“Amelia!”

Zeke chased after the shocked girl as she rushed into the restaurant and saw how the whole place was wrecked. There were no customers, only several muscular men wearing black suits.

Near the reception desk, there stood a voluptuous woman wearing heavy make-up and waving an exquisite traditional fan at her face.

Zeke saw two elderly people kneeling on the ground, tearing up as they looked at the woman.

“Mom! Dad!”

Amelia ran up to her parents and checked on them. She did not recognize the woman, but it wasn’t difficult to guess who she was, especially after what happened today.

“So this is your slutty daughter? Hah!”

Zeke stood at the back and inspected the restaurant: The wooden tables and chairs were broken and there were shattered places all over.

‘They completely wrecked this place. However… only one of them is different.’

His gaze fell upon a tall and fit bespectacled man wearing black gloves and a light grey suit. He seemed to be the woman’s bodyguard, standing right behind her and looking composed and indifferent.

Out of the blue, the woman kicked Amelia’s with her long heels, causing the girl to fall to the ground, her cheek red.

Amelia’s mother helped her daughter whereas the elderly father kept kneeling down.

“Please forgive us. It must have been a mistake! Our daughter will never attack anyone. She’s a Defect!”

“Hah! So what? You think Defects are harmless? She’s attacked my daughter and got her hospitalized! She also threatened her!”

“I didn’t attack her!” Shouted back Amelia while holding her cheek and glaring at the woman.

“So you’re refusing to admit it?”

“She’s telling the truth. I was the one who attacked your daughter.”

Zeke’s voice came from the rear, causing the woman to turn her head and scrutinize him.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Zeke, from class E. I saw your daughter bullying Amelia so I intervened.”

With chillingly cold eyes and a face utterly devoid of emotion, Zeke raised his hand and, in an instant, shot a thick bolt of lightning right at the woman. However, the bodyguard blocked the lightning with ease, literally grabbing it with his gloves and extinguishing it.

He set his eyes on Zeke and charged, stretching his long arms and blocking the kick coming from the side.

Before he realized it, Zeke was pinned to the ground, the man’s knee pressed on his back.

“You dare attack me? Break his ar-... no no.”

The woman turned to look at Amelia’s parents, an evil grin plastered on her face.

“I’ll make you regret hurting my daughter. Bring her!”

Her subordinates surrounded Amelia and her parents, and though the father tried to defend himself, he was too weak to make a difference.

“No! DAD!”

Amelia saw her father getting hit in the head by a metal pipe. His body limply fell on the ground, blood soaking his thinning grey hair.

The mother wasn’t spared either as he got beat down while Amelia was bound and dragged outside of the restaurant.

“You’re not getting away with this. I saw everything.”

“Oh?”

As she passed by the pinned Zeke, the woman heard his threat but she mockingly chuckled.

“So what if you saw? You think I’m afraid of anyone? Take him as well!”

The man restrained Zeke with ease, however, he suddenly jumped back when he saw a lightning orb appear out of thin air.

Zeke unleashed another bolt of lightning, striking the man dragging Amelia outside. Knowing that getting out of her without assistance wasn’t possible, Zeke quickly fished out his phone and dialed Samuel’s father.

“See this? The police will be here!”

The woman chuckled and was about to say something but the bespectacled man, while keeping a safe distance from the lightning orb near Zeke, approached her and whispered something.

In the end, the woman angrily snorted and hastily left.

“Dad!”

Amelia was let go, so she ran to her unconscious father, tears pouring from her eyes.

‘Just like that? No… she left because of something else.’

Zeke went outside and after ascertaining that the assailants left, he went to help his friend.

“Mister Orland, I operate only within Erys.”

“But the one behind it is a student here!”

The old man looked back at the frustrated Zeke, neither replying nor reacting in any way. After a long silence, he leaned back and sighed, “You used to be a Defect, yes? You’re more likely to sympathize with other Defects and try to protect them. However, blaming someone without any proof could lead to dire consequences, Mister Orland.”

“Without any proof? I was the one who attacked Amy in the park. I also saw her mother threaten Amelia’s parents and even ruin their restaurant.”

Seeing the Dean, who refused to budge, Zeke angrily stomped the ground. “How about you check the disastrous state of the school instead of doing absolutely fuck-all!”

He uttered those words with a loud and disrespectful voice, one which made the old man frown in displeasure.

Zeke did not care about politeness, especially since the very person who was supposed to help him was being unnecessarily stubborn.

He had looked everywhere and found no traces of Amelia, which meant that Amy’s mother must’ve come back and dragged the victim elsewhere. After all, yesterday, the assailants failed to drag Amelia outside due to an unexplained interception.

Zeke had hoped the Dean would be cooperative and try to talk to Amy, but none of that happened. Even after explaining the truth, it was clear that the Dean did not fully believe him. Admittedly, the whole story would seem a bit far-fetched from an outsider’s view, but that didn’t make it less true.

After storming out of the Dean’s office, Zeke went to the spot in which Amelia used to be bullied. He sat down next to the tree and dazedly looked around, confused and desperate.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Were it not for his interference back then, perhaps none of this would have happened.

Since Amy did not know who had attacked her, she vented her anger on Amelia, which was something he should have expected before he decided to play the hero.

‘I will not let this go until I find you. I swear it, Amelia!’

Zeke looked at the back of his left hand, on which there were circular magical runes engraved on his very skin. It was like a tattoo; All the lines and symbols were dark blue and at the center, there were undecipherable and unfamiliar characters.

It was one of the two new skills he acquired after completing the Aether Voltage path. For half an hour, Zeke sat near the tree, his eyes closed and an expression of deep concentration plastered on his face.

He was madly absorbing the ambient aether around imbuing it into the rune, which acted like storage separate from his body.

He lacked the power to brazenly head to Amy’s mother and demand questions, but he was adamant about finding Amelia and stopping her from doing anything rash.

In the past, he had thought the beating he was subjected to was the worst thing that could happen, but that was clearly the tip of the iceberg.

Zeke was doing this not only because Amelia was his friend, but also because he could sympathize with her. Were he in her shoes, he would have felt deepest despair and would have resorted to extreme actions to exact vengeance.

When Zeke started feeling a burning sensation and the rune glowed ever-so-slightly, he stood up and leaned on the wall, trying to stabilize his body and deal with the dizziness.

Fortunately, it did not last long, but it did make him cough some blood due to absorbing more than the maximum amount.

“This should do it.”

His next stop was the cafeteria, which was, as usual, bustling with the first-year students. He looked around and soon spotted Amy happily eating lunch with a couple of her classmates.

“Amy Firan, I challenge you.”

His declaration was loud and caught the attention of everyone.

Julia, who was a distance away, raised her head and looked at the black-haired youth. She was confused about why he would challenge a lower-ranked student. After all, Amy had an average talent, and her ability wasn’t considered battle-oriented as it was easily countered and not particularly dangerous to those proficient at using Aether.

“Hm? What?”

The girl pushed back her brown hair and looked back at the stoic youth.

“Ah, you’re that loser from class E. I refuse your challenge. Piss off, will you.”

She unceremoniously waved her hand at him and returned to chatting with her friends, totally uncaring.

As for Zeke, he looked at her for a bit then turned around and left, neither insisting nor saying anything else.

That day, he sat on a bench at the campus and waited until class B finished all their lessons.

“If they really have her, then I’m willing to take the risk.” He muttered to himself as he caressed the rune and calmed down his rapidly-beating heart.

As Zeke was lost in thought, someone approached him, thus snapping him out of his daze. He raised his head and saw an unexpected person. It Amy’s friend, the same girl who used to bully Amelia in that secluded spot.

“You… you’re the one who attacked Amy, r-right?”

She was fidgety and nervous, refusing to lock gazes with him.

“What?”

His snappish tone and piercing eyes made her back away and anxiously look around.

“I… I heard from Amy. I swear I had nothing to do with it… I swear!”

She seemed to be apologizing, clearly disturbed by what she had heard.

“We… we bullied her but I would never do such a thing!”

The girl tried to explain herself but the youth’s silence made her restless and fretful.

“I’m sorry for what I did! I’ll go tell the Dean too! I won’t do it again! Please!”

“Explain what happened first.”

Finally hearing a response, the girl took a deep breath and kept looking around, afraid that she might be seen.

“A-Amy told me… told me that her mother kidnapped Amelia. Th--...they did terrible things to her. I really had nothing to do with it! I only slapped her a couple of times!”

With narrowed eyes and a gloomy face, Zeke stood up and approached the short girl.

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know!”

“Then get her location.” He retorted with a bone-chilling voice.

“You’re friends with Amy. Tell her to take you there… and don’t tell the Dean yet.”

“No… no no! I can’t do that. I don’t want to be involved!”

She tried to turn around and leave but he grabbed her wrist and tightened his grip.

“It’s not too late to redeem yourself. Please.”

He thought about scaring her, but it was risky and possibly futile. The girl seemed to be in shock and clearly wanted to prove her innocence to him first, as it had become apparent that he was close with Amelia and his action earlier was due to her absence.

“You know what you did wrong, so please help me find Amelia before it’s too late. Just because she’s a Defect doesn’t mean she has to go through all of this.”

“I…”

The girl, teary-eyed, stuttered and couldn’t utter any word. In the end, she nodded and met his eyes, at last.

“I will talk to Amy.”

She dashed away thereafter, leaving Zeke standing there like a statute.

‘She’s remorseful enough to do this. Amy must’ve bragged about what happened. However, this could be a trap intended to lure me… Hah! Whatever!’

A couple of minutes later, Zeke spotted the girl walking aside Amy. The latter was chuckling and using exaggerated motions to describe what happened.

Her friend, Emilia, snuck a glance at Zeke then hugged Amy’s arm, begging her to take her to the warehouse. She said she wanted to see Amelia’s pitiful state, which was enough of an excuse for Amy to agree.

Zeke kept a safe distance and when they arrived at Kethra’s Arms, he almost lost them. Amy had a personal chauffeur, but Zeke had to quickly find a cab and follow them.

The trip took him to the Industrial sector of the city, a big distance away from Erys. Once he got off the car and paid the driver, he hid behind walls and chased after the two girls.

In addition to Amy and Emilia, there was also the bespectacled and domineering bodyguard, the one who easily incapacitated Zeke yesterday.

“Psst!”

Zeke jumped in fright as someone tapped his shoulder, almost making him reveal himself. When he looked behind, he was stupefied to see Julia Lopmore standing there. She had a faint smile as she leaned to the side and leaned at the seemingly abandoned warehouse situated out of nowhere.

He pulled her behind the wall and asked,

“What the hell are you doing here?!”

Julia shrugged her shoulders as she responded, “I saw you acting suspiciously around the campus. You also skipped class, so I was curious.”

“This isn’t a safe place! Go! Leave now.”

Alas, she turned a deaf ear to his warning.

“Hehehe never mind that! Why are you following the girls from class B? Do you have a crush on one of them?”

“For the love of…. Ugh! This isn’t a game, Julia.”

“Oh? So it’s that serious? Come on, tell me what’s going on. Are you like… a secret agent or something? Is that why you’ve been hiding your powers? Nah! It can’t be. That wimpy attitude of yours couldn’t have been fake.”

“...”

Seeing her nonchalant and talking to herself, Zeke gritted his teeth and gave up on trying to make her leave.

‘Wait! This is actually a blessing a disguise!’

Julia was stronger than him, and she had a powerful background. If she was hurt in any way, neither her parents nor her famed grandfather would stand for that.

“Why are you here? To help?”

“Hmm… Maybe? Depends.”

“I’m looking for the Defect from class B. Amelia. She’s been taken here, apparently. Is that enough for you?” His last words were sarcasm, but that escaped the intrigued Julia.

The girl tied her hair into a ponytail and stretched her body, seemingly excited and ready for a battle.

“I knew it! Following you was the right decision. Lead the way!”

Zeke couldn’t make sense of the girl’s strange behavior, nevertheless, he did not deign to remark on that. He peeked his head again and saw that no one was guarding the outside of the warehouse. The only thing there was the car Amy had arrived in.