Chapter 198: Visiting Gerald (2)

“Oi, the old man is playing coy!”

“HAHAHA.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where Gerald would give a kid the silent treatment.”

Michael wore a wry smile as the cacophony of laughter and taunts echoed through the corridor. Clearly the other portraits were making light of the situation, but Michael didn’t really have time to deal with something like this.

“Sir… I’m sorry that I have treated you poorly in the past.” Michael said eventually, bowing his head towards the portrait. While he was in a hurry, it wouldn’t hurt to show some remorse for clearly rude actions.

As he raised his gaze, he saw the old mustachioed man glance at him briefly before letting out another harrumph, clearly not satisfied with the apology.

Michael’s eye twitched in annoyance, but he kept his composure. “I had a question regarding the Aetherheart if you don’t mind answering… I figured that such a prestigious headmaster such as yourself would be best to ask.”

“Bah! He’s buttering you up old man, don’t listen to him.”

“HAHA, the kid is trying to flatter him into talking.”

The peanut gallery commented on his approach, making things even more awkward in that moment.

“Don’t make me turn your frames around!” Melody said viciously, glaring at the loudest offenders of the bunch.

Gasps rang out from the portraits, as if the mere suggestion of such an act was treasonous.

“You wouldn’t dare…”

However, the threat seemed to have worked, promptly causing the chatter to cease.

Melody turned to Michael and gave him a small nod, which he returned feeling a sense of appreciation well up inside. Things would be much easier if the others weren’t interfering.

“Can you please help me?” he turned back to Gerald and asked sincerely.

However, the old man didn’t seem moved at all. It seemed that Michael’s actions this year had well and truly hurt his feelings—despite the fact he was only a remnant will.

He sighed inwardly, regretting his past actions. Why was he so adverse to talking to the man in the past? Was it because he wanted to avoid being recruited by a portrait?

But he had almost expected this kind of reaction. After all, despite being a remnant will, the person who it had belonged to was a violet mage—one that had been the headmaster of Arcadia almost a thousand years ago.

Of course the man had his pride.

So Michael decided that he would need to resort to something he really didn’t want to do. It was unfortunate, but there was so much at stake right now that he had little choice.

“M-master…” Michael said in a low voice. Despite trying to hide the reluctance in his tone, it felt extremely obvious.

Gerald’s mustache seemed to spring to life as he turned his head as if it was on a swivel. His eyes shined with satisfaction, like he had been waiting this whole time just to hear those words coming out of Michael’s mouth.

The old man cleared his throat, attempting to look slightly more dignified. “What was that young Michael? I didn’t catch your words.”

Michael resisted the urge to roll his eyes, the bastard was clearly lying.

“I asked if you knew about the Aether—”

“No no, not that part.” Gerald interrupted him, lifting a hand. “What did you just call me?”

Michael’s hands balled into fists as he resisted the urge to curse out the old man. The only thing stopping him was the threat that his dream might have been a glimpse into the future.

“I called you master…” he replied eventually, sucking up his pride.

“Ah so that’s what it was.” Gerald nodded with an impassive expression. “But I don’t think we’ve gone through a master disciple ceremony yet, don’t you think its a little premature to be calling me your master?”

At this point, Melody had had enough. She pushed Michael aside and stood in front of the old man’s portrait, raising a finger towards him.

“Listen here, we don’t have time to stroke your broken ego old man.” She said impatiently, waving the raised finger.

In an instant, the guy’s face turned beet red, anger spreading across his features.

“In all my life, I’ve never been spoken to in such a way by a student!” He said with fury.

“You can be offended all you like, but we need this information. The fate of the academy could be at stake here.” She added, lowering her hand.

As the words left her mouth, the atmosphere within the corridor turned serious. Though it was the words of a teenager, it seemed that Melody’s status as a class representative held enough weight that the old headmaster’s took her seriously.

Gerald was clearly influenced by her words and suddenly calmed down, showing a flash of his usual bearing.

“I will answer your questions, but you will need to explain to me the reasons why afterwards.” He replied, his tone not allowing for refusal.

At this point, Melody turned to Michael, deferring to him without saying a word.

Michael nodded in appreciation, quickly agreeing to the deal. Worst case scenario, he could just take the portrait away from the corridor and explain the situation about his soul and notify the current headmaster.

“Has anyone ever managed to steal the Aetherheart before?” he asked, causing the portraits to instantly break into a frenzy.

“Steal the Aetherheart!? Absolutely not.”

“Many have tried, but they all failed!”

Melody sent the portraits a glare once more, bringing them to silence with a wordless threat.

“As they said, no one has succeeded, though it has been attempted.” Gerald replied slowly. “Now tell me, why do you ask?”

However, both Melody and Michael turned pale realizing what this meant.

“Wait, you said many tried… Did anyone ever manage to take it from the circular room?” He asked.

“What? You know of the vault!?” Gerald replied with shock. “Only headmaster’s are meant to know where it’s located.”

“Please just answer the question…” Michael asked hurriedly.

However, the answer he got was not one that he liked.

“No one has ever made it into the vault before.”

His heart sunk. It seemed more and more likely that his dream was a vision about future events that had yet to take place. Unfortunately, he just didn’t know when it would happen.

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