Chapter 38: Volume II – Chapter 4: Catching a Little Rat

I turned back to Lucia. Then, I saw her smiling face.

Even if only for a moment, her beauty caught me.

The whole world seemed to disappear, except for her. My focus shifted completely to her and everything else faded from my sight.

Damn charm… it must have gone up to S- for sure.

“Lucia Quie, nice to meet you.”

Her lips curved upwards in a smile, the brightness of her red eyes, her beautiful face… Everything about her was so gorgeous.

“Aiden Tenebra, nice to meet you too.”

Without anyone noticing, I clenched my fist and dug my nails into my palm.

The pain slowly spread from my hand to my body. W?th that, my focus came back to me. So I turned around and walked toward the exit, but then I realized something else.

The whole library, everyone was looking at me. The boys were looking at me with jealousy and hatred, the girls with contempt and pity.

This is exactly what I didn’t want.

“Haa…”

I keep getting myself into trouble for sure…

As I left the library, I looked at my watch and then realized that the sun had already set.

Good, it’s time… Let’s see if it worked.

‘Sith, did you find them?’

*******

The boy, Aiden, continued along the road in the darkness of the night. I continued to follow him, as I had for the last few days.

I wonder why they are so obsessed with this kid. Apart from being a bit smart, I haven’t seen anything that stands out about him, he’s just an ordinary guy…

I kept following him as he continued down the walkway, but then something strange happened.

Aiden didn’t take the path he was supposed to take back to his dorm room and instead, he continued straight ahead into the small woods.

I didn’t understand what his purpose was, but I continued to follow him, as was my duty, and eventually, Aiden disappeared into the trees.

What’s his purpose? Is he going to meet someone?

I followed him into the woods and I went on for a while, but I couldn’t find any trace of him. For a moment, a strange silence fell around me, and I couldn’t help but feel frightened.

“-ou must.”

Suddenly I heard a low voice in the distance, and then a smile appeared on my face. Because the voice of the person speaking was clearly Aiden’s.

He must be seeing someone.

I moved closer to the voice so that I could better understand what he was saying.

“-nt you to protect her.”

He… wants protection for his sister?

Hah, this guy doesn’t even realize who he’s dealing with… Who thought he was smart? He’s stupid…

I approached the voice with a cynical expression because I would have liked to be in a place where I could physically see him, but then I hesitated.

Is there… a slight sizzle in the sound, or is it just me?

Curious, I pushed aside the branches in front of me and looked where the sound was coming from.

There should have been at most six or seven meters between us, so I should have been able to see him, but when I moved the branches aside, I couldn’t see anything of him.

Then my eyes went down, to where the sound was coming from, and I just went rigid.

About four meters in front of me, a clock with an open screen was lying on the ground. It was playing a voice recording.

I reflexively turned around and quickly assumed a fighting stance, but before I could move, I was frozen in place by the sensation of cold metal on my neck. Then I saw the figure staring at me from my side.

His gray eyes, shimmering like a ghost in the darkness of the night, were piercing me. The frightening grin on his face resembled that of a serial killer who would slit my neck without hesitation, and despite the training I had received, the fear I was feeling now was so ingrained in me that I was shaking involuntarily.

“Found you.”

After those two words that broke the silence, I felt a pain in the back of my neck. Then the whole world went black.

*******

“Thanks, Sith.”

‘You’re welcome.’

I grinned at the student I had knocked out because I never thought it would be this easy.

When I first got the messages, the men had told me I was being ‘watched’. So there was a spy after me, but how could I find him or her?

These guys control the academy enough to change important elections. So they’ve taken over the administration, but that doesn’t mean they’ve taken over the whole academy.

So only a very small fraction of the professors, powerful instructors, etc. must be on their side. As a result, they can’t easily infiltrate spies into the campus. Or people like Professor Calvin would eventually catch them.

Still, that doesn’t mean they can’t get spies inside. They can simply use a student to get information with zero hassle.

So the person or people watching me had to be a student, I knew that, but the problem was how many people were watching me.

If there were three of them after me, then I simply couldn’t get out of this. Still, I didn’t believe that their goal was to keep me completely in my place, so I took a chance and assigned Sith, whose vision was independent of mine, to watch the perimeter while I moved around.

From the moment I left the dormitory until now, Sith has been watching everything and reporting anyone suspicious to me. As a result, I realized that only one person was after me.

At first, I hesitated, but I walked into the woods anyway. When Sith told me that there was only one person who had entered the forest, I caught him as I had planned.

When I looked at the boy with short orange hair and a short height, I let out a deep sigh.

These guys… I think what they’re trying to do is what I guessed. Nevertheless, they underestimate me and I will show them that, even if it will be indirectly.

I lifted the boy up, tied his hands and feet tightly, propped him up against a tree, and put my sword against his neck again. Once I was in a position where he couldn’t easily attack me, I took a deep breath and slapped him.

The boy was a little shaken by my slap, then his brown eyes slowly opened and our eyes met.

At first, his eyes widened, and he struggled a little. But I channeled mana into the ropes holding him, making them stronger, and pressed my sword against his neck.

“Be quiet and do not move.”

I smiled as the boy suddenly stopped moving, blood seeping ever so slightly from his neck.

“Don’t worry, buddy. I have no intention of harming you if you cooperate.”

His body was shaking but his eyes were still sharp. He didn’t say a word about it. So I opened my watch, logged into my bank account, and showed it to him.

When the boy looked at the eighteen million wels on the screen, the determination in his eyes disappeared and he froze in place.

I widened my smile.

“How much did they promise? Ten thousand? Probably not more than twenty thousand… Do you want to make a lot more money than that?”

The boy continued to stare at the numbers on the screen.

“Fifty thousand.”

His eyes popped out of his head at what I said.

“It’s not a lie, we can make a mana contract if you want. If you do what I say, I’ll give you fifty thousand.”

“How do I know you won’t… fail?”

I laughed a little when the boy finally spoke, and then I told him a small part of my plan.

He was actually quite indifferent as he listened to what I was telling him, though occasionally his eyes widened and finally, we locked eyes again.

“What do you think? Well, I’d like to pay upfront to get you on my side, but those guys are probably checking your bank account. So I can’t pay upfront, but as I said, I’m not lying.”

“What do you want from me?”

Hah, finally.

“It’s quite simple; you’re going to make false reports and report to me all the orders you receive from them, all the conversations you have with them. I will prepare your false reports, so you don’t have to think too much about it.”

The boy was silent for a moment, then turned back to me.

“Are you sure it will work?”

Without saying anything, I cut the ropes holding him with my sword and grinned.

“Of course I’m sure. Who do you think you’re talking to?”

*******

I came out of the woods with a smile on my face while heading for my room.

I’ve dealt with the spy issue and I’m no longer being watched, so now I can move freely.

I turned on my watch and entered the contacts to call Professor Ulka. It took him only three seconds to pick up the call.

“Hello?”

His voice was as cold and calm as ever.

“Professor, I need something from you.”

There was silence for a moment, but then I spoke again.

“I will give you a theory in return.”

“What do you want?”

This guy is really crazy…

“My sister, Clara Tenebra. I want her protected.”

Ulka was silent again for a moment

“Has something happened?”

“You could say that.”

He took a deep breath, so much so that his voice came to me through the watch.

“Okay, I’ll set it up. But I want my theory as fast as possible.”

“I’m working on it, but I guess it will be finished next week.”

“Next week?”

He sounded surprised for a moment, so I paused, and after a short silence, I spoke again.

“I have things to deal with. So I won’t be able to spend much time on the theory. With a little calculation, it comes out next week.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Thanks, professor. There’s no urgency, I’ll arrange things myself for the first week. After that, you’ll take care of it.”

The professor said nothing more and the call went off. So I kept going down the walkway.

Having done that… Now I want to go to my room and sleep.

Even though I haven’t done much, I’m really tired… Mostly mentally.

“-ey!”

I stopped where I was, my eyebrows raised at the sharp voice I heard.

“-n’t overdo it”

Turning back to where the voice came from, I saw the gap between two buildings, and my eyebrows furrowed again.

What is going on here?

Curious, I approached the gap between the buildings and checked it out of the corner of my eye. Then I saw a group of four girls and three boys. In the middle was another girl. She looked a little worn out.

Bullying, huh…

Bullying is perhaps the biggest problem among Lunerra’s youth. So it’s not uncommon… It would be best for me to get away from here.

Before I turned around and decided to leave, I took one last look at the bullied girl. Her jet-black hair was at mid-back length, and her blue eyes were so dark they were almost navy blue. She had an ordinary face, neither too pretty nor too ugly.

Ah, did we make eye contact?

“Huh?”

When the girl looked at me, the ones who had been bullying her also turned to where I was.

“What is it? Do you want to join? Sorry, this is a personal matter. Get lost.”

The tallest of them, the red-haired male, refocused on the girl after he said that to me.

“You will not insult him again. Do you understand?”

The girl continued to look at me without saying a word, then refocused on the ground.

At first, I thought she was asking me for help, but now, especially when I focused on her expression and her eyes, I understood.

This girl is… strong. I don’t mean physically, I mean mentally because I know those eyes.

Those eyes are the eyes of someone who is trying to fight alone. And the flame that burns in them is not yet extinguished, it is still resisting.

I felt something strange inside me, a strange feeling of… closeness.

Ah, I see. She reminds me of my orphanage days.

Anyway, I need to get out of here before I’m misunderstood.

I really have to go if I don’t want to deal with these idiots.

I gotta go…

“Stop.”

Damn… I really can’t restrain myself sometimes.

Is this the second cliché of today? What a nuisance…

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