Where The Dead Ones Go Book 2 -Republic-

Chapter 21

"Why the heck are you looking for me in a hole?! What am I, a mole?!"

"Feral hunk, huh?"

"Know-it-all, eh?"

The son of Koalemos just chuckled nervously, "I'm in danger, aren't I?"

"Probably more than earlier, Syden," Taurei answered simply as he drank his soda.

"I think I am safe, Morris."

"Nah, you finished the Hellenic Elemental Cup in such a way that our friends will not let you get away with an explanation, Vivet."

"Now, before we forget it, let us talk about a certain quiet demiurge of Elpis..."

"Told you so," my cousin said in our thoughts as Eonia mentioned me pointedly.

My close friend looked at me with the utmost curiosity. You summoned a palace in the sky, summoned from nowhere an entire legion straight from the Golden Age using your light. I need to re-evaluate the capabilities of the goddess of hope."

"What did she called it? The Imperial Armada?" Vaski asked out loud, but someone from outside our class answered him surprisingly.

"Then, the might of the empire falls upon you!"

A familiar sultry voice was heard from our living room, and when we looked around, we saw the daughter of the goddess of discord standing in the doorway flanked by the sons of the goddess of misery and goddess of revenge.

"Nothing but sparkling dust, they say," Ramnus joked as Mireus laughed out loud as he accepted the hand of our class president and shook it.

"Illusion, my ass, that bombardment was probably more real than my barely passing grades at history," Achly's child said as he grinned in my direction, "Now, that's Erina's way. Blast them away so hard, and they wouldn't even be able to stand."

Nemesis's son agreed as he accepted a plate of cake and pasta from Asher, "Or even grovel at all."

"Oh, my dear Vivet! I am so proud to call you my student! I have nothing left to teach you! You decimated, pound, and blast them away until they are no longer moving at all! That's exactly how I will do it if I have access to that level of firepower you have unleashed upon those poor, poor, souls. I like it!"

I let myself be hugged and kissed all over my head by Zeron's girlfriend, "I did warn them, Erina. Just like you taught me, I gave them an option to surrender."

"And of course, they didn't as expected. My boyfriend's sisters and I are watching from above, and we can drop our jaws and clapped our hands as you mercilessly devastate them with no mercy! Now, everyone will think twice about dismissing you and your mother as all, what did they say? Oh, I remember, nothing to be scared of. Now, they need to be afraid, very, very, afraid if they cross you."

Gala smiled at Erina appreciatively, "I heard from Morris that you and those two taught them a lot of things back at the republic, right?"

"Oh, yes, dear. And how cute they are as students."

I nodded and looked at Erina thankfully, "She also taught me how to fly, Gala."

"More like threatened to whip her mercilessly if she didn't learn how to, more like," Morris piped in that made Mireus and Ramnus laughed out loud but stopped abruptly when Erina produced a golden apple out of thin air and turned it into a whip.

"That never happened, right, Morris?"

My cousin gulped and nodded quickly. "It's just a figment of my imagination, Erina."

"Indeed, it is. Anyways, congratulations to the Auxiliary Class! You managed to win even if a dozen classes are out there to make sure you didn't! On behalf of Zephyrus' children and their finances from the second year, we are glad that our dear Vivet and Morris here helped you all win."

Syden raised his hand as if he is just in our classroom, "A question, I was wondering why these two suddenly got a hundred second years looking out for them?"

Erina emotionally started crying as she remembers what we did for her and Zeron, "Oh my, it just brings tears on my eyes again as if it was just yesterday."

Estelle gave her a box of tissue, which she gratefully accepted as she narrated what happened between Zephyrus and me and probably exaggerating a little bit. Still, maybe it is not an exaggeration from their point of view.

"...and from that day moving forward, we made a vow in the river of Styx to pledge our lives to her," Eris' daughter finished as she and Estelle are now at each other's arm and crying out loud, "One of the pathetically small ways to at least help is to teach the children of Elpis and Thanatos the way of the dark."

Zenith furrowed his brows in confusion, "Way of the dark? What is that?"

"I think she is referring to the darkness of Elpis, Thanatos, Achlys, and Nemesis, among other primordial deities' point of origin, which is the goddess of darkness herself, Nyx, Zen," Avesa explained as Erina sent her a flying kiss.

"Right you are Your Holiness. My boys and I are just shocked, shocked, I tell you all, that the children of death and hope didn't know how to manipulate darkness in a way that we always did, so we taught them how, of course!"

Ramnus fist-bumped with my cousin and grinned, "I love the laugh, Morris. I can't say any more than my profession of love to your dramatic laughter."

"I think that his lines need a little more work though," Mireus think thoughtfully as my cousin paid more attention to what he is saying, "A little more depth, less cliche. The delivery, however, is already perfect."

Asher just barked in laughter as he clapped Morris' back, "I was just surprised that he immediately agreed to our class president's plans to try a different approach."

"Well, if I have to say something about that performance, Estelle's wailings brought chills to my bones as the dogs are a nice addition to the overall dramatic effect while I am observing above the skies," Erina said honestly before looking at the daughter of Hephaestus who is already blushing profusely, "You got me at the Ass Rampage. Hands down the best attack even more than dear Vivet's here."

Our class president just nodded and smiled sheepishly, "Well, I was challenged to fight without really fighting all out. And since I got the demiurge and demigods whose lineage can execute what I am thinking of, I say I should give it a go. To my surprise, it worked!"

"And I lost a thousand Drachmas. Oh well, I didn't expect Morris to finish his performance without laughing," I followed truthfully that made my cousin cling on my arm even more.

"How dare you have doubts about me? How could you?!"

I shook my head at him in disdain, "I have no doubts about you when it comes to fighting, but you got rejected when you applied for the Drama Club. You can't expect me to bet on your subpar acting skills that thanks to Eonia's excellent delivery, it worked."

"Hey! That's below the belt! I have a passion for drama!"

Vaski laughed out loud and spilled a little of his ice cream on his shirt, "Hey, I never heard about that! When did it happen?!"

"Yeah! When?! So that's the reason why you haven't got any club right up until now, Morris," Taurei said gleefully as Narcine and Rebie are trying to hide their smile, "You got kicked out of the Drama Club! Traumatized?"

I just watched my cousin trying to deflect their questions as Erina looked at me proudly before she raised the glass of mango juice Asher gave her.

I guess her approval is the best thing I can ask for after all that I have done in the competition.

Nothing beats being praised by your mentor, after all.

After a half, an hour or so, Erina, Mireus, and Ramnus finally left our dormitory but not before trying and failing to bribe Asher to stay in their dorm instead after falling in love with his cooking.

"Good, you are all still awake. I have an important announcement to make, so listen up!"

We looked around and saw our adviser at the doorway and looking worse for the wear but happy and full of pride.

In her face, you can see the vindication and joy as she looked at each one of our faces.

"First, I don't care what you do about the Fifteen Million Drachmas total worth of prize money. You can split amongst yourself for all I care. Second, the Hellenic Citadel will be giving you all ten days of vacation for your performance tonight. Third, it turns out what happens in Anoixi doesn't necessarily stay there, well, permanently, that is..."

"Wait. What?" Morris asked as I shook my head when he glanced at me.

"I don't get the last part as well."

Taurei, Narcine, and Rebie are just staring at each other in confusion as our class leaders are waiting for our adviser to elaborate.

Zenith and Avesa just looked around if anyone else got what Ms Peregrine is saying like Vaski while Vaski is just blissfully eating his cake without a care in the world.

"Oh. My. Gods!"

Estelle suddenly screamed out loud and began shaking her boyfriend in excitement.

"Figures its only Ms Esmeralda who got what I am trying to say," our adviser chuckled a little before clearing her throat, "Anyways, since most of you are slow when it comes to the matters of heart, I will get straight to the point, Vivet you one lucky girl you."

Morris gasped when he finally got what she is trying to say and began flooding our thoughts with our memories with him.

From behind, our adviser appeared my savior and the one who quickly flew away after saving me from certain death or critical injury since Morris vowed that he would never let me die on his watch.

"Go on, introduce yourself..."

He looked at our smiling adviser before looking at us all and taking a deep breath, "I am Kairos Paron, the demiurge of Khronos, the god of time and foster son of Atomo Axiopisto, President of the Republic of Anoixi. I will be joining the Auxiliary Class effective today. The train from Zephyrant to Aurapolis that I am riding was delayed because of technical issues, so I only arrived tonight."

"I'm gonna, and I'm gonna..."

"Mr Dwight, can you please calm down your understandably restless girlfriend so we can proceed quickly here? I am way past my beauty sleep now," our adviser ordered Lytta's son, who tried his best to silence the daughter of Aphrodite, who is now hyperventilating, "Anyways, there you have it. The Auxiliary Class won the Hellenic Elemental Cup and got a new transferee student. I will let you Ms Thrones and Ms Alchimea to handle the rest."

The daughter of Hebe quickly dismissed herself, but after a few seconds, she stuck her head out of the doorway and look at my cousin pointedly, "By the way, he will be living in your room, Mr Mortheo. The president informed me that you were in the same room back in the republic during your immersion. Keep an eye on him because Zephyrus was oddly happy that he transferred here."

"What?!"

But our adviser quickly left, leaving us with him...

"I already met you all before, so I think I won't have a hard time adjusting here..."

Gala and Eonia walked around him and began checking him out before head to foot and finally looking at my direction.

"So this is Vivet's type, can be worse, Eonia."

"Well, we have the boyish son of Boreas and the hunky son of Zephyrus being offered to her in a silver platter, but she refused without batting an eyelash. I bet she wanted to keep her preferences as close to what she is used to, Gala."

Rebie raised an eyebrow as Narcine is just excitedly looking at Kairos and me alternately and giggling while Taurei is just fine with it.

"A question, are you a mortal? No offense, just asking," Zenith dropped his question quickly that made his sister look at her brother incredulously, "What, Avesa? I mean, look at him! He looks too godly to me. Even more so than Morris."

To answer the son of Zeus' question, Kairos bit his thumb and showed him his red blood, "Mortal, as far as I know, that's for sure."

Zenith just looked at him quietly and didn't react as Avesa pushed him away, "Forgive my brother, son of Zeus, you see. He is always suspicious. Anyways, may I ask why you decided to transfer to our school? I mean we are quite on the same boat, I just transferred here as well because of my mother's orders, and I enjoyed my time with them back at the magistracy and the at the past, of course."

"I wanted to be with her."

"Okay, you made it clear, thank you," the High Priestess replied quietly as she looked at Estelle's direction and nodded knowingly.

"I told you all! I keep telling you all, and he is only here because of Vivet! Tell them, Vaski! Tell them!"

Poseidon's son was startled when Estelle commanded her, but as expected of the goddess of beauty's potent charming way with words, he just followed her direct orders.

"Yes. He asked for a copy of their intimate pictures together when we visited the president's home. He has it bad..."

"Wait, what pictures?" Gala asked abruptly as Eonia nodded.

"Right, what pictures? Cough up, Estelle."

She quickly produced the two pictures that I tried in vain to stop her from giving to our class leaders as Gala raised her eyebrow on me as Eonia gasped in shock.

"We need to have a one on one talk about this tomorrow, Vivet. I expect you in my room seven in the evening sharp. You might have forgotten this small detail on your report during our last immersion," the daughter of Athena said quietly.

Syden stood up from his seat and looked over their shoulders as his eyes popped out in surprise, "Holy shoot! Vivet, I have severely underestimated you!"

"Morris, don't just stay quiet there, help me!"

"As you have refused to assist me on Avesa, I will, in turn, do the same, Vivet. Enjoy!"

Kairos walked towards me and smiled sweetly, "I missed you, Vivet."

Before I can answer, the daughter of the goddess of waves suddenly spoke, "Wait, before you get to the touchy-feely stuff. I keep on thinking about what happened earlier back at the colosseum. Vivet was falling headfirst towards the ground, and we are absolutely sure that we will not make it in time but in a split second, she is already swaying on her own two feet, flustered. Did you perhaps did something?"

"Wait, Kairos did you stop time?!"

Khronos's son looked at my cousin and nodded as he surprisingly went near him and gave him a quick hug, "I did, Morris. You wouldn't just expect me to stand by and watch as he plummets down from the skies, right? I know you won't let her die, but I preferred that she will remain unscathed."

"You stopped time without even leaving a visible mark? Now that's something else entirely," Asher said, impressed.

It only, however, made Zenith even more suspicious, "Seems to be way more powerful than even a demiurge can produce."

"Well, he, like your twins here, is made by Khronos, not born, and we all know here that Taurei and Avesa are way more powerful than Vivet and me, strictly speaking," Morris explained as he and Kairos put each other's arms on their shoulders the way they always did back at Anoixi.

Zeus's son didn't react but judged by his unsatisfied expression, and he is not wholly buying it.

"Well, at least I can sleep peacefully tonight without thinking way too much about how can Vivet stand up all of a sudden in a blink of an eye when a split second earlier, she is falling headfirst. Thank you."

We all laughed as Rebie heaved a sigh of relief, and Kairos just looked at me fondly.

"I'm here, Vivet."

"Obviously, Kairos. Welcome to our home..."