Emperor's Reckoning

"Now what do we do?" asked Reinhard.

"That's a good question," said Lyon.

"You... didn't think that you would have gone this far, did you?" asked Noah.

"What do you take me for, of course, I would get to this point, it's just that I never thought it through," said Lyon.

"If... I may," Lenu stepped in. "I think that we should update the situation with Refl, he should know what to do."

"That's a good idea," said Rayus.

"And what? You guys are going to take the spoils of war?" Lyon crossed his arms as he smirked at him.

"W-Well..." Lenu was at a loss. "The wealth from this camp would surely benefit our cause."

"Your cause," said Lyon.

"T-Teacher?" Noah raised his brows. ( Why is he antagonizing him? We are on the same side here, aren't we? ).

"T-Teacher you have to understand, upheaving the entire Burgeon Swan is a monumental task and we surely need every little bit of token we can get since," Lenu sighed, "Since almost no elites want to have anything to do with this."

"Teacher... maybe we should help them?" asked Reinhard.

Lyon turned his attention from Lenu to Reinhard, "Reinhard, you have to remember that we're broke."

"Gh!" Reinhard's soul was struck by his word.

"W-We can spare some tokens," said Lenu. "Don't worry about food and other provisions it will be more than enough."

"It's not enough," Lyon shook his head, "That's just for surviving, I want to thrive."

"Eh?" Lenu raised his brows.

"I will take all of those tokens in the tent, in the pouch, in the spatial rings, or under the damn carpet," said Lyon. "This is our spoil, not yours."

"Bu-But."

"If you want money, make your bar a little bit better," said Lyon.

( But that's just a cover... ) thought Lenu before he gulped.

"Are we seriously going to take all of that?" asked Noah.

"Every single token," said Lyon before he turned and laughed at the sky.

"A-At least we're rich," said Reinhard.

"We can only be rich when we're alive," said Rayus before he asked Lyon, "Teacher, the Burgeon Swan will come but what should we do?"

"We leave this place," said Lyon, "Let that guy inform Refl what's happening."

"We are going to act on our own?"

Lenu quickly stepped in, "W-We should work together! We would have double the chances of—"

"Double the chances of what? That Gamael over there possessed a Returning Jade Stone that will lead us to their headquarters' doorstep."

"That's exactly why we should prepare, right?" asked Lenu.

"You believe what Gamael said?" Lyon asked.

"W-What do you mean?" asked Lenu as his brows a bit furrowed.

"Are you really going to believe the man of which your enemy, is to be saying the truth at the last minute of his death? Do you know Gamael enough to know that he is that kind of guy?" asked Lyon.

"..." all four were stunned by his reasoning.

"What lying there might be somewhere where they meet and share their progress or something," said Lyon, "It won't be that easy to penetrate the headquarter of the Burgeon Swan, I bet."

"That's..." Rayus furrowed his brows and contemplated. He could see where Lyon was seeing and he never thought about it since Gamael's face looked convincing enough. Every word uttered was automatically considered the truth since Gamael was facing death with a breath distance.

"Well, considering the size of Burgeon Swan, I won't say that's not possible," said Noah.

"Y-Yeah..." Reinhard confusedly nodded.

"A-Alright," Lenu nodded in defeat. He had lost his chance in convincing Lyon to offer the wealth, the spoils of the battle that took less time than boiling water. Using force was not viable either since he couldn't even scrape Riki let alone Lyon, he would die. The new teacher of the Class Six of Nirvana School was a wild card he and the group that oppose the Burgeon Swan couldn't possibly foresee.

Lyon looked at the three students, "Go, collect all the tokens you can find."

"Eh?" Reinhard slouched.

"What's wrong?" Selena stepped in.

"Right away, Madam!" Reinhard and the other two immediately scattered.

Lyon chuckled looking at them running like headless chickens. He averted his glance back toward Lenu. "Do you have any more leads?"

"Lead?"

"Now with Gamael is dead, Guh City is practically free of bandits— well at least the big bad bandit is gone— there must be another place we can go and wreck apart," said Lyon with a grin.

Lenu had his eyes open wide, "Y-You still want to challenge them? Don't you feel like you need to take a break?" ( Are you even sane? ).

"Well, I need the money to spend lavishly on auctions," said Lyon, "Oh right, speaking of which, your items are inside the wagon if you want to take a look at it."

"My items? Oh! I-I can check that later," said Lenu. "But Teacher Lyon, with all due respect, if you pursue the entirety of the Burgeon Swan, I don't think your students would survive."

"They already survived one, and now twice, I don't see why they couldn't pull through," said Lyon. "Besides, we're fighting bandits, I can teach them a thing or two on how to win a fight on the way."

"..." ( This guy is insane ).

"Well, do you have any lead or not?" asked Lyon.

"I-I... I'm afraid I'm out for now," said Lenu. "But we should all head back to my bar first and rest."

"Words spread fast, you might endanger the whole city," said Lyon. "Are you sure about that?"

".... I..."

"That's your job, Lenu," said Lyon. "I and my students don't have the obligation to protect your city, they can burn for all I care."

"...." ( I... I'm not sure if he is a hero or a villain ) thought Lenu. He gulped. He didn't even dare to address the beautiful woman beside Lyon for that matter. He just saw her severing the entire camp faster than he could blink.

"Teacher!" Reinhard shouted from a distance.

"Huh?" Lyon turned over. "What is it?!"

"I think you should come and see this," said Reinhard.

"I'm too lazy to move right now, what is it?!" Lyon shouted.

"It's a Red Summoning Stone!" said Reinhard.

"See, that's not hard now is it," said Lyon, "Bring it to me! We might find a good use for it."

"I... I don't think I can," said Reinhard.

"Why not?"

"I-I think it's sealed or something."

Lyon frowned before he walked in Reinhard's direction. He soon saw him standing in front of a tent.

"It's weird, there are these glowing things all over like a letter I've never seen before."

"Let me see," said Lyon as he entered the camp. There he found a lone pedestal an object hovering on top of it. The object was indeed a stone with a red color and a mystifying glow surrounding it. However magical letters were spinning around the stone that was hovering. The letters were glowing with outlines and couldn't be deciphered with an ordinary tongue.

"What is that language?" Lenu furrowed his brows as he looked closely. "Fascinating, I've never seen anything like this before."

"Are they looking for this?" asked Reinhard.

"Perhaps?" Lyon shrugged.

"W-What should we do then? Obviously, we can't keep it here," said Lenu.

"I'll take it," said Lyon before Rayus and Noah entered the camp.

"Woah," Noah's eyes opened wide. "What is that fancy thing?"

"Did I hear that you want to keep it?" asked Rayus. "Don't you think that's a little... careless?"

"It would be careless if I don't take it," said Lyon. "Perhaps this holds the answer as to what the Burgeon Swan is seeking."

"I thought they are going for total control of the Second Heaven."

"Maybe so, but maybe also, something entirely different," Lyon smirked. "Maybe this thing can be the key toward the said total control of Second Heaven."

"If you put it that way..." Noah muttered. "Then it would be careless not to take it."

"That's what I said," said Lyon.

"How are you going to take it?" said Reinhard. "I mean look at it, that thing is practically telling us not to take it."

"Afraid of little floating words, now?" Lyon raised one of his brows.

"W-What?!" Reinhard frowned.

"Rayus, go take a little pebble outside and throw at it," said Lyon.

"Right," Rayus did as he was told. He went out and grabbed the nearest pebbles he could find. It was a thumb-sized one then he returned. Lyon nodded and then Rayus threw at it the pebble against the floating stone.

The pebble was repelled and for the moment of contact there appeared to be an invincible barrier.

"Huh..." the four of them were astounded.

"Well, from that, we can pull one fact," said Lyon. "They placed the barrier after finding the stone, not before."

"What should we do now?" asked Reinhard.

"Hmm, what if," Rayus stepped in. "What if they built the entire camp around this thing, instead?"

"I mean... it's dumb but it's possible," Lyon nodded. ( Wait a minute, I think Nostria pulled something like this too ). He slowly focused his eyes on the rotating letters as his brows furrowed with each second that passed.

"Runes..." Lyon muttered before he stepped forward and put his finger-infused mana right at the bottom of the rotating letters. He wrote in a foreign language right under each of the letters with another letter, all the way toward the end cycle before it flashed.

Lyon opened his eyes before realizing that the red stone was already in his hand.

"W-Woah?! How did you do that?!" asked Reinhard.

"I..." Lyon was flabbergasted as well before he realized that this kind of thing had happened before. Just like how he suddenly knew how to play zither, and even alchemy. ( No way, I can do this too?! )