Ximo had left all her equipment behind in the Mist Forest, and the new gear she had purchased and customized over the weekend had not yet arrived. She was truly unarmed at the moment.
Was it revenge for the Mist Forest incident? Attacking so brazenly inside the Academy?
There was no time to think too much. A fierce gust of wind hurtled toward her, and Ximo hurriedly shifted tactics to retreat. Long claws whistled past her nose. If she hadn’t dodged, that strike alone would have disfigured her.
No… it wasn’t revenge. Ximo concluded in her heart. In that split second when they locked eyes, the light from her Student Terminal illuminated the attacker’s face. She met a pair of scarlet eyes.
Long fangs, withered skin, and those blood-red eyes. The creature attacking her was undoubtedly a mindless beast. It couldn’t possibly be the mastermind behind the previous events!
But before Ximo could decide on her next move, the monster vanished in a blur.
So fast! Ximo prided herself on her speed as an assassin, yet this monster was even faster. Before she could react, it had disappeared.
However, the monster hadn’t fled. The rustling of falling leaves reached her ears. Ximo knew she had become the prey, with the hunter lurking in the shadows, biding its time for the next strike.
Damn it, how could such a monster be inside the Academy?
Night had fully fallen, cloaking the surrounding grove in terrifying shadows. Without hesitation, Ximo turned and ran—her destination was Shasta’s Basement.
She had no weapons on her, and facing this beast head-on was far too disadvantageous. Worse, it lurked in the dark and outpaced her. Returning for help before straying too far was her best option.
But as she fled back down the path, Ximo quickly sensed something amiss. Rustling from the woods on either side dogged her footsteps, yet just as she neared the end of the path, the sounds abruptly ceased.
Gazing at the dim yellow streetlamp on the nearby main road, Ximo let out a breath of relief… Had the monster given up, realizing it couldn’t catch her?
But as Ximo prepared to bolt into the open, her instincts screamed a warning, halting her in her tracks. The next instant, a pitch-black shadow descended like a vast net from the treetops above.
She knew it! With speed surpassing her own, how could the monster fail to catch up? It had simply lulled her into dropping her guard at the moment she thought escape was in reach.
Ximo’s dodge came a fraction too late. Agony lanced through her shoulder as the monster’s fangs sank in. As a seasoned assassin, she knew it had aimed for her neck—thankfully, she had twisted away just enough.
“Urgh…”
Cold sweat beaded on Ximo’s forehead. Only now did she grasp how dire it was for an unarmed assassin to confront an enemy directly… She should have asked Xiliya to teach her a few spells before coming to the Academy.
No, she needed to create some distance first… Ximo had planned to grapple and hurl the monster down, but her arm now hung limp and useless.
“Awoo—”
In that moment, however, a silver flash streaked through the air. The monster howled in pain and released its grip on Ximo’s shoulder.
“Ximo, are you alright?”
Ximo looked up through the pain—it was Melrose. She had just run her sword through the monster’s heart.
Yet the monster didn’t die. The fatal wound seemed to have no effect whatsoever. After the attack, it bounded into the grove in a few leaps and vanished from sight. Melrose didn’t give chase but helped Ximo to her feet.
“I’m fine… Thank goodness I ran into you, Senior Melrose. It would have been really dangerous otherwise. Thanks.”
Melrose said nothing. In truth, their encounter wasn’t mere coincidence.
Melrose had tracked Ximo’s position via a Crystal Ball she had tampered with. Guessing that Ximo would head back to her dorm after leaving Shasta’s Basement, she had lingered nearby, planning a “chance” meeting to smoothly invite her to dinner. She never imagined stumbling into this.
“Let’s go. We need to treat that wound first—Instructor Shasta’s Basement should have a first-aid kit.”
Ximo hadn’t expected to return to the basement so soon, and word of the incident quickly reached the principal, who had yet to depart.
“…And that’s what happened, but I can’t say for sure if it’s retaliation from the mastermind.”
Shasta swiftly tended to Ximo’s wound, and Ximo recounted the events to the principal.
“I think it’s highly likely,” Melrose analyzed calmly from the side. “For starters, this is inside the Academy—security here is leagues above the Mist Forest. If it wasn’t an inside job, it’s hard to fathom how that monster could slip in.”
“Since both the Mist Forest incident and this one could involve Academy insiders—two such improbable events happening together are almost certainly linked.”
“You make a good point, Melrose.”
The principal sighed and stepped forward, casting an Advanced Healing Magic spell on Ximo’s freshly bandaged wound. The pain eased dramatically at once.
“I’m truly sorry, Ximo. As a new student, you’ve run into one trouble after another.”
“This is a failure of the Academy’s management. We’ll compensate you properly afterward. I’ll dispatch people to investigate immediately, but until we have results… please keep this confidential, all of you.”
The next day, the class held an emergency meeting. Shirley Teacher stood at the podium, reading an announcement from the Academy.
“To bolster campus discipline, dormitories will now enforce a curfew. Everyone must return by eight o’clock in the evening. Teachers will conduct checks…”
Shirley Teacher’s words were cut short by a wave of soft grumbles from the students below. Hadn’t the Academy always been known for its free spirit? Why the sudden strictness right after their enrollment?
Only Ximo, sitting alone in the leftmost seat by the window, knew the truth—these measures were just a pretext. That monster from yesterday could be anywhere; the Academy’s vast grounds would take days to scour thoroughly.
Seated at the back as teaching assistant, Melrose was fully aware as well. But seeing the other students clustered in groups, griping about the new rules, while Ximo sat isolated in the corner, a thought struck her.
Come to think of it, the last time she audited Instructor Shasta’s class, Ximo had been sitting alone too, hadn’t she?
Melrose frowned. Ximo hadn’t breathed a word to her, but she still sensed something off.
