Chapter 373: 373

After Alexander opened the rift and left, Michelle calmly lay on the bed, considering what to do next.

The best thing she could do was probably return to her dorm room among Antony’s students and check the scene again.

And then, she could return to training.

Also, she wanted to find Lucas.

She didn’t even get a chance to talk with him since she was in the body‑tempering cube’s space, and she wanted him to evaluate how she had changed in there.

There was no one better to ask than a body‑tempering teacher like Lucas.

But Michelle couldn’t go to him right away because of the state she was in.

Her clothes were still torn, her disguise mask was off, and she was covered in blood.

Luckily, so it seemed, Alexander put some kind of barrier around the room, so the scent of her blood couldn’t get out.

Otherwise, that could expose the fact she had Spirit Soul Blood, and things would get problematic.

Michelle was just about to reach into her space to grab a new set of clothes when she froze, sensing something on the back of her neck.

The shadow pact she had with Alexander suddenly pulsed.

Considering he had gone to the heavenly realm using a rift, he should have just stepped out of the rift.

So did something happen as soon as he stepped out?

Still, considering Alexander’s power, at first, Michelle didn’t want to worry about it.

He could take care of himself, and she had no way of getting to the heavenly realm at the moment.

So, all Michelle could do was hope the shadow pact would stop pulsing.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, something that made her stomach and chest tighten came around.

After pulsing, the shadow pact started weakening.

Slowly, but it was still weakening.

Michelle gripped the back of her neck until her nails sank into her skin.

Something was going on and she had no way to intervene.

She didn’t even know what was going on.

Unlike when Alexander just left her alone blindfolded, she wasn’t calm at the moment.

Her heart was pounding just like then, but this time, even her mind was a mess.

Michelle was panicking, anxiety biting at her.

That could be seen even from the fact that a red tinge started to appear in her right eye.

For the shadow pact to weaken, Alexander had to be seriously hurt, most probably in a life‑threatening way.

The thought of that gnawed at Michelle like a deadly disease.

Just a while ago, she told him she loved him, and suddenly he was dying?

“Don’t you dare die,” she muttered, gripping the back of her neck even tighter, like she wanted to touch the pact.

The weakening was slow, but that didn’t mean anything good.

It just meant that Alexander’s suffering was slow.

When the weakening of the pact sped up, Michelle was completely motionless on the bed, her grip on the back of her neck bruising.

“Don’t die… please…” she didn’t cry, but her voice was hoarse.

Finally, when the pact broke, Michelle loosened her grip on the back of her neck, just holding her palm over it.

Her face was calm, but within, her emotions were in turmoil.

She couldn’t even tell if it was rage or grief, but the man she had told she loved just a few days ago was suddenly dead.

And just a few minutes ago, he was next to her, and they were messing around—if it could be called that.

Michelle felt like screaming.

Or tearing something apart.

But instead, she didn’t move an inch for a good few minutes before finally standing up.

She knew she was still bloodied and without her disguise mask, but she didn’t care about that.

She stepped out into the courtyard, sensing the surroundings.

A moment later, her head snapped to the side, her gaze locking on two figures up in the trees.

Jumping up, she landed on a branch above Noctis and Unlucien.

“Where’s your Lord?” she asked, her voice chilly.

Her right eye was fully red, showing just how messed up her emotions were at the moment.

Noctis and Unlucien didn’t know that the shadow pact had been broken.

They only knew that Alexander suddenly left, without even telling them.

“Our Lord said he went to the heavenly realm, Milady,” Noctis answered, but he was worried that he would get a punch for each word he said.

Something was terribly wrong with Michelle.

Michelle stared down at the two shadow guards, her insides turning.

For a moment, it seemed that she would do everything in her power to beat the two up.

But, finally, she didn’t and just jumped off the tree.

As she landed back in the courtyard, her frown deepened when she sensed a presence nearby.

Twisting her neck to the side, her eyes locked on a figure standing at the courtyard’s entrance.

Leonard Ostrich was standing at the entrance, staring at Michelle in surprise.

He recognized her, since he had already seen Michelle twice in undisguised form.

Once was back at the barrier of Heavenly Law between the middle and upper realm, and the second time was when she fought with Alexander mid‑air while on Tenether’s back.

But both these times, her eyes were purple as she was calm.

Seeing that one of her eyes was red greatly unsettled Leonard.

“What are you doing here?!” he asked warily, raising his voice.

Michelle stared at Leonard silently.

Her hands were hanging by her side, but every now and then, she could feel a finger twitch slightly.

“Get lost before I kill you!” she suddenly said, turning her gaze away.

Leonard felt chills run down his spine when Michelle’s voice entered his ears.

Most probably, he had never heard someone talk like that.

Michelle’s voice was not only chilly, but carried something dark.

There was no doubt she would snap his neck if he said something more.

And since Leonard couldn’t gauge Michelle’s power, he went away.

All he could do with his power was inform the school authorities, so they deal with things.

When Leonard left, Michelle stayed standing in the courtyard, staring up at the sky.

It was clear, with just a few white clouds, creating a dreamy scene.

“How could someone so infuriating die like that…?” once again, her hand traveled to the back of her neck, touching where she used to feel the shadow pact.

In the past, its presence used to even bother her sometimes, because it was a constant pressure in her flesh.

But when it was suddenly gone, the emptiness was torturing.

It was like a void had opened within her neck.

But not like the void she controlled, not her void‑like soul energy.

It was the uncontrolled void that ripped at everything around it to fill itself up.

With her eyes following the sparse clouds up in the sky, Michelle didn’t even notice that a tear rolled out of her eyes.

And after the first one, more followed, staining her cheeks with salt.

Michelle stood motionless, tears streaming down her face, for quite a while, only snapping out of it when she had to.

And that was because Leonard went to inform the teachers that a strange woman appeared in the guest teacher’s courtyard.

So, two teachers came.

When they came, they saw a beautiful young woman, covered in blood, staring up while tears rolled down her face.

That in itself wasn’t all that strange.

Covered in blood, she was probably hurt, and it wasn’t strange for hurt people to cry.

But her face was mostly calm, clothes torn, and one eye purple while the other red.

And there was also a strangely sweet scent in the air.

Noticing the presence of the two teachers, Michelle turned to them.

“What is it…?” unlike when she spoke at Leonard, her voice was no longer chilly.

Instead, it was hoarse and strained.

The teachers were unsettled by Michelle’s presence.

Coupled with the scent in the air and her heterochromic eyes, they were even more uncertain.

Red eyes belonged to those with Spirit Soul Blood, but they had both eyes red; not just one.

Sweet scent of blood also signaled Spirit Soul Blood, but usually, the scent attracted monsters and beasts from quite the distance.

But at the moment, no monsters or beasts seemed to be showing a reaction, even though there were quite a few of them in the academy, for training and contracting purposes.

Not knowing who Michelle was, the teachers decided to be respectful.

“Young Lady, how did you end up here?” one of them asked.

“Do you need something in the Ostrich Academy?” in his eyes, Michelle looked disoriented, so he specified where they were at the moment.

Michelle stared at the two teachers as she lifted her hands to wipe her tears.

“My flying beast went mad and threw me off…” she came up with a random excuse, not even caring whether the teachers would buy it.

“I’ll leave if you want me to…” she added.

The teachers weren’t expecting such a mild reaction.

That made them suspicious.

And since they were suspicious about Michelle, they couldn’t just let Michelle leave.

“You are hurt, so how about you stay for a while and let our healers treat you. We can’t just let you leave after such an unfortunate accident.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep