26 Modified Truth

After the exit of Josef and Rupert, Alan turned to Aaron and said.

"Aaron, your contract formation works! It feels a bit weird though, just sitting here without specifically attempting to know about his location I can feel his presence moving further away from me. Tell me what Rank is this contract formation at?"

Alan had this suspicion that this contract was at least Practitioner Rank. Because even the Slave contracts are at that rank. He had been keeping tabs on Aaron's work through Julia and she was very pleased with the quality and result of their hard work but the contract in his hand was at a different level of complexity than what he had expected.

"That's not the only effect of the contract, other than knowing the location you will also be able to perceive if the person is been captured and you would be able to seal their vocal cord and dexterity to avoid any leakage of information. It's based on a slave contract after all. You will also be able to see his or her last glimpse of vision before death. As for its rank, Master rank!" Aaron replied.

"Master Rank?! Are you sure? Julia is not a formation master, yet. How can it be at master rank?" shocked Alan said.

"She'll make her breakthrough soon. By the way, I am now an Amateur Rank formation master." Aaron replied happily. He didn't reveal that he was at master rank already.

"Good, very good! I'll congratulate her when that happens." Alan said pleased with the outcome.

"Well, Dad you have seen the contract formation working. What have you decided?" Aaron asked Alan,

"I am definitely pleased with the formation and will start with the plan you have specified earlier. I will also get Josef and the others into it too. Do you need anything else?" Alan asked.

Contemplating for a while Aaron said.

"Two things actually, first the beasts against whom I train are, well, now scared of me. They don't provide enough resistance and go completely defensive which is very boring. I would like them to be replaced with rank D beasts. The current rank E beasts are defeated too easily. Second would be, remember those clothing designs that I gave you? When you find someone capable then tell them to come here. Also, can you ask Headmaster to come by at the same time?" Aaron said.

"Call the Headmaster?... Hmm, you have business with him?" Alan asked.

"It's actually related to the clothing I mentioned." Aaron smiled and said.

"I'll invite him when the time comes, whether he comes or not is another matter. As for the beasts feed them to the Rank D beasts and then train with them. Anything else?" Alan said.

"Will everyone be here? Hmm, well I'll meet them some other day." Aaron said to himself.

"Yes. You are going somewhere?" Alan asked.

"Mom(Hana) is taking me to show me the herbs in the wild. I'll go out a week from now, for about a week or so." Aaron answered.

"Hana? Alright, learn well. But Aaron why do you want to learn Alchemy also? You are not just abandoning one for the other after getting bored with it are you?" Alan asked with concern.

"Of course, I am studying each and everything diligently. I believe having different skill sets would come in handy. Oh, yes there are some defensive arrays I made help me sell them. My base price is 500k in gold for each." Aaron said as he pulled out seven array formations and placed them on Alan's desk.

"Five hundred thousand for each?! Son, that's a lot of money for an Amature Rank formation....." Alan said as he looked through the formations and stopped midway through.

"Oh, yes I am very close to becoming an Apprentice Rank master soon! Please sell them for me!" Aaron said.

"I'll buy them! 3.5 million in gold, here take it!" Alan pulled out four cards one was bronze in colour the other three were silver. He had thought that these formations would be of low quality, he didn't think poorly of his son's work it was just that an Amature rank formation was at best sold for eight hundred thousand and that would be amongst the best.

"Hehhe, well you don't need to give them to me. Okay, get me more raw materials for array formations with the money, since you seem so eager to get your hands on them I'll make a dozen more of them for you and the remaining to be sold. It will also serve as a practice and also kill some time when I am not training with the beasts. Mom(Hana) said she would be busy this week in order to clear her schedule for the next one so I'll use this time to make more of them. You could have asked Mom(Julia) to make them for you if you needed them so much." Aaron said looking at how his father jumped on the formations after having just a casual glance.

"I'll send them over to you. Julia no longer wants to make this level of formations. She thinks I am trying to save money and calls me miser because of it. Defensive formations like these are sold for an exorbitant price at auction houses. Oh, have you tried your hand at offensive formation or maybe the illusion types?" Alan said.

"Are you not one? The way you just acted, it is hard to blame Mom(Julia) for it. I haven't yet. I'll try my hand at them this week. Let's see what happens." Aaron said.

Alan coughed a few times and pretended to clear his throat to hide his embarrassment. He continued to look at Aaron's face as he struggled with whether to ask him or not. In the end, he decided to do it.

"Aaron, are you alright?" Alan asked.

"Me? I'm fine, what do you mean?" Aaron asked puzzled by the sudden question.

"On the day of your assessment, you suddenly woke up in the middle of the night right? I felt a huge wave of killing intent coming from your room so I came by. I was worried it was an assassination attempt or something. What happened that day?" Alan said. He found a fierce killing intent emitted by someone and immediately woke up! It was a horrifying killing intent that made him feel threatened even though it was not directed towards him. Out of vigilance and worry about Aaron, he scanned through the room to see if someone was there. But he found no one else other than Aaron who was the source of all this. He wanted to ask him but he let it slide since it was nothing severe like he had assumed.

Aaron was suddenly was at a loss for words, he looked at his father who was looking back at him with worried and curious eyes.

"I don't know what I should call it? But it was a very frightening and unpleasant dream. That's all." Aaron said brushing it off as unimportant.

"It's not all! Why didn't you tell anyone about it? Hana? Julia? No one? Was it just this one time?" Alan said a little angry now.

"Calm down Dad it was just a dream," Aaron said seeing his father's face twisting in anger.

"You!... That kind of killing intent is not something to be ignored. Tell me what you saw. Now!" Alan said.

Aaron remained silent and gathered his thoughts. That dream was something he was also very puzzled about, but he doubted that anyone else would be able to help him with it.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind.

"Sigh,... In the dream, the older version of me is fighting against around seven to eight people alone and behind me was Alfie who was at the brink of... While Aoife was in torn clothes... " Aaron stopped right here. This was his memory from the previous timeline right before his death.

Alan stared dazedly after listening to Aaron's words. He was in deep thoughts as he went through his memories of that day. The killing intent he felt was unreal, but with Aaron's explanation, he realized that if he had such a dream he too would have a similar reaction.

As he continued to deliberate over this longer and longer he suddenly realised something. That was the day Aaron had come to him with his 'special' plan, which meant... And him making claims about Alfie, Aoife and that guy's daughter's assessment...

"Aaron, could it be that you are trying to stop this from happening? How old were you in your dream? What about me? Hana? or Julia?" Alan seriously asked.

"I was a teenager or early twenties at best, I didn't see anyone else," Aaron said.

'Good, he is buying it!' Aaron thought.

Aaron didn't feel guilty for it because it was indeed the truth and it would happen in the future.