Chapter 38: The frightened teacher and the missing Moss (1/2)

Chapter 38: The frightened teacher and the missing Moss

“No big deal.” Liszt winked and said, all smiles, “I have no wish to see a beautiful girl like you losing a hand.”

“Her hand’s fine now, you can move away, no need to keep holding her without letting go right?” Berryn came from behind him, wearing his white clothes. He was very famous, but very few people had genuinely seen his face. He looked coldly at Liszt and said, “No wonder people said back then you and her were an item, and that was why you deliberately lost to her team in the tournament.”

Donna’s face reddened faintly, but Liszt still had his lazy smile, spreading his hands out as if nothing were out of the ordinary. “Rumors are ever close to the truth, yet not the truth either. I see that a certain someone is actually especially tense because of rumors.”

“Hmph.”

Berryn snorted loudly, his face full of haughtiness, before he turned his head away.

“So it turns out you’re one of the members of the team that’s been tracking these guys down.” Donna actually smiled warmly, watching a proud-looking Liszt. “Only, you caught up only after the action began, you’re a little too slow. Weren’t you worried about a mishap happening to us?”

“These guys are appearing more and more frequently.” Liszt became a little more serious, saying in a soft tone, “It’s much more important to investigate the true reason why these arcane masters obtained the power of the evil dragon’s bloodline, rather than killing these guys popping out.”

“It seems like you first went on another mission.” Donna threw a glance to that spot the pale-faced man died at. “Did you find out where these guys come from, or their goals?”

“There are some clues.” Liszt said to her, “It’s possible they have a secret encampment in the wilderness in the south of our kingdom. Even some of their abilities come from that place. In my previous mission, someone heard the phrase ‘Fallen Shadow Valley.’ Only, does this place really exist, where is it? We haven’t found that out yet.”

“As to this guy…” Liszt turned around and also looked at the place the pale-faced man died at. “We actually traced his provenance. He’s unexpectedly not an arcane master of our kingdom, but from Doa instead.”

“The kingdom of Doa?” Donna and Berryn were both astonished.

“He used to be an arcane master from Doa without much fame, without much insight into arcane skills, with only a little expertise in close-combat body skills.” Liszt nodded. “He somewhen suddenly became such an existence and started to assassinate some arcane masters.”

“The most important thing is, we have absolutely no idea what the goals of these arcane masters are,” Donna said with a heavy face.

“Alright, let’s not talk about these heavy topics anymore.” Liszt smiled, “How’ve you been lately? Do you still go back and take a look at your ‘River Bend’ Academy?”

“Of course, our academy’s still a strong contender for the final victory this year.” Donna also smiled. “I’ll probably go back and watch our academy’s every match. It’s too bad, I heard you guys had very bad results in the past few years, or else we can set an appointment for another meeting at the finals.”

“What are you saying. Even if our school can’t fight its way to the finals, I can still go and watch them with you.” Liszt rubbed his nose and smiled, saying, “We have some interesting little guys this year though, it’s not impossible we’ll meet in the tournament in the future.”

Donna smiled, even happier now. “Then I’ll look forward to that day.”

“I really can’t stand you two, flirting all day long.” Berryn snorted loudly at the side. “Just get together already.”

…

Thinker’s Stone Forest.

Huston’s mood was extremely conflicted as he traveled therein.

He used to be full of expectation every time he taught his classes, full of excitement. The reverence in his students’ eyes, his every casual order begin firmly carried out, this gave his inner self an incomparable satisfaction.

But it was different now. Especially after being scared by Ayrin’s ghost-like face last time; his self-confidence suffered a lethal wound. Now, walking inside the Thinker’s Stone Forest, he even felt a certain fear, fear that Ayrin would suddenly do something and make him make a fool of himself again.

“Eh?”

When he anxiously came in front of the freshmen already waiting for him, he was a little surprised not to find Ayrin’s figure among them.

This most vexing Ayrin wasn’t the only one missing among the freshmen waiting for class. That often impulsive Belo and that red-haired Moss were also missing.

“Where did these three guys go?”

He couldn’t help but mumble in his mind. He didn’t feel at all the anger he ought to feel for the three’s lateness. He felt inexplicably relaxed instead.

“Teacher Huston!”

A voice suddenly sprang behind him right at this moment.

“Ah!”

Huston almost jumped forward up in fright like a conditioned reflex.

“Why are you up there!” When he turned his head around and saw Ayrin’s head peek out on top of the huge boulder, Huston really had the urge to smash his head against the rock and die.

“I ran up here of course.” Ayrin immediately jumped down from the huge white boulder, landing with a bang.

“What, ran up!”

“He can actually run on top of this boulder!”

None of the freshmen previously noticed Ayrin on top of the boulder either. Now they were abuzz with alarm like headless chickens. When Ayrin ran sixteen steps before during the test, it was still a mere third of the boulder’s height. Moreover, wall-running like this wasn’t only a question of speed and explosiveness. After running up a few steps, it was completely impossible to continue without sustaining the explosiveness, and the stamina required for that.

“What! What did you say?” Huston conditioned scare turned into genuine fright. “You can already run all the way up?”