Vale was easily acquainted with the two since they were both carefree and friendly… They weren't even bothered by him killing Wilfred in his duel.
It was quite a pleasant feeling for him and he was happy that these two were his clubmates.
"We're finally done!" Philip happily threw the cleaning tools back into the locker.
It took them less than half an hour although there are three of them working together since they were chatting about various topics.
During this time, Vale learned that these two were from Class 3 and both of them has 16 Spirit Strands. They were really surprised after Professor Stella Harwin announced to them that one of her students in Class 2 has 25 Spirit Strands exceeding even Maya Featherstar.
'So it was really Professor Harwin who spread that to everyone…' Vale wryly smiled. He can't really blame the proud Professor so he can only forget about it.
The three of them separated after cleaning the clubroom. Priscilla went to check the library while Philip returned to his dormitory… Unsurprisingly, he's also using the Seven Pillars Garden. He was in the fourth room to be exact while Vale is in the seventh.
As for Priscilla, she's actually in the third room…
Apparently, the first, second, and third rooms were used by female students while the fourth to seventh rooms were used by male students.
Anyway, as Vale was planning to return to his dormitory as well, he met Chad, Blair, Leonore, and Lisa. They were planning of having some tea together at the cafeteria so they invited him.
Their group was an odd combination in Vale's eyes.
He would normally see Leonore with her group of female friends… As for Lisa, she would always stick to Aubrey so it was quite rare not seeing them together.
Blair, on the other hand, just always sticks to anyone and was quite friendly to all… even to Neil.
"Aubrey is still in her club. As you know, she joined the Board Game Club…" Lisa reminded after noticing that Vale was looking for her.
"So it was like that… Leonore, how's the Fortune Telling Club?" Vale asked…
However, before Leonore can even answer, this question prompted a reaction from Chad Bulmung who always had unnecessary thoughts.
"Ahem… Should we leave the two of you so you can have a moment with each other? Or should we just stick around to make a cover for you so it won't get too obvious?"
Vale was momentarily confused by this reaction but Leonore immediately know what this guy was thinking.
"I keep telling you that it was all a misunderstanding… Even that amulet that was tossed to me was just Vale's acting if I'm not mistaken." Leonore spoke in exasperation.
"Alright… alright… I was just teasing you. Hehe." Chad immediately replied as he was afraid that Leonore would really be pissed off.
It's not every day that he could drink tea with his beautiful classmate after all.
After a while, they shifted the topic to the first-year student in Class 4 who seemed to have been affected by a strange disease…
Some said it was a curse since the student was coughing out black blood. It was really strange but luckily, after bringing her to the infirmary, she seem to be fine now.
"It's my first time hearing about it. However, can we not talk about it while drinking this tea?" Lisa immediately added.
They then talked about other things before leaving the cafeteria to finish their assignments in other subjects.
Vale also returned to his dormitory and didn't think too much about this disease at first. However, in the next few days, he keeps hearing about this strange disease that makes people cough out black blood and weaken the person's immune system… Weakening of health also means weakening of Phantasm State… The duration of their state has lessened by almost half because of this!
The students who were affected were stressed even more after learning this.
This situation also spread throughout the whole Academy affecting not only first-year students but also second-year and third-year students.
This matter alarmed the Academy as about 30% of the students in the first, second, and third-year were affected in just four days!
On Thursday, May 17, 894, Professor Lucius Angelart thought them about the Darkness Manipulation…
"Everyone, because of the strange Curse that was spreading, we are advising you all to learn the Darkness Manipulation as quickly as possible. Normally, it would be fine to learn it within two or three months. However, it was recently discovered that with the help of Darkness Manipulation, you would have a lesser chance of being affected by the curse."
"Professor, why can't we find the culprit that is cursing us? That will solve the problem a lot easier, right?" Neil suddenly asked.
He couldn't understand how their prestigious academy which has plenty of Curse Spell Experts, would have difficulty finding the source of the problem.
This is the same question that the other students wanted to ask.
The incident happened so suddenly and many people were affected. The person who had caused this must've left some clues.
Professor Lucius shook his head at this question and firmly answered.
"If it's possible, we could've done that already. Unfortunately, the cause of this incident was a Mystical Artifact that was already destroyed… To be exact, its destruction was the cause of the spreading curse…"
This sudden revelation stunned the students…
"Ah? There's a Mystical Artifact that can still affect people even after destruction?"
"What mystical artifact is that?"
"Professor, are you telling us that there is no Spells, Rituals, or Ceremony, that can cleanse the Academy from the mess created by the Mystical Artifact?"
Leonore asked with a hint of doubt. Her friend, Carmen, was affected by this curse so she felt quite infuriated by the caster of this Curse Spell. Now that she learned that it was the result of an Artifact's destruction, she felt even more annoyed.
She believes that the matter of the curse spreading throughout the Academy could've been avoided if the Professors or the experts acted immediately instead of ignoring the matter.
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