Chapter 712 - Annara

Annara Vermont, a girl that would be willing to do anything to reach her goal. That's what she has been doing her entire life in order to survive. Having a half-blood father and human mother caused her circumstances to be very complex since birth, as the situation made it hard for her to completely belong on either side of the world.

This became increasingly apparent when her innate talent started to shine among the others of the same bloodline.

[Privilege acolytes member ID: 83139840]

[Battle Power 142]

[Spirit Force: 850]

[Acolyte Rank: 9]

[Element proficiency: fire - darkness - wind]

[Spirit Aptitude - S]

[Bloodline Gene - Spectre Bat]

[Gene Classification - Legendary Bloodline]

[Bloodline Limit: Rank 6]

[Current Rank - Rank 5]

After dealing with hundreds of obstacles and challenges presented in her life, she finally managed to enter the privileged class and even was accepted as one of the grand magus', Grand Magus Zenonia, disciple.

Since then, her progress has been nothing short but impressive. It was as if she grew a pair of wings and soared to the air. She had improved so much that when she returned to her homeworld, she was able to prove her worth and started to get the recognition she deserved.

Hence, when she returned to the Magus Academy for her third year, she asked no question when being tasked to babysit a certain elite acolyte. Even though she personally thought of the task as something that was entirely beneath what she was capable of, she still accepted it and would carry it out properly.

The task also naturally made her curious about what was so important about this elite acolyte that they were able to receive such preferential treatment. Hence, she started to look into and scour through her target's profile and history.

To her surprise, they managed to be in the same group for the upcoming Magus Game, and what she read on the file about the party was nothing but surprising. One of the traits emphasized in the target's file was that the other party was soft.

"The kind who value friends over power?!" the girl muttered as she read the file. She sneered, "Huh, this kid would not last long in the academy!"

Alas, her surprise was fated to not end there as she proceeded to witness firsthand how the boy managed to defy predictions and expectations and scored a noteworthy achievement on the Magus Game.

"It was indeed quite a feat, but why do you look so happy? It's just a game and you just happened to have a lucky strike; it was such an idiot move to charge recklessly like that."

The next thing the girl knew, the news about the boy successfully entering the privileged class circulated around, which only brought more hate to her.

"Being able to enter this late into the year is certainly a special privilege indeed," she commented with clear contempt.

Believing what she had witnessed herself, the girl closed the report and marked the elite-now-privileged acolyte named Emery as a fortunate boy with ordinary talent, leverage by the unique bloodline. With that, she waited for her master to exit her seclusion for more tasks.

At this point, the girl did not know that this opinionated perspective of hers was about to change; It was during the arena battle, Annara started to see something different about the boy.

"No way! It's not possible to win against Atlas as a rank 8 acolyte. What is his secret?!" exclaimed Annara as her gaze was completely fixed on the figure of Emery who was being carried away by the medics. 

After the arena challenge concluded, Annara once again opened up the report she had closed and started to follow the boy to find the truth about him.

[Innate talent - Summon Familiar]

Thanks to her extraordinary aptitude, Annara was able to summon few types of familiars - bat and moth. One of them was excellent for trailing and tracking down someone, while the other was really suitable for spying and eavesdropping; both of them were able to convey clearly whatever they caught through one of her innate talents, [Sonic Echoes].

It was not easy to follow the boy the first time, as her familiar couldn't enter the half-blood palace due to the powerful restrictions set around it. 

But later that day, she found the boy sneaking into a tavern to meet with his friends and to her surprise, she unexpectedly learnt a secret about a classified mission. With her master still in closed-door training, she contacted the Bat Clan to ask for directions.

As a result, she was quickly assigned a new secret mission by the Bat Clan which was surprising to her.

With another chance to prove her worth, she readily received the mission.

"Yes! I accept the mission."

That's also when she learnt Emery's plan of refusing to directly join the mission in order to secretly follow the group after changing his entire appearance into a new identity altogether. For a moment, Annara was impressed by the resourcefulness the boy showed for this matter.

"It seems you are not as foolish as I thought," was her thought as she watched everything unfolding from behind the scene. Well, at least that's what her thoughts were until the time she saw the boy's cover was about to get blown.

After considering pros and cons as well as thinking of some backup plan in her mind, Annara decided to jump in and help the other party from his predicament.

"Like I said, I came with a similar mission from the Bat Clan. We want to make our contribution and help to ensure that the current atmosphere of unrest can be defused as soon as possible. As for the other reason, I can honestly tell you that the Grand Magus really cares about you, hence she wants me to look after you."

Emery simply couldn't believe what he just heard. Especially when he saw her saying it with such a cheeky smile. That couldn't help but make him feel like she had another agenda in doing this.

The truth was he was no longer interested to join the mission. The risk had just risen to another level because of the girl in front of him. It was simply already out of his hand.

Therefore he said, "Please tell the grand magus that I am grateful for her concern. You can also say that she no longer needs to worry about me as I decide not to participate in the mission."

This was the most logical solution for the current situation. After saying that, Emery turned his body around. However, as he was about to step out of the room, Annara opened her mouth.

"Is that so? It's too bad then. It appears that you don't care about the White Fang as much as I thought, but I'm sure you want to hear another fact about the mission. I'll share it with you if you stay and hear me out."

Emery stop his step and turned toward her again, there was no harm in listening, after all.

"Good," said the red-haired girl as she once again had that amused smile on her face.

"Tell me what fact? What's the information?"

"Alright then… Do you know what it is that the White Fang have as proof of their innocence?"

At this question, Emery's attention was completely caught. Noticing his reaction, the girl held her words and smiled, apparently creating suspense. She only spoke again moments later when she saw Emery starting to lose his temper.

"You do know that the snake clan ran a day before the incident right? Apparently, The White Fang has captured a certain snake girl who knows why the reptiles ran… and I believe you know her pretty well?"

A name immediately came into Emery's mind before Annara managed to say it.

"Silva Oroboros."