It’s a few minutes past midnight.

  While our princess is sleeping like one and I do mean that as she basically fell asleep mere moments after going to bed, sleeping peacefully at that. Anyway, there’s a group out there ready to meet up, ready to plan their shenanigans, and what’s a good place to do so? The Golden Eden Academy of course, right at the top of the tallest building there, one that consequently has a flat roof, creating a good place for such a meeting.

  Fwoosh!

  The wind is not that strong at all, but more than enough to feel it. The breeze gently hits his mask, a bland one at that, no marks whatsoever on it, no details, nothing at all, just a white bland mask. However, this mask is more than enough to fully hide his face and identity with it. A long black cape that gently flies with the soft breeze, hides the rest of his body making it harder for anyone to be sure of his true gender. But while the majority of his body is hidden, you can still see his boots as the cape ends around his ankles. These boots are black, made of leather I would guess, but while they seem extremely expensive and well done, they seem sturdy with quite the sole on them, easily above 5 centimetres tall. His hands should be visible and while in a sense they are, they are covered by gloves but, you can see that, they are not for the big side but neither for the small either, just average. His height, if we take out the sole of his boots, I would say that he’s close to 168 centimetres tall, quite a bit taller for a woman but just a bit shorter for your average man. Everything about him is right in the middle between the two genders, making it once again hard to identify him as a woman or a man.

  He’s looking towards the horizon, in this case, towards the city further down the horizon. The Academy is higher than the city itself as it’s close to the ocean while the Academy is at the top of a hill, allowing even in the ground, to have a nice view of the city and its entire beauty. Now imagine it from a slightly higher place, in this case a building that is close to 7 meters tall, allowing you to witness a true beauty created by humanity. There are three parts to the city, the commercial area where the guild is for example, the middle of the city itself, a place where there is a mix between residential and commercial areas however, further down that area close to the ocean there is a factory there, one that is sending out quite the fumes into the air, something that is noticeable even from kilometres of distance. Lastly, you have the “rich” area, where the peak of technology, the great constructions, the entertainment, anything great that you can think of is in there, a place that only those in the higher status of human society will be.

  Well, that area is not closed so anyone can go there, visit, eat, do business, work, anything, it’s just that, if they want to live there then, that’s when they are unable to do so as it’s far too expensive for your average joe. That area is the one that quickly grabs your attention when you are from afar and especially at night. There are buildings that seem to touch the sky, a phenomenon that grabs your very own breath when you see the clouds going right through the tip of them. Several, hundredths, thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousand lights illuminate the town, but I would say that at least 50% of them are in that area alone. The neon lights are easily seen even from this far although it’s just in a small part of that area, the entertainment area. Something quite interesting that you can see from afar is the fog that is only present in the “rich” area, although I can’t explain the reason behind it. Enough of this, of my yapping that is.

  “Boss! Everything is up and ready.”

  A loud but deep voice easily catches the masked person's attention, making him turn around to face the man who affirmed this.

  Masked Person- Code, do you have to speak so loudly? I’m a mere meter or so from you, no need to be so loud in this case.

  A male voice, I think? It’s distorted, that's why I can’t say it for sure, for some reason he’s using magic to distort his voice. But this man, Code, he’s quite the unit I would say. He’s roughly 190 centimetres tall, in other words, he’s tall as hell, way above average. Not only that, he’s wide and big but not for the fat side. His shoulders are wide and broad, filled with muscles, ones that are even noticeable with a shirt on top of them. His arms are exposed to the world but they sure have muscles on them, easily big and filled with strength. Yes, just like I said, he’s quite the unit.

  He’s dressed rather simple with a dark blue t-shirt, one without sleeves however, it’s enough to intimidate anyone really, just like I mentioned you can see the definition of the pectoral muscles even with the shirt on him. He’s wearing black jeans but they are for the loose side but, if we follow his top anatomy, I would say that his legs must also have quite the muscles on them, he must be using that pair of jeans to allow him to move around comfortably I would guess. Just like the masked person he’s also using boots, ones that are for the sturdy side. His hands are as big as you can imagine, big enough to grab your head and crush your skull in a second or so. His eyes are extremely sharp and so are his eyebrows, they can easily stare you down and take the air out of your body. His hair, although short and that’s it really, he’s not bald but close to there.

  Code- Mhuahaha! No need to panic my man, there is no one here! And even if there was someone here, not only would I take care of them, didn’t you surround this area with a barrier? One that stops everything that’s inside of it from coming out?

  Masked Person- That is correct Code, but you still have to be careful around these parts. To many eyes, mouths and heads that are far too close to us, ready to hear and see us. Who knows, maybe someone is already near us ready to strike.

  Code- What are you talking about? Are you speaking in riddles now? I really don’t care, but if someone happens to see us-

  Bam!

  He fists bump himself as he says this, as a smile creeps on his face, one filled with confidence on his own strength. His eyes shine with excitement of the mere thought that someone could be near him, the thought that he might unleash his strength against said individual.

  Code- I will deal with them with my own two hands! They don’t stand a chance against my power!

  He says this loudly and his tone of voice matches what he said, filled with confidence and of course, this is an affirmation to what will happen, not something that he wishes to accomplish.

  “Haven’t you heard what he said? Just quiet down muscle head, I could hear you from right at the edge of the barrier.”

  Shadow noises! Woosh!

  A figure emerges from the shadow, but before that, a female voice says this, one that is very feminine and ladylike, quite the opposite from Code sharp and mainly voice. This figure, as I said, emerges from the shadows, in this case, one that was created by the moon, as the light of the moon hits Code, creating a shadow of him in the ground, and that is from where she emerges. It was elegant, without any noise at all even, a true display of mastery of one's magic. Shadow Movement was what she did.

  Code- Beta, do you have any problem with that? I do what I want and just like I said, if someone dares to hear us, I will take care of them.

  Beta- Sure, sure, whatever makes you feel good or whatever you damn muscle head needs. I see that your brain is still working at only half of its capacity. Anyway, I’ve got what you asked me for. It’s all on here.

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  She says this with quite the sarcastic tone of voice and while she says so, she walks up to the Masked Person, giving him what he asked. She gave him a small notebook, one that is for the thick side. This woman, Beta as Code called her, seems to be roughly in her early twenties, just like Code as I didn’t mention before. She’s around the same height as the Masked Person, just a bit smaller at around 165 centimetres tall. She’s slender, with modest features but you can see the definition of her muscles, easily showing off to the world itself that she's active and takes care of her body in that sense. Her face although nowhere near as Kiana beauty for example, it’s not bad looking. Her eyes are just like Code, they are sharp but her eyebrows are soft, long and smooth. Her hair, tied into a pony hairstyle, it’s for the long side as the end of the pony hairstyle ends roughly at the middle of her back. It’s coloured in a dark brown, it’s smooth to the eye and I will say even for the touch.

  She’s dressed just like a ninja would, and while her figure has modest features, said outfit easily shows off her fit figure. It’s a one-piece outfit coloured with the darkest shade of black that you can think of, making it easy for her to hide in the shadows. She also has equipment all around her body just like a ninja would, well, she even has armour here and there. She has a kunai right on her right leg and a small purse next to her waist on her left side. I would say that inside of it either she has more kunai or she has some smoke bombs for example. At the back you can see two swords, short swords more like, something closer to daggers even. Everything about her screams Kunoichi.

  Beta- I do think you’re going a little overboard with this, you’re being too careful for a bunch of nobodies. But whatever, inside of that notebook you’ve all the information you asked for. Who they are, their social standing, skills, strength, riches, everything that you can think of. However, the girl that fought Alice, the one that you requested to look into this morning, I found almost nothing on her. Where she comes from, who she is, her past, nothing at all. The only information that I was able to get about her is only from one year ago until now. That information however, it’s also filled with holes. It’s as if she was born a mere year ago and someone tried to cover it. Something is off about her in that sense.

  Code- The girl that fought Alice… Are you talking about the little one? The one that is so pale that you would think she is someone with terminal cancer? The one that I was messing with? Hahaha! She’s a weakling! You don’t have anything to worry about her.

  Beta- Wait a second muscle head. What do you mean by “messing” with her? What are you on about? What did you do to her?

  Masked Person- He did nothing special. It was supposed to be a simple plan where he used the magic spell Dispel on whoever was about to fight Alice. The idea behind this plan was to create some doubts about Alice's strength and with it, some resentment towards her. The students would think that there is something wrong when fighting Alice, as if their magic and skills wouldn’t activate but only when fighting with her.

  Beta- I see what you were trying to do. Have the flies destroy themselves from the inside and then take advantage of it. However, I’m curious about that girl, she’s nothing that we can’t deal with easily, especially since she’s from god knows where. She does not have a massive faction backing her up and as far I’m concerned, she can disappear today and tomorrow no one would notice. Only the Roosevelt and Florence family are troublesome, why are you bothering with everyone else then?

  “Beta, open your mind for a few seconds and you will understand it. You’re not seeing the bigger picture, the possibilities and the small chances of fate itself.”

  From behind them a voice is heard; a calm male voice slowly says this to Beta as he walks up to them. Both Code and Beta quickly turn around to see who it is. They know this voice, very well even, it belongs to someone that is close to both of them and even above them in the hierarchy. He’s shorter than Code but taller than the other two. He is roughly 175 centimetres tall to be more precise a bit shorter than I am. He’s nowhere near buff like Code but neither for the skinny side, actually, he’s quite nice looking in that sense. He’s fit but from his wider shoulder you can confidently say that, just like Code, his muscles are well trained, defined and taken care of, after all, you cannot have wider shoulders than normal without any type of training. He has that stereotypical “boy face”, what I mean is that he’s pretty. His skin is smooth, he has a sharp chin but one that is manly constructed. His eyes are not big, they are for the small side however, they are for the sharp side and his eyebrows follow the same pattern. While he has more hair than Code, it’s nothing out of the ordinary in terms of size and volume. It’s between short and medium, with a lighter shade of brown and from how well he takes care of it, it does look quite nice.

  Another massive difference between him and Code is how he’s dressed, in his case he’s dressed rather elegantly, noble like even. He has extremely expensive and well-made clothes. Just like Code, he also has a t-shirt but he’s wearing a leather jacket on top, covering the majority of the shirt but he does have the jacket open. His t-shirt has a beige colour to it while the jacket is coloured in a soft shade of grey. His pants, jeans, are “normal”, they are coloured in a darkish shade of grey however, they are expensive looking and of high quality. His shoes are a bit off in a sense that he's using boots, ones that are basically equal to the ones of Code and the Masked Person.

  Beta- What do you mean by that Alpha? Care to explain?

  Alpha- Think with me for a bit. You don’t have to be the son or daughter of a high-power family to be “dangerous”. The simple fact that you have connection to such families makes you as dangerous as their offspring for example. If any of the students here have any type of connection to said families and something happens to them, what do you think will happen?

  Beta- While nothing might happen, they sure will have their eyes on “us” … I didn’t think of it in that way. To me, if you don’t belong to one of the families, you’re nothing more than an ant however, just like you said, let’s say that a “mother” of one of the students here works in said family, if something happens to the son, the student, said mother might ask the families for help.

  Alpha- That is correct, if we draw too much attention to ourselves, it will make our lives harder as we won’t have much freedom to move around and to do what we want. While it’s a chore for you, it’s something that can prevent that from happening. Alice and the Florence family are already wary of “us”, but since we have been tip-toeing around them, they still have to figure us out. You know the Florence family's strength lies in their combat abilities, while they are weaker individually than us, they are not a farce or a force to be taken lightly. If for some reason the Roosevelt family notices us and sides with Florence then, everything is over. The Roosevelt family is mere moments from ruling the country from an economic standpoint, we won’t have a chance if they decide to wage war on us. At least not if both of them team up.

  Masked Person- Alpha, I couldn’t have said it better. What you said is more than correct, that’s why I always tell all of you to move carefully. I don’t doubt your strength and abilities, after all, all of you are at S rank and above. However, this does not make you immune to everything as in this world there are forces that are far superior to those ranks and they don’t need to be monsters for such. When you have a group of people that can control the economy of an entire country, you could rank them as above S rank. Either way, Beta, I know that you just gave me the notebook with all of your findings but I want you to share the information that you’ve acquired. No need to go in detail as I have the notebook, but I don’t want them left out of the most important information, and the same goes for the two of you.

  And so, without any complaints at all Beta proceeds to tell them everything that she thinks it’s important enough to divulge to them. Hmm, I don’t see the need for this but maybe he’s trying to create a sense of fairness between all of them? Or trust in this case as nothing is left out between the members, at least the important information. Moving on, she basically tells them the name of a few students that in fact have some type of connections to said families. She also tells them their backgrounds, their current objectives in life, their ultimate goals, their families relatives, their strength, their combat abilities and so on. Literally anything that you can think of.

  Code on the other hand, he told everyone how he “played around” with the magic item that he got from the Masked Person. A small device with a spell written on it, in this case the Dispel spell. Just point the thing at your target and then with your own magic, you activate said spell on the device. It’s very simple so much so that a child could use it, just pour your magic into the device and it activates it, simple and yet, extremely efficient. Alpha however, he is the one who speaks the least, just affirming that his plan is in motion and that the previous one was executed without any flaws whatsoever. Though he did say that someone broke a few of his toys but, nothing to be alarmed as they ended up accomplishing what he wanted.