In the salon of Astelia’s apartments, after learning of his attack on Sofia and her students then of the events of earlier that day, Cardinal scrolled through his system logs.
“Hmm, this is proving to be less useful than I thought. There are a few monster kills in there, and this is most of it… I assume, from this, that my person was primarily used as a tool to hunt you down, Miss Sofia.”
Things are better this way I suppose… At least he wasn’t indirectly responsible for slaughtering more Orphanages.
As the discussion continued, Astelia eventually brought Sofia apart to discuss something in private. She wanted to share the secret of the academy’s hunt for some level 500 person with Saria, Alith and Cardinal, which they had kept under wraps until now for fear of antagonizing Beligenus. Now that the immediate threat of ‘Scripture’s pawn’ was removed, it would be best to let everyone know of this other issue.
Sofia thought about it for a moment. “We should probably tell Zerei too, then, she will want to help us if anything happens, it’s better that she knows what she could be up against.”
Astelia nodded, “Go get her while I get my Uncle up to speed with the token competition.”
“Alright.”
Astelia returned to the salon while Sofia left the apartments, to her surprise, a white-bearded old Exidian in a long robe was waiting for her just outside of the room, absentmindedly looking out the windows of the stairwell of the teacher’s tower.
Sofia closed the door behind her and walked up to the headmaster. “You heard us, I take it.”
“Do you think I would be oblivious to the happenings inside of my home?” Beligenus softly answered, still looking out the window.
“Then what? Are you going to ask that we don’t say anything?”
“No. In fact, I will do nothing. I am only here to ask you if you really want to go down that path. Sometimes, knowledge is a curse.”
“Are you ready?” Sofia asked in return.
“Ready?” Beligenus looked at Sofia.
“Yes. Are you, Tartaros, the Emperor, and ‘Elizabeth’, ready to catch that person, like you planned?”
“We have been for a while now. All we need is for them to slip up. You only need to wait until the competition’s prize distribution and the time will come. We will do our best to ensure everyone’s safety.”
“I see. Good, good. There shouldn’t be any issue with telling them, then.” Sofia concluded, “We’re not going to compromise your plan. Unless the ‘fish’ can hear us talk here?”
“They cannot possibly…”
“Alright, then. Thank you again for helping us rescue Cardinal. We owe you so I’ll help with this plan of yours if I can. I suppose you still won’t tell me who the ‘fish’ is and what they have to do with my students?”
“I fear…”
Sofia rolled her eyes and saw a weird thing atop the stairs on the upper floor as she did. Some sort of an iridescent pole.
“Say no more, I get it. Just be ready to intervene anytime, then. I don’t want to die because that person decided to attack when you were out polishing your scales or something,” Sofia told the headmaster as she headed up the stairs toward Zerei’s floor.
The headmaster’s mana disappeared as she was halfway up the stairs, she looked back, and he was gone.
But it’s still waiting for me up there.
The student from the Deep.
It was waiting right outside of the stairs. Exactly like in Sofia’s memory, an iridescent upright pole twice her height, on five spindly stick-like legs, with a bundle of grape-looking bulbous things dangling from the top.
Waiting for me.
So far the creature had been quite elusive. It did not appear for every single of Sofia’s public classes, sometimes appeared for other teachers’ public classes, and where exactly it came from or returned to afterwards was simply impossible to track. All it ever did was sit at the same place, in the amphitheater, and leave when the time had come.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Sofia cautiously approached, and the bundle of grapes wiggled, causing her to stop dead in her tracks, still a dozen steps away from the creature. Something fell from the weird bundle of grapes. A folded piece of paper, slowly falling and landing on the last step of the stairs.
What?
As Sofia’s eyes were focused on the piece of paper, the form of the creature faded away into nothingness.
This had to be the strangest encounter I’ve ever had… I was worried it might attack me or something, but a piece of paper?
Sofia walked up the last few steps and bent over to pick up the small folded piece of paper.
There was a cute drawing inside, that Sofia clearly recognized as Opal’s style of drawing.
Did it steal a page from Opal’s notepad?
It was a drawing of Lola sitting next to the other students of Sofia’s class in the public class amphitheater. Behind Lola, there was a sinister-looking old man, looming over her, his hands firmly planted on her shoulders.
This…
I’m pretty sure… This guy was in one of the paintings in Lola’s mansion!
But why would…
Did Opal really draw this?
Is this the ‘fish’ everyone is looking for?
Sofia folded the piece of paper and stored it. After waiting a bit at the door, she quickly informed Zerei of what was going on in Astelia’s room, and told her to tell Astelia to start without her.
Zerei was a bit stunned by the sudden encounter, but Sofia had no time to clarify more, she quickly made her way out of the teacher’s tower, and flew to the student dorms. She felt she needed to clarify things immediately, and the next day the students would go for their next event with a stand-in teacher so it had to happen now even if it was already night.
Sofia woke up Topaz and Opal, they had their own room for two. They were surprised by the unexpected awakening, but seeing that it was Sofia, they seemed to calm down. This was nothing out of their expectations for their crazy teacher.
Sofia showed the drawing to Opal, “Did you draw that?”
Opal seemed shocked to see the drawing.
“This is clearly her style,” Topaz chimed-in, still half asleep, “but this isn’t the same paper as her notebook.”
Opal nodded at her sister, then she handed the paper back to Sofia, shaking her head.
“So it’s not you?”
Again, Opal vigorously denied.
I see.
I suppose that Deep creature has been learning more than just what’s being taught in class.
“Where did you even get that?” Topaz asked, weirded out, “And who is that creepy old man behind Lola?”
Opal raised a hand. She crawled on her bed to grab her pen and notebook at her feet, and scribbled a few words.
‘Lola’s Family Ancestor, she showed me paintings during the party. Said she had only ever seen him in paintings.’
Lola’s ancestor…
Sofia had a flashback to her discussion with Lola in the hallowed trees dungeon.
‘My family has been in the art trade for generations. Our great ancestor is a very famous smith and sculptor… He helped build the Death church, the imperial palace, and a lot of the older parts of the city.’
And then when pressed about the Issue last time with Astelia, Tartaros had told us a few details…
‘The person we are trying to bait out of hiding and terminate is a traitor of the Empire and the reason for the late Empress’ passing. They were last identified by the system as a level 508.’
A traitor… Not here but… Lola was speaking about him in the present tense. Not dead.
Helped build the imperial palace. Reason for the Empress’ passing.
And…
The weird presence. That feeling of being observed. It only happened twice.
Once after the priest of Death left when Astelia’s student tried to poison Shaily…
And once in Lola’s mansion!
I need to go check on Lola.
Sofia told Opal and Topaz to get back to sleep, and let her graveyard skeletons carry her through the floor.
Lola was sharing a room with En, Sofia appeared in their room from the floor. En immediately woke up, “T- teacher?”
“Sorry to wake you up, En, you can go back to sleep, I just need to have a talk with Lola.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“She might.”
The subject of conversation also woke up from the chatter. “I- I what?”
“Get dressed, Lola, we need to have a talk, the sooner the better.”
“W- why, what is going on?”
“Don’t worry alright, you did nothing wrong, but this needs to happen now. Just get dressed and follow me.”
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