I can take you there. But I need you to do something for me." Elder Saul's mouth curled into a smile.

The contrast between this and the elder's usually expressionless face made Oscar feel as if something bad was going to happen.

"Don't be scared. I'm not going to ask you to do anything harsh. I'll tell you later. For now, let's go to the Record Hall and see your friend's aunt." Elder Saul grabbed Oscar's shoulder, and the two disappeared as if they had never existed.

"!!!!" Oscar flew through the air so incredibly fast that he could not say a word or scream. The reason for the sudden disappearance was Elder Saul's mind-blowing flight speed.

'I know Knight Exalts and above can fly but isn't this too fast?'

He had his suspicions that Elder Saul was not the weak and unassuming elder Nicholas said he was. This display of speed only confirmed his suspicion.

"We're here." Instead of slowing down, Elder Saul stopped completely. Oscar's body lurched forward as his skin and hair were blowing away. However, Elder Saul had him in a tight grasp, so he wasn't flung out.

Oscar heaved and gasped for breath. His lungs were devoid of air, blown out by the sudden break.

Down below, he saw the familiar building of the Record Hall, where ironically, Ivanka dragged him earlier for his trial, though not as fast nor harsh as Elder Saul.

Slowly, they floated down, alerting the guards who were on standby. As they landed, the guards formed a small perimeter around them.

"What is your business here?" The guards noticed Elder Saul was wearing the clothes of an elder and lowered their guard. If an elder was here, then it had to be official business.

"This child here has business with a Judge, Ivanka Klein."

"I've never heard of a student being dragged here to meet a specific Judge." The guard was skeptical and probed for the truth or further details. Oscar could feel a small overpowering presence leak out; it was the pressure of a Knight Exalt.

Elder Saul looked unfazed by this show of force, surprising the guard, who held great pride in himself. He tried to sense anything from this plain-looking wrinkled elder but nothing. Instead, he felt a feeling of dread creep into his heart.

"Go inside and tell Ivanka Klein that Oscar Terr is here to see her." Elder Saul said dryly.

"Yes." The guard strangely obeyed, making his fellow guards feel something was off. They watched in confusion as their comrade quickly made his way inside.

Oscar and Elder Saul waited under the watchful eyes of the guards. Oscar felt uncomfortable being stared at by multiple Knight Exalts. He heaved a sigh of relief when Ivanka Klein stepped outside.

"Oscar." Ivanka smiled.

"Hello, Ms. Klein." Oscar smiled back. Her iconic green hair and yellow eyes were so enchanting. Even the well-trained guards were taking glances at her.

"I can take it from here. Thank you for your due diligence." Ivanka and Oscar entered the Record Hall.

"Since that is it. I have no further business here. Farewell." Elder Saul slowly floated up and departed at a slower speed than his arrival.

"What was that? That old man may be an Elder, but he's not even a Third Elder." One of the guards asked the one who ran inside to get Ivanka. They didn't need to be so accommodating to an elder like that.

The Elders were organized into a pyramid structure. There were the regular elders like Elder Saul, Third Elders, Second Elders, Primary Elders, and finally, the sole Great Elder, Robert Levitt.

As guards, they held authority above regular elders but below Third Elders.

"You didn't feel that?" He asked his comrades.

"Feel what? Nothing happened." The guards looked at him as though he was going crazy.

The guard looked shaken. That feeling of dread he felt while trying to scrutinize Elder Saul. It could not have been an illusion, but everyone else said they didn't feel anything.

"Don't worry about it. If anything, it's great that the Judge wasn't angry at us. Let's get back to work."

"Right…." They returned to their stations, but he was still bothered by what had happened.

…….

Inside the Record was a constant stream of scrolls and tablets floating around and going to the shelves or desks.

Ivanka led Oscar to her table and pulled up a chair for him to sit on.

"You're curious about Frederick, right?"

"I haven't seen a trace of him in the Outer Hall. Where is he?"

Ivanka was silent for a few moments and reached into her desk, pulling out a scroll. She unfurled it before Oscar; on it was Frederick's picture and details about him.

"Is that Frederick's record?" Oscar said hoarsely.

"I can't let you read it due to privacy matters, but I can tell you the gist of it. He has yet to return to his dorm room because Frederick's been taking on mission after mission. He goes to the Misson Hall right after returning and departs."

"Is he insane? What kind of missions is he taking?" Oscar demanded.

"Calm down. I can't inform you of the specifics of his missions. But he's been taking on only solo missions and not any easy ones, either. All of them are life-threatening." Ivanka showed concern for her nephew. She wanted to find him and talk, but she had many duties and could not stake out the Mission Hall daily.

"Can you at least tell me what his current mission is and when he might return?" Oscar hoped.

"Sorry, Oscar. I cannot betray my duties."

Oscar slammed the desk hard and shouted, "He's your family!"

"Silence!" Ivanka scolded. "I know that, but there are boundaries that cannot be crossed. Though I wish I could." She looked at Oscar with a somber expression. Despite her hard exterior, she cared for Frederick.

Seeing that, Oscar shut his mouth and withdrew his hands. "Is he alright?"

"He returns alive so far. However, this recklessness will get to him one day."

"This is probably the only way he thinks he can catch up to Gilbert." Oscar noted.

"That is a pipe dream. Gilbert is a Grade Nine. The higher-ups of the Pavilion are placing great attention on him. It's one thing to challenge Gilbert to a duel, but killing him will incur the wrath of the Pavilion and the Empire."

Oscar gritted his teeth. "It's always Gilbert…."

Ivanka looked at Oscar's unwilling face and sighed. "I remember when Gilbert was frail. Frederick, Gilbert, and Teresa were a good trio of friends."

Oscar perked up. Anything to learn about Frederick could help.

"When Teresa died, Frederick changed. He was a good kid. Although he had some episodes of laziness which I punished him for, he worked hard with a radiant look in his eyes. But then his eyes became vacant. He was like a lifeless puppet during training and made every effort to appear frivolous and unruly to cause trouble for the family with empty smiles."

Ivanka drank a cup of water and continued, "I tried many times to get through to him, but nothing worked. He only reacted when Gilbert's name was brought up, flaring up in rage. But then, when he came to the Pavilion, he changed."

"I saw him a month after he passed the trials. He looked almost like his old self. He still behaved frivolously, but he was talking normally and smiling. He told me he had made a very interesting friend. I didn't know it was you until we saw each again after your Night Raptor hunt. I wanted to say something, but I didn't want to ruin what Frederick had recovered."

"But it was for naught. Frederick has become worse than before. Even his whimsical personality has been disregarded."

Oscar stood up and looked at Ivanka's saddened display. "Thank you for telling me about Frederick. I am his friend, but I did not know anything about him."

Although he couldn't get what he wanted from Ivanka, he felt he had moved closer to his wayward friend.

"I'll find Frederick, and together with Emily, we'll make him wake up."

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