One Last System

"Sangakarts?" Mia echoed the question, uttering the word itself to see whether it felt familiar on her lips. She then shook her head. "Not at all," she denied, glancing over at Ackhart's face with curiosity.

The man's lips curved up in a small smile that was devoid of any happiness or amusement.

"They infiltrated the sect over a century ago. If you were ever curious why this sect, known for its meritocracy, turned out the way it did, now you have your answer," Ackhart explained.

'That was unexpected,' Mia thought, gulping down her saliva.

She spent nearly an hour listening to Andrea's explanation only to learn the things that she didn't care about in the slightest. Yet, after just a few sentences spoken by the man and she started to see the connection!

"Turned out the way it did... What do you mean by that?" Mia asked. She had a rough guess what Ackhart wanted to imply by this, but she was long past the point where she would accept her own guesses for the given truth.

"Dividing the disciples between sponsored and normies, taking away all the opportunity from the normies while lowering the standards for everyone..." Ackhart listed out two things only to shake his head next. "Do I really need to say anything else? I believe you are the one who knows the results of their efforts better than I do," he added.

"Yeah, I think I do," Mia nodded her head, several memories flashing before her eyes.

'Now it all kinda makes sense,' she thought, lowering her eyes as she focused on her inner analytics. 'It would be strange for the sect's system to turn out the way it is without someone actively sabotaging it,' she thought only to raise her eyes back at the man sitting on the table.

"Then..." Mia hesitated before uttering her question, aware of how risque it was. "Why didn't you do anything, guys?" she asked, alternating her eyes between Ackhart's and Andrea's faces. "Isn't this your turf?"

"Did you ever listen to my earlier explanations?" Andrea interjected, rolling her eyes with annoyance. "We are a force outside of the sect. We can't dabble into their affairs," she said, shaking her head. "And regretfully, there was hardly anything that we could do about it, even if we were authorized to do so," she added, averting her eyes.

'Huh?' Mia shrugged, surprised by the sudden admission.

And then something clicked in her mind. The topic that they were discussing earlier, how it connected to the topic that was on the agenda right now...

Everything that Mia considered as a chaotic mess of useless information finally turned into a greater whole that actually made sense.

'They can't do anything because those Sangakarts are a force of a newborn royal,' she realized, sharply raising her eyes on the two.

But Mia didn't ask to confirm her doubts. The implications of this notion were far too great for her to handle, and she wasn't yet ready to confront such a possibility.

Instead, Mia swallowed yet another mouthful of her own saliva before taking a deep breath to regain her calm.

"Still, that doesn't explain what does it all have to do with me," she stated, doing her absolute best to keep her face straight when she looked right into Ackhart's eyes. "In my eyes, you just keep on changing the topic whenever I ask about how does it all involves me," she added, putting the ball on the other side of the field.

Right now, it was the turn of those two to explain their intentions.

'After all, I'm not naive enough to believe they just helped me for no reason at all,' she thought, the memories of how she was used in the past resurfacing in her mind.

The time when she would take an act of kindness as just it was long gone. Mia was no longer privy to this kind of naive mindset, not after deciding to take on this unfair world face-on!

Yet, instead of answering, Ackhart stole a quick glance of his female companion, only for Andrea to gently nod her head.

"That boyfriend of yours, Arthur, was it?" Ackhart spoke out in a low voice. His lowered eyes and the tense skin of his forehead proved just how uncomfortable he was with bringing this topic up.

'Boyfriend?' Mia's thoughts stopped in their tracks when she heard this single, specific word. A wave of heat struck her face as her cheeks blushed. 'Is that how others see us?' she thought, unable to hold back her happiness for a moment.

But this momentary, mental struggle lasted only for a split of a second before Mia managed to regather her wits and process the rest of Ackhart's words.

'Why did they bring him up?' Mia asked herself, the look in her eyes sharpening as her entire body tensed up, ready to engage at any moment.

She was perfectly aware she was nothing but a worm in the face of Ackhart's power alone. Even if Andrea turned out to be a complete waste without any cultivation to speak off, Ackhart alone was more than enough to handle her...

But with Arthur's name brought up to the agenda, Mia could no longer look at the situation from a strictly rational point.

"What about him?" she asked, her spiritual energy rushing about her body, threatening to forcefully push her over the edge of her current rank.

"He graduated from his contract and is on his way to this place," Ackhart informed. He clearly noticed the changes to Mia's disposition, raising his hands to indicate he had no intentions of confronting her.

"WHAT?!" Mia screamed out, jumping out from her seat.

Mia tightened her hands to the point where her nails cut into the skin of her palms. Only in this way she could hope to quell her emotions in.

'He is on his way?'

'Graduated... Does that mean he is free from his contract?'

'No, that's not possible; I'm still receiving resources!'

A flurry of thoughts rushed about in Mia's head as the girl desperately attempted to piece the information together.

'No, there is only one question that I need to ask right now,' she quickly realized once she managed to calm herself down a little.

Mia raised her eyes on Ackhart, straining her sight to notice any possible changes on the man's face that would follow her question.

"Why are you telling me this?" Mia finally asked in a low, monotone voice, too focused on Ackhart's face to even notice her own tone.

"I will explain, but let me bring you up to the speed first," Ackhart replied, standing up from the desk he was sitting at only to retreat a few steps and sit down on Andrea's sofa, putting the desk between himself and Mia.

"From what we know, he discovered that his overseer," Ackhart stopped his words and glanced over at Mia's face, "It's a man who was supposed to guide and support him," he explained. "That man was actually trying to profit off his word instead," Ackhart said.

"Even though my encounter with Arthur was brief, I could tell one thing," Ackhart stated, raising his eyes and looking Mia directly in the eyes. "The only reason why he did all he did, was to support you. That's why it's no wonder he ended up shitting on the sect," Akchart added before shaking his head.

"He shat on the sect?" Mia asked, confused by the man's words.

"Come on, it was just a figure of speech," Ackhart rolled his eyes. "After finding out that his Overseer, the one man he considered his supported in the place he ended up at, was actually scheming against him..." the man shook his head while putting a strangely amused expression on his face.

"From what I heard, Arthur's reaction was a sight to behold. But what's important to us right now is that he knows about the rotten situation of the sect and is on his way here," Ackhart said before sinking down in his seat and turning silent.

"While it's great to hear the news about him," Mia said, only for her face to turn even colder than it was before. "But that doesn't explain shit! Weren't you supposed to tell me what does it all has to do with me?"

As happy as Mia was with the prospect of reuniting with her master, the way in which she learned about his return kept on bothering her.

"Isn't it obvious already?" Ackhart muttered in a low voice, averting his eyes, unable to look Mia in her eyes.. "You are a bait. Sangakarts wants to use you to bring Arthur in so they can silence him before he discovers the full scope of their scheme!"

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