Path to Transcendence

Chapter 143: Henry Bishop

He was still rubbing his face from the phantom pain he still felt from Gabriel’s fists as he sat down in his aura class. The bald man was relentless, once he knew that Julius had improved, it was like a totally new animal came out. He punished Julius and his armor with absolute tyranny.

At least Professor Youma’s aura class didn’t involve him getting his head punched in. In fact, it had become a modified meditation session where the students spent most of their time working on their aura. There wasn’t much lecturing or assignments. It was a class that relied on the student’s own ability to focus and dedicate their time to training their aura.

Julius found himself appreciating this system that the professor had in place. While the students weren’t lectured on the principles of aura manipulation all class, the professor was always there for any student who had a question of their own or if he noticed someone having a hard time with a specific application they were attempting.

He couldn’t even begin to estimate how difficult it was for Professor Youma to simultaneously monitor up to several dozen auras at one time. While he seemed casual when he sat on his desk and stared off into space, not a single student believed their professor wasn’t fully engaged with them.

His aura was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The professor’s aura maintained a soft balance of extending out his aura to monitor the students and withholding just enough to not affect anyone’s aura.

It was only now that Julius realized it. His aura control had simply not been good enough before to understand or sense the complex control that Professor Youma had.

Even now, Professor Youma had noticed that Julius’s control of his aura had slipped slightly and he gave Julius a nudge as a reminder.

Julius shook his head humorously and grinned to himself before concentrating back on his task of controlling the small stones he picked up from the gardens with sheer aura.

At this point, he wasn’t afraid of showing his aura skill to the rest of the students. Most first-year students were already at Tier 2 by now and the ones who had chosen this class had already gained an aura skill once they had advanced. The idea of Julius having one wasn’t that standout-worthy.

Having an aura skill at Tier 1 before he entered the academy was unusual, but having an aura skill at Tier 2 was not. It was actually expected.

However, some of the more observational students had noticed that he showed more control than someone of his experience should. A handful of first-years and older students often threw glances at whatever Julius was working on.

They tried to play it cool, but Julius was able to see whenever they were looking in his direction with [Spatial Perception]. He didn’t want to stand out too much, but he didn’t think that being known as a person with good aura control would stand out in particular.

It wasn’t like delicate aura control gave a massive power boost. It was more for day-to-day applications and also to show off one’s skill.

It only stood out to these few students because they themselves were interested in aura control. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be spending their nights in a dimly lit classroom with a bunch of other meditating students.

Still, he felt a little surprised when he noticed a specific girl who was a third year and already Tier 3 started to mimic Julius’s exercises.

She didn’t have any stones like he did, but she used several small miscellaneous items from her storage device instead. Since she was Tier 3 and had a powerful enough soul, she was able to influence the stones with her aura like Julius was, but she lacked the finer touch that Julius was currently showing.

He wasn’t an expert by any means, but compared to someone who just started, he was a tad better. However, he quickly felt her get the hang of it. The flight of each item stabilized and by the end of the class, she was getting close to Julius’s own control.

Before class was over she gave one last glance toward Julius, but was surprised when he was looking back at her with a smile and a thumbs up.

He chuckled to himself at the face she made when he did that. She hadn’t been expecting him to notice and was startled when he clearly was. Julius saw a flush run up her neck as she hurriedly made her exit from the classroom the second the class ended.

He was still smiling to himself when he walked out of the building where Aura Control was held. However, that smile was quickly put on pause when he saw Henry, his roommate walking around with a couple of his friends heading in his direction.

Henry hadn’t noticed Julius yet. He was busy talking and joking with his friends. But when they started to get close to each other, Henry looked up to see who the person in front of them was. A flash of recognition went past his face and then his face quickly turned pale.

It was almost like he had seen a ghost. His pallid face screamed fear and nervousness. Julius could see that the boy tried to quickly hide it, but it was too late. Julius had already noticed and left him feeling very wary.

He didn’t understand why the previously arrogant and pretentious noble would suddenly be scared of him. It wasn’t like they had seen each other for a long time. The last time Julius had seen Henry was before Aubrey had gone to look for him.

Ah… That might be it, Julius realized.

He remembered that Aubrey told him that she had gone looking for him when he had gone on that extended training session. She had also told him that she had met his roommate and that she didn’t like him.

There was a good chance that Henry might have said a few things about Julius and Aubrey took exception to them. Knowing her and her track record, she might have intimidated or convinced the first year to tell her where Julius might have been.

Unfortunately, his other friends seemed to notice Henry’s unusual behavior.

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“Hey, what’s wrong?” Julius heard one of them ask Henry.

“It’s nothing, Chris. Just forget about it,” Henry told his friend.

“Yeah, why are you so pale? It’s like you’ve just seen Chris’s aunt walk into your room,” another boy joked.

“Shut it, Garrett,” Henry said aggressively under his breath while throwing looks at the incoming Julius.

Perhaps, he was hoping that he had said it quietly enough that Julius didn’t hear it, but Julius had really good hearing ever since he had blindfolded himself as a child and could hear exactly what they said clear as day.

Julius noticed that the boy named Chris spotted Henry’s brief look and turned to look at Julius for himself.

“You know him, Henry?” Chris asked while staring at Julius intently.

“Please Chris, just drop it,” Henry begged his friend.

“Wait, is this your commoner roommate that you were complaining about?” Garrett asked Henry with wide eyes. Henry paused before he meekly nodded his head in response.

By now, Julius and they were almost directly in front of each other. Henry and his friends had completely stopped and were staring at Julius intensely.

“Hey, you there,” the boy named Garrett called out to Julius.

Julius acted ignorant and pretended like he hadn’t heard a single word that the boys had just said to each other. “Huh,” he looked around seeing if he was talking to someone else before looking back at the boy. “Me?”

“Yes, you. You’re Henry’s roommate aren’t you?” Garrett asked him demandingly.

Julius just nodded his head in confirmation. “Yeah, why?”

“I heard that you sent someone to threaten Henry the other week. What is all that about?” Garrett asked aggressively.

What happened? Julius was taken aback.

Julius quickly put his hands up placatingly. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I didn’t send anyone.”

“You’re saying that you don’t know who the girl who threatened our friend?”

Oof, it probably was Aubrey, Julius winced internally. He tried to calmly deal with the situation. “I think she was just trying to find me. How did she threaten him?” He asked genuinely curious.

“What did she do?” Garrett asked angrily. “She pinned our friend against the wall and threatened to kill him,” he spat out.

What? Did she really do that? Because I can kind of imagine her doing that, Julius admitted to himself.

“I’m so sorry. But I don’t understand why she would do something like that for no reason,” Julius told Garrett as calmly as he could. “You’re sure that she didn’t do it for no reason?” he asked while slowly turning to look at Henry expectantly.

He understood that Aubrey was rash and domineering, but she always had a reason for why she acted the way she did. Now, that didn’t mean Julius agreed with those reasons, but there was always some merit to them. That was why he had a hard time believing that Henry was telling the complete truth.

Henry was still toward the back and was trying his best to avoid eye contact with Julius, but looked guilty. Seeing that he was on the right path, he pushed forward.

“What did you say? What did you manage to do that made her do that?” He asked Henry directly.

“Hey, I’m talking to you, you filthy commoner!” Garrett made a move to grab Julius, but Julius neatly sidestepped it before walking closer to Henry.

“She’s rash, I admit that. But I know she wouldn’t do anything without cause. Did you tell your friends here the entire story?” Julius asked with an exasperated chuckle.

Henry still didn’t answer, but Julius saw him flinch and had an embarrassed look on his face. And he wasn’t the only one to notice either. Both of his friends also seemed to notice the look on Henry’s face. Garrett even paused his second attempt to grab Julius.

“That’s what I thought,” he said with a scoff to Henry. “Now I would appreciate it if you tell your friends the whole story before they try to start a fight with me for something I didn’t even do.”

When Julius didn’t see Henry say anything in response, he didn’t stick around for a second longer, turning on his heels and walking away.

***

Henry POV

Henry didn’t think that a small lie would have led to something like this. Several weeks ago when his roommate’s friend came looking for him. Henry had taken it as an opportunity to mouth off about Julius.

He didn’t expect the girl to pin him against the wall and threatened that if he were to say another bad word about Julius, she would rip off his arm and ram it up his ass.

Henry had never been treated like that in his entire life. As a member of the prestigious Bishop Clan, he had been treated with the utmost respect his whole childhood. Not a single person would have dared to lift a finger at him. So when an older student, one so much more powerful than him had him pinned against the wall like he was a maggot, squeezing the life out of him, he felt true terror for the first time in his privileged life.

She was so powerful and angry that he really believed she would follow through on her threat. It wasn’t like he could report her or anything to the school either. He wasn’t stupid enough to know that he started it in the first place.

Afterward, when his friends asked him what was wrong with him. He told them an abridged version of the actual event. He didn’t think it would matter. It was just a story he told them.

However, when he saw Julius walking alone down the pathway between buildings, he froze in fear, vividly remembering that same day again.

However, in an ironic twist, his friends Chris and Garrett stood up for him, still mistakenly believing that Henry was the victim. Garrett confronted Julius and it somehow ended up with Julius walking away and his friends looking at him with expectant looks.

“What did he mean?” Garrett asked him confusingly.

Henry decided to be truthful. “I may have not been entirely forthcoming about what caused the situation that day,” he admitted with a wince.

“Explain,” Chris demanded calmly.

Henry gulped. While both of them were good friends. Garrett was just the fifth son of a relatively powerful Lord. However, Christopher was a different story altogether. Christopher Salich was the talented second son of Marquis Salich. House Salich controlled Garrett’s family and Clan Bishop.

So while they were friends, Chris was technically the one in charge of their group. Hence, when he demanded Henry to explain, that was exactly what Henry did. He spilled everything that he hadn’t told them before.

When he was done, Henry tentatively looked at both of them. Garrett seemed more upset that Henry lied to him and that he tried to start a fight with someone who was innocent. However, Chris had an annoyed look on his face.

“What is it?” Henry asked his friend carefully.

Chris turned to look at him with a frown. “Did you catch the name of the girl who came to your room that day?”

“No, she didn’t mention it.”

“And you are sure that she was a fourth-year?”

“Yeah, I noticed that she had four stripes over her shoulder as she was leaving,” he assured him. “What? Do you know who it was?” Henry asked.

Chris just shook his head. “No, but I have some ideas,” he said vaguely while looking at the direction where Julius had walked away.

Henry wanted to press for more, but he could tell that Chris wasn’t in the mood to be pushed. So he dropped it, but the rest of the night his thoughts were completely taken up by the terrifying woman who had gripped him by the throat and pinned him to the wall.