LET THE BEAST FREE (1)

Ciemnosc took the last step of the stairs to the new section of the Grand Lecture Hall. What was before just an insanely large hall where tens of thousands of students could be taught from different rooms within the same building had a new and long staircase which went from the middle back of the main hall to the skies, up above the mountain's peak.

“Ah, Ciemnosc!” The atmosphere was already blatant to depressive pressure even before Ciemnosc reached the top. But when he did and was called out by the headmaster’s old voice and had reached the top at last, Ciemnosc could see a multitude of both: students and staff of the academy simply waiting at the sides. At the center, the headmaster and their higher-ups stood, waiting for him, except for the old headmaster, who wasn’t present.

Ciemnosc was welcomed by the headmaster, but the entire crowd around them and the others around the headmaster had fallen silent completely. It was like a stadium, except for the fact that the stage at the center was just too small to be a place to fight. Barely a 10 meters x 10 meters big square in the middle of it all. If anything, a sort of auditorium where… punishments might be granted instead of the purposes of this grand hall, such as learning or teaching.

Ciemnosc could very well imagine what a stage like this could represent for the highest level of academic studies, he was sure. A teacher could give tens of thousands of students a lecture, lesson, homework, and bla bla… All at the same time and on their own. A student could be tested and judged on their answers, up to even being allowed to show their worth for whatever reason. Be it to become a leading student or even an assistant teacher. But no, this was his stage to be looked upon. It seemed.

“Come here, come here,” the headmaster said as he hurried Ciemnosc over with a hand signal. When taking steps forward, Ciemnosc noticed the sky getting grayer with each tap of the soles of his shoes against the fake grass. Far away to his front was the stage, the auditorium, which was deadly silent, with his footsteps marking the only sounds after the headmaster had spoken.

“Headmaster, for what is t-” Ciemnosc arrived before the group of staff from the academy. They didn’t seem willing to directly look at him, while the headmaster at least made an opening from their circle to let him in. The stage was already small, but their human-circle was smaller, and the space in between was even tinier.

“Not now, Ciemnosc, not now.” The headmaster cut Ciemnosc off. His face could be seen having become rather tired and somewhat heavy, so Ciemnosc said nothing and allowed himself to be pulled in the middle of all peak Obsidiafying realm cultivators of the Rocaloi Academy.

“What devil method did you use to hurt one of us, you punk?!” Just when Ciemnosc was moving around towards the center of that circle, he heard an oldish and somewhat shrieking male voice ask him without much regard to speak of. Turning around, before Ciemnosc faced that other old man, the headmaster appeared right before the former. Ciemnosc thus could do nothing else but to silently nod again and behave.

“...” A minute went by, then a few seconds more. It was then that the headmaster’s voice was heard as he took a few steps towards the center of the group of staff members and showed himself to the naked eye… in front of Ciemnosc.

“Ciemnosc, there have been rumors. There have been awful rumors going on about your true nature. If this is not true- don’t worry about what is being said. But, if this is not true, then you have nothing to worry about, and I’m confident it is that way.” The headmaster clasped his hands together below his belly, almost looking like a priest as he said this.

“Today, Ciemnosc,” but the headmaster received no response whatsoever from Ciemnosc. The latter was quiet and quietly looking upwards at the headmaster, with his slightly pale skin and overall countenance making him seem like a zombie or just dead. Hence, the headmaster’s nervous feelings got him to continue with… whatever was going on right now.

“We are here to grant you a chance. The chance to prove you have been wrongly accused!” The headmaster finished saying as he had raised his hands in a ‘V’ shape as he spoke, looked down, and wanted to see something. But he instead received Ciemnosc’s look. The headmaster continued, his voice sounding from speakers, high technology for the Rocaloi Academy, it seemed as of late.

“We are all here, reunited, and those who cannot come here are watching from below.” The headmaster spoke the truth, as any person, even below the mountain, on any place of the academy grounds, had access to what was happening above the mountain’s peak. It had already been used before in Ciemnosc’s classes. But since he was gone, those things were barely of any use to the academy; until now.

“Everyone! Please behold the first mission and session of the Grand Lecture Hall’s Heavenly Judging Stage! It has commenced!” The headmaster announced; it was now that cheers finally echoed through the auditorium and below the mountain. “Silence, please! We will begin interrogating the suspect, and everyone will be there; and here, to witness it!”

Clamooor~! Cheers!

The noise only grew louder as the headmaster stood firm on his spot and changed his gaze to set his eyes on Ciemnosc, who just looked back at him in the same way that half a minute ago. With saliva being gulped down, doubts beginning to creep at his head, and his nerves failing him; the headmaster gestured to someone else. “You may start questioning the suspect.”

“Ciemnosc, are your origins really what they seem?” A bald old man with notorious wrinkles on his forehead and a small face came over to question Ciemnosc, standing just 2 steps before Ciemnosc, trying to intimate the boy. In response, the boy only looked at him, and only when the headmaster said the following words did the bald old man change his words. “Maybe be slightly… more specific in searching for an answer, honored supervisor.”

“Ahem,” the bald old man cleared his throat, accommodated his neck, and began again. “Ciemnosc without surname! Have you ever killed a mere mortal?”

“Yes,” Ciemnosc answered truthfully. His eyes were now set on the bald old man than the headmaster, and the former of the 2 was ecstatic as he continued. A confident pair of eyes and a cheeky grin on his face, “How dare you! I should just expel you from my academy and rid it of such filth! They are just human! Normal people, how can you ever consider doing something like that?!”

“Yes, when I was 3 years younger and was about to be raped by a bunch of men and some women in a village that was the one I was raised for a deca-” Ciemnosc’s voice rang at a regular speed. But to the bald old man and the auditorium, they sounded clearer than their own thoughts and louder than their own breathing sound when they got reminded that they could breathe.

“Silence!!” The bald old man’s eyes went wide as fuck. His bark was a dragged-on shout which made the many ears of the nearest rows of seated students bleed, and others to just feel pain from their outer ears to their brains, thankfully. “You shall not speak if I’m not asking you anything!”

The bald old man barked again, pointing at Ciemnosc and coming 1 step close to the boy. At the same time, the headmaster said with a small voice after his eyes left Ciemnosc’s body, which he was shockingly looking at in some type of terror. “When interrogating, try not to use your strength to raise your voice. Please, remember it…”

“Hauf, hauh…” The bald old man breathed heavily in and out for some breaths. After contemplating between continuing or not, he decided to give it another shot before ceding the turn to another. With a tranquil, obviously fake voice, he said. “Even as a cultivator, you dared to massacre those you allowed to come ‘close’ to you. Such trickery and scheming. Even for dealing with your enemy is not something a student of my academy will do!!”

“What did you do to their bodies after you killed them?!” The bald so asked his question. Ciemnosc took half a step forward, and looked up at the tall old man. “I ran away because I did not know if many more would. That was just days before I started cultivating. There were many times I almost died at those thugs. I was also lucky my Sister was no long-”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Silence!!!” The bald old man went at it again, this time jumping tiny hops like a stupid, little bratty kid. “Silence! Silence! Silence!”

The bald old man shamefully turned around and gave his back to Ciemnosc. To the crowd as well. After a few seconds, when the embarrassment seemed to have been toned down, another person from the circle stepped forwards, a back, middle-aged man who seemed close to turning into another old man, too. This was also the strongest supervisor that had been in the Discipline & Punishment building in Ciemnosc’s first session.

“You have… ‘talked’, with the previous questions about killing… ‘mortals’ and facing off life however you could, little Ciemnosc.” The supervisor said, as he seemed to be holding some trinkets, which appeared to be marbles, in his left hand and playing with them. “Tell me, Ciemnosc, have you ever murdered anyone with cultivation?”

“Yes, I have,” Ciemnosc answered and said nothing else, but he did give that impassive, neutral yet dead-like look at the supervisor. The supervisor nodded in return, then followed up with his next questioning, “For what reason were those people killed?”

“There was this city. It was riddled with corruption. As someone with major power, no longer someone capable of settling down like others in that city, I don’t have the right to merely do as I please. But that changed when… beloved people were endangered of a future similar or worse to what I have faced before, so I killed. I killed a lot and… threatened the city’s owner as well, before leaving.”

“Would you do the same if that was the case now? Or would you change anything about your actions from back then if you had to do them again?” The supervisor asked and had his right foot behind him, giving the clear impression he was finished and had no further questions.

“No, what I did was enough. The city’s owner would’ve just been replaced, and it is not of my importance the life of others. I also don’t seek any trouble, but if I’m sought after… I’ll just respond how those mortals have been massacred by my hands.” With a calm voice; soft tone even, Ciemnosc answered as the supervisor nodded and went back with the others.

Meanwhile, the headmaster had an expression of thanking the supervisor and strangling Ciemnosc with his eyes. But only he and Ciemnosc noticed such obvious demeanors. Not even the eyes of those witnessing these events did.

Clamor, murmur, clamor.

Suddenly, instead of another person coming out to question Ciemnosc, the entire human-circle of the academy’s staff members began talking to themselves. Their chatter got loud enough that the headmaster had to step in and announce, after a while, with a few words.

“Let us not waste any more of the precious time of everyone here. It is not wise to be vain. And we, as cultivators, should be righteous and precise.” Saying so, the headmaster directly, and abruptly, turned his face down to stare at Ciemnosc. He began with a stern and severe voice, “Have you, Ciemnosc, ever performed any evil arts?”

“Have you experimented with human bodies? Tortured them to death… or even worse?!”

“!!!” The words of the headmaster were indeed the harshest. Not even the black supervisor from before expected it. When reading the headmaster’s body with his Spirit sense, the supervisor could feel some blatant disturbance in the flow of Power Energy, it clearly showed the headmaster wasn’t unaffected.

“...” Ciemnosc said nothing in return this time. It. Did. Not; went unnoticed. His silence was immediately taken as confessing true to all those questions from the headmaster. Now everyone began to think: maybe the headmaster just had this kind of power or precedence over everyone else. Maybe only the headmaster was able to purge the truth out of Ciemnosc!

“Ciemnosc, you must answer. This is your duty not just as a student of the Rocaloi Academy but as its Genius as well! Do not worry. Everything will be decided fairly and with righteousness. But you won’t give special treatment. If wrongs have been committed, you will have to pay for them. Answer to them” The headmaster kindly, compassionately talked to Ciemnosc, the latter’s silence naturally worrying the former.

“...” Ciemnosc maintained silence. Hell, he even yawned as he looked up at the headmaster. A few tears of relaxation came out his lacrimals as he returned ‘the look’ to the headmaster’s face. The headmaster was now beginning to sweat from his back. He thought to himself: whether he should even be here, or if there was any worth to staying here still…

“Headmaster, what do you consider as the ‘or worse? Hmm?” Ciemnosc finally opened his mouth. He looked the same, but the crowds around and below were all hooked to him finally speaking and even appeared to be going ‘mysterious’ mode. It enthralled everyone to watch. Plus, his eyes were almost absorbing them, and compelling them into not looking away for any reason… Almost like some sort of sorcery, thus, a tiny sparkle of fear spread among their hearts.

“C- Ci- Ci- Ciemnosc! Those things, you must know them all, as they do. Naming them here in the auditorium would be an intolerable disrespect for this- for this…” The headmaster was flustered as he answered Ciemnosc’s ‘answer’ with a question. He tried reprimanding Ciemnosc, as he felt it wouldn’t be proper to speak such things so elicit or it would ruin the auditorium.

“For what, headmaster? Is it too bloody? Is cultivation not like that? I was sure things like rape and massacres is what it is; normal among some cultivators. Oh, and for the academy, the newest is even the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of students without wanting to negotiate anything… with me!” Ciemnosc went at it without a pause. His voice was clear and loud and somewhat cripes as well, as he laid his knives on the chairs that the staff members were sitting their warm, fat asses on.

“Oowgh! Enough of this barbaric chatter. There’s nothing to talk about with an undisciplined kid like this!”

“...” Suddenly, a voice shut the headmaster, who didn’t even have the chance to speak. Ciemnosc, instead, went silent and didn’t look, but he saw the old headmaster appearing behind him. The chatty human-circle of the academy’s staff and the crowds of the auditorium were more well-behaved this time, albeit noisy still. Yet, as she made her act of presence, her mere image dominated the stage.

“Too much has been spoken about with this boy. A terrible and wrongdoer boy. Why haven’t you decided his sentence?!” The old harlot’s voice was heard again, this time closer and closer to Ciemnosc’s back, it seemed she was trying to intimidate Ciemnosc, for her cultivation base pressure emanated from her and landed all on Ciemnosc’s shoulders. Her voice was even louder than anything else in Ciemnosc’s ears as if the words were being written into his ears.

“There has been no decision. There cannot be one! It is because he is not guilty of anything, and your words are not right! Old headmaster, please do not recklessly accuse the students of our academy.” One old man spoke, who now seemed to be part of the party that supports Ciemnosc and his actions to aid the academy before and, if possible, in the future.

“That is also not true. Ciemnosc has committed grave mistakes, crimes even! For a cultivator to be called a criminal, it is naturally obvious how wrong it is! He cannot be forgiven, and there are those who wish to punish such evil. Th- ther- there are a lot of us who do!” Another old man interjected the previous, this one naturally belonging to the greedy party of the academy.

“It is not so! How many are there in your ‘we’?! You are barely anyone! You do not count for all of us, much less the full academy. And even if you get your Powerful Stones depleted and right into another’s bags! You are still far too behind us!” Yet another man interjected. And this time it was another from the Ciemnosc’s supporter party. Yet, the headmaster was still nervous… ever since the old headmaster showed up. And she was sure to show why that was so.

“That is true. Those who see the academy as their maximum priority are less than those who only support a delicate boy.” The old headmaster spoke again. Nobody dared to speak, not when she did, much less in this… which has become a confrontation. Perhaps the first genuine confrontation within the academy’s staff members.

“But that was before there was a change, and that change,” the old headmaster’s expression went from feeling light and already having won, to that of a stern and ruthless grandma. “Is me.”

“Now that is the truth!” A shout from afar, from the air, went out, reaching everywhere in the auditorium.

Ciemnosc: “!!!”

Ciemnosc’s eyes blurted wide open, his heart beat hard a few times before relaxing, yet the shock was still there. His Spirit Sense didn’t take long to incorporate a few figures that were… just outside of the scope of his Spirit Sense all this long, that much Ciemnosc could tell by the way these familiar, old enemies had made their entrance so smooth.

The sect master of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect along its strong Obsidiafying realm cultivators, the Moribund Yearning Cult’s Obsidiafying realm cultivators. And the Eagerburning Flames Sect and the Preferential Light Justice Sect’s Obsidiafying realm cultivators, with the exception of their sect masters and 1 or 2 other Obsidiafying realm cultivators.

They all set foot on the floor of the auditorium’s stage to stand side to side with the rest of the greedy, neutral parties and the old headmaster. Only the remaining party and the headmaster were left to join them, as the vice headmaster Topi made his appearance from behind the eastern ‘major’ organizations.

Then… then the old headmaster went back to having a victorious facial expression tainted with schadenfreude, as she looked at the headmaster.

“Now, Clann, will you also stay there and let Ciemnosc, this evil spawn, remain in our academy and world? When his body could be studied and dissected for the true passage to the next realm? The entire world’s future?”

…