Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

For the first time in a while, Wulf met Dr. Arnau in her own office. It was a small room in the Pilots' Faculty wing, with a desk in the corner, bookshelves along the walls, and an indent in the wall from her granite briefcase to slot into.

Wulf knocked on the door, but even in the evening hours, it was open. Dr. Arnau flipped through a stack of papers, making notes and stamping the corner with a grade. There was a plate in the corner of the desk, which had probably carried dinner, and a mug of tea sat in the center. It looked untouched.

"Come in," she said.

"Good evening, ma'am," Wulf said. He sat in the chair on the front side of her desk. "You were looking for me."

"I was going to ask you to close the door, but…" She raised her hand and flicked it to the side. Pebbles of granite rolled out of the corner, rolled across the floor, then struck the door and it creaked shut.

"I'm surprised you still need to eat," Wulf said. "Even at Silver, I feel like I can go longer between meals, sustaining myself on mana only."

"Habit," she said. "And I enjoy a good cup of tea."

Wulf glanced skeptically at the cup, which she hadn't even touched.

"Most days," she clarified. "I've been a little busy."

"Is something up?"

"How's the progress of your team coming?"

Wulf raised an eyebrow. "We haven't gotten into any more ascension challenges with other people yet, have we?" Still, after a short pause, he answered, "I'm Middle-Silver, but I'll advance any day. By the end of the semester, I'll be most of the way through High-Silver. Kalee's about the same, though a little less advancement progress—she doesn't gain mana as quickly when she isn't in combat. Irmond is a Low-Silver, but he just broke in, and the same goes for Seith. But I've got them using the Star Hearts."

He'd told her about the device that he and Kalee had made a while back, and though it wouldn't be horribly useful to her, it was incredibly helpful for their entire team to reap the permanent strength-enhancing bonus.

"I've gained all the bonuses I can from the Star Hearts," Wulf said. "With how much I drew from them, it happened pretty quickly."

"I look forward to your next tournament fight, then," Dr. Arnau said. "And you're not in trouble, not as far as I know. But there are some in the staff who want you removed for being an alchemist. You caused quite a stir."

"If I may ask, ma'am…" Wulf paused. "Why?" He'd known there was plenty of unreasonable traditionalism in the academy, which was his foundation for not revealing himself sooner, but he didn't exactly know why it existed in the first place.

"There are many things the academy does that I cannot explain, and things that I have sworn not to say. Things that I cannot reveal to those who don't already know."

Well, that wasn't ominous at all.

Wulf leaned back in his chair. "So why did you need me?"

"I've been reading through historical accounts, just the same as you—oh, don't look so surprised. As your sponsor I can see what books you've checked out from the library. But I've focussed more on the first hand accounts of the First Demon War. At first, I was hoping for a clue for where to find Panne's original writings, simply to help you, but the more I read…"

She passed him a leatherbound book with crispy, stained pages, and a leaflet of loose paper in its center. "Some accounts of Panne. You wouldn't be allowed to check this out from the library—it's restricted to senior staff members—but I can give it to you, and you can check for yourself."

Wulf tilted his head. There was nothing on the front cover except the words, Accounts of King Lamantine.

"He was the ruling king during the lifetime of Panne. There are a few irregularities in his description. For one, in his early life, when he knew Panne as school, he had an impressive predictive capability. He could often predict demon attacks before they happened. Sound familiar?"

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Wulf chewed his lip. "Yeah."

"Then there were times that Panne would often speak of events that he hadn't ever experienced, that he hadn't been old enough to experience. He'd assume some people were dead, people who hadn't died, or perfectly predict the deaths of others and become extremely distraught at failing to save them. He was the only Ascendant of that era who fought with the ferocity of someone who had seen the world end."

Wulf lowered his head and sighed. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you have secrets," Dr. Arnau said. "And I'm not asking you to tell me everything. I'm saying that I believe—and anyone who chooses to read this account would likely come to the same conclusion—that Panne had seen the end of the world, had seen the demons succeed, and by some miracle, came back to prevent that fate."

Wulf nodded.

"Azanthius will come to the same conclusion eventually, if he ever decides to look into it," Dr. Arnau said. "He'll make assumptions about you."

Wulf glanced across the table at her. He pushed the book back and sighed. "I understand. Perhaps the game is up. I—"

"Are you from the future, Hrothen?"

"It's not like that." He shook his head. "And I doubt it was like that for Panne, either. I watched the world die. The Field reset it, sending me back with knowledge of the future, so I could fix it—or save it. I'm not from the future, but I have all the memories of my future self in this head." He tapped the side of his forehead. "I can explain more if you have time."

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Dr. Arnau asked. "I would've."

"Yeah, but that's the problem. I don't trust Azanthius or the others. The moment they find out who and what I am, they'll try to use me. The Orichalcums won't want to deal with an usurper, and the academy will want to study me. I'd be even more restricted than I am now, and good luck saving the world from inside a prison cell."

Dr. Arnau opened her mouth, then shut it again. "Azanthius is not a bad man. As for the others, I make no guarantees. But you can trust the headmaster."

"Even then, I don't trust those around him."

Dr. Arnau exhaled slowly and pulled the book back across the table. "Which brings me to my second concern. Azanthius is meeting with the Orichalcums tonight. They've arrived at the academy to speak with him. He won't say what it's about, and none of the other professors are invited."

Wulf tilted his head. "Important?"

"Undoubtedly. Part of me worries that it's about you, and for us to not know what they're saying and doing would be disastrous. While I'm immensely curious about your memories, this is a more important matter."

"You want me to eavesdrop?"

"They'd sense me. Azanthius would. As a Gold, they would pick up on my arcane presence. As a Silver, you might just be weak enough to slip by, as long as you don't use a Skill or resonate too many Marks."

Wulf nodded. "Thanks for the heads up. When is this meeting?"

"It will begin when the second moon rises. You have a half hour, and I wouldn't waste any time."

He nodded. "Thank you, ma'am."

"I still expect plenty more meetings with you."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, then turned away. "You wouldn't happen to know where they're meeting, would you?"

~ ~ ~

Dr. Azanthius' meeting wasn't hard to find. It was his office. It always was.

Wulf snuck in as soon as he could. The Orichalcums would hear his footsteps if he tried to approach once the meeting had already begun, and Dr. Azanthius was too busy greeting them as they arrived. It gave Wulf plenty of time to sneak into the office, pick a ventilation shaft, and hide in it.

Being at the top of a tower, there wasn't much reason for Azanthius to have ventilation in his office, but the windows didn't open, and with the temperate climate of Centralis, there was never a reason to completely seal off or insulate the academy. The vents and ducts were more like a fancy system of drawing in fresh air from the outside without risking a massive gust ripping through, tearing up your desk and scattering all the loose pages on it.

Wulf popped a brass grate off the wall. It was high up, above Azanthius' desk, then climbed inside and pulled the grate back over himself. He just barely fit inside, and in his past life, he wouldn't have fit. But now, being skinnier, it wasn't as difficult.

He hadn't been as quick as he thought. Almost as soon as he pulled the grate shut, a voice seeped up the stairway to the office.

"Did someone hear a clang?" It was Lord Umoch's voice, hesitant and shaky, and nowhere near as confident as he had been when Wulf had last seen him.

"Just the wind," Azanthius said.

Six people filtered into the room. Azanthius walked at the very front, his white robes swaying. He was looking older than he had when Wulf first met him, which seemed almost impossible. But instead of a sturdy old man, Wulf saw a scraggly beard, and a Ruby whose steps came with a tremble. He groaned as he sat down in his seat, and his fingers trembled with arthritis as he reached for a pen.

The five Orichalcums made a circle in front of his desk. There was Lord Umoch, who stood off to the side, head hanging like a beaten dog. But the four others? A woman in a red dress, a broad-shouldered, blond-haired man in a chainmail hauberk, a man with a turban and a sabre at his hip, and a muscular woman with a fur cloak.

"What brings you here?" Azanthius asked. "What was so important that you had to call a meeting?"

"Dispense with the formalities, headmaster," the blond-haired Orichalcum said. "We know you have an alchemist attending the academy. We have come to ensure that you remain…compliant with our many arrangements."