Chapter 760: Nevermore (Partly Back): Looking Forward

The nine elders of the Willowood tribe. They used to look so scary to Meira... even her own grandfather always had a frightening aura about him. One of absolute power that commanded respect. They were all C-grades, and Meira remembered thinking their power and position were utterly unattainable for someone like her.

But now, sitting across a table from these nine, Meira felt no fear or apprehension. She no longer saw nine unapproachable existences. Instead, she saw nine aging men and women trying to suppress their fear of the A-grade administrator and S-grade dragonkin. This was mixed with a good deal of confusion from the two standing behind Meira, who was the only one of them sitting at the table. Their meeting occurred inside the clan's "main house," where only the elders and high-ranking members usually were allowed.

One of the elders in the room looked more out of place than any other. Meira couldn't really blame him either. Just a few years ago, he had been someone Meira hadn't even dared look at for too long, someone her father whom she feared, feared himself. Her own grandfather.

In truth, Meira didn't really have any animosity toward the old man. She also wasn't sure how many emotions he ever held toward her either. He was over a millennium old, and her father had been one child of hundreds, with Meira herself just one grandchild of what had to be close to a thousand. Her father had been considered decently talented with a chance to reach C-grade, so her grandfather had put more attention on their family, but that didn't mean Meira had ever really talked with him.

The times he had been around hadn't been terrible, and he did seem to care in his own way. If that care came from him not wanting his direct relatives to be embarrassments or if he truly cared for them as people, Meira had no way of telling.

"Being back in the clan feels oddly nostalgic. I hadn't thought I would feel this way," Meira said, not really looking at anyone in particular. "How is everything around here these days?"

Now, Meira did have one genuine problem from here on out: she had run out of cue cards and plans. Sure, she had discussions with different people, but pre-planning conversations were difficult, so Meira could only do her best... and she wasn't sure if she hadn't already messed up from the beginning. In either case, she wanted to keep this short.

"There is truly nothing to complain about, honored Chosen, and the clan has only flourished after being allowed to serve the Order of the Malefic Viper," one of the other elders answered. The head elder and one of the oldest members of the clan. She was a few thousand years old and had reached late-tier C-grade, also making her one of the strongest in the clan.

Meira could only sigh at the woman's answer. It truly felt weird being at the other end of the table, but if she had learned one thing from how Jake dealt with being a Chosen, it was to "cut through all the bullshit" and try to force an honest conversation that wasn't just a dance of platitudes with small hints of truth here and there.

"Head elder, I am not here to do an inspection or to scold anyone. I am here as a former member of the Willowood Clan to deliver a gift to the place that gave birth to me. So, please, do not obscure any truths or hide anything."

The head elder hesitated, and sensing that she still wouldn't get a proper answer, she turned to the one man in the room she hoped could give straight answers.

"Grandfather," she said, making the man look at her with surprised eyes. "How is the clan doing these days? And please be honest."

Be it through sheer confidence from having known her before she became Chosen or because the man summoned all the guts he had, her grandfather actually gave an answer, effectively overruling the head elder.

"Things have not changed much since the Order of the Malefic Viper took over. There have been some adaptations that had to be made, but it is very much the same for the average clan member. The only difference is that things have been better in the last year or so... was that due to you?" her grandfather asked.

Meira just nodded. "I couldn't do much at the time, but others around me did communicate to ones they knew to lay off the clan a bit."

"Thank you," her grandfather said as he bowed in his chair. "If I may... your father, is he-"

"Dead," Meira shook her head. A pang of sadness fell over the old man's face, but he quickly recovered.

"I see..." he just nodded. Being an old and experienced man, he seemed to understand that pressing the issue would be unwise. Instead, he talked about people Meira would perhaps care about.

"Your mother is... one of the people not doing so well. She has had to pick up many burdens after you two disappeared, and it hasn't been easy on her. I have done what I can for your siblings, but due to the rules of the Order-"

He stopped abruptly as Meira threw an annoyed side-eye at the S-grade Malefic Dragonkin, making him back off his killing intent. Meira was beginning to understand Jake's complaints that people from the Order often overdid it.

"Please continue," she said, her grandfather's forehead now filled with sweat.

"The... the rules made things difficult for her, but your siblings are doing well... are... are you interested in seeing them?"

"That's why I came here in person," Meira smiled. "I won't be involved in much that happens from here on out. At least not directly."

Turning to the administrator standing behind her, she spoke: "Would you please take over dealing with the rest of these matters?"

"Certainly, Mistress Dawnleaf," the administrator smiled as she projected an image into the air. "Now, please keep up, for chances are you nine will be responsible for facilitating much of this transition, so don't hesitate to ask any questions."

With that, she prepared to begin the presentation in front of the nine elders. The start was only delayed slightly by Meira getting up and leaving with the dragonkin, the elders all standing up and bowing as she walked out, even her grandfather.

Meira didn't need to stay for what came next, as she was already roughly aware of the plans. As rare as an occasion like this was, where a member of some low-grade clan rose to a high position and wanted to incorporate their birthplace into the Order, it wasn't unique. In fact, there were records of this happening thousands of times before... though it very, very rarely involved a Chosen or was this sudden and extreme.

This meant some existing procedures were in place for the Willowood Clan to officially join the Order of the Malefic Viper. That would hopefully make things go smoothly.

It would work the same as any other clan that had been incorporated into the Order of the Malefic Viper. It wasn't like every single member of every vampire clan had joined the academy or anything like that, after all. It was far more similar to the citizenship of an empire, with every member of the Willowood clan being granted their own identification tokens and an official status within the Order that gave them certain benefits, such as free travel and protection.

Teleportation gates would also be established in the clan, and a grand defensive formation would either be placed down or the area would be included in another nearby formation by expanding that one. The entire area was already covered by the defensive barrier put down by the Order in all areas they controlled, but that one was more for detection than actual defense and would only work against certain attacks, such as celestial objects falling or two S-grades deciding to have a fight in the airspace above the clan.

Meira would not do much more than make the clan official members. She, in truth, had no interest in ruling the clan. Perhaps she was a bit similar to Jake in that vein, but she didn't believe herself qualified in the slightest and would prefer to focus on alchemy and her own personal progress instead.

In her speech, she had called this a final gift to her clan, and Meira very much meant that. She was no longer a member of the Willowood Clan. That identity had been stripped of her when she first became a slave, and she had no intentions of regaining it. This entire visit was just a sentimental goodbye to a life that had once been. They would all get a chance now to claim a better life for themselves.

All of this naturally only concerned the clan as a whole... her immediate family was an entirely different matter.

Meira was currently headed to the home her mother and siblings currently lived in. She wasn't that surprised when she learned they had been forced to move to a worse area of the clan after her father's death, but when she saw the state of the house, she was still a bit taken aback. It was small and shabby, far worse than the place she had grown up in.

On the way, they didn't see many people as most had hurriedly gone back to their own homes, waiting to hear what would happen to the clan. Those who did still venture out didn't notice Meira due to her bodyguard, who easily hid them. She was grateful for the S-grade's conduct throughout this... he never really talked outside of reminding her of important things, and she didn't even ask for him to hide their presence nor to stay outside and out of sight when they reached the house to not scare those inside too badly.

Due to her interactions with Jake and Teacher, Meira could handle being in the presence of an S-grade without any issues, but her family would naturally not be the same.

Standing before the door to the house, Meira would have thought she would have been nervous... but she was oddly calm. Listening in, she heard the voices of several people inside.

"Are you sure that was Meira? I couldn't see all the way up there... and wasn't it a high elf?" she heard Kythela ask.

"It was," her mother, Deliah, said with certainty. "You also heard what she said. It must be her."

"Do you... Do you think we can meet her?" Tanyl asked nervously. "If it really is big sis..."

Meira, standing outside the door, failed to hold back a smile. Without much hesitation, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

Everyone inside went silent, and after a moment, her mother went to the door and carefully opened it.

When she did, she froze when she saw Meira... but the twins didn't have the same apprehension.

"Sis!" "Meira!"

Without any second thoughts, they both ran over, but they did manage to get their bearings before they tried to pull her into a hug or anything.

"Hey, Mom," Meira said with a smile as she turned to the twins and Kythela. "How... how is everyone?"

Yeah... keeping up her façade as a figure of authority wasn't something she was thatgood at quite yet, especially not in circumstances like this.

"Meira..." her mom stammered as tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm... I'm sorry... I..."

Meira took her hand. "Let's talk about that stuff later, okay? Today is a good day... and we have plenty of time to get through everything, alright?"

Her mom held back tears as she nodded.

"It's really you," Kythela said, staring with eyes as big eyes. "But... how?"

"I did a whole speech up there about how," Meira shook her head.

"You... you really went through a lot," Kythela muttered. "Are you, you know, okay now?"

With a nod, Meira smiled. "Yeah.

After a few more assurances and questions, Meira finally went inside and sat down with everyone. They, of course, had more questions, and Meira happily answered while also asking many of her own. She learned how everyone was doing and what her siblings were studying at the academy. It was also only now she finally took proper notice of how haggard her mother really was.

As a healer, she had skills to see people's conditions, and her mother was in the initial stages of soul exhaustion. It was a rare condition for anyone above D-grade to ever experience, as it came from, quite literally, exhausting yourself so much over a long period of time it led to potentially permanent soul damage. Usually, it was only seen during long wars where the battle never subsided, and soldiers had to keep fighting and never had any time to rest, so to see it in a jeweler...

It definitely made Meira feel less angry at her mom, seeing her willing to sacrifice so much for her siblings.

They kept talking for what felt like hours as perhaps the most pertinent question was finally asked:

"What will happen to us now? What do you want us to do?" Sakala asked.

"Yeah, what will happen?" Tanyl echoed his twin, a hint of excitement in his voice.

Meira just smiled and held their hands. "That's the entire point of this. That's not for me to decide. You can do anything you want; go wherever you want. I am not going to tell you what to do or what you can't do. Those are your choices to make. All I will do is help you be able to choose your own future."

That was the greatest gift Jake had given to Meira: freedom. And now that she was able to grant it, she wanted to give this freedom to her family, too.

If Jake was sincere, he had found the entire Colosseum of Mortals Challenge Dungeon a bit too easy overall. The entire structure of the Challenge Dungeon didn't lend well to someone like him who wanted as many hard fights as possible, as it was more a long-term test of skill and ability to improve when circumstances changed.

Since he became severely limited in the number of fights he could do, Jake had leaned into this and begun to practice archery or basic magic daily. He had filled the downtime with something he found productive and had managed to get by the days like that.

However... the Paragon rank proved itself to be different. Jake could no longer enter every fight expecting his win to be a foregone conclusion. This wasn't just because his opponents could now match him in power but due to how the Colosseum operated.

Jake's opponents would study him. They would prepare counters to Jake's usual weapons and practice strategies effective against him. If the fights were done blind, neither Jake nor his opponent knowing anything about each other, Jake would have felt confident in winning pretty much every fight easily. However, if he went in unprepared against a prepared foe, even if they were slightly less powerful than him, he would no longer feel as confident in his victory.

This forced Jake to properly prepare for every single opponent he met in the arena. He did still get some blind fights with the weekly Show Match, but for the Paragon fights, Jake had gone all-in with the studying.

He watched recordings of matches, went and saw live matches, and practiced to fight against every opponent specifically. When applicable, he also prepared unique pieces of equipment or summoned powerful, stable arcane mana constructs he believed would be beneficial.

In his second Paragon match, Jake met a human mage with a trident who did water magic. He primarily used his magic to make what were essentially water cutters while defending himself with large waves to push away anyone approaching him. Jake had watched his opponent's matches and began to notice certain attack patterns he could exploit, and while the water cutter was powerful, it hit a small area that Jake was confident blocking with his katars. Which is exactly what he did, resulting in a relatively quick victory. He still had to go replace his armor after, though.

The third match was against a scalekin archer - something he had been happy to see all the way at Paragon rank. Her primary fighting method relied on her ability to mentally control her arrows and her incredibly high speed due to her powerful wind magic that outmatched even Jake by a significant margin, allowing her to borderline fly around. Jake had been very tempted to pull out his bow for a proper archery duel but had resisted and instead went with another plan. Seeing as she primarily fought by moving about a lot, Jake had set up a trap throughout the long fight where he slowly wrapped incredibly thin stable arcane threads around two of the pillars throughout his chase and then goaded her into trying to dodge that way, resulting in her getting entangled and giving Jake his opening to finish the fight.

Many of the subsequent fights were very similar. Every fight, Jake went in with a strategy, and his own "simple" fighting style proved to be a big advantage here. As Jake primarily fought by countering what his foe did, he was harder to prepare against than most, meaning his preparations often proved more valuable than his opponent's. You could only study a guy who liked to charge straight at you and try to stab you with katars that much.

Not to say he walked away from these battles unscathed.

Ever since being promoted to Paragon, Jake constantly consumed those recovery potions to not fall behind. Despite winning his fights, he never walked out without severe injuries. At this point, doing so was simply an impossibility, as while he definitely out-countered pretty much every counter... he was still countered. There were still weaknesses they could find and exploit, and when they unleashed their trump cards, not taking at least a minor injury was unavoidable, even for Jake. Seeing this happen did make Jake happy as it helped him clean up flaws in his combat style and hammer out bad habits, though he could have gone without the stab wounds.

Even so, he went through the ranks without missing a single beat or getting behind schedule. Even in the ninth Paragon fight, where he ended up losing an arm, he managed to reattach it after using the recovery potion, bandages, and four days of rest, followed by a Show Match done mostly one-armed.

The tenth fight proved to be easier than the ninth, primarily because it was against a mage - the kind of fighter he tended to counter quite nicely.

With all ten fights down... only a promotion match remained. Once that was won, the announcer would have no choice but to add Champion before any stupid nickname he assigned to Jake, resulting in it definitely sounding more stupid than before.