This lesson, Ximo truly couldn’t focus at all. As soon as class ended, she immediately stood up to head out, but only then did she realize she had no idea where to find Instructor Shasta.
“Um, Ximo…”
A timid voice came from behind her. Ximo turned around and saw a stranger’s face. It was a girl who looked extremely socially anxious, with her left arm inexplicably wrapped in bandages.
“What’s up?”
“Ah… If you’re busy, Ximo, then forget it. It’s nothing…”
The girl seemed to sense that Ximo was in a hurry and shrank back her neck. In the end, she said nothing, just bit her lip as she watched Ximo jog out of the classroom.
“Leilie, what happened to your arm? Are you okay?”
“Ah, I accidentally fell on my way back to the dorm last night. It’s fine…”
From behind her, Ximo faintly heard other classmates chatting with the girl from earlier. Even someone as introverted as Leilie had a few friends in class she could talk to. Ximo didn’t think much of it. After pondering for a moment, she decided on a more direct approach.
…
Ten minutes later, at the door to the principal’s office, Ximo widened her eyes in disbelief.
“You’re saying the principal is away on a business trip?”
“Yeah,” the guard at the door shrugged. “Principal left the academy just yesterday. He’s always busy. If you have something, you can tell me first, and I’ll pass it on when he returns.”
“…No need, thank you.”
Ximo ultimately swallowed her words. It seemed best to wait for the principal to come back. After all, as an ordinary student, she probably had no standing to get involved in such matters, right?
Ximo had thought all paths were blocked, but to her surprise, later that afternoon, someone from the Guard Station came to the dorm specifically to find her, saying they wanted to question her about the attack case.
When Ximo arrived at the Guard Station, she unexpectedly spotted the girl from earlier that day walking out. Upon seeing Ximo, the girl’s eyes lit up, but there was no chance for them to talk in this setting.
In the interrogation room, Ximo met the head of the Guard Station, Frey, whom she had seen once before during the day. Frey was quite young, not yet thirty, with a head of handsome blond hair. Combined with his Guard Station uniform and stern expression, he didn’t look like someone to mess with.
“You’re Ximo, right? No need to be nervous. We’re just here to go over the details of the attack.”
Ximo immediately realized something. “That girl just now…”
“Yes, she’s another victim of the attack. She was assaulted just last night—or rather, if it weren’t for her, we might not have caught that monster so quickly.”
Ximo suddenly understood. No wonder the classmate named Leilie’s arm hadn’t looked like a simple fall injury—it must have been from the monster’s attack.
“That monster was tough. The Guard Station conducted large-scale searches across the academy every day, but it hid well and never showed itself. Until last night, when the Bloodfiend probably couldn’t stand the hunger anymore and attacked Leilie, who was returning late to the dorm. That’s when my colleagues caught it in one fell swoop.”
“By the way, I recall you’re Instructor Shasta’s Assistant Student—so let me say this upfront: the academy isn’t targeting her maliciously. Honestly, no one wants to believe it was her. But she’s currently the only one in the academy capable of the crime, so we had to bring her in first.”
“After we caught the monster yesterday, we examined it. It was a Bloodfiend. You know what that means, right?”
Bloodfiend… The originally unfamiliar term suddenly reminded Ximo of a common trope. Right—Shasta was a Blood Clan member.
“A Bloodfiend is a monster mutated after being drained of blood by a Blood Clan, right?”
“Exactly, more or less,” Frey nodded. “So you should also know that the entire Imperial Capital Magic Academy has only one Blood Clan member, so…”
Frey wore a troubled expression, and Ximo fell silent too. No wonder the Guard Station had taken Instructor Shasta away—she was practically the only suspect in this incident!
“Alright, I shouldn’t have told you all this extra info. Now, please recount the details of the attack carefully, Ximo.” Frey picked up his pen, ready to take notes.
Ximo quickly retold everything that had happened that day. Frey interrupted a few times with questions. About fifteen minutes later, he set down his pen.
“Alright, that’s about it. You can go now, Ximo.”
Ximo stayed seated in her chair. Frey raised an eyebrow in confusion, immediately guessing her intent.
“Ten minutes—that’s all I need. Look, I’m Instructor Shasta’s Assistant Student, and I’m not exactly an outsider to this attack case. Ten minutes shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Frey was silent for a moment, then sighed helplessly. “Jeez, I never thought I’d break the rules so many times for a student today. Five minutes—no more.”
“Thank you!”
Two floors of the Guard Station building were dedicated Confinement Rooms, and Shasta was now locked in one of them. Frey had even thoughtfully chosen a room on the underground level to hold her.
When Ximo saw Shasta in the room, she was sitting on the edge of the bed with a frantic look in her eyes, muttering softly to herself—like someone going through withdrawal.
“Ah… I really want to do research, really want to do research, really want to do research… I really want to look at the runes on the Crystal Ball just one more time…”
After hearing what Shasta was mumbling, Ximo was stunned. So that’s what you’re worried about? You don’t have any sense of crisis at all about being locked up as a suspect!
“Just five minutes. Don’t make this hard for me.”
Frey patted Ximo’s shoulder and retreated to the stairwell to stand guard. Only then did Shasta notice Ximo standing outside the door.
“Oh, you came, Ximo!”
Shasta waved happily with her handcuffed hands, leaving Ximo momentarily unsure how to react.
“No need for that look. It’s not like I did it—what do I have to fear? Worst case, I just stay in the Confinement Room for a few days.”
Shasta didn’t seem worried about herself at all. It made sense— a Great Blood Clan member who had lived who-knows-how-many years wouldn’t be scared by something like this. But soon, she switched to a pained expression.
“Sigh. If I’d had just a few more days, I definitely could’ve figured out all the runes in the Crystal Ball! And then this had to happen right at that moment…”
Ximo felt helpless about it too. They’d finally made some progress on the Crystal Ball research, but now Shasta was suddenly locked up, forcing her to take the Crystal Ball back early.
