Zenith of Sorcery

It took a lot of time for Marcus to convince the gathered men to leave the issue alone. He was still setting things up, he said, so nothing was certain. Not to mention, he still needed to test these children before he would even consider teaching them. They accepted this, begrudgingly, but Marcus knew this wasn’t over. This was just a stalling tactic on his part, and Beortan, at least, would be hard to refuse.

He was really surprised that Beortan wanted him to take someone from his clan as his student. He was an extremely powerful mage himself, and the technique practiced by his White Dragon Clan was an ancient legacy not inferior to the Soul Tree Technique in any way. Why would he not simply teach his kin their own traditional ways?

For the same reason that Marcus intended to test all the candidates himself before he would accept any of them as students – because not everyone was compatible with the Breath of the Dragon. And if they had to practice something else, what better alternative than another spirit rank mage with an equally prestigious foundational technique?

Something like that was hard to come by, especially for a small vassal faction like Beortan’s. If he agreed to this, Marcus was potentially handing away the Soul Tree Technique to the White Dragon Clan. Very few mages would agree to this.

Sleep did not come easily to Marcus that night. Not because of the teaching issue – he would deal with that in due time – but because his upcoming meeting with the leaders of Great Sea Academy felt like a trap. Yet, it was one that he had to walk into. Beortan’s assurances that it was just a formality were not really successful in dispelling his worry.

It didn’t help that he couldn’t sleep in the wilds like he was used to. Adria was too big and developed, and every piece of the island they were standing on belonged to somebody. He couldn’t just set up camp on the outskirts of the city and sleep out in the open, so he had to rent a room at one of the inns and sleep on a bed like a normal person. Annoying.

In the end, he got up extremely early, before the sun rose fully on the horizon, and started to wander the city to clear his mind for the upcoming meeting and to familiarize himself with the city again. It had been a long time since he lived here, and while he did hear a lot of stories yesterday, stories were a poor substitute for first-hand experience. If one listened to the stories, the Eastern Lands were a wondrous place of golden temples and flying cities, where people casually rode on dragons and ate magical plants every day, but Marcus hadn’t seen any such paradises when he travelled there in person.

Adria was a lively place, even at this time of day. Ships were constantly coming and going at the port, braving the dangerous waters around the archipelago to bring vital goods to the wealthy city, so the working day started early. Shops were already in the process of opening up for the day, and the streets were full of people milling about in a hurry. He even encountered an argument between two groups of warrior adepts yelling and hurling insults at each other in the middle of the street, but thankfully just going around them was enough to avoid getting involved. Neither group seemed eager to involve an unknown mage in their dispute.

He stopped at some of the shops to browse their wares out of idle curiosity, especially if the shops advertised they sold “genuine magic items”. He used to love doing that in his youth, checking out strange trinkets, potions, and mechanisms, always hoping he would find some hidden gem among all the junk on display. Alas, all he ever found was anything but amazing or valuable. He supposed he wasn’t the only person with that idea, and that anything good got snatched up by various parties very quickly.

Eventually, he found his way into a flower shop that sold a collection of seeds from magical plants. After browsing the selection for a while, Marcus could tell the shopkeeper was being truthful, as the seeds on display did resonate faintly with Marcus’ spirit, indicating they had some kind of magical bloodline. However, he was doubtful that many of them could be cultivated. Magical plants typically had a lot of very specific conditions that had to be satisfied before they could sprout and grow into a healthy adult plant, and these seeds did not come with any instruction manual. In fact, some of them did not even come with a name associated with them!

A young woman also came to check on the seeds not long after Marcus entered the shop. One look was all Marcus needed to realize she was wearing some kind of magical disguise to hide her true appearance, but he ignored her and did not comment on it. Disguise magic was restricted, and was most often used by children of the wealthy and powerful so they could move around more freely without being recognized. Just the fact the woman was using such a spell meant she was probably someone important, and Marcus did not want to create bad blood by calling her out on her disguise in public.

He did not bother with disguise spells. The more powerful a mage got, the less useful they became. This was because there were less and less people of higher ranks of power, and they had increasingly distinctive abilities that few other people shared. If Marcus started casting spells seriously, people would quickly realize who he was, even if he looked nothing like he usually did. On top of that, spirit-rank adepts could detect that a disguise was being used, even if they couldn’t discern the true shape of the person underneath. All in all, by the time Marcus had gotten his hands on one of these spells, they no longer had much use for him.

Although Marcus was content to ignore the woman and just check out the magical seeds, she wasn’t content to ignore him. After looking over the seeds she started shooting him anxious glances, and then eventually called out to him.

“Do you think these are real?” she asked Marcus.

Marcus looked at her more closely. She was a very pretty woman, with long black hair and a thin, attractive figure. The clothes were brown and practical, but clearly brand new and made out of something more expensive than your usual traveler would wear.

As far as disguises went, this one was pretty bad. With the kind of looks she was sporting, she would be turning heads wherever she went, and plenty of people would remember a gorgeous young woman stopping by. She should have made herself look uglier, if you asked him.

“They’re all real, but they’re also something of a lure,” Marcus told her. “Growing these is not just a matter of planting them into the ground. The shopkeeper is probably counting on buyers eventually coming back here so he can sell them instructions on how to actually grow these.”

“Hey!” the shopkeeper protested from behind him. “That’s slander! Do you want to get thrown out of the shop!?”

“Also, some of these plants take decades to grow into full maturity, even if you do everything right,” Marcus continued, unconcerned with the man’s threats. “That said, warp orchids, goldleaf, and fireflowers should all be safe picks. There are easily-acquirable guides on how to grow them elsewhere on the market.”

“I’m interested in the elephant tree,” the woman said, biting her lips and looking kind of anxious. “I know growing it would be challenging, but I just wonder if these are even its real seeds. I heard the plant rarely produces them.”

Marcus remembered that plant. He had also sought it out in the past, since he heard it could help adepts practice defensive magical abilities, and he was honing his Diamond Skin ability at the time. Alas, the elephant tree was not actually a tree (or an elephant), but was instead a sort of large succulent, so his compatibility with it was less than he hoped.

The elephant tree was one of those plants he mentioned that took decades to grow into maturity. It only grew in certain arid valleys of the Hamdraut mountain range to the south of the continent and it took forever to fully develop. ‘Challenging’ was an understatement. He seriously doubted the woman could grow it in a garden somewhere.

“They’re really seeds of the elephant tree,” Marcus confirmed. He didn’t try to talk her out of trying to grow it. “I saw them in the wilds and they looked and felt just like these.”

The shopkeeper seemed like he was preparing for some kind of speech in defense of his goods, but when he heard that Marcus was actually giving legitimacy to his shop he stepped back from the scene.

The disguised woman ended up buying no less than five different seeds, including a mystery seed that even the shopkeeper wasn’t sure what to make of. It was a waste of money, especially that mystery seed, but she clearly came from a wealthy family and could afford it. Truthfully, was something like this so different from what young Marcus used to do when he scoured the various shops in search of a powerful artifact that everyone but him had overlooked? Both were a huge gamble, and people liked gambling.

He left the flower shop without buying anything himself and went back to the entrance of the inn he was staying at, where he found Beortan impatiently waiting for him.

It was time to meet Gaius and the Great Sea elders.

* * * *

Marcus had thought Gaius would bring him in front of the entire council of elders to justify himself, but he was wrong. Instead of publically confronting him in front of everyone, Gaius wanted to have a private conversation with him in his office.

Marcus had mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, he wouldn’t have to make any public speeches. On the other hand, it would make it a lot easier for Gaius to try something underhanded. Marcus had been to the consul’s office once before, during his time as a general in the Academy War – it was an isolated and heavily defended place, hard to approach and hard to leave.

Ultimately, he had to risk it and go. Refusing to meet Gaius like this would be seen as a huge slight against him, and a signal he still carried a grudge against the new leadership of the academy. Besides, Beortan was adamant that Gaius wouldn’t be so brazen as to openly attack him at this meeting, and Marcus trusted his judgment.

Beortan wouldn’t be accompanying him to the meeting, of course – only Marcus was invited.

Although he had only been here one time years in the past, the consul’s office wasn’t a place that was hard to find. The path there was large and wide, a long corridor lined with statues on both sides, and with vivid frescoes of historical scenes covering the walls. The statues were made of marble, and painted with colors to be extremely lifelike. They all depicted previous consuls of the Great Sea Academy, all of them standing proud or striking up dramatic poses. At the start of the corridor, the statues came in pairs, as the academy used to elect two consuls at once in the past. It was apparently done so they could keep each other in check and promote wiser rulership. However, at some point in the past one of the consuls managed to chase away his fellow consul and assume total control, abolishing the practice. The statues reflected this, becoming sparser and no longer coming in pairs roughly half-way through the corridor.

As he passed through the long corridor and approached the large oaken door to the office, Marcus stopped for a moment, staring at the statue of Gaius next to him. As the current consul, his statue was the last in line, just before the entrance to his office. A tall, handsome man in purple robes greeted him; a friendly, gentle smile permanently affixed to his face. A laurel wreath was placed on his head, and one of his hands was outstretched, holding a gilded scroll.

Marcus resisted the urge to audibly scoff at the sight. There was a pair of heavily armored guards guarding the door not far from him, and he would rather not express obvious distaste for Gaius in front of them.

He tried to continue onward, but an armored hand stopped him.

“Halt!” one of the guard commanded. “State your purpose!”

Marcus was quite sure the guards knew who he was and why he was here. However, he didn’t intend to make a big deal out of it.

“I am Marcus King. The consul has summoned me here for a meeting,” he told the guard.

“Wait here,” the guard ordered, before darting inside the office to confirm things with Gaius. He came back a few seconds later to inform Marcus that Gaius was ‘busy’ and that he should wait for a little while.

‘A little while’ turned into five minutes, then twenty minutes, then an hour. The pair of guards standing by the door did not speak to him at any point, remaining silent and motionless like they were just another of the many statues in the corridor. Not that Marcus really tried to strike up a conversation with them, either. He ignored them in favor of studying the frescoes and the statues, admiring the craftsmanship. There were so many little details included… he wondered how many people who passed through this place actually stopped to take a closer look and admire what they were seeing.

Oddly enough, the long wait actually succeeded in making him calm down and stop worrying about the upcoming meeting. If Gaius was willing to waste time on petty games like this one, he probably didn’t intend to have him ambushed the moment he stepped through the door of his office.

“Come in,” Gaius’s voice suddenly said. The word was spoken in normal volume, but it suffused the space inside the entire corridor, and was impossible to ignore or mishear.

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Curious. Marcus did not recognize the magic involved with making this happen. That didn’t happen often.

He strode forth towards the door, and this time the guards did not intercept him. They silently moved to the side to let him pass, and even did a slight bow to him as he passed. When Marcus opened the door and strode into the office he found Gaius sitting behind his desk, hands cross in front of him in a triangle-like gesture, his face mirroring the one on the statue out in the hallway, right down to the infuriating friendly-looking smile. The only difference was that the man in front of him wore glasses, whereas the statue outside did not.

The office had changed greatly from how it was when Marcus had last seen it. Antonius, the previous consul, had rarely been in his office, and it had been fairly lacking in decoration and luxury when Marcus had visited it. This time, however, the entire wall behind Gaius was turned into rows and rows of shelves that held a variety of books and scrolls. Many expensive-looking cabinets full of shelves and drawers were also scattered strategically around the room, displaying minor trinkets and curiosities. Gaius’s desk was large and free of any scratches and blemishes, looking as if it was bought yesterday, and everything on it seemed carefully arranged to give the proper impression. There was a bottle of ink with an expensive feather pen stuck in it, two stacks of documents of exact same height, and a vase full of dead, dried-up flowers.

Marcus supposed that the dried flowers were supposed to be artistic or something, because he had seen them displayed prominently by other people as well. Personally, he would have just placed a living potted plant on the table instead.

Gaius wasn’t alone, of course. Marcus fully expected that Gaius wouldn’t want to face him on his own, so this wasn’t a surprise, but it was still somewhat annoying that he got called into a private conversation and the other side had no fewer than four other people with him.

Standing to the right of Gaius, there was an aging man with an angry scowl on his face. He stared at Marcus with undisguised antipathy, looking as if he wanted to start berating him on the spot. That was Cornelius, one of Gaius’s oldest allies and his personal attack dog. Gaius liked to maintain an image of a genial and polite gentleman at all times, so when he needed to make his displeasure known or enforce something unpopular, he sent Cornelius to do it in his stead. It had been like this back when Marcus had still been at the academy, and according to Beortan, Cornelius served this role to this day.

To the left of him there was a younger, less well known, but far more dangerous man, looking at Marcus while leaning on a staff. The man’s expression was completely unreadable, and based on what he heard about him, Marcus suspected he wouldn’t talk much in this meeting. Herodian was Gaius’s personal advisor and – though these were officially just rumors – also served as his spymaster.

These two were a constant presence near Gaius, rarely being far from him during public appearances, but the other two people in the room were a bit unexpected. One was a balding, wrinkled old man in elaborate white robes who held himself with quite a bit of pride and vitality, despite his advanced age. He was Cato, a patriarch of the prominent Uticensis family - one of the traditional powers of the Great Sea Academy. The other person was a middle-aged woman in a blue dress, her hair arranged in an elaborate bun and wearing a lot of expensive-looking jewelry. She was Octavia, one of the few female elders currently active in the council.

Both Cato and Octavia stood some distance apart from Gaius and his two henchmen, indicating they didn’t quite want to be seen as totally in his camp. This made sense, since they both had their own factions and weren’t really known as loyalists of Gaius by any means. They weren’t on Marcus’s side, to be sure – at face value, Cato didn’t really like him because he was the leader of the conservative faction and Marcus was an outsider from a minor vassal faction – but they weren’t necessarily on Gaius’s side either.

Marcus didn’t know what to make of this, so he simply strode forward to the center of the room and made a slight bow to the gathered elders. There was no chair for him to sit on, and even if there was, everyone except Gaius was standing, so he would have to stand too.

“Greetings consul, elder Cato, elder Octavia, elder Herodian and… brother Cornelius,” Marcus greeted.

“You!” Cornelius yelled, bristling at the informal way he was addressed. Despite his loyal service, he was never made a proper elder, as that required a certain level of personal power and acknowledgement of the other elders, neither of which he had. He probably had some other fancy title bestowed to him by Gaius, but Marcus hadn’t been interested enough to find out which before coming here, so he couldn’t humor him even if he wanted to.

Gaius placed his hand on Cornelius’s arm to signal him to calm down.

“You know, elder Marcus, there is a proper set of traditional greetings meant to be used in circumstances like this,” Gaius told him politely.

“I know, but I don’t remember how they go,” Marcus admitted. “What can I say? I’m just an orphan from a minor kingdom, and it’s been six years since I was last here.”

“And yet you wanted to be the leader?” Cato remarked from the sidelines. “Ridiculous.”

Marcus said nothing to this.

“It’s good to see you back, elder Marcus,” Gaius said after a second of silence. “I take it that your pilgrimage has been successful, then?”

“Yes,” Marcus confirmed. “I realized many things about myself and the world in the last six years. I understand my long absence wasn’t well-received by some, but I felt I needed to do this for the sake of my soul and peace of mind. Hopefully I didn’t cause too much trouble.”

“Not at all,” Gaius assured him. “In fact-“

“Please,” Octavia suddenly spoke up. “Gaius, we did not do this in front of the entire council specifically so we wouldn’t have to do this whole theater. Let’s move on to the meat of the meeting, shall we?”

Gaius considered it for a second, giving Octavia a slightly unhappy side glance. She met his look head on, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance.

“Fine,” Gaius said, sighing dramatically. “Marcus, I wasn’t just reciting generic pleasantries earlier when I said it is good to see you back. The academy could use your help in the coming days. I could use your help. However, I must ask you plainly: why are you back?”

Marcus didn’t answer immediately. In truth… this was still something of a mystery to him. He didn’t fully understood what had driven him to return. That said, this wasn’t really what Gaius was interested in.

“I’m willing to accept the decision the elders of the Academy made six years ago,” Marcus said. “In fact, I’ve come to believe they made the right call in making you the consul instead of me. My candidacy had been a mistake, and I’m glad things turned out the way they did. In light of that, there is no reason for me to stay away any longer.”

Cato and Olivia seemed surprised at the way he phrased that answer. Cato especially seemed taken aback, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Herodian simply tapped his staff thoughtfully, his eyes never leaving Marcus, even for a second. Cornelius, however, scoffed loudly at the words.

“So much rubbish just to say you’ve decided to come back here like a beaten dog, begging for scraps. What’s the matter? The outside world was too harsh for you?” He told Marcus bitingly.

“Cornelius, be polite,” Gaius said absentmindedly, his fingers intertwined in front of him in contemplation. “That’s wonderful to hear, elder Marcus. Your pilgrimage may have been just an excuse, but it seems to have resulted in enlightenment nevertheless.”

“Are you planning to have me assassinated?” Marcus asked him bluntly.

“You! You dare?!” Cornelius protested, sounding as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Octavia also seemed fairly scandalized at the suggestion, but neither Gaius nor Cato seemed shocked at the question.

“Those are mere malicious rumors, elder Marcus,” Gaius assured him. “I am a man of virtue. We might not quite see eye-to-eye, but surely you would not think so low of me?”

“There haven’t been any prominent killings in the academy for a very long time,” Octavia assured Marcus. “The other elders would not stand for such uncivilized behavior.”

“Indeed. Killings among elders are for savages in Poisonwater and Giant Thunder Hall,” Cato stated. “This is not the way we do things around here. Please do not disrespect your consul and fellow elders with such frivolous accusations in the future.”

“Hmm. Very well,” Marcus said. He hadn’t been sure what to expect when he asked that question, but he was reassured by the reaction he got. “In the interest of honesty, I want to inform you that someone has placed a bounty on my head. I don’t know who they are, but the news was delivered to me by a member of Raven Temple, so it should be credible.”

He didn’t mention anything about the reasons for the bounty that Helvran stated. They didn’t need to know that. In all honesty, he was telling them this solely so that he could have an excuse to be a little paranoid and odd in the near future.

“The academy will keep an eye out for anyone plotting against you, elder Marcus,” Gaius assured him. He made a strange, casual-seeming gesture with his left hand, and Herodian nodded barely-perceptibly in response. “Sadly, Great Sea has many enemies these days, so narrowing down who is behind the bounty will be difficult.”

“You need to stay in the academy, elder Marcus,” Octavia told him. “I would have made this request of you regardless, but this makes things even simpler. Anyone willing to place a bounty on a spirit manifestation mage like you is likely not weak. These are chaotic times. The academy could use your help, and you could use the academy’s protection.”

“Incidentally, I’ve actually advanced to the unification stage during my travels,” Marcus noted, trying to sound as casual as possible. He probably failed. “I’m not just a spirit manifestation mage any longer.”

The room suddenly got very quiet for a few seconds. Even Cornelius seemed at a loss for what to say, swallowing heavily and growing pale.

“Congratulations, brother Marcus,” Gaius finally said.

Oh, so he was a brother now?

“Thank you, brother Gaius,” Marcus said with an exaggerated smile. “I heard you also advanced to the unification stage while I was gone.”

Gaius nodded politely in response, but he suddenly seemed a little bit less confident around Marcus than he was before.

“Truly, you are the blessed generation,” Cato sighed. “That said, I must mirror elder Octavia’s request that you stay at the academy. There is no need for you to do much, in all honesty – your very presence here will make certain people think twice about making trouble for us.”

“I don’t want to stay on Adria specifically, but I fully intend to stay within Great Sea’s territory,” Marcus said.

Gaius shared a silent look with Cato and Octavia.

“That… should be fine,” Octavia said. “Even an occasional journey should be fine, but please – no more six-year pilgrimages outside the Silver League. Though perhaps I should go on such a pilgrimage, considering how beneficial it seems to have been for you.”

The conversation continued on for quite a while after that, consisting of an even mixture of probing questions meant to check where Marcus stood on various things, and simple informative lectures where the gathered elders informed him of the important events that had occurred in his absence. Some of that he had already found out from Beortan, and none of it was truly shocking or critical, but he was pleasantly surprised they were even willing to offer information like this.

Despite their claims that the academy needed him, there was absolutely no mention of having Marcus help with the combat side of things. If another war broke out, they would want his help, no doubt, but Gaius seemed wary of letting Marcus garner attention by displaying his combat prowess against the academy’s enemies.

In all honesty, Marcus was not eager to jump into action on the academy’s behalf either, so this suited him just fine.

Unfortunately, the conversation then turned towards his various duties as an elder of Great Sea Academy – things that he had utterly ignored in his six years of absence, but which the gathered elders insisted he now had to tackle. Apparently he had six years of tax reports he had to make…

“Actually, there is one more request I must make of you,” Gaius added. “You see, ever since the end of the Second Academy War, the academy has had a shortage of skilled mages, and the council of elders has made a decree that high rank mages must train at least five new apprentices in the coming years. I know you are wholly dedicated to your own personal advancement, however-“

“It’s alright, I’m already taking on students,” Marcus said, waving him off. “That should be taken care of by the end of the year. What else?”

Idly, Marcus wondered if Gaius was also covered by this decree. Did he also take some students of his own to teach? Probably not. The academies began as educational institutions, but these days their leaders were not particularly involved in teaching the new generation.

Besides, for a leader of a major faction to take on a student was always a highly political decision. Such a move was inevitably seen as picking a successor.

“You are taking students?” Gaius frowned. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“This is the first time we’ve spoken in six years,” Marcus pointed out.

“Ah, that is…,” Gaius fumbled. “Yes, what I mean is, you cannot simply choose anyone you wish for this by walking through streets of Adria. You are a distinguished elder of Great Sea Academy. A proper judging ceremony has to be performed.”

“To be honest, most of the children I will pick will come from the orphanage I grew up in,” Marcus told him. “I told Pliny, the caretaker there, to start organizing a testing site where I will pick a handful of orphans.”

Cato frowned. “The traditions-“

“This is a tradition,” Marcus said, cutting him off. “I’m an orphan from that very place… as I’m sure you know. I was part of several children chosen from the orphanage to learn magic, and now I am paying that forward by teaching a group of orphans myself. This is virtue.”

Cato frowned, but said nothing. The traditionalist faction he led cared a lot about ceremonies and proper manners, but they were also big believers in the concept of virtue and righteous behavior. It was dubious whether the idea that Marcus described could really be called a ‘tradition’, but it was certainly in line with the ideals that Cato championed.

Gaius, on the other hand, was rubbing his face slightly with his eyes closed.

“Marcus,” he said. “You must think of the bigger picture.”

“I know you will want to saddle me with a student from the Great Sea Academy and I am fine with it,” Marcus told him. “He or she can join the orphans I pick up from my old orphanage. They won’t get any preferential treatment, but I promise I will teach them to the best of my ability. Just don’t give me any slackers, yes?”

Gaius stared at him for a second.

“Three students,” he said.

“No, I can only accept one,” Marcus protested stubbornly.

“Three,” Gaius insisted.

“One,” Marcus responded.

“Three.”

“One.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Octavia mumbled.

“Three,” Gaius repeated.

“Two, and one of the children will come from my own Uticensis family,” Cato suddenly said.

Everyone looked at him in surprise, even Marcus.

The Uticensis family was practically nobility in Great Sea Academy, and Cato was known for his distaste for ‘foreign’ influences, which also included people from various vassal factions loyal to the Great Sea Academy. The idea that he was willing to send one of his descendants to learn from a foreign barbarian, even a powerful one, was… surprising.

“Cato?” Gaius asked in surprise.

“There are no objections to this, I imagine?” Cato asked, shifting his gaze between Gaius and Marcus.

“None,” Marcus and Gaius answered in unison, throwing a surprised look at each other afterwards.

Marcus rubbed his chin speculatively. The loyalty of the Uticensis family members to the Great Sea Academy was beyond questioning. With a student hailing from them, nobody could accuse him that he was snubbing Great Sea’s influence. He was worried that he would get some arrogant brat that looks down on his teacher and fellow students, but he was willing to accept that risk.

“The agreement is struck,” Gaius said. “I shall assemble a short list of candidates, and a short judging ceremony will be held six months from now where you will pick the most compatible student among them. As for the other one, I trust that Cato will handle that on his own with no need for my involvement.”

“Indeed,” Cato nodded.

“I conclude this meeting for now,” Gaius said, rising from his seat for the first time since the meeting had started. Herodian, having stayed completely silent and motionless throughout the entire meeting, immediately straightened up at the move. “My legs are growing numb and I could use a walk. Elder Marcus, please remain in Adria for a while longer. I have a feeling several more of your fellow elders will want to talk to you in the coming days.”

Marcus nodded, but internally sighed in defeat.

He just knew this would be a very annoying, upcoming week.

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