The four students stared at Eluard's departing figure, speechless of the information that he announced about Emi's sister, Akane.
Emi blankly stood in place. She was in disbelief that her big sister remained alive after everything that has happened.
Jinmu and Lucan staggered to look in her direction. Not only did their shock come from news of Akane, but the fact that Eluard confirmed their assumption that it was the Siegfried Clan who came after Emi's village and destroyed it.
They even enslaved Emi's big sister.
Jinmu was horrified and could feel his body shivering at the thought.
'This is too shocking of a revelation! I hope Emi won't lose herself after this!', he hoped in his heart.
However, the next scene went differently than he expected.
Emi regained control of herself and slowly clenched her small fists. Her heart was both nervous and beaming in joy. She closed her eyes and cried.
"Big sis is alive… big sis is alive…"
She repeatedly blurted, kneeling on the ground and tightly gripping her chest.
Olivia couldn't take seeing Emi like this and walked out. Lucan noticed her and followed her downstairs.
Who knew what that cold girl was thinking about now?
Jinmu sighed. What a start of a day this was. He approached Emi and held her shoulder.
"Emi…"
The little girl suddenly jumped on him and hugged him.
"Big brother Jinmu, big sis is alive!"
Jinmu smiled, patting her back to comfort her excited heart. This scene continued for a while before Emi stopped and let go of Jinmu.
She wiped the tears off her face, "Big brother Jinmu, I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean to splash my tears over your clothes…"
Jinmu waved his hands, "It's okay. But are you okay now, Emi?"
She nodded.
"Good. Don't worry, Emi. We'll get her sooner, alright?", Jinmu assured her. He didn't mention Olivia because now wasn't the time.
He also guessed that Emi might still have resentment left in her heart against her senior sister.
"Alright, follow me."
Emi wondered what her senior brother was up to.
"Where are we going, senior brother Jinmu?"
Jinmu became serious, "To check out the situation on the other side."
Downstairs, Olivia and Lucan were left alone. As for Jinmu not inviting them over, he had his reasons.
"Leave me alone.", Olivia spoke to Lucan with her back on him.
"Listen to me, Olivia. I don't understand the enmity between you and Emi, or between the Siegfried Clan, but you shouldn't walk out suddenly like that.", Lucan said.
Olivia turned around and violently waved her hands, "You understanding nothing is why you should stay away from me! What do you know about being rejected? About being shoved away by someone who trusted you dearly before?"
"I was the one who cause this to Emi!", pointing at herself, "How can you not see it?!"
She tried to explain things to Emi but she was ignored every time.
Now that their senior brother Kai exposed the truth, Olivia thought that things between her and Emi became worse.
"That…", Lucan hesitated.
Of course, he knew what that particular feeling was, especially when the moment he lost his title as crown prince, he was targeted by his younger brother. His father even called him a son of a bitch.
No one bothered attending to his calls, not even his close relatives and former classmates and friends. Lucan also doubted his Uncle Mer who, despite being a master wizard, let an assassin go past him at the most convenient time.
A grandiose crown prince on the outside, a lonely existence on the inside. That was how Lucan saw his past after reflecting on it during his stay in the academy.
All of the built relationships were superficial. It all relied on the fact that he was a crown prince. Once it was taken away, he was an exploitable resource that could be set aside anytime.
But how could he say it in front of Olivia? Lucan found no words to put out, making it look like he knew nothing, worsening Olivia's impression.
She gritted her teeth and snorted at Lucan before she got out of his sight and went somewhere else.
Lucan cursed himself and grunted.
"Ah, damn it! Why are you so dumb in situations like this, Lucan?!"
He was inexperienced in talking to girls, worse comforting them. And he dared to try it on a cold royal descendant like Olivia.
He paced back and forth on the first floor, thinking of how to win back Olivia's trust. Fortunately, the first floor was spacious enough that it took him 2 minutes to circle the entire area.
However, a sudden prompt from his system panel interrupted his pondering.
[ Warning: A magical beast attack is commencing. Prepare yourself. ]
'An attack?', Lucan was in shock, 'Isn't this a little too early?'
Amidst his daze, the earth quaked as roars of magical beasts resounded from afar. The sky was blocked by the sheer number of flying magical beasts whose sizes differed from a small bird to that of a mountain.
'Fuck, what did those demonic creatures do that the divine frost dragon is extremely enraged like this?!'
The glimpse of the system map caught his bewildered eyes. A green dot was nearing this hostile group of magical beasts and it seems like they were rather unaware of what was happening.
'Don't tell me this is Olivia?!'
There were only two green dots in the area. Jinmu and Emi must have already left.
Lucan sped towards Olivia's position. However, enraged magical beasts blocked his path.
[ Name: Polar War Bear ]
[ Rarity: Uncommon ]
[ Power-Level: Elite ]
[ Magic Affinity: Ice, Earth ]
…
[ Name: Glacial Scorpion ]
[ Rarity: Uncommon ]
[ Power-Level: Elite ]
[ Magic Affinity: Ice, Poison ]
'What bad luck!'
The two elite magical beasts were backed up by weaker ones but they were too many for Lucan to handle alone.
'I need to get to her first! Ignore them!'
Lucan casted tens of fireballs at once. He controlled the smaller fireballs to attack and frighten the magical beasts.
Lucan then erected an earthen column and jumped at the rooftops of the houses. Many people were running around, with some being slaughtered by the magical beasts.
He helped those whom he could assist, blasting the beasts away with the remaining fireballs. Most of them were too scared and ran away without thanking Lucan.
He, however, didn't take it to heart. He looked at the entrance of the village.
The guards and warriors tried their best to hold the beasts back but they were soon flooded and ran over. Their bodies were trampled mercilessly.
The carnivorous ones didn't let this free meal go unattended as well and savored the feeling.
Lucan's heart skipped a beat. What a terrifying scene he was in now. He turned his head in front of him and saw Olivia, striking down a polar war bear to death.
"Ice Spikes!"
The bear was punctured in all sorts of places, bleeding profusely and dyeing the snow red.
Lucan ran to her and extended his hand to grab her.
"Olivia, what are you doing here?! We should get out now!"
However, Olivia slapped his hand away.
"I told you to stay away from me! Why do you keep on pestering me, huh?!"
Lucan's heart fell, 'Damn it, what's with her hostile behavior now?!'
Olivia shouldn't be stupidly acting like this. She was supposed to be calm and collected like Jinmu.
"Can't you see we are surrounded by magical beasts around?! Even if you kill one, the rest are going to march over and gang up on you!"
"Then let them march over me!", Olivia retorted, "I have to protect these people! They serve under our cause so why should I-!"
"Watch out!", Lucan quickly gathered his mana and casted a spell.
"Fire Whip!"
A long stretch of fire whip appeared on his right hand. He grasped it firmly before whipping the thick-furred white monkey jumping from Olivia's back.
Its body was small and agile but Lucan was faster. The fire lashed at the thick-furred white monkey, hitting its entire chest.
The burning sensation disrupted the monkey. It growled mid-air and lost its balance.
The beast went past Olivia. Before it could recover, Lucan flicked the whip and coiled it around the monkey's body.
"Ignite!"
The fire whip glowed intensely, followed by a large swathe of fire that swallowed the beast in whole and burned it to death.
The snow beneath melted and became water. Through it, Olivia saw her stupefied expression.
Lucan moved and grabbed her successfully this time.
"Let go of me!", Olivia begged, "These people need our help!"
"Stop acting like an idiot and let us get out of here!", Lucan strengthened his grasp over Olivia's hand.
However, her resistive force made him slip over and tumbled on Olivia's feet which resulted in both of them falling to the ground.
"Why won't you listen?!", Lucan was getting annoyed, "Have you forgotten what senior brother Kai told you earlier?!"
"You don't understand!", Olivia started crying. Why can't Lucan let her do as she wished?
"Damn it, Olivia! You're still going to bring that up now? Your life is more important than this nonsense!"
Olivia tried to push Lucan away but he was hugging her securely.
'Time to teleport out of here!'
Lucan navigated through his system panel and clicked on the teleportation button on the map.
The following system prompt horrified him deeply.
[ Unable to teleport. A planar demarcation magic array formation has been set. ]
[ Please move away from the range of the planar demarcation or destroy the magic array formation to proceed. ]
His grip on Olivia loosened, allowing her to roll over further away. She was about to speak when a haughty demonic laugh ringed in their ears.
A demonic creature landed on top of a house, towering at 5 meters in height. If Eluard was here, he'd recognize this demonic creature as the one he saw back during his memory intrusion.
"Kekeke! You're not going anywhere today, students of the Heavenly Magic Academy!"
The demonic creature was twisting its hands around, playing with a devil fork in his hands.
"The planar is locked. You won't be returning to your academy soon!"
Its eyes widened and his grin spanned his entire face. The three horns on his head twitched in excitement.
A prey was going to die today!
"Not until I pierce you with my fork!"
The demonic creature jumped to the skies and readied an attacking stance. He swooped down to Olivia first and extended his hand that was holding the devil fork.
"Die!"
He shouted those words when suddenly, the air between him and Olivia vibrated.
"Fiery Resonation!"
This content is taken from freewebnove(l).com