Ascension: Strongest Fateless Mage

After arriving at the lab, Touma told Zevien about the people that followed and kept an eye on him 24/7.

"Do you know why they are after you? It's better if we know about it," Touma said as he rubbed his chin.

After learning about their origins, Zevien raised his eyebrows, "Gio, huh? I know why they are following me."

"Why?"

Zevien proceeded to tell Touma about things that happened when he went to Vernisia's house.

After hearing everything, Touma clicked his tongue before saying with a grin, "well, you don't really have to worry about it because your safety is our concern until we can achieve a 100% success rate in the experiment. The ingredients just arrived yesterday, and we will commence more experiments pretty soon. The government procured five more batches of ingredients since we got two successful experiment results."

"Weren't they rare and expensive?" Zevien asked with doubt.

"They are in our eyes. They are comparable to top-grade tier-5 materials and some even more, but all countries' governments have connections in the Astral Land and also have money to buy them. Naturally, this is our country's secret, so it must not leak to outsiders," Touma said.

Zevien nodded, "so if there's nothing else, I will leave."

"Yeah, we found out why they are after you, and if they try something funny, we will deal with it," Touma smiled.

…

Zevien returned to the work office and continued working with Vernisia. He sat on a rotating and moving stool beside Vernisia, who also sat on a similar stool while working on the cards.

Dan and Erica had also gone to work in the research lab of Spell Gauntlet.

"We'll finish all these cards near the end of this month and then mass-produce the cards by setting up production," Zevien said.

"In this site?" Vernisia asked.

"Yeah, in five hundred square feet hall beside this office with proper tools and workforce to copy these cards," Zevien nodded.

"By the way, where did you go just now?" Vernisia asked curiously.

Zevien didn't answer directly but looked around the room, especially at the closed transparent window.

"Yowen, can you tell Electra to scan this whole site and its surroundings to find something suspicious?" Zevien asked.

"Alright," Yowen nodded as he talked to Electra mentally, and after a few seconds, she appeared and floated beside Yowen.

She closed her eyes and released faint pulses of strange waves before disappearing.

"She is checking," Yowen said.

"Why, what happened?" Vernisia asked with confusion.

Yowen was also curious, "did something troublesome happen?"

In just a few seconds, Electra appeared again and said, "there is one thing suspicious outside. The Eagle sitting at a tree one hundred meters away from this site is not normal but made of machine and magic. It was constantly looking at the site, and after tracing its electric waves, I found out that some people in a van are observing this site through its eyes."

"So they can't see us or hear us, right?" Zevien asked.

"They can't," Electra shook her head.

"Alright, then it's safe to talk about it," Zevien said with a smile before he continued while looking at Vernisia, "it's about Galen Gio."

"Him?" Vernisia frowned, "what about that bastard?"

"It seems like you really don't like him," Zevien grinned.

"Humph, of course. I didn't tell you that since I didn't want to let it bug you, but after we left that day, that bastard said to my mom that you were after my family's wealth and connection in the government," Vernisia said with anger evident on the face, "how disgusting that he says something like that without knowing anything just to spew venom in my mom's ears."

"Ehh…," Zevien was startled, "so he is that kind of an asshole."

"But what has he got to do with these people keeping an eye on you?" Yowen asked as he guessed that the Eagle was probably keeping an eye on Zevien.

"It's the work of that Gio Galen. He put his people to keep an eye on me all the time," Zevien said wryly.

Vernisia's face changed as she became worried and grabbed Zevien's hand, "t-this…this is not good. They are a powerful family, and they might be able to get away with crimes as well."

Vernisia became so worried that her eyes trembled, and even sweat appeared on her face and hands, "this is my fault. They might do something to you, this….we have to do somethi-"

"Relax," Zevien smiled as he put his other hand on her hand and said gently, "nothing will happen to me because that Gio family don't have the power to lay their hands on me."

"But how?" Vernisia asked anxiously, "you know as well that they are powerful!"

She bit her lips and spoke, "I'll have to call my father now and my mom too….Damn, how can she be so stupid? She didn't know the true face of that bastard and invited him. I ha-"

"Look at me," Zevien said as he put both of his hands on her shoulder and shook her slightly.

Vernisia looked at Zevien as Zevien put his hands from her shoulder to her cheeks and said with a reassuring smile, "nothing will happen to me."

Zevien was internally overjoyed to see Vernisia becoming this worried for him. He really wanted to hug her and reassure her but held himself back.

"Gio Galen and his family don't have the power to do anything to me; you have to trust this statement, okay?" Zevien said as he took his hands back from her cheeks, seeing her turning a bit red.

Vernisia took a deep breath and composed herself before speaking, "o-okay, got it. I don't know how or why you are this confident, but…I trust you."

'Even if I trust you, I will have to do something because I am the cause of this problem,' Vernisia thought internally.

"Good," Zevien nodded with a smile, "now let's get back to work. No need to worry about anything."

…

After the day ended and everyone finished training and eating at night, they returned to the academy.

However, Vernisia left the academy and went to her home.

'Father should have returned as well,' Vernisia thought as she rang the bell late at night.

12:04 Am.

Amos opened the door and was surprised to see his daughter, "what are you doing here so late?"

"We have to talk," Vernisia said.

...

Galen was sitting in a hotel in Starlight city. His sister had returned, but he actually stayed in the city.

He was looking at some photos and videos that his team sent when he received a call from one of his men that he put to keep an eye on Zevien.

"Sir. By chance, we saw Vernisia leaving the academy. We sent another Eagle after her, and it seems that she went to her home."

"Went to her home this late?" Galen frowned as he speculated, "it's obvious that she doesn't want to marry me, but that doesn't matter. She must become a part of my family."

"Sir, If you don't mind, I have an idea."

Galen looked at the hologram of a middle-aged man with a muscular body and a scar on his face. Looking at the grin on his face, Galen thought, 'what sick idea does this bastard have? Well, let's hear it.'

"Speak," Galen nodded.

The middle-aged man cracked his lips into a wicked grin and proceeded to tell his plan.

After hearing everything, Galen nodded with a glint in his eyes, "alright, but I don't want any of you to touch her. Tell Black Witch to do it."