Dragon's Tale 58 (Patreon)

I would have loved to go back and start working on Atia, whose house was the most likely candidate for having the precious books Caesar had collected during his conquests. Unfortunately, doing so without raising any suspicion was much harder. 

In the end, I needed to bet on the fact that our night together was memorable enough that they would reach the gladiator school again for my presence. 

Luckily, I was confident enough in my sexual abilities to make such a bet. 

So, instead of going back to the bath to wake Atia up and earning her ire, I stayed in the library, focusing on some of the more practically applicable spells, particularly the way the estate wards had been set up. 

After some search, I found a book that held a reasonably complete breakdown of the wards of the estate, and I did my best to memorize them. It didn’t hold the method of taking control of the wards, but that didn’t make the records useless. Knowing the exact nature of the wards that surrounded the estate, and how their nature was twisted to conceal their true structure, would help immensely if one day I decided to sneak inside directly. 

Of course, it was just enough to turn the task to very hard instead of suicidal, because the library record was just about the static aspects of the defense. The estate had many other defenses, patrolling mage guards, slave soldiers, and many other wards on the surface that weren’t important enough to be included in the current recording. 

Also, examining the way those ancient wards were embedded into the spiritual nature of the mountain was an interesting academic read. Pity I didn’t have the time to take my time, unraveling its mysteries, in particular the connection between the runes and the natural magic flow of the area surrounding the estate. 

However, I didn’t have too much time to waste. As the first rays of dawn started to spill inside the estate, I had already left the library and took the same road back, going back to the library. I slid between sleeping naked figures of  Atia and Olivia, chuckling as they instinctively hugged me, sandwiching me in between. 

Pity that a repeat was not on the table. I closed my eyes, and started to snore softly to fake sleep before dispelling the subtle sleeping spell I had placed on them to keep them sleeping. 

Soon, Olivia started stirring. Soon, she ripped herself out of my arms with a panicked expression that I didn’t need to see to imagine. Her shock was to be expected, not because she had sex with a slave — which was an acceptable hobby for a noblewoman as long as she had the sense to keep it reasonably concealed from the men in her life — but because she allowed a slave to thoroughly dominate her. 

Luckily, her movements woken up Atia as well. “Did we just-” Atia gasped in shock as she pulled back even more hurriedly. 

Atia’s shock was enough to suppress any explosive reaction Olivia might have, as she positioned herself superior to her friend when it came to matters of lust. “Yes, sweetie, you’re not a virgin anymore,” Olivia said mockingly. 

“But with a slave!” Atia gasped as she shuffled to her feet, tempting me to look to examine her beautiful body’s dance. But I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to alert Olivia just in case. 

“Come on, honey, just a slave, think of him as a toy,” Olivia said dismissively. “It’s not like he really matters. What matters is your pleasure.” However, despite her words, I could sense the tenseness in Olivia’s tone, suggesting that after some sleep, she didn’t like the level of liberties I had taken toward the end of the night. 

Fortunately, she was doing her best to look confident to defend her reputation for her friend. 

“If you say so,” Atia murmured, missing Olivia’s tenseness in her distracted state. I was curious about how the discussion would continue, but they walked away as they spoke, leaving me alone in the bath… 

An hour later, a servant came, bringing my clothes along before leading me out from one of the servant entrances, a significant difference considering the exalted position I held earlier. 

I just chuckled at the contrast. 

However, my good mood did only last until I met with Pico at the entrance. This time, he only had two bodyguards with him, a great contrast to eight bodyguards that accompanied us the night before to prevent an ambush. 

With his hands around the blade, squeezing hard enough to turn his fingers pure white, something was clearly wrong. “No invitation for breakfast?” he said, trying to sound light, but his tenseness revealed that it was not just a male joke after a night of pleasure. He was subtly asking me whether I had managed to earn enough pull to stay in the estate for the rest of the day, while the school handled whatever challenge they were facing that prevented them from sending a full team. 

The answer to his question was positive. After the night I had, if I pushed a bit, I could have arranged to stay through Atia even if Olivia was reluctant, though that would have made it very hard for me to apply the other parts of my plan. 

I was just a gladiator with significant martial skill and nothing else rather than a sorcerer with great experience, I would be willing to sacrifice a future advantage to defend myself. However, arranging a ‘mysterious’ mage helping us to save us from an ambush was the superior option, so I shook my head. 

To his credit as a warrior, Piko just nodded in acceptance as he turned and started to walk with deceptively soft steps, ready to lash against any threat. And, the moment we were half a mile away from the estate, he gestured one of the bodyguards, who passed a sword to me. “Be ready for anything,” he said. 

“Always,” I answered as I held the sword, displaying my readiness to him. “So, is there a reason to expect trouble, or this is just general caution.” 

“Ludus Magnus called for an emergency meeting today, just a few minutes after some of the creatures in our stables went crazy and wounding half of our bodyguards,” he explained. 

“And you don’t believe it’s just an innocent coincidence, how suspicious,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my tone. Piko let out a dark, sharp laughter, but said nothing. 

His tenseness was understandable, and not just because of horrible timing. Ludus Gallicus was the main rival of the Dacian School, and that was dangerous enough. But with Ludus Magnus, the clear superiority of the four great schools, calling the meeting, it suggested that they either had a pull enough to make them call a meeting, or at least they had an ally in a high place, informing them about the meeting at the same time. 

And, to make things even more interesting, the School of Bestiaries was another suspicious point. According to what I know, they were supposed to be happy with their neutral position, their niche unchallenged. But considering the trick they pulled against me in the arena included one of their beasts, and the earlier altercation in the stable also fell under their purview… It might easily be a coincidence, of course, but with my childhood, I never trusted coincidences. 

Especially the ones with impeccable timing.