536 Chapter 536: Final Friends (2/2)
”…Miura's funeral. Are you both attending as well?”
”Yeah. I'm staying in Flandor City for a while, but I should be able to attend the mass funerals before I return to Jing Tian City.”
”I'm definitely in.” Kufa nodded, and then he glanced at me. ”So you're returning to Jing Tian City, huh?”
”Yeah.” I rubbed absently at my cheek. ”After what happened last night, Jing Tian Academy is not taking any chances. They cancelled the exchange and instructed me to return.”
”We'll be…very lonely when you leave.” Rossetti fidgeted an iittle. She sighed heavily. ”Sometimes, I forget that you're from another school. It's like…you've been with us forever, you know? About half a year now, maybe?”
”Around there,” I agreed. ”I'm supposed to be here for another two months, but…things happen.”
”And now it��s over. You're going back.” Rossetti stared at her now empty plate. ”We lost Miura, and then you're leaving.”
”Hey, it's not as if we won't see Richard again,” Kufa pointed out. ”Jing Tian City isn't far from here. We can always pay him a visit.”
”I still have to return from time to time to check on the progress of Adrian and Melina,” I added. ”Technically I'm still their personal tutor. I'm supposed to continue teaching. Oh, well. I'm sure Duke Franklin will figure something out.”
”Yeah.” Kufa stirred his coffee, looking restless. ”You know…there are rumors that they might just close down Saint Teresa Academy for a year. After so many students died…and the amount of staff we lost, they say it might be easier to send the students elsewhere. To other schools, to finish the school year. It will be hard for students to return here.”
I knew what he meant. With magic and modern technology, it would be easy to repair the school in no time at all, but even if the physical damage was repaired in a day or two, the psychological scars remained. Students would be traumatized to return to the site of such massacres. Specters literally haunted the shadowy corridors, and no matter how they cleaned the blood out of the buildings, that deathly aura continued to linger.
Saint Teresa Academy was now a ghost school.
Perhaps they were right to send the students elsewhere. In such an environment, how were they going to train and learn?
I shook my head and smiled. What utter bullshit. After the monsters invaded Jing Tian City, didn't we return to it and resume our daily lives, as if everything was normal, despite the deaths and damage caused there? The students of Jing Tian Academy returned to the school without caring about the slaughter that took place there. Furthermore, we were trained in combat and magic precisely to exterminate monsters and rogue mages – such as the vampire clan. We should harden our hearts and used this experience to learn the horror they could wreak, and better prepare ourselves for future attacks and atrocities.
Running away was cowardly. Not to mention, it would defeat the whole point of learning how to fight. How could a school that prided itself on training paladins, combate mages and so many different classes of warriors shut down just because of a single battle? Wasn't that sort of thing precisely what they trained for?
The amateurish stunts and major failures of the idiots of Guang Zhi Yi Sect aside, of course. I honestly didn't know what the Hunter Association taught Yi Shen and Kai Lin. Or perhaps those two didn't learn anything properly.
”Then where will we go?” Rossetti, unaware of my thoughts, asked nervously. Kufa glanced back at her and offered a reassuring smile.
”Honestly, it won't happen. At least I don't think it will.”
”It didn't happen in Jing Tian Academy,” I said. Both Kufa and Rossetti turned to stare at me. I shrugged. ”Surely you heard about the demonic invasion almost a year ago?”
”I thought that was Bo City.”
”Dude…” I glared at Kufa, who looked sheepish. ”Are you mistaking me for some versatile mage or Bu Fan?”
”Sorry…bad joke.” Kufa then turned serious. ”But yes, that was indeed a major tragedy. Jing Tian City stood back up again almost immediately. I'm confident that Saint Teresa Academy possesses the same sort of strength.”
”We were trained for these kind of situations,” Rossetti agreed. ”We'll be shaming ourselves now if we run away and hide from the disaster.”
She then slammed her fist on the table, causing our cups of tea and coffee to tremble. She carried a suitably chastened expression when the waitress turned to glare at her, and lowered her voice.
”We will come back stronger! And seek revenge on the vampire clan! That Crimson Blood whatever clan! We'll hunt them down and exterminate them!”
”Easier said than done,” I muttered under my breath. ”We were all campaigning to wipe out the Dark Church after the disaster in Bo…ahem, Jing Tian City, and looked how that turned out. Vengeance is great and all, and of course people want justice, but reality isn't always kind enough to give us what we want.”
”I know,” Rossetti admitted. She lowered her head and clasped her hands. I suddenly felt bad when I saw her forlorn expression. Perhaps I should have been more tactful and encouraging. After all, I understood how she felt. This wasn't the first time I had been through such a calamity.
”I'm sure the authorities will figure it out. The Federation military as well as the elite mercenary units are searching for the Dark Church and rooting them out even as we speak. It may take years, perhaps decades, but they will surely destroy the Dark Church. The same goes for this vampire clan. The moment an elite mercenary unit is sent after them, along with regiments of mage soldiers, the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan is doomed.”
”Yeah, that's right,” Kufa agreed wholeheartedly. ”I have it on good authority that the Hunter Association is mobilizing almost their entire force and dedicating them to annihilating the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan. After Headmistress Taylor slew their king, Fan Fu Qing, they should be in a mess now. This is the best time to strike, before they can recover from their own losses.”
”That's great, but…” Rossetti swallowed. ”If they are too slow, we'll never be able to destroy them. They will hide somewhere, rebuild and come back stronger. You know how this works. Bureaucratic red tape, delays…by the time the Hunter Assciation moves out, the vampire clan will be long gone.”
Kufa and I exchanged a glance, but said nothing. Not caring, Rossetti continued.
”We have to take matters into our own hands. In fact, that's the real reason why I called you guys here today.”
”Huh? What do you mean?” I gaped at her. Meanwhile, Kufa rose to his feet, almost slamming his hands on the table, causing the cups to shake again. He ignored the glare the waitress sent him and focused on the red-haired girl opposite us.
”You can't mean…”
Rossetti stared back determinedly.
”We should pursue the vampire clan ourselves and destroy them.”