Chapter 381: 381

Unlucien moved through the area of the chaotic spirit remnant and continued looking for clues.

And every time he found something, he remembered the spot, so he could later see whether there weren’t some patterns in the clues.

Something was telling him that the spirit remnant was ritualistic.

At the moment, he had yet to find something that would confirm it, but his gut feeling was rarely wrong.

As Unlucien moved around, he found more and more of the Night Dwellers’ pendants, making him stop collecting them.

With that many of them, it was pointless to take them all, and with how similarly they were all placed (looking randomly scattered around), he couldn’t even be sure if he could remember where they were when he found them.

And if he forgot that, he would have a harder time recognizing whether there was a pattern in them, if they were a part of a ritual, or if they were there just because the Night Dwellers were deliberately provoking the Dark Palace.

That could also be the case.

After a while, Unlucien was sure he had found all the pendants and other clues.

And without even checking it again, he knew the clues were aligned like after a ritual.

It was so obvious that if someone managed not to notice it, it would mean they were deliberately pushing their brain not to recognize patterns.

And to such an extent, that would already be considered a talent.

Still, Unlucien decided to look at everything from above.

He went a bit further from the ritual and proceeded to take on his monster form.

So, out of nowhere, two snake heads appeared up above the trees, looking down at the ground with two pairs of golden eyes.

The huge black double‑headed snake could be seen even from the academy grounds, and it didn’t go unnoticed.

When such huge monsters appeared in forests, it usually spelled trouble.

So, the academy started preparing itself for a beast tide or a monster riot.

Those things tended to happen since they were in a huge forest.

But Unlucien didn’t care what was going on in the academy because of his transformation.

His full attention was on the arrangement of the pendants beneath him.

To see them better, he left marks of his own spirit energy on every spot where he found a pendant or any other sign of the presence of the Night Dwellers.

It was a bit risky because it could disrupt the spirit remnants, but Unlucien still decided to do it.

So, he could see what it was.

And what he saw, he reported to Alexander:

“It was arranged like an array, but those are made of spirit stones. Those pendants weren’t reshaped spirit stones.”

Alexander tried to imagine an array made out of pendants, and it also made no sense to him.

“I didn’t like it…” Unlucien suddenly added, making Alexander frown.

Shadow guards never voiced their opinions.

When they said they didn’t like something, it meant something completely different.

It was a simple way to say that there was something greatly off about what they were talking about.

They couldn’t describe it, but instinctually, they could feel it.

And it was bothering them.

After Unlucien’s report, Alexander got personally curious about what there was to be seen in the forest.

So, since it would take him just a while, he summoned a clone from Liquid Shadow to step in as him in the Academy, while he himself left.

He wanted to take both Unlucien and Noctis with him since they were monsters, but he also felt the need to leave someone in the Academy, in case something happened that concerned Michelle.

To solve that, Alexander summoned another Liquid Shadow, which was a small rat that could hide in shadows.

It was so it could watch over Michelle.

Because though it was small, it possessed power from Alexander and Alexander could control it and partially feel through it what was going on.

So, if something did happen, Alexander could have it intervene, even transform into a more powerful or intimidating form.

So, with the two shadow guards by his side, Alexander left the Academy grounds.

Quite comically, shortly after Alexander left, a teacher came to the guest teacher courtyard to tell him that in the afternoon, he would be introduced to the students as a new teacher.

Thus, the one to receive the message was the Liquid Shadow, acting exactly like Alexander.

And shortly after, in the afternoon, the Liquid Shadow was the one who came to the plaza in the middle of the academy so the headmaster, Francis Ostrich, could introduce him to the students.

Michelle was also nearby, and she instantly recognized that the one on the podium was not Alexander but a mere clone of himself.

And she wasn’t exactly happy about it.

She remembered asking him to stay in the Academy, so where did he go?

But, it wasn’t like it would anger her or anything.

She was just slightly dissatisfied.

Michelle knew that if Alexander left so suddenly, it was either urgent, or for just a short while, so he didn’t want to bother her training, but it still left a bad aftertaste in her mouth.

But that aftertaste in her mouth also made her realize something vital.

Since the incident when Alexander broke the Shadow Pact, making her think he was dead, her behavior had changed.

It was drastic in a way, but she didn’t notice it initially.

Michelle had become more controlling than before with anything that concerned Alexander.

And she constantly wanted to know where he was.

“And here I thought he was the one with obsessive tendencies…” she couldn’t help but chuckle as she muttered under her breath, so quiet no one could hear it.

Also, considering that at the moment, she wasn’t putting shadow essence into her shadow, no one would be able to hear her even if she said it out loud.

No one would even notice her if she started straight up rolling on the ground.

And that was all because the Heavenly Law was completely ignoring her.

Oh… how nice that was.

Michelle actually didn’t mind that she had obsessive tendencies.

She would only be bothered by it if she was to be concerned about Alexander, but that guy was obsessive from the very beginning, and from what she knew about him, he wouldn’t mind her obsessing over him back.

Even if her obsession eventually got stronger than his.

But that was a question for the future.

At the moment, neither hers nor Alexander’s obsessions were extreme, and they were quite balanced.

Standing at the podium next to Alexander, Francis used a skill known to many powerful teachers which made his voice ring far, so all the students present could hear him.

Like that, he introduced Alexander as a new guest teacher who would be staying in the Academy for a while.

The students were free to go to him for advice if they needed any in his field of work.

For more, he could introduce himself.

Alexander, or rather his clone, introduced himself only with his surname Terce before stating that he specialized in prolonged combat with great reliance on physical strength.

That was a surprise even to Francis.

Prolonged combat relying on physical strength of the fighter was something hard to train.

Even when Lucas trained his students, it was much more towards explosive strength to quickly overpower their enemies.

But, naturally, there were also some students who were interested in prolonged physical fights.

Those students either gave up on it or formed their own clubs where they could spar and exchange advice.

So, a teacher who specialized in that area, even if just a guest teacher, was great for them.

But, glancing at Alexander, the clone, Francis wasn’t sure if Alexander would be willing to teach the students.

It was clear his only interest was Michelle, staging as Ana Ostrich.

Down under the podium, whispers were everywhere.

Michelle had made sure a fair number of students had seen her close to Alexander, so they all knew that the new guest teacher was the secret lover of Ana Ostrich, the second headmaster’s daughter.

That was a good reason to gossip, and in a way, also overrode the fact that Alexander’s teaching profession was highly unusual.

Listening to that, Michelle’s smile widened in satisfaction.

That was exactly what she wanted.

To spread chaos through gossip in the academy.

Even if the students who were interested in prolonged physical combat took great interest in Alexander, that was just a fraction of the students.

The others, not interested in that field, would be much more interested in the story of a relationship between a student and a teacher.

Though not exactly, but it was considered somewhat of a taboo.

The fact that Alexander was just a guest teacher lightened things a bit, but it was still a big deal.

Even some of the teachers nearby were looking at each other with confusion in their eyes.

They didn’t know what to make of the situation.

Michelle liked the way things were going, so she disappeared from the plaza and went back to her training.

Training under Lucas was harsh and difficult, but effective, so she wouldn’t give up on it.

Human movement was an essential thing she needed, especially if she wanted to continue staging as Ana Ostrich.

Later, when she would have discarded the identity, she could decide whether she would proceed with keeping a human identity, or taking on the monster image completely.

But at the moment, she strictly needed to remain a human, even if she wasn’t exactly one.

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