Chapter 266 – The Aftermath (part 1)
The group of teachers rushed towards the spot of interest, but before all of them even managed to leave the Academy building the jet-black barrier disappeared and an enormous spear shot into the sky and disappeared in the distance.
"…!"
No one was saying anything and everyone was focusing on arriving at the place as soon as possible, mostly because as they were on their way they were hit with the shockwave of the ridiculously powerful spell.
"Dear god…!"
"What in the…!? What was that…!?"
"Such power, what sort of spell was that!?"
Some of them broke the silence and voiced their bewilderment loudly, but without slowing down.
"…I have a bad feeling about this…!"
Lady Auequas muttered to herself as the closer they were to the wall surrounding the Academy grounds, the colder the air was becoming- their breaths turned into white mist and soon they noticed that the stones composing the wall itself were covered with white frost.
"…!"
Someone loudly gulped down their saliva.
They would have to be complete morons to not realize that the feared murderous ice-magician was the cause of this.
The possibility of another powerful ice magician just passing by and causing all of that was extremely small.
…at the same time, all of the teachers thought about the same thing – the earth golem swallowed by shadow…
Was that the missing students doing…?
"What in the world happened here?!"
They scaled the wall they were hit by the scene straight out of a battlefield with every single building razed to the ground with the debris frozen over.
It was ridiculous…
To think something like that happened right under their noses…!
"Over there!"
"…!"
The middle-aged red-haired teacher called, pointing at something…
…and that something turned out to be a scruffy-looking pale-blue-haired man holding an unconscious black-haired boy that all of the teachers recognized in an instant…!
"It's him! That bastard never actually left!"
"It's him! I see him! Wind mages! Message the King's Guard and the pursuing group to return now!"
"Get him!"
"That's a student from my class! You filthy degenerate, get away from him…!"
"…!"
The teachers went into an uproar and the man flinched and turned their way.
The pale-blue-haired man let go of the black-haired boy and stood up, his body started glowing with a threatening pale-blue light the next moment too.
"Good luck trying to catch me, naive fools!"
Then, the pale-blue-haired man laughed towards the incoming people and dashed away faster than anyone could react.
Well, truth to be told, after witnessing firsthand what Mizoe did to Ikarweth, no one had enough faith in themselves to go against someone confirmed to be a transcended ice-magician.
Therefore after notifying the elderly light magician Kros Rul Shuze leading the pursuing group – that turned out o be pursuing nothing – just hurried towards the black-haired boy.
"What is Espine's attendant doing here? Could it be he was fighting with that murderer? Alone?"
Someone asked.
"Don't be ridiculous, he has barely enough mana to use his spells a few times…! Leave him! You all saw the golem too – search for young lord Xeonith instead!"
The elderly brown-haired woman scoffed dismissively and commanded instead.
"That's right…"
Most of the teachers agreed with hearing and spread out, although not very much as they were cautious for the murderer's return…
Most – but not all – a blue-haired male teacher and a red-haired female teacher stayed by the black-haired boy and kneeled next to him to check up on his state.
"Doesn't look all that bad, don't you think? On the verge of hypothermia, but no visible frostbite… quite lucky considering who was grabbing him."
The red-haired female teacher smirked with relief and cast a spell over the boy's cold body.
"I'd say that we came in clutch and scared the madman just in time or it could be worse. Forget the frostbite, he would be a meat popsicle alright."
The blue-haired male teacher nodded and sighed while using his own spell simultaneously with the woman.
The two spells started warming the up Zoemi better than a hot bath.
"He really doesn't look affected by this whole mess, does he?'
The red-haired female teacher raised her brows and motioned at the thick layer of ice all around them.
"Probably because he stumbled onto the scene at the last possible moment – or rather, he was brought here– you heard the granny from hell, he doesn't have much mana so whoever has caused the real mess has thrown him here as a bait."
"You think so? Sounds overly complicated."
The two of them smirked at each other, there really wasn't much to do with the boy, but neither of them wanted to be bothered with the search so they acted as if they were extremly busy.
"You know, this kid was hurt recently, right?"
"Yeah."
The man asked and the woman nodded.
"Apparently the first prince had brought him best medics and all… aren't you annoyed that he didn't ask us?"
The man looked up at the indifferent woman.
"Nah. And you?"
"Not really, but you were always more competitive than me."
"There's blood here!"
The idle conversation between the two was interrupted by a shout of another teacher.
"Ugh… Your overachieving husband is an idiot, sis."
The blue-haired teacher groaned and stood up to check up on what was causing a commotion and whether it was worth the bother.
"He's trying to help…"
The red-haired teacher sighed and just shrugged her shoulders in response, putting the black-haired boy in a more comfortable position and also standing up.
Suddenly a disgusting sound of some fluid splashing against the ground resounded in the cold, dry air.
"What now…!?"
The blue-haired teacher rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue going towards the sounds.
And to his great annoyance, he saw his sister's husband bent in half and vomiting on the ice-covered ground.
"What the…?"
He mouthed the question but then the vomiting man painted at some dark shape covered in white frost.
"A-another one…! There's another person there…! The intestines are sprawled all over the floor..!"
The vomiting man stammered pale as a ghost.
"…!"
Few other teachers went closer to confirm it with their own eyes.
"…"
The siblings looked at each other and rushed to the spot, hidden behind a mound of dirty ice.
"Uwaah…"
"…tsk…!"
They both reacted in a similar annoyed way once they got a clear view of the body…
…in multiple pieces…
Legs were completely separated from the torso, thrown apart to a large enough distance that it was weird that no one else spotted them first, and the pinkish intestines were sprawled in a straight line as if something dragged them as it passed.
"Ooof… granny from hell won't be happy seeing that…"
"Shush."
Everyone recognized who the body belonged to, the brown-haired boy's torso was laying there in such a way that the face was perfectly visible…
*thump*
"…?"
"…?"
Something hit the ground next to the pair of siblings and they both turned to look that way.
As it turned out, lady Auequas had fallen down, fainting at the gruesome sight.
"Oh, you were right… I'll go check on her…"
The red-haired woman sighed and went towards the elderly woman.
"Then I'll go confirm the cause of death – do you want to bet on it?"
"Pffft, nah, I'll lass."
The blue-haired man shrugged his shoulders and said indifferently, making his sister chuckle.
The other teachers were loosing their head in panick, but the pair of siblingsreally treated the situation as nothing special.
As former military medics thay've seen worse.
Much worse.
The blue-haired man went towards the remains of the brown-haired boy and kneeled over it, actually going to examine it when…
"Hmm..? Huh…?! HOLY SHIT! HIS HEART IS STILL BEATING! THIS KID IS STILL ALIVE! WE NEED TO GET HIM TO THE ACADEMY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"
"What!?!?"
His shout made everyone jump in shock.