Chapter 15

 "Ho ho. And who would this person be? It can't be who I imagine, right?" An old but very full of life voice rang out as a puff of green smoke appeared and a wizardly looking man stepped out of it.

 "I've been telling you, stop appearing like that." D said, exasperated, but the man just ignored him and looked at O.

 "Mr. Merlin! What brings you here?" O's face brightened as she stood up and approached the man with gleaming eyes.

 "My previous little gems are about to appear. Why wouldn't I come to see how they're doing? Ho ho." Merlin let out a little laugh at the end and looked at D.

 "I see you're as bright as ever." Merlin said and O snorted.

 "Stop with the sarcasm." D shot back. And the two of them looked at each other for a while before breaking gaze.

 "Anyways, who were you two talking about?" Merlin's gifted his gaze to the monitor they had been observing for quite a while.

 "This kid. His name's Bryan. Forgot his surname but he's been putting in a good performance so far." O commented and Merlin narrowed his eyes.

 "It's this boy?" Merlin asked, astonishing the others.

 "Just who exactly is this kid to make Merlin interested?" D muttered. Merlin was a man of such a high status it was impossible for him to even remember the names of the people he worked with. But he managed to remember a random boy from an examination.

 "You know him?" O asked and Merlin nodded.

 "How could I not? When he broke the record for fastest to reach the Elite level." Merlin said and drove the other two into shock.

 The reason for their shock was simple. The fastest record was a whole year. For someone to break the record, they needed their time to be lesser than the record by 

 "Why didn't we know of this?" D said in a surprised tone mixed with a bit of suspicion. 

 "Why would you? After all,it hasn't been recorded yet. He just finished his training the other day, just before he started the test. News of it hasn't really spread far. After all, he managed to do it in three months." Merlin casually said secretly enjoying the look of bewilderment that covered their faces.

 "That's impossible. No matter how fast or talented one is, there is no way they can reach that level in just three months." O firmly shook her head and gazed at Merlin.

 "Headmaster, if you plan on tricking us, come up with a better one." O said in a cold tone as her voice lost the respect she normally used when talking to Merlin.

 "If you doubt me, then pull up his file. He didn't have a tamed beast until three months ago, when he left for training with his guardian." Merlin said and raised his hand and tapped on the terminal and a file popped up.

 "Here." He said and touched the holographic image and slid it in their direction and it expanded to reveal its contents.

 "You've got to be kidding me! What the hell is up with this brat!?" O slammed her hand on the table as she saw that what Merlin was saying was true. Even the cool and composed D was slack-jawed as he stared at it.

 "He's not the only one who's special,by the way. There was never any record of him having bought a tamed beast and no one helped him capture one. The success of a beast is reliant on both parties. If he was this good, then it means the beast is too." Merlin drew their attention from the boy's picture and to the profile next to it.

 "His name is Carl and he is not of any specie we have recorded. Of course, the recording centre dismissed him as an ordinary fire-type lizard but on a closer inspection, I discovered he was more than that."

 'Those two were hiding such a thing? I admit, I thought they were well beyond average but they far exceeded anything I could have thought of.' D pondered as he looked at the boy who was walking through the forest once again with the girl.

 "Wait, if he's that excellent, does that mean I'll have a chance to fight him?" O eyes shone with a literal intensity as the area quaked from her releasing her ether.

 "Wait. He's still not reach his full potential. It may be that he dies before ever reaching it, like most do." Merlin's voice took in a deep and grave tone as he spoke.

 "Well, isn't that precisely the reason you became headmaster? To prevent things like that from happening." O shot a smile at Merlin, leaving him stunned.

 After a while,Merlin broke free of his trance and smiled softly.

 "I suppose that is true."

....

 "Looks like we needed to share a bit more." Lucy said to Bryan as she carried him on her back while Ragna did the same for Carl.

 "I... agree." Bryan squeezed out and rested his head on her back and felt her quicker-than-average heartbeat and smiled softly.

 "I get that the skill is overpowered but if it's going to take a lot out of you, then there was no need to use it. We could have finished it off with time." Lucy was miffed as she poured out her mind, leading her to talk a bit more than necessary.

 "Probably. But there was a chance you could have gotten hurt." Plus, Bryan was hurting for a chance to use his skill in actual combat but conveniently left that part out.

 "I see." Lucy decides to keep quiet and thanked what higher being existed for her skin tone, hiding the blush that creeped up her face.

 "What's wrong? Your heartbeat increased." Midway through her thanks, Bryan uttered, almost collapsing all her composure.

 "Now, what may you mean?" Lucy tilted her head and Bryan got the idea she didn't want to be questioned and wisely shut up.

 "My three skills are Harden, which allows me to I fuse my body with earthen ether granting me high defences, usually at the cost of my agility; Benevolence of the Earth, which allows me to transfer damage I take to the earth so long as both my feet remain on it. And finally, Petrification Beam, which allows me to turn anything within my line of sight to stone." Lucy finished in a single breath.

 "Your turn."