Chapter 168 (2/2)

It was even possible that he might turn against Link. Elena could not help but chuckle at that thought.

How perfect. Elena was proud. Perhaps I will feel slightly bad for deceiving Eliard. No, he is an enemy, I must be ruthless! Show no compassion and pity in the face of an enemy. This is master’s teachings!”

…

Link could only sigh as all the light went out in Eliard’s eyes. It wouldn’t help to simply stay on King’s Lane. He turned to the coachman and said, “Let’s return to the academy.”

“Yes, Mr. Link.” The coachman immediately nodded. Link was pretty famous within the academy and he had long heard of his name.

The carriage turned in the opposite direction and slowly made its way back.

Along the way, no one spoke. Even the horses seemed to have detected the repressive atmosphere and trotted as lightly as possible.

When they arrived back at the academy, the carriage stopped in front of Herrera’s Mage Tower. Link stepped forward to open the carriage door as Eliard dragged his feet towards the Mage Tower with Elena’s bloody corpse in his arms.

When the Magician’s Apprentices in the hall saw the situation, many of them exclaimed or screamed in horror.

“Oh my god.”

“What happened?”

“Elena just said that she was feeling unwell, how could she have…”

Eliard ignored all the comments and simply walked towards the staircase.

Herrera was bound to know if such a serious thing happened in the Mage Tower. As Eliard climbed the stairs, she appeared at the platform on the second floor.

“Eliard, what happened?” Herrera stared at the bloodied corpse with a look of disbelief.

In her eyes, Elena was a conscientious and hardworking student. She also had a flair for magic. She was even optimistic about her relationship with Eliard, confident that it would become a beautiful story she could tell to her next batch of students. How did things turn out like this?

Eliard did not answer the questions and simply walked past Herrera. He had no idea why he did that. His only aim now was to satisfy his stubborn inner self and bring Elena back home, to the small room where they had spent countless happy moments together.

As Herrera did not get an answer, she then looked at Link, “What is going on?”

Link smiled bitterly and said, “Master, I need to tell you this in private.”

“Alright. Come to my room.” Herrera walked towards the highest floor while Link followed closely behind.

When they reached the hall at the highest floor of the Mage Tower, Link took out his memory crystal and activated it. Images of the event in the Girvent Forest appeared. The talks Elena had with the merchants in the forest, the suicide of the merchant on King’s Lane, all of them were displayed clearly in front of Herrera.

Herrera had a look of disbelief on her face. “This is Elena?”

This was the complete opposite from the obedient and hardworking Elena she knew!

“It should be her if she doesn’t have a twin sister.” Link threw his hands out helplessly. It seemed as though he had successfully stopped Elena. However, he felt that something was amiss although he could not point out exactly where.

“Do you know the contents of the scroll?” Herrera did not dwell much on Elena’s deception. Her main concern now was the scrolls, which were the most important object of the incident.

“I have no idea. I guess the scrolls are still on Elena’s body. When I stopped her, she was about to escape. However, it might not be easy now that Eliard is devastated.” Link could totally understand Eliard’s actions. If he were to be in Eliard’s shoes, he might have already gone insane.

“What exactly happened that made Eliard so depressed?” Herrera could feel that Eliard was not in a good shape.

Link then recounted the incident at King’s Lane in detail. When he was done, Herrera fell silent.

It took some time before she sighed, “I have no idea if Elena had true feelings for Eliard. However, I know that it will be difficult for Eliard to recover given his personality.”

Eliard was sincere, generous and even a little stubborn. Once he decided to go into a relationship, he would definitely put all his emotions into maintaining it. Now that his partner had willingly died for him, he might be stuck in this whirlpool of remorse for his entire life.

In other words, a talented Magician like Eliard might meet his downfall because of Elena.

Upon hearing Herrera’s words, Link immediately recalled the merchant who willingly died for Elena. He suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

The merchant was merely an ordinary person and was, naturally, easily manipulated. However, Eliard was a world-class genius and was way more difficult to control. That might be why Elena adopted the destructive approach to ruin him.

And it looked like she was successful.

Had her ability to manipulate people reached that level?

So… is she really dead? Link was starting to feel unsure.