Way of the Knights

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"Life Companion Pact? What's that?" Jackson asked.

It was Maddock who explained everything to the confused man: "Life Companion Pact is some sort of a connection between you two." He pointed at Hopper who's now nuzzling his head on Jackson's arm. "It allows you to have a basic understanding for whatever Hopper wants to say."

Jackson looked at the Black Panther with a soft gaze. He then murmured: "I don't know if I could take you with me outside though. It's very dangerous out there."

"Oh don't you worry about that." Raven chimed in since he heard him say this. "Hopper, show him the good stuff."

The Black Panther understood what Raven meant, then in front of everyone's gazes, Hopper seemingly melted and fused with Jackson's shadow. Everyone, including Maddock himself, were dumbfounded by this. If no one saw what happened, then they probably won't know that there is a Black Panther hiding in Jackson's shadow since they can't even detect it's presence.

"Shadow Fusion! Oh god he unlocked it!" Maddock's eyes were shining as he looked at Jackson's shadow. On the other hand, Jackson was feeling very strange right now. He could tell that someone's behind him and he knew that it was Hopper. He could also tell that he only needed a thought for Hopper to show himself once more.

"I guess since he's still young, he could only fuse with your shadow. But if you groom him properly, then he will be able to fuse into anyone's shadow and his presence will become more hidden. I think he has other skills though." Raven traced his chin.

Like a cue for Hopper, he suddenly resurfaced and emitted a deep growl. Jackson suddenly felt something weird happening to his vision. On a third person's view, his left eye pupil became slits, on Jackson's personal view, his vision became…divided. One was his, there was no mistaking about that, as for the other one, it was Hopper's vision. He was having difficulties focusing with his new vision, but a timely advice from Raven helped him a lot.

"You might wanna cover one of your eyes whenever that happens. Just so that you could focus a little bit better."

He followed this advice and when he covered his right eye, all that's left is the strange vision coming from Hopper.

"Is this the rumored Shared Vision?" Maddock inspected while fixing his monocle. He was staring at Jackson's eye very closely.

"Hopper's gonna be an asset to you when you go outside. Just give him some training before you go, but beware though, since you signed a Life Companion Pact, if he dies, then you lose some of your life span. 1 year of a Black Panther's life is equivalent to 10 years of a human's life. So if he dies right now, then you lose 10 and some years of yours. Of course, if you die, then he dies as well." Raven warned.

Jackson felt a little somber about the warning but he didn't really complained much. To be totally honest, Hopper is more than welcome to come with him just from the Shared Vision ability, not to mention the Shadow Fusion.

The life of a Lair Hunting Knight is incredibly lonesome and dangerous. Having a companion that he could place his trust is already considered as a treasure, not to mention that Hopper will be a great help to his job is a huge life saver. But, to all of this. Jackson had one thing that he's confused about, and probably his question is the same for Maddock too.

"How did you know all of this?"

Instead of answering, Raven instead whistled and magically, a hawk appeared on his shoulders. Maddock and Jackson was surprised to see a Mirage Hawk suddenly appeared.

"My dad gave me this, we have the same connection as you two. I also read many books containing many lost methods and history that's why." Raven lied graciously.

First of all, this Mirage Hawk isn't his, it was his dad's who were sent to guard him. Second, not even his dad knew about the Life Companion Pact, while some influential people might have a clue, only he had the complete and correct details…well, for now anyway. Finally, he did not have a Life Companion Pact with the hawk, in fact he actually didn't need to since he could force it to obey all of his orders if he really wanted to.

"Well, I'll be damned, if it isn't the son of Marshal Valorheart. I should've known." Maddock chuckled as he realized Raven's identity.

Raven only smiled, he then lowered his voice and said: "The less people who hears about the words that I'm about to say, the better."

Chief Director Maddock's mood suddenly became solemn, Jackson was once again confused but decided to hear Raven out.

"Chief Maddock, please write a letter to my dad about the suspicious encounter that we discussed before. The more detailed the better, leave your seal as well so that my dad can confirm your identity. In less than a day, he will send his men to cooperate with you. Also, it would do you good if you scour every corner of this place to look for something wrong. Those people are most likely trying to frame the Beast Domestication Center to create unrest to the people."

His words were softly spoken but it contained a severe information. Jackson was starting to follow the conversation while Chief Maddock's face were getting uglier.

"Young Friend Raven, do you think it's the Black Curtain Guild?" As Maddock said this, Jackson suddenly showed a somber expression.

"Most likely. I don't know what their target is, but since they are here then it all boils down to one simple thing: To create chaos. Of all the people YOU should know what will happen if this place went chaotic. All of your hardwork will be wasted, I don't want to see that specially that this place is very important to the kingdom. Once they achieve their goal here, then their influence will reach a higher echelons of the kingdom which is going to be bad news to us."

Chief Maddock and Jackson's faces were unsightly, it can't be helped, this move was too dirty.

"To be totally honest?" Raven added, "I think there's more to it. Of all the times that they would attack, why now right? Is it a coincidence that they will make a move when some brats from the institutes are out to play? I don't think so. Makes me feel like were being targeted as well."

Now this, this words finally made the two shudder with eyes wide open. If what Raven said were to be true, then this made this whole situation more troublesome as it was originally.

Imagine, a place where deadly beasts were confined and being domesticated, suddenly became chaotic. Beasts rampaging attacking everyone on sight. Then the students, who had myriad of backgrounds, were also attacked. Now this place will be the focus of everyones attention and will be penalized for something that wasn't even at fault. All the while, the ones who planned these things out were just relaxing and waiting for the show to unfold, then move and use the chaotic situation to their advantage.

"What a nasty move." Maddock hissed between his teeth. Even Jackson was grounding his teeth in anger.

"That's why it's better to move as quickly and as discreet as possible." Raven said calmly, "Maybe, we could still turn the situation around. Maybe we could even find their camps, therefore lessening their forces inside our home."

The two nodded in agreement. Without further ado, Maddock began writing a letter to give to Raven. Meanwhile, Jackson became a bit restless, he too wanted to help specially that this kid in front of him just granted him a fortune.

"Is there anyway that I could help?" Jackson asked Raven.

"Of course!" Raven said: "In fact you are crucial to the plan. While the Chief is cleaning out this place, your task is to stay alert and protect us. Later tonight, you can inform Old Lee about the situation and maybe do some covert mission through the vicinity of the area, you Lair Hunting Knights specializes in moving through the darkness so this should be easy for you."

Jackson immediately understood what Raven wanted to happen so he nodded his head. In fact, if he says that he should do it now, then Jackson will immediately disappear to move. Hesitation isn't a trait of a Lair Hunting Knight.

"Okay, let's pretend that this conversation didn't happen, specially in front of them. We could say that we are discussing some important traits of your new partner." Maddock said as he finished the letter that he will give to Raven.

"Pass the letter to Sir Jackson first, he should give that to me secretly, there might be prying eyes here and warn them since my Mirage Hawk is out, my identity isn't a secret to my classmates anyway. He could give the letter to me later in the carriage. I'm not being paranoid, I'm just being prepared."

The two were stunned at first but then his plan did make sense, so Maddock gave the letter to Jackson and they all stood up to return to the people outside.

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