CHAPTER 42: BACK TO ACADEMY

The journey back to the academy was uneventful. The students of his batch and the fifth batch were carrying only small bags or sacks. Clearly, collecting herbs had given them little opportunity to gather substantial resources. Probably, Athar was the one who had done the best among these two batches, having obtained two F Rank cores.

Meanwhile, the students from the other two batches were carrying large sacks, and without any doubt, they were filled with monster cores and valuable beast parts.

Athar could not help but feel a trace of envy toward those students. If he had been given the same opportunity, he too might have been carrying just as many beast cores.

Though physically present on the bus, Athar’s mind was elsewhere—lost in glimpses of his battle with the hyena.

He kept replaying the scenes in his head, wondering what he could have done better. Although he had dominated the fight, Athar still felt there was room for improvement.

Maybe he could have ended the battle with the first blow if he had been more confident and aggressive, instead of staying so defensive out of caution.

But then again, what if the beast had turned out to be more powerful?

It was clear to him now. Finding the correct balance between defensive caution and aggressive attacks was crucial.

By the time the students reached the academy, it was already deep into the night. As soon as they stepped down from the buses near the academy entrance, the first direction they rushed toward was their rooms. In an almost chaotic manner, they dumped everything they had gathered into their rooms and then dashed toward the dining hall.

They were finally going to have proper food after five days. Athar followed the same route, though in a slightly less chaotic manner.

"Athar," Ryler asked as they sat side by side, eating their dinner, "you never told me how you became Miss Angelica’s personal student."

"No," Athar replied, "I did not."

Ryler gave Athar a strange look, only for Athar to chuckle in response.

"Never thought you could crack a joke," Ryler said with a weird expression.

"Now tell me. How did you actually become her student?" he added.

"Okay! Okay!" Athar said. "I’ll tell you."

"You remember the reward she mentioned she would give me?" he asked, and Ryler nodded.

"Well," Athar continued, "it turns out she was very impressed by my performance. She also believes that my beast has enough potential to reach higher grades in the future. Then she asked if I was interested in becoming her student."

"That’s it?" Ryler asked in disbelief.

Athar nodded. "Yes."

Although it was a very simple story and sounded almost inconceivable, this was the best Athar could come up with. And it was not a lie—it was the truth.

And as weird as it sounded, there was not much room left for further questioning. If you have more questions, sure—go and ask Miss Angelica what she saw in me during a simple duel.

The duo quickly finished their dinner and returned to their rooms to sleep. Although they were not physically all that tired, sleeping in a tent in the middle of a forest had worn their bodies down, and they were itching for a proper, carefree rest.

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While Athar was sleeping carefreely in his own room, another scene was playing in another part of the city.

A middle aged man sat on a large wooden chair in the middle of a dimly lit room, illuminated by a pale yellow light.

Next to him, a four legged beast was sitting in a crouched position. Pinned beneath its front two legs was a smaller, badly injured beast, whimpering in pain.

In front of the man, at some distance, another man was kneeling, his face marred with blood, also badly injured.

Another old man stood calmly and composedly beside the chair.

"Boss," the kneeling man whimpered. "Please! Please! Let me go. I did not do it intentionally."

"It was just... just a mistake I made without thinking. I was momentarily distracted. Blinded by wealth," he begged.

"I promise it will never happen again. Just give me another chance," he pleaded. "Just one chance."

"George," the man on the sofa sighed as he tapped his fingers on the headrest of the chair, its sound echoing in the hall.

"There is no place for mistakes in our world," he said. "And one thing I cannot bear is being cheated. Traitors and cheaters. I cannot bear them."

"You thought that if you stole dozens of cores each month, I would not notice. That you would come out unscathed and richer. You were a fool."

"You made a mistake, George. And I do not give second chances."

"Boss, please," the man begged, but the boss raised his hand, and the old man beside him placed something on his open palm. It was a metallic device resembling a gun, just a bit bigger.

The boss aimed the gun and then pressed the trigger. A blue coloured sphere emerged from the gun. The sphere struck the man on his forehead, and it was as if it exploded.

The head of the man was blasted, and blood and chunks of the man’s brain splattered and the man with a mangled head fell with a thud.

The beast which had been pinned on the ground let out one last whimper as it too lost its life. When one died, the other of the bond also died.

The man looked at the device appreciatingly.

"They work wonderfully, Axel," he remarked.

"Indeed, boss," the old man Axel responded. "Mana guns have started to prove themselves more useful and useful."

"We need more of these," boss remarked as he passed the gun back to Axel.

In moments few men entered the room and they carried away the two corpses- man and his beast companion.

"Now, with this," the old man remarked. "We do not have a collector in two zones."

The boss nodded not too worried.

"Did you find some lead into that man’s death, Axel?" He asked.

"Dervin," Axel reminded the name of that man. Not that boss would remember. Zone 26 was such a worthless zone.

"Yes," Axel continued. "We have some lead."

"Trux- Dervin’s man who used to do his bidding in the academy was also beaten badly around a week back. I will be going to meet him tomorrow."

The boss narrowed his eyes but did not say anything.

"Give the temporary responsibilities of zone 26 and zone 9 to any collector," boss said after few moments. "And soon place someone trusted as Dervin’s and George’s replacements."

"I do not want to continue killing people just because they get distracted by wealth," he scoffed.

Axel nodded. He too had similar thoughts.

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