The Burning Fiend

Yale took a moment to calm down and put his ideas in order. "Well congratulations fourth brother. I think I can help you. I'm not supposed to said this but my father is the chairman of the Dowson Conglomerate, so I can help you obtaining the spells you need and the qi method in exchange to join as an elder if you became a saint. This would not incur in responsibilities it is just that if the Dowson Conglomerate finds itself in trouble we would hope to gain your help."

Reynold took a moment to think and said. "Well, to be honest if you ever found trouble I would have done my best to help you so being an elder is kind of redundant in my view". Yale smile and said happily. "I knew I have a good brother! Tell me, what are your plans for now".

He smiled and said. "I think I will graduate along with third brother but I will pretend to be a sixth rank magus in order to avoid the interest of the Holy Union and to be allowed to stay on Fenlai City without alerting my family. After all they expect me to spend another two decades studying at the Ernst Institute. Perhaps I could depend on you to help me get a small villa at Fenlai City where I could train and kept a quiet life out of the eyes of the Radiant Church?"

Yale smiled thinking that his fourth brother had m.a.t.u.r.ed. "Considere it done, I would go contact my father while keeping your situation secret. I would get you the spells and the qi method within two months and we will wait for third brother to discuss the matter of graduation."

During the next two months, Reynolds continued with his training routine and the time when Linley should return was coming closer. A week ago his body have reached the sixth rank warrior level and he felt by instinct that this was his limit, training his body would provide no more benefit to him and he would have to wait for the qi method to keep improving. So now he had two free hours on his busy training schedule, after thinking about it he decided to spend that time training with his spear and he would make new arrangements later.

He was not able to emulate the degree of mediation trance that he experienced along Linley, he thought that he had resonated with his brother mood but such experience was unlikely to happen again. Still the benefits obtained this time had been enormous.

It was at this time as he was gathering fire elemental elements that he felt his magical energy resonate as it reached a limit and it slowly started condensing into liquid. This marked the passage into a seventh rank magus. Reynolds was beyond happy he was almost sure that he would manage to reach the saint realm. He had already reached the sixth rank warrior level in body alone, which means that his body would be able to reach the peak of the ninth rank warrior without bottlenecks. In a similar way he had reached the seventh rank magus level a week before his 17 birthday, with patience and hard work there should not be bottlenecks to the peak of the ninth rank magus level. It was just matter of waiting for a good opportunity while maintaining his hard work, of course these were only his thoughts as the Erns't Institute did not provide information on training beyond the sixth rank.

As he was walking back to his dorm, he had not noticed that one of the administrators of the Proulx Gallery was walking by his side asking him about Linley, Reynolds was so deep in thought about his future plans that he was oblivious of the world around him it was only until he opened the door of the dorm and heard a scream that he was aware of the man that had entered along him and was screaming in joy as he watched Linley's tragic statue depicting his time with Alice.

Reynolds face palmed himself aware of his mistake and Yale was already in there controlling the situation. "No, this statue stays here until third brother return and decide what to do with it! You can leave now! NOW!". Yale was now looking at Reynolds aggrieved for the efforts he would have to spend in protecting the statue.

"Sorry eldest brother, I was so happy and deep in thought for becoming a seventh rank magus that I did not realize he was here. I only realized his presence until he screamed a moment ago."

Yale looked between defeated, angry and happy at the same time. He just stood there with his mouth opened watching this youngest brother until he starting laughing. "You brat, the amount of work I have now because of you! Can you not celebrate like a normal person with wine and women? Why do you have to make my life difficult as celebration?"

Both of them were laughing like children when George came back and decided to join the fun, he was surprised by Reynolds becoming a seventh rank magus and that Linley was also one by now. But was happy when he learned that Reynolds would stay in Fenlai City for a while pretending to be a sixth rank magus so the would be able to met often.

Linley returned a couple of weeks later, he was happy to come back and happy to share with his brothers the news of him becoming a dual seventh rank magus. They celebrated that night at the Water Jade Paradise talking about their future plans.

"Third brother, did your body reached the sixth rank as a warrior? I remember that you were only a fourth rank warrior a couple of months ago". Reynolds said while feeling happy for his brother, what kind of adventure did he experience to grow this fast? "Well you cannot expect for me to let you surpass me that easy do you?" Reynolds laughed and thought that his brother had a secret, but he had secrets of his own so he was happy for him.

"So have you decided graduate as a seventh rank magus? Don't you think that you would be getting to much attention?" Asked Reynolds worriedly as George and Yale seemed to be thinking on his words. "What do you mean by that" asked George. "Well, while studying about countries in my childhood days I remember the competitive open war between the Radiant Church and the Dark Church. If a genius is being sheltered by one of this forces, the other one would try to kill him or kidnap him. Third brother is strong enough to be considered valuable and the Radiant Church will protect him but he will lose his freedom."

He waited a moment as arranged his thoughts, "If you are doing this for your family heirloom I thing that your name as a sculptor and the support of Yale family would be enough for you to get it back. You can bid your time training in freedom and become strong to decide your own future. That the reason I am not graduating as a seventh rank magus, the noise of the news would reach the O'Brien Empire and a saint would come to bring me back. I would probably be forced by my family to join the army and would have to spend the next 20 years without freedom".

Linley seemed as if he was having an internal conversation and after a moment he said. "I understand what you are saying, but the Holy Union is my home and I want father to listen the name of our clan mentioned with honor and awe instead of mockery".

Reynolds insisted no more, he really wasn't thinking of deep political currents or scheming, he just did not want to join the army and find himself restricted as most of his life he had made his own decisions.