Daine immediately went over to the workers by the side of the marble platform. The numerous pieces of tree logs spreading out made it more difficult than usual. A few of these logs had anomalous properties that subtly influenced the surroundings.

From subtly converting other logs to the same type to even turning its surroundings into cinders. The unique properties of each item could be used for more specialized usage.

She instructed them to bring the materials to the inner city to get processed.

They immediately went over and did as they were tasked. Compared to what the rest of the people here were going through, this job was so much easier. The logs were quickly stashed and strapped on top of the wagons and sent away.

Proper measures were placed to prevent these materials from being too troublesome. As these logs had already been documented, it wasn’t at all hard to properly accommodate their anomalous properties.

From their physical strength, it could be seen that some people were much stronger than the rest, taking on the burden of handling more logs than others. They ranged from a normal human to a formidable Maze Solver in strength.

The teenager sitting on the medical tent immediately went up and tried to see if there was anything wrong with Arin. He didn’t see any injuries but he still needed to do his job, “Arin… were you injured?”

Arin shook his head. This particular youth may have seemed to be a little odd but Arin couldn’t deny just how skilled he was.

“That’s good.” Rion then placed his attention on Daine. “If that’s the case then I’ll treat this one instead.”

“Suit yourself.” Arin had finished what he wanted to do here. After testing the waters a little bit, he went off to finish his other matters.

Diane waited until Arin had left before going inside Rion’s tent. Her raspy voice made him feel pity towards her, “Thanks, Rion.”

Rion expertly took out some pills and herbs from a drawer and started mixing them around. He didn’t use any Malum nor did he use the ability of a Fragment to concoct something miraculous. He was merely using his in-depth knowledge of medicine to create something that would help Diane’s injuries.

He swirled a few ingredients around inside a flask and briefly heated it up using a stove beside him. The resulting solution was a thick green paste. “Hold still, I need to apply this on your skin. I would’ve given you something more potent but I only have the highest quality medicine. And as you know that costs quite a bit.”

Diane didn’t hold it against him. Everything here was specifically prepared for Arin’s use. The fact that she was getting any treatment at all was already a blessing for her. She looked into the distance as she sighed at just how difficult living was.

Arin had managed to somewhat successfully clear a Maze-level Trial. It wasn’t a Perfect Clear that he was aiming for but he wasn’t discouraged. He still had a lot of time to ponder about what he would need to do for his next attempt.

Normally he would’ve immediately gone and tried out the other Maze-level Trials yet he had something important he couldn’t just neglect. Arin needed to go back to Seal Academy to pay someone a little bit back.

Thinking about the previous day, he was angry at himself for submitting to her whims so easily. He didn’t need to help her hold on to her belief.

As much as it fueled his wrath, he had already given his word to suppress the troublemakers from yesterday. Then that was it, after that, he was going to retaliate to make sure that Fiona suffered as much as possible.

Arin knew that Fiona was already at a higher peak than him and the moment that she realized just how she could use her power properly would be the day that she would exponentially grow in strength. He couldn’t let that happen, he needed to suppress her enough for him to have enough time to grow.

With opponents worthy of his attention, there were only two things he would do to them. Either let them grow to be strong enough to satisfy him or suppress their unparalleled strength so that he could reach them. A very delicate balancing act where one misstep would cause him to fall down to the depths where he might never recover.

Such a mindset was borderline insane. This was the riskiest mindset that one could have, taking on people that he should have no chance against while letting those beneath him have a chance of taking him down. As mad as it was, the results spoke for themselves.

Arin had grown to be a terrifying figure from such a young age. Granted that he was still sheltered from those truly beyond him. That does not diminish the achievements he had wracked up. His contribution to inciting chaos in the city was relatively high in comparison to everyone else.

He paid the train fare and quietly sat inside. As always, the atmosphere inside these trains was always dark and depressing. Not a single soul was willing to make noise as they were afraid of the consequences. In exchange for safe passage, they needed to abide by the rules of the train.

Arin closed his eyes and started formulating countermeasures that were troublesome enough to suppress Fiona while at the same time, forcing her hand to give up a part of her power. The balance where she wouldn’t mentally break and hold onto her foolish ideology while ensuring that she sacrifices herself in the pursuit of her dreams.

He had already set up multiple ideas on how he would go about this, firstly, it was to use Sefi. She was a genuine lunatic, even crazier than he was, she should have some feelings towards her sister. Whether they were filled with love or murderous intent, he did not care as long as Sefi listened to his words.

Another approach was to intentionally incite chaos within the academy. Arin didn’t know if Fiona would listen to his advice of delegating some of her tasks to her subordinates. Then again, it shouldn’t matter as much. He might even have to push up his plan.

Thinking about the bet, her current school life would start struggling with a few unhappy Syndicates but that still wasn’t enough pressure in Arin’s opinion. He needed to have her slowly build up stress. It was when he recalled the little shelter that she so deeply cared about. That was a good target.

An attack from three different points, he was extremely curious as to how Fiona would react to this sudden approach. Although he hadn’t personally seen just how burdened she was, he could guess from how much responsibilities she imposed on herself.

The train stopped in front of his destination. He moved out and silently blended into the crowd. Except for his Seal Academy uniform, he blended in quite nicely.

Arin saw the guardian of Seal Academy giving him an odd look. The old man narrowed his eyes and was about to do something when he suddenly changed his attitude.

“You may pass.” His aged voice showed just how old he was yet compared to his body that was filled with vitality, it just seemed like an odd contrast.

Arin entered Seal Academy in the middle of the day when no normal student should be entering at all. The halls were a lot less crowded as most of the first-years were in their classes, trying out their first Trial.

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He walked off and waited in front of Robert and Patrick’s room. He didn’t enter nor did he make a fuss, silently gathering his thoughts on how he should approach his attack. Fortunately for him, it didn’t take that long as their class was dismissed.

“You got the list?” Arin looked down on them as he asked.

“We got it.” Robert took out a paper scroll and threw it in Arin’s direction. “There’s a lot more than I thought.”

Arin opened the scroll that was lightly banded by a black ribbon. He started reading the contents, “That’s a good amount.”

“Really?” Patrick questioned Arin as he saw quite an unnerving smile on his face. “That sounds ominous.”

Arin wasn’t offended at all by his words. He kept on reading the contents of the scroll. It had a name alongside a section, which made it easier to identify who was who.

“You two remember the contents of this list?” Arin questioned them both. The pair felt an oppressive aura start to emanate from his body. It was as if he was ready to go to war.

They both looked at each other and nodded. “We do.”

Robert took in a deep breath, “Just one more thing. We’ve been talking and… we… still don’t want to kill people.” Robert looked at Partick’s direction and they both nodded.

“We could do things outside the academy but that’s our bottom line. No killing.” Robert continued. He was prepared to heavily injure someone and was willing to blackmail and extort people without a care in the world but crossing the line wasn’t something they were ready for yet.

Arin snickered. He didn’t expect people like them to be so weak-willed in the end. Of course, that didn’t really matter to him at all. “Is that all?”

“That’s it.” Finalizing their agreement.

“Since we’re talking about conditions, I have my own. Feel free to betray me. I just hope your new master’s much more terrifying than me.” Arin offered his genuine advice. For some reason, Arin glanced at Robert in particular.

Robert knew this was related to their earlier conversation. In his opinion, things wouldn’t escalate this quickly but an order’s an order.

“I’ll take the fun ones.” Arin walked off after memorizing the list on the paper.

When the pair heard Arin’s daring words, it solidified the fact that they were in Arin’s boat whether they liked it or not. They could always escape but the haunting consequence of that action wasn’t something they were prepared to face just yet.

“I’ll go left, you go right?” Robert gave Patrick the option of which hallway they were going off to. Either way was the same for them, they would just have different prey to hunt.

“Let’s do that.” Patrick immediately started walking off to the right, stretching his limbs to prepare for the upcoming slaughter.

Robert didn’t do anything like warm-up. He just immediately started running off, trying to find the people who were unknowingly targeted. If they were already in too deep then they might as well go all in.

With three oppressive figures suddenly running out in the open, it was quite obvious what happened. It was quite a one-sided beating.

On Patrick’s victims, he caught their limbs and started shattering them apart. Not caring for the screams that came after. As long as he was near a clinic, he was nearly free to do anything he wanted. Sadly for the victims, they tried to fight back but they were far too weak to do anything to him.

Robert had a more elegant approach to it. He started off with a conversation telling them what was happening. A few were immediately startled and begged for mercy, for these people he just made them pay an exorbitant amount of money. As for the others who didn’t care and thought they could take him on, Robert had decidedly taken their clothes and humiliated them in public. It was safe to say that every single girl who was a target chose to give up all their money instead.

As for Arin’s side, it was the most brutal one of them all. The once clean hallways would immediately turn bloody as Arin was painting a masterpiece. Their body was the brush, their blood was the paint and the hallway was the canvas. They would all turn out to be unrecognizable in the very end, invoking pity from everyone around them.

There were a few who fought back with vigor yet it only made their situation even worse. Instead of being sent out to the clinic, he would prolong their suffering to the highest degree. He would shatter their limbs and drag them along for everyone to see. After the fifth student was added, everyone was far too terrified and passively gave in to the pain.

Three crazy students came in and targeted a select few students to make an example out of. Each one inflicted pain that was worse than the last. Even the bystanders felt fear for the future of their school life with these kinds of monsters around.

Within Professor Ferial’s class, a certain female student was blankly looking at the screen in front of her. She had seen the entire class finally reach a total of 3 Perfect Clears at the same time, now she was trying to find out even more ways to get a Perfect Clear.

Sefi was completely bored out of her mind when her sensitive nose took a whiff of the halls outside. “Professor Ferial, someone’s out there having fun.”

“I know that Sefi.” Professor Ferial had already noticed it even before the event occurred. There had been a few cases like this in the past so she wasn’t particularly interested. “I’m guessing you want to join in the fun?”

“Exactly. Fiona stopped me last time… I was having the time of my life when she interrupted me. Tch. So how about it? Let me go?” Sefi’s eyes turned blood red as the bloodlust growing inside her was starting to grow beyond its limits.

“I have no interest in useless people. Especially you Sefi, except for the first Trial, you’ve done nothing decent at all. There’s no merit in giving you special treatment.” Professor Ferial focused more on what a person could offer than what their personality was. Everyone in the city had a few screws loose, what mattered was how good they were at their jobs.

“So if I do something worthy then you’ll let me go?” Sefi eerily asked. For some strange reason, Professor Ferial didn’t like where this was going.

“Something that would show off your immense talent, your possible contribution in solving a Trial, or results. You are a detriment to any party with your madness so I do not see the second or third option being available to you. So unless you have talent equaling or surpassing Barlot, Noah, or Elliot, you won’t be given any special attention.”

“Huh? Didn’t I already-”

“And didn’t you suffer your punishment for it already? Do you really want to go through it again?” Professor Ferial knew a few things that occurred behind the scenes. Especially when Sefi used her Fragment to influence other student’s thoughts. This was a clear violation of the rules.

Recalling that particular punishment, she gritted her teeth and quietened down. No matter how mad she was, going through the punishment was just far too excruciating even for her. This forced her to put her head down as she grew jealous of those people outside having so much fun.

Professor Ferial had eased Sefi down but a sudden message appeared within her mind coming from Dean Alabaster no less. “It seems like Arin and his men are acting out. Have Fiona deal with them. That kid’s actions are always a welcome surprise.”

Professor Ferial could see his smug face already. He was keen on corrupting… changing Fiona’s mind into becoming much more proactive. His plans for the future needed this change to occur.

She looked at the time and realized that it was already time. “Time’s up. In the end, you’ve found 4 Perfect Clears. That’s enough for today.”

An entire group of students suddenly showed up and manifested their bodies inside the room. At the very front were the highest-performing students to date. Leading them was Fiona who had already returned back to her joyful self.

As she had thought, working with a team that matched her pace was truly a delight. “A prodigal class.”

A few rumors had already started to spread out that she one-sidedly tore Arin apart. When people heard about her recent actions, they immediately started changing their minds about what kind of person she was. Now that Fiona was playing along with the rules, people started to respect her more.

Even though she had let go of a significant portion of the Student Body Committee, those who remained started putting in the work and helping her out on tasks that she shouldn’t even be personally doing in the first place.

Things were starting to look better for her yet behind that relieved and happy smile laid a growing seed of regret. She didn’t want to be acknowledged this way, as terrible and inhumane people could be, she didn’t want to spread her ideology using force.

As for Arin, Fiona held the belief that he could still change yet she wasn’t going to act as soft as before. Despite undergoing such an experience, she stayed firm in her belief. Yet that did not mean that she didn’t change at all, she had learned to trust people.

Before, she had been pushing forward all alone in hopes of carrying the burden of everything by herself. Through Arin’s actions, she had learned that if she truly wanted to make a change then her alone wouldn’t be enough. It was a small change but it was significant enough to show off that she was improving.

As she opened herself up, she started to see through people’s intentions more vividly than ever before. Even though she gained a vulnerability, a weak point, the returns were just far too fruitful for her. She wasn’t alone now.

She clenched her fists and hoped to keep going when Professor Ferial suddenly announced something completely unexpected.

“Arin and his people turned the hallways red. Watch your step.” Professor Ferial then left after saying that. The students looked at each other in surprise as they didn’t think that Arin would already be up this fast after getting so heavily injured.

Fiona was immediately taken aback by the news, she had mixed feelings on how she deal with Arin. Yet it was obvious what she should do now, stop him from hurting more people.

The battle from last time was still clear in her mind.