I stood in the office, along with all the rest of the disciplinary committee members. We stood in a row and watched the silence before us.

Xanxus was sipping coffee at his desk, staring at Soyeon and Taejun with a blank expression.

“I don’t have time for this. I have a meeting to attend. You lot can decide the punishment and Zeref I want a note of their consequences on my desk by the end of the day.” he said, abruptly getting up and packing his things after a long 10 minute silence of him just sipping coffee.

Taejun looked at his sister as they both watched Xanxus leave without a care in the world.

As soon as the door shut, the guy I had beaten up last time came forwards, sitting in Xanxus’s chair and staring at the twins.

“I say we throw eggs at them at lunch.” he sniggered, clasping his hands together. Soyeon glared, moving forwards, making the prestigious boy flinch back.

“Don’t be rude, Sunny.” Moira scoffed, crossing her arms and popping her hip out.

“What? I don’t see anyone else making any suggestions.” he smiled victoriously when he was met with silence.

“Detention after school as a warning. If they do it again, we can give them a harsher consequence.” Malia came forward, glancing at Soyeon as they shared a mutual look of agreement.

“Awwww that’s no fun though!” Sunny frowned, standing up and towering over Malia in an attempt to intimidate her. His chest touched the tip of her nose and before he could come any closer, I pushed his shoulder back, making him lose balance and fold onto the floor like a branch snapping from the wind. He chuckled to himself, shaking it off and awkwardly standing up.

“I agree with Malia’s idea.” Derek put his hand up as another guy agreed, also putting his hand up. Soon enough, around 6 people had their hands raised. I looked at them before looking at Sunny again with a proud smile. I slowly raised my hand as he rolled his eyes.

“Fine, whatever.” he brushed his blazer off and left the room, banging it shut behind him.

“For now, you both will be sent home. Your detention will be tomorrow after school for 2 hours and both of you will do community service, cleaning up litter after the detention.” I said, getting out a piece of paper and writing down their punishments to leave on Xanxus’s desk. 

“2 hours?!” Taejun exclaimed, clenching his fists.

“And community service?!” Soyeung finished Taejun’s frustrated thoughts.

“I will escort them out of the school.” Derek said, ignoring Taejun’s sigh.

**

The class droned on as my eyes started to feel heavy. I let out a quiet yawn and looked at Jace next to me who was drawing hearts on Naz’s wrist. How was this guy always so carefree? It baffled me. I then redirected my attention to the teacher to hear what he was preaching today.

“…Many say that how will algebra ever help us in real life? Or how does trigonometry relate to real life things? We shouldn’t be learning stuff like this.” The Magical Arts teacher explained, earning some whispers of agreement from the class.

“Well, I will be answering those questions today. Has anyone heard of magic circles?”

Applebottom put her hand up immediately.

“Yes Miss Applebottom.” The teacher sighed. 

“Magic circles are used to cast complex spells of powerful magnitudes; they require one to draw accurate shapes and symbols, if a single mistake is made, the whole spell could be ruined causing an explosion of mana to be released.” She replied, pushing her round glasses up.

“Correct. Magic circles are used in everyday appliances you use today, none of you have realised yet have you? Teleportation devices that open up portals. Magic circles have been condensed into them, allowing them to cast the portal spell. 

“Magic circles are made up of condensed mana, so therefore when the mana runs out, portal devices and other appliances stop working. What I want you to do now is open up the textbook to page…” The Professor was interrupted as a couple students rushed out of their seats to run towards the window.

“What are you guys doing? Get back in your seats!” The professor demanded, his face going red from the disrespect of the students.

I looked out of the window to see what the huddled students were looking at and my eyes widened in fear.

“What the f*ck is that?” Jace said my thoughts out loud, gawking at the atrocity that had popped up.

I had never seen such a big red portal in my life. It was right in the centre of the city, floating above the ground, even covering the sky. 

It was at least several kilometres in diameter. 

‘This is bad.’ Voadhailis’s hoarse voice echoed in my head.

‘Has this ever happened before?’ I asked.

‘No. This is also my first time seeing a portal as big as this. It only makes me think about the hellish beast that must be inhabiting that dungeon, or beasts. We don’t know but we have to prepare ourselves. Otherwise, we could all die if whatever is in there manages to come out.’ Voadhailis warned.

‘I should talk with the Hunter Association. This is a disaster.’ 

Voadhailis agreed, before going back to meditating. The secondary mana pool had already reached the second stage. Now I just needed to get to level 120, reach mana pool stage 7 and activate the ‘Dragon Manifestation’ spell, this way he’d be able to finally get a new body.

“Please get back to your seats.” The Professor tried to calm everyone down.

Suddenly, Xanxus’s voice echoed throughout the school as an announcement was being given.

“Everyone please calm down. Stay in your classes, We are already preparing for precautions…”

I didn’t listen to the rest of the stuff he was saying; I already had a plan and I was going to move accordingly.

“Jace. We’re leaving. We don’t know if monsters are going to come out of that portal now or when. We need to evacuate my mother and get to a safe place.” I said, looking at him sternly.

“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Jace asked, gripping Naz’s hand tightly.

“We need to retrieve Malia first. Then mother. We’re heading to the Hunter Association.”

“What about Mr Xanxus? He won’t let us leave, aren’t you hearing this guy?” Naz asked, pointing at the ceiling.

“F*ck him. We’re moving.” I said, getting up and putting my jacket on.

Naz and Jace followed me as we began heading out of the class.

“Where do you guys think you’re going? The instructions are clear. We stay in our classrooms!” The teacher shouted.

“Sorry, but I have disciplinary committee duties to attend to, Mr Xanxus needs us.” I said, pointing at the red ribbon tied around my left arm with the number 001 embroidered on it.

The professor kissed his teeth letting us go.

This must have been what the Director was talking about. He said that multiple portals were popping up all over the kingdom and there was even an Anomalous Dungeon.

Were they all just a build up to this? Why was this happening? Who was behind all this? 

I needed answers…

I knocked on the door of Malia’s classroom and all the kid’s attentions, including the teacher was turned away from the window towards me.

“Miss. I’m going to have to ask Malia Stronghold and Saraphina Claws to come with me; we have a disciplinary committee meeting with Mr Xanxus.” I said in a professional voice, showing my disciplinary committee ribbon on my left arm.

“Why do you need Sara? She’s not part of the committee.” The teacher looked at Sara.

I gritted my teeth. 

“You can ask Mr Xanxus yourself miss. We really need to get going.” I smiled politely, losing my patience.

I gave Malia and Sara a look; they both nodded, picking up their stuff and speed walking past the countless tables and students. 

“That’s not fair! They’re his friends.”

“Yeah! Disciplinary bullsh*t!”

“We should be able to leave too!” 

A ruckus had started as some of the boys began a stupid scene.

Malia and Sara had regrouped with us and we left the room and the growing ruckus in there.

“Do you have a plan?” Malia asked, walking beside me.

“We’re going to pick up Mother first, then we’re heading to the Hunter Bureau. That’s probably one of the safest places to be in this kingdom. It’s far away from this city and a lot of strong people will be guarding it. I plan to stay there for a bit.” I replied, as we walked down the hallways and stairs.

“How are you going to manage that? I know you’re a hunter but will they allow that?” Jace asked.

“Just trust me.” I gave him a look of reassurement.

“Where do you guys think you’re going?! I thought I said you all should stay in your classrooms! Why are you guys out of your classes!” I heard Xanxus’s rushing footsteps echo behind us. 

The hallways began flashing red and the defense mechanism of the school had been activated. We had to make it out of here.

“Run!” I said, breaking into a sprint. The rest of the group followed behind me as we made a run for the exit of the school.

I was planning on taking a portal home but portals malfunctioned inside the school buildings due to the defence mechanism, so we had to make it outside, before Xanxus caught up to us and Naz wouldn’t be able to teleport us all outside.

“I knew you guys were going to do something. You didn’t even invite me.” Allefin suddenly popped out from one of the hallways and began running with us.

“Glad you could join. It’s like we’re trying to escape after having committed a robbery.” Jace joked, wheezing while running.

“Where are we going?” Naz whined, getting out of breath.

“Outside.” I replied.

Dead end.

The exit was now closed off as anti mana shutters slammed down and blocked our escape. I could hear Xanxus’s tattering footsteps. 

“You know you can’t escape Zeref. I thought I told you, you have to follow the rules. You can’t just do whatever you want.” Xanxus’s voice echoed in the hallways.

“What now?” Jace scratched his head, looking back as Xanxus was getting closer and closer.

I clenched my fist tightly and punched the shutter with all my strength. A large hole had formed in the anti mana shutter from my punch and I immediately jumped through it.

Even if I couldn’t use my mana properly, due to the defence mechanism I could still sue my strength.

“Stop!” Xanxus roared behind us. 

…But it was too late. 

We had already jumped into the portal and were already through to the other side at my mansion.. I knew there was no way to reason with Xanxus’s stupid rules so we had to do it this way.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep