Chapter 178 - Back to the ship (1/2)
Richard also noticed the warframes and realized that it is best that they don't stay there for a longer duration. He understood the restrictions of the alliance and the affair of the underworld quite well. If the owners of that place think that Robert was investigating them, they wouldn't think twice of putting a bounty on his head. So, he hurriedly took them out and called for Salazar to get his shuttle to pick them up.
”Hi! Salazar,” greeted Balthazar. ”Were you monitoring us from the sky all this time?”
”Of course, we don't know much about this planet. It would be stupid to let you two kids explore the place with proper supervision. By the way, you guys did far better than I expected. I guess you cleared the trial,” replied Salazar.
”Do you know why they changed the location of the trial suddenly?” asked Balthazar in a whisper after he came closer to Salazar.
”It was nothing. Actually, the elder council was responsible for this change. It had nothing to do with other movements of the table of Ouroboros. The only thing that they had added was me and Lucius as your security,” answered Salazar frankly.
”Come on, tell me the truth,” persisted Balthazar as he found it hard to believe.
”Really! This was apparently prepared yesterday, even before the incident happened. Lucius and I are here due to the incident. We have no clue about what happened. Only Winston and other guys at the top have been informed of the truth. The rest are all just following instructions given to them. With the betrayal of Max, they are being very cautious about leak of information,” explained Salazar as he drove the shuttle back to the main ship.
Once, they got onto the ship, they quickly changed out of their combat suits and decided to have a bath and a meal. After a meal, they were called to meet the evaluators along with Lucius and Richard to be informed of their performance. The three of them had already had a brief look at the recordings from Lucius and Richard. Only one of the evaluators remained while the other two left.
”Hello, my name is Harek. I am the chief evaluator of your trial,” said the old evaluator with his hands behind his back.
”Hello, Mr Harek”
”Nice to meet you, Mr. Harek.”
”We have gone through the tapes provided by your guardians already and have decent idea of the things that you went through this trial. Let me begin by informing you that this trial is not only a new experience for you but also for us. It is quite different from the usual trials undergone by the members of the family when they come of age. So, we had reduced the functionality of your suits, so that you won't get too far ahead.”
”So, the suits aren't latest ones as we were told?” asked Robert in surprise.
”Well. They are made from the latest technical advances. They are sturdier than others, but as you later realized in the trial, we have restricted the tech support. Usually the combat suits made for exploratory purposes have much more features and with all the features of your suit enabled, you wouldn't need the help of your guardians to enter the smuggler's cache,” explained Harek.
”We could have done better and gotten better grades if you hadn't restricted us,” grumbled Robert as he began to think that the elder council had intentionally done this to hamper their performance in the trial.
”Haha, you probably think that we were dispatched here mainly due to some elders in the council who are against you, right? Even a majority can't change the usual trial without a good reason. The advances in tech and the recent war efforts have changed a lot of things and there have been talks of improving the nature of the trial to realize the shortcomings of the participants better and help improve them. The change in venue wasn't objected by the patriarch for the same reason and he had used this to implement his own plans to change the trial patterns,” explained Harek.
”So, there was no intentional ”
”None whatsoever, Master Robert. The three of us are known to be very strict but that is all there is to it. We don't let politics influence our decisions. It is a matter of our reputation and responsibility. Please, stop suggesting that. It is beneath us,” said Harek in a serious tone.
He went back to the table took a few sheets of paper and walked to them. Having a look at these sheets one could easily see that the three evaluators were actually trying to create a new system of trials for the younger generation.
”The pair of you have managed to successfully finish your trial. Young masters, Balthazar and Robert are to be considered as a.d.u.l.ts by the elder council from now on. This trial is different from the previous ones due to unexpected circ.u.mstances. So, we will need further ponder over your performance to properly grade it. We also decided to suggest some training and learning work to the participants of the trial based on the things that we had observed today and also to increase the difficulty of the trial and put it in stages to better realize the potential of the other participants after this. So, even though you have been cleared we will need to create a proper structure and intend to grade you based on it,” said the evaluator.
”If you want a grade immediately, we can provide you a temporary one right now for the purpose of the competition for elders. Young master, Robert, you have shown quite a good amount of knowledge of the nature and various species as expected of you but are inefficient in using this knowledge for practical purposes. We recommend you have some experience and training to compensate for that. Based on the previous grades that we have given to other young men of the family, you can be considered above average and I am willing to recommend you for position of elder if you take care to learn the things you lack. I will provide you a list of items for that,” said Harek.