Chapter 178 Negotiations (Part 1)

After giving some miscellaneous announcements, Stella finished the meeting and dismissed the students, not without stealing a gaze at Daimon.

She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, at the sight of Aisha sitting on his lap while Liz and Elaine were each hugging one of his arms with happy expressions.

"All men are the same", she thought as she softly snorted before returning to her only safeguard in this planet, the library of the academy.

Aliya didn't say anything before because the weekly meeting was about to start, but now that it was time for the class, she glared at Haylee which didn't escape Daimon's eyes.

"She is Michael's fiancé, originally she wasn't going to join the academy, but given the current circumstances, that changed".

Haylee stood up from her seat and took the opportunity created by Daimon, to introduce herself, she slightly rose the sides of her dress as she spoke.

"My name is Haylee Blitz; I'll be in your care".

Aliya's eyes seemed to glow as she evaluated the girl in front of her, others might not know the surname of the Lightning Assassin, since he doesn't publicly have a force of his own, but due to Boris which shares as master-disciple relationship with one of the biggest veterans, she of course recognized it.

"I'm Aliya Rubreum, welcome to the elite class… are you perhaps related to senior lightning assassin?".

"Yes, but please keep it a secret".

Aliya nodded, having a loose tongue is a bad habit after all, but she misunderstood Haylee's reasons.

"Grandpa, is for sure flirting with some girls at the academic city, I don't want angry boyfriends causing Michael troubles… again", thought Haylee as she sighed.

After the presentations finished Aliya guided them to the 1-S classroom where Boris was already waiting for them, once everyone took their respective seats, he walked to the front of the classroom.

"Brats, things are going to become troublesome… the other academies are demanding to get some spots for the exploration".

Boris was genuinely angry, the reason as to why Aura left so fast was that the half emperors had to virtually meet the magus kings, normally when there is an event at the biggest academies, it's like the Olympic games back at earth, people from other academies all over the galaxy can come if they want as ultimately, it's an income for the academy.

But this time things were different, the strongest magus kings actually arranged a meeting with the representatives of the wild claw academy in Lykos, so the principals of the three academies mentioned by Stella were the ones that came to discus things with the three half emperors of the biggest families.

Daimon couldn't help but gaze at Erin which was leisurely floating behind Daimon while wagging her tail.

"Are you sure you don't need to attend something?", he asked in a voice only Erin could hear, only to see her cunningly smile as she moved her right index finger sidewards.

"No, no, no, what would the fun be in openly letting Arthur know that Leena is on our side before it is obligatory needed".

"Currently there are only three magus kings which stand on equal power half emperors without sacrificing their subordinates, so only three half emperors are needed to contain them just in case, so I asked Leena to take my place this time, so that Arthur Jolbaris will believe he's got the higher ground, in any case in a rare occasion our stand is the same".

Erin then threw a kiss at Daimon as she winked.

"Of course, the main reason is that like this, I can be with my Daimon while that old wolf woman can't ?".

…

While Daimon was inwardly chuckling at Erin's words, at an unknown distance above the main campus of the wild claw academy, where no one on the ground could catch a glimpse of them, there were two groups of three people each floating at about fifteen meters from the other.

One group was conformed by Aura, Leena and Arthur Jolbaris, as for the other one, its members were a blue haired woman which had her eyes closed wearing a warrior attire, a tall man with a muscular figure, brown hair and a short beard and lastly an erudite looking slim green haired young man.

"So, what bad wind brought you three here, don't tell me you want to get your ass handed by Erin again, Lars?", asked Aura in her usual indifferent voice.

The erudite frowned, green mana started leaking out of his body as he gave Aura a sharp gaze, which she of course answered by letting some of her mana run wild too.

Two different lights illuminated the sky one light green and the other one silver colored, but then the bearded man also let out his brown mana as he joined hands to suppress Aura.

"Stop it you two, my ocean heart academy didn't come here to fight, if you start a battle then be sure I won't step in unless you are about to die".

The calm voice of the blue haired woman echoed through the sky making the other two guys stop, but judging by their expressions they weren't convinced at all, especially because Aura looked at them with disdain.

Arthur then stepped in to "mediate", since his Jolbaris family had the highest power out of all the presents, thanks to the two half emperors representing it.

"Ocean Queen Lydia, is still the voice of reason among the magus kings, let's not waste each other's time, you three for sure want a spot in the upcoming exploration, but let me remind you the rules accepted by all the forces".

"Only the three strongest forces of the beast faction which are part of the council had the right to demand a spot to enter the ruins or realms found by the others, and you three rejected the invitation to be part of the council if my memory doesn't fail me".

The magic ruin was found at the same time by members of the human, beast, vampire and demon races, but all of them were affiliated to the four biggest academies, so the magus kings and their academies had no right to explore it.

Before the erudite or the bearded man could speak, the principal of the Ocean Heart academy, Lydia Frost slowly took out a small hand sized jade box from her storage ring.

She then showed the content to Aura, Leena and Arthur, it was a blue flower which's petals seemed to be made out of crystal, as soon as the jade box opened, the temperature on the surrounding area dropped.

"The rules only says that we can't demand a spot, but buying one isn't prohibited, my Ocean Heart academy is offering this snow lotus from the frozen dew pond in exchange for a spot in the exploration, one for a spot in the first years and one for spot in the second years".

Aura's eyes glowed for a second, to form an academy not only strength was needed, each academy had its own sacred grounds, places which were only accessible by the crème of the crop, which granted some benefits to them.

The frozen dew pond mentioned by Lydia is one of those places, and the snow lotus in her hands is a magic flower which only blooms once every one thousand years in that place, it's one of the biggest treasures in Lydia's academy.

Lydia saw that her offer caught the attention of the three half emperors and she elaborated on it.

"If refined by an early-stage Arch ranked mage with water or ice affinities, this lotus can immediately help it advance a minor realm and also increase its affinity with ice or water elements".

Aura's interest in the snow lotus immediately increased, there was one early stage Archmage in the family, Elaine, but she didn't say nor show her interest in her face, she instead told Erin what was happening through their mental connection.

Then the erudite and the bearded guys also took out their respective treasures, a bottle of two thousand years old stalactite milk, a condensation of the mana produced by an area rich in earth element, an elixir naturally produced in the Gaia cave of the earth palace academy.

And a piece of a thunder nimbus vine, an accumulation of wind and lightning mana produced in the Storm region of the furious whirlwind academy, the three treasures were at the peak of the Arch ranks, and on top of that they have never been available in the market.

Both Arthur and Leena were immediately attracted by the thunder nimbus vine, the other two things were also incredibly valuable things, but couldn't be directly used by them or their offspring.

Unfortunately, before they could accept the offer of the erudite man, Aura's voice made them speechless.

"The offers are interesting indeed, but unfortunately for you three the only one who has the right to give you a spot in the exploration is the captain of each team, it's an agreement signed by all the half emperors".

Arthur immediately gritted his teeth remembering how her son wasn't the first ranked of the elite class right now, as for the second year the son of his sister was still fighting for the captain's position with someone from the Argent family.

The two magus kings and the magus queen frowned, this information was exclusive of half emperors, of course Daimon, his family, his classmates, Aliya and Boris also knew it, but they three didn't so their plans had to change.

Lydia kept the lotus in her storage ring again as she nodded.

"Very well, if that's the case, we will wait for the captain of each team to be decided and then we'll negotiate with the respective family backing it".

But then Aura suddenly shook her head before saying.

"There is no need for that, at least not for the spots in the first year's team, I can represent the captain to accept the offer right now".

"What!", Arthur, the erudite and the bearded guy exclaimed at the same time, while Lydia and Leena remained silent, by different reasons of course.

Lydia knew Aura will never brag about anyone which wasn't her, as for Leena… she knew Daimon was a monster which was peerless among those in his same group of age, so she didn't doubt even for a second that he was going to win in the tournament, if not she wouldn't have accepted to leave Dana in his care after all.