Chapter 638: False Accusation

Upon deciding to look for Percy, Liam found himself wandering across the academy grounds with no real direction guiding his steps. He had started with the most obvious places first—the training yards, the main courtyards, the corridors leading toward the upperclassmen dormitories, even the quieter garden paths where students often went to think—but none of those places had yielded any sign of the third-year prince. At first he continued searching with quiet patience, walking from one location to the next while replaying the previous night’s events in his mind. Yet the longer the search dragged on, the more he began to realize how pointless his efforts were becoming.

The problem was painfully simple.

Liam knew almost nothing about Percy Granger beyond what everyone else knew. The prince was strong, disciplined, admired by nearly every upperclassman in the academy—but those were the kind of things people said about someone, not the kind of things that told you where they would go when they needed to clear their mind after a difficult conversation with their sister. Percy could be anywhere, and Liam had absolutely no way of narrowing it down.

Eventually, after wasting far more time than he liked wandering through the academy, Liam quietly decided to make use of a far more efficient method.

With a faint flicker of dark myst flowing beneath his control, he summoned two of the shadows he trusted the most. The first was Smoke—the four-eyed wolf with jagged, spiked fur that seemed to shift and bristle like blackened smoke solidified into flesh. The creature moved with the silent confidence of a predator born from darkness itself. The second was Nyxie, the small Nyxarion whose existence seemed to carry far more personality than her size suggested. Where Smoke was quiet and lethal, Nyxie was sassy, mischievous, and endlessly expressive whenever Liam allowed her to manifest openly.

For this task, however, neither of them would be seen.

Liam instructed both shadows to begin searching for Percy by traveling through the shadows scattered across the academy. Moving that way would keep them hidden from the sight of other students, allowing them to scout the grounds far more efficiently without drawing attention.

That part was extremely important. If either of them were spotted slinking through the academy corridors or lurking around buildings, the consequences would quickly spiral into a situation Liam had absolutely no interest in dealing with.

It would not take much for rumors to start spreading.

Someone could easily notice one of his shadow creatures and immediately connect it to him simply because he was the only known dark mage in the academy. And once that happened, the accusations would multiply faster than he could silence them.

Some students would start whispering that he was secretly spying on people with his summons. Others would likely push the narrative even further, claiming that he used them to peek into girls’ dormitories or follow female students around the academy.

None of that particularly bothered Liam.

What bothered him was the exhausting nuisance that would come afterward. Endless complaints, investigations, lectures from instructors, students pointing fingers and making dramatic accusations—it would all become a long, pointless headache he had no interest in sitting through.

So sending Smoke and Nyxie through the shadows where no one could see them was the most convenient solution.

’It’s been some time since I sent them out,’ Liam thought as he continued walking calmly beneath the pleasant midday weather. The sun was warm but not overwhelming, and a soft breeze drifted lazily through the academy paths as students moved about their day.

His eyes shifted slightly, casually observing the people passing by.

Groups of students walked through the paths in clusters, chatting with one another about lessons, training sessions, and the latest gossip circulating through the academy. Among them, Liam quickly noticed a group that stood out.

’Those are third years for sure,’ he thought quietly as his gaze passed over a group of senior girls walking together. Their posture carried the natural confidence that came with being close to graduation.

For a moment, Liam considered the possibility of asking them about Percy’s whereabouts. If anyone might have seen him recently, it would probably be fellow third-year students.

However, the idea was dismissed almost immediately.

Percy was a reserved person by nature. Even among the upperclassmen he kept a certain distance from people, interacting with others mostly through training or official matters. Liam doubted that any random third-year student would know exactly where Percy had gone after his conversation with Sheila the previous night.

But there was another reason he chose not to approach them.

After yesterday’s duel, Liam was painfully aware of how the third-year students now viewed him. Percy Granger was their pride—the academy’s top-ranked student, admired and respected by nearly every senior who had trained alongside him. Watching someone like Liam defeat him so suddenly had not been something they were prepared to accept.

So instead of acknowledging what had happened, many of them had chosen the easier path.

They simply hated him for it.

And Liam being a dark mage only made it far more convenient for them.

’Best to just depend on Nyxie and Smoke,’ Liam concluded silently as he continued walking along the academy path.

Not long after passing the group of senior girls, his quiet stroll came to an abrupt halt.

Four third-year students stepped directly into his path, blocking the way forward. They stood there casually with their hands shoved into their pockets, their expressions twisted with clear disgust as they looked down at him.

Liam stopped for a moment, studying them with a calm, unreadable gaze.

Without saying anything, he simply shifted slightly to the side and attempted to walk around them.

“Excuse me,” he said in a neutral tone as he tried to continue on his way.

But the moment he stepped past them, one of the upperclassmen casually moved sideways and blocked his path again, forcing Liam to stop almost immediately.

Liam stared at him for a few seconds before calmly attempting to move toward the other side.

Just like before, another third-year stepped forward and cut him off.

Then, when Liam tried to simply turn around and walk back the way he had come, the final student stepped into that direction as well, sealing the path behind him.

Now completely surrounded, Liam remained silent for a moment as he looked at the four of them.

’These air-wasting vessels can’t be serious,’ he thought with quiet irritation as he realized exactly what kind of situation he had just walked into. ’If not for the fact that I don’t want to reveal my dark magic arsenal, I would’ve just used Void Passage and left already.’

The ability to slip into the shadows and reappear somewhere else would have ended this entire interaction instantly. Unfortunately, using such a technique in the middle of the academy courtyard would attract far more attention than he wanted.

So for now, he endured it.

While Liam silently restrained himself from doing something that might escalate the situation unnecessarily, the student standing directly in front of him finally spoke.

His voice carried a thick mixture of smugness and open disdain.

“You know,” the upperclassman began slowly, “it’s one thing to walk past your seniors without showing the proper respect by greeting them.”

He leaned forward slightly as his eyes narrowed.

“But it’s another thing entirely to stare at them in a perverted way.”

The moment those words reached Liam’s ears, a faint frown creased his expression.

“What?” he asked calmly.

“Don’t try to deny it, you little runt,” the third-year behind him suddenly spoke up. His voice was filled with mocking accusation. “We all saw how you were looking at those upperclassmen when you walked past them. Just standing there and staring like some kind of creep.”

The student to Liam’s left joined in immediately after.

“Do you think women are some kind of cheap objects you can just stare at like that?” he sneered. “Disgusting.”

Then the last one spoke, his voice dripping with exaggerated righteousness.

“You need to be taught a lesson for something as treacherous as that. The headmaster should hear about this. And Lady Moonstone too—especially after how much fear she’s put into the academy because of you. She deserves to know what kind of disgusting runt you really are.”

As the upperclassmen continued rambling about how much of a perverted freak Liam supposedly was, he simply stood there and watched them in silence.

Inside, however, his thoughts were far from calm.

He understood exactly what they were doing.

They weren’t actually offended by anything he had done. This entire accusation was nothing more than a convenient excuse to harass him for “humiliating” Percy during the duel. If Liam reacted angrily, they would immediately twist his words and use them against him. If he raised his voice or lashed out, they would run straight to the instructors with a carefully edited version of the story.

So instead of speaking, Liam forced himself to remain completely silent.

His mind began working through the situation carefully, searching for the most efficient way to make these idiots walk away on their own without giving them a single word they could manipulate later.

Because if he said even one wrong thing right now…

They would happily turn it into the perfect weapon against him.

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