The Tales of Draconic Warlock

First, when we were in Valtis City, personal phones were not allowed. Everything has to go through the official lines, where everything would be recorded. So no privacy there if you speak with outsiders.

Even the city was fully under surveillance, recording everything that is happening in the streets. There are cameras in the buildings too.

The only private place would be your quarters, where things won\'t be recorded by the officials. So whatever you want to do or talk and for that to remain private, it can only be done in your own quarters and nowhere else. Everywhere else, there are recorders and everything would be recorded.

Even though the rooms are private, the phones won\'t work as the signals were blocked there. Information can only flow through authorized devices. This was why I didn\'t even call my home beforehand. Once I left Valtis City, I would be home in a few hours. So I felt that there was no need to call my father and tell him that I was returning home.

When I followed my mother to Valtis City, there was no information on when I would be able to return. So he shouldn\'t be expecting me back this soon.

---

"I was not expecting you back this soon. I thought that you might return a day or two before the academy year starts", my father said to me as soon as he saw me standing in his office.

Yeah, I went to my father\'s office, once I returned home, instead of my room. Though I didn\'t say that I was returning, I should inform him that I did return.

I will be at home for the next two weeks. So if he has any plans, he may need to adjust those plans accordingly.

"Yeah, I didn\'t think that I would return this soon either", I replied back to him.

"So how is this Valtis City?" he asked me.

"You know father that we can\'t talk about it. I signed a magical NDA and if it prohibits me from breaking the confidentiality", I said to him with a straight face.

"Oh, yes, yes. I forgot about that in an enthusiasm when I saw that you are back", he responded with a serious face.

He thought that he made a mistake and couldn\'t see the expression on my face. I was just playing with him but I hid those expressions well. I could say that it came easy with years of experience.

I hid a great many things from my family.

It started the moment from my birth. I was born with my memories from my past life and that made me different from other kids.

At that time I didn\'t know what my family would be like. So I hid everything and acted like an infant. As time went on, I realised that my parents are good parents. Even if they knew about my memories, they would have loved me, no matter what but my decision was right nonetheless.

My parents were good but not everyone in my family was good. If news about me were leaked, then I don\'t want to even think what could have happened then.

There were a lot of scum in my family. Most were eliminated recently but there are still a few and that would always be a constant. No way an entire family would be good.

As the old saying goes, Good and Bad live side by side. One won\'t be without the other. As there is good, there would be bad. Without one, the other one loses its meaning.

Back then, even after I started to trust my parents, as there were too many troublesome ones in the family, I hid most of my awakening details.

I was lucky that only the awakener would see what they awakened, and nobody else. What others could see was whether the person had awakened or not during the ceremony and that\'s all.

Of course, there are devices and skills that would let people see what the awakener abilities are but they are rarely used and most of the time used by the military.

They use them to scout enemies. The enemies could be monsters or even fellow humans. This was because people with such abilities were very few and high in demand when compared to the devices. This was because, using the devices means burning resources, while a skill would only use magic power that they possess, which can be recovered easily.

There was another problem. People can lie and also they demand too much for their services. There are people who would pay for it.

Military, on the other hand, can\'t base their operations on high costs. they would rather burn some resources that use people with these skills who can change their demands and increase them.

Wait, where was I going?

Yeah, I hid my awakening results, only slipping out a few details. After that, for years, I hid even when I was at a higher rank. This was because my skill levels were too low when compared to people who were at my rank.

I am still weak and showing my true rank could have more cons than pros at this point.

I should tell my parents some of my secrets, soon enough.

---

While I was reminiscing what I did with my life and my family all these years, my father kept apologizing for what he almost made me do, well according to him anyway.

Though he was not the one who signed a magical NDA, he knew about it and what are its effects. He thought he was causing me pain.

Okay, it\'s time to end this. No need to cause him to suffer more for something that didn\'t happen.

"Pfft...hahaha...Sorry, I can\'t keep a straight face any longer", I laughed.

My father didn\'t understand at first but quickly understood what was happening. He understood that I was playing him.

He didn\'t get angry at me but sighed in relief that nothing bad happened to me. I should let them on a few of my secrets, sooner than later.

We spoke for a little while about what happened in the past two weeks.

With mother\'s departure, the workload on him increased and he said that he would call my first brother home soon, as his term at the military would expire soon.

---

After speaking with my father, I returned to my room. The first thing I did was to visit Asya. It had been two long weeks and she was alone all this time.

She was not alone actually, as she had those monsters to hunt to pass time when I was not available for her to spend time with.

She may have gotten used to me being with her in the past two years but before that, she lived on her own in the secret realm with nothing but monsters. So I don\'t think that those two weeks are that much of a problem for her.

---

Ah, the two weeks are over. It\'s time to return to the academy and start the fourth year.

In the two weeks at home, I spent some time training and allocated some time to be with either Asya or my father.

Since my father was busier than he used to be when my mother was there to support him, I only saw him a few times in these two weeks. Unless my brother comes here to take off some burden from my father, I don\'t think that he could have any free time.

It shouldn\'t have been like this. If only my family was not as problematic as it was back then, many of the responsibilities were to fall on someone else\'s shoulders. The recent purge didn\'t help either

With a lot of gaps in management, the remaining ones were to bear these responsibilities. Though most of the scum was gone, a few remained. He didn\'t want what he achieved in all those months to become undone. So unless he was sure that the other party was trusted or the responsibility was of not much importance, he decided to bear the responsibility.

This is not good. Hope my brother can bring some relief to our father.

---

After I return to the academy, it means the start of my fourth year. Three years have passed since I arrived here. It feels like I didn\'t achieve much but that would change from now on.

From now on, I will be able to take missions that will take me far away from the academy and the capital city as well.

These missions not only reward a lot of points but also let me travel a great distance, with the possibility of encountering something wonderful on the journey.

Though the chances of such encounters are very low, going on such missions would give me a chance to know more about the kingdom personally, rather than from reading a book.

This was what interests me more than gaining some mythical encounter with the Goddess of Fortune.