A lot of bad things happened in my life. I got betrayed, I got stabbed, heck, I even ended up murdered by my own best friend.

But I never thought I wanted revenge.

I never thought I needed revenge.

“I’d like to buy your services,” I said, finding myself in a particular classroom. It was too early for classes to start. So, I found him unoccupied.

“My rate varies depending on my services. Right now, I’m preoccupied so my rates are far higher-”

“I’d like your help capturing what’s killing kids on campus,” I said. “And I want it dead.”

The man was sitting and he just stood up, and glared down. I could feel his murderous gaze rain down on me, yet I didn’t look away. I met his gaze head on. “For what?”

“Revenge.”

“You know that’s not why you came here.”

“I know.”

“Murdering services ranges from anywhere between 5 to 10 stellers, and that’s while I’m not busy.”

Fuck. “But escort and protecting jobs only cost 5 silvers, right?”

“Under normal circumstances, yes. However, right now, I’ll at least charge 50 gold.”

Money, I didn’t have. And he knew that. I guess he really didn’t want to help me.

“I see. Sorry to have bothered you.”

“Don’t do anything foolish Sol. You know why you came here. You know why they sent you. And you have to go back to them. I-”

I just left.

I know. I wanted to punch the wall but I didn’t.

I know.

***

I skipped all classes and duties for the day. Instead, I did some prepping. Even if I went to the library or the church, it wasn’t like I was going to be much help today anyway.

Whatever was killing the kids, was killing with purpose. And to figure out more about the purpose, I went over to the registrar and asked nicely about whether he’d let me see who had died in the last couple of weeks and what we already knew. He weirdly obliged. I thought he wouldn’t unless I brought Shia here. But didn’t seem to be the case.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

As I kept on checking the dead students’ records, something became absurdly clear. All the students were commoners and rather plains ones, something which I already knew. But no, that wasn’t the absurd bit. Rather, it was that the school had made absolutely no effort to find out more about this. Almost as though they already knew who the real culprit was.

Could be one of the part timers.

“Any chance I can meet the headmaster,” I said. The school had hired about ten part time teachers. I only knew one of them. If the killer was as strong as him… I had no shot.

“He only meets viscounts and up,” the registrar said. “Even if you were to barge in there,” He paused.

“I’d just be escorted out.”

“Exactly.”

In the end, my rank meant squat. “Thank you very much sir.”

“I don’t know what you intend to do with this information but… someone very strong is out there… don’t do anything foolish Son.”

“Thank you.”

There was still a lot of time before sundown and my stomach was roaring. You can’t fight a war on empty stomach. So I went to the cafeteria and fought with the students there. Fought as in, fought to get food first. I got some food, I got my seat and I ate in peace.

Students usually avoided me, but today they were really running like they were afraid of their lives.

I finished my meal but I thought of ways I could do something about stuff tonight. There was a good chance whoever was killing kids was from the Barack family. However, there was still a chance it was someone else trying to accomplish something else. Every dead student was a commoner and ordinary. Could it be the church?

If said person was stronger or as strong as Alustur, I had no shot whatsoever and I was merely ‘courting’ death as any manhua protagonist would say.

But I wasn’t. It didn’t matter how strong you were if your face was stuck to water and you couldn’t breathe. It didn’t matter how strong you were if you’re lungs caught fire or if you burned your eyes. It didn’t matter how strong you were… if you were dead.

There was still time, so I went over to the fishmarket, got myself some nice kilo worth of Manafish Scales for the bargain price of one gold and prepared for the worst. These things tasted vile and ordinarily I’d die but today, I was going to expand so much damn mana, I needed every bit of it.

Now… I knew what I was doing was stupid. Even if I was infuriated, I wasn’t insane. Yet, for some reason, whenever I thought about those kittens… and that cat. That warm cat… I just… I just felt like crying and my heart would wrench. I… had to do this. Unless I did this, I couldn’t go on. I couldn’t move on. I just….

Maybe I can sleep this off?

“What are you doing?” Shia approached me in the field. I was just sitting alone, by a tree, waiting. “You didn’t go to class. You didn’t go to church. What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Absolutely nothing.”

“It’s a shame the cat died but you can’t-” She grumbled. “You just can’t give up on everything.”

“I assure you sister, I haven’t given up on anything.”

“Really? You asked our part time sword teacher quote, ‘I’d like to buy your services’, you went to market and bought fish scales, you went to the registrar’s office to look into the murder cases and you say you plan on going on a hunt tonight and you claim, ‘you haven’t given up on anything?’”

“You know all that yet here you are, asking me.”

“I’m asking you because I care.”

“Well, I didn’t ask for you to care. I told you I-”

Shia stared at me, as though hurt. “Well, I still care…” She stomped her way out.

Tch.

I felt pathetic.

I felt shit.

I felt horrendous.

And I didn’t know whether murdering the murderer would solve anything at all… yet… I couldn’t stop.

If I was going to die trying, then so be it. But I didn’t want to be regretting not doing anything about this emptiness forever!