Chapter 63: Ch102. Mask
[30 MINUTES EARLIER]
[DURING THE FIGHT BETWEEN KURT AND LESTER]
A pair of binocular lenses scrutinized the roof of the cafeteria.
The brown, almost black eyes behind the lenses were seemed eager, almost greedy, darting from left to right, from top to bottom of the structure.
The headmaster of the Boston Wielders Academy, Acacia Sterling, was leaning against the guardrail, in the roof of the academy’s main building.
Her hair were in the usual ponytail, and her skin glistened against the sun. Her white, silky shirt, contrasted with the black trousers and the suspenders she wore.
In her belt, she carried her signature weapon.
Two magic wands that had granted her the title of the ’Dual Wielder’.
As she watched the fight between Lester and Kurt unfold, she licked her red lips.
"You’re definitely something, Mr. Blake..." She smirked.
The fight went on, and she already knew the result, but her mouth fell ajar when Kurt revealed what she thought could be his trump card.
From then on, Acacia’s smirk turned into a grin, and her eyes widened in greed.
"You’re something, you’re definitely something, Kurt Blake... I’ll definitely make mine!"
Finally, when the fight was over, she was ready to see Kurt taking Lester’s life.
She was ecstatic, just by thinking that she would be able to see the academy’s indescribable prodigy killing one of the students belonging to the academy’s top tier.
But then, it happened.
Kurt started to talk with Lester.
Acacia sharpened her hearing, and started paying attention to Lester’s words.
"It wasn’t me. I just drew their attention. My role was just to gave way to who was going to inject them with the serum... "The serum is a compound created with Calamite, you know... The stone from the meteor that started the Calamity... The headmaster... She told me to test it... In the irregulars."
Acacia’s grin turned into a grimace, and she smashed the binoculars with her hands.
"Useless human trash..." She said, still looking towards the roof of the Cafeteria.
She saw Kurt leaving, and she was certain that he had a smile on his face.
"Well, then... I guess it’s time to play a little game of Chicken..." The grin returned to her face, and when she turned to leave the main building’s roof, the sun light hit her eyes, revealing a bright red hue, and the slit pupil of a draconic eye. "... But at least this time... My prey won’t be as easy as the other humans..." She licked her lips, and left the roof.
***
Kurt walked through the campus, hoping to find professor Rodrick somewhere.
He felt some hostile glances towards him, from students that were at the Cafeteria almost an hour ago, but he didn’t mind them.
’If you want a piece of me, just come and get it.’ He thought.
However, his right hand still hurt from the Punch he landed on Simon.
He had to find a healing potion, or someone capable of healing him, because Kurt just didn’t trust the occasion for him to go back to the infirmary just now.
’Maybe Rodrick can help me with it, since he’s a professor, and probably member of a guild...’
When he was thinking about the possibility, he passed by the training grounds, and there he was.
Professor Rodrick, sitting under the heat of the sun, with his legs crossed and eyes closed.
’Is he meditating or something?’ He approached the training grounds, and when he did, he felt an insurmountable pressure over him.
It was like the whole world was over his shoulders, and for a while, it became really hard for Kurt to give even a single step forward.
He focused, breathed in and out, and after a few seconds, it became easier to walk again.
Strangely, however, the closer he got from Rodrick, the heavier the atmosphere felt, and the harder it felt to walk.
"I’m impressed you were able to get so close to me while I was meditating." Rodrick said, smirking.
He opened one eye with a raised brow and looked at Kurt.
"Are you free to talk about what you mentioned earlier, professor?" Kurt asked.
Relief filled him as Rodrick stopped exuding that impossible pressure around him.
The professor smiled, got up, and answered.
"Sure, kid. How about we go to-"
"Somewhere more private? Yeah, sure. I’m not really in the mood to be seen out here in the open, anyway."
Rodrick frowned, but started walking, and Kurt followed him.
Rodrick’s office stood in the far east corner of the academy, so it took a while for them to arrive there. But once they were inside, Rodrick looked at Kurt, closed the door, and asked.
"What happened? You didn’t seem so watchful earlier."
Kurt rubbed his chin, weighing the possibilities, but after a few seconds, he decided to try and trust the professor with his secret.
"I knew you were right about the headmaster. I just didn’t know what she was up to, but it seems she’s not only unreliable. She’s after the irregulars, and she was the one behind what happened to Evellyn and Nikolai."
Rodrick weighed Kurt’s words and looked at his arm.
"Are you going to ask me for a healing potion or what?" Rodrick asked, straightforward. Kurt raised a brow. "What? You’ve been rubbing your right hand like it really hurts, so I just assumed. Am I wrong?"
Kurt didn’t notice that he was doing such thing, but he looked at his hand and sighed.
"Do you have any?"
"I always carry a few with me, to be honest. But my most potent ones are in here, so just wait a second, will you?"
Rodrick disappeared through a door leading to another room in his office, coming back a few minutes later with a flask full to the brim of a bright-green liquid.
"Here, kid. Drink this. It’ll make you feel better."
Kurt opened the flask and brought it to his lips.
And for the slightest of moments, the sun light through the window touched Rodrick’s face, revealing eyes that glowed slightly in a bright red hue, and the slit of a draconic pupil.
Kurt stopped the flask halfway, looking at Rodrick.
"You’re not thinking of healing me, right?" He asked, feeling uneasy for not being able to sense any danger until then.
Rodrick looked back at Kurt, and his genuine smile turned into a grin.
"I knew you were interesting..." Rodrick said, but his voice didn’t sound like him. "But after I watched your fight with Lester... I had to meet you in person. Or at least as in person as possible." Rodrick laughed with the headmaster’s voice.
"How did you notice that I wasn’t your beloved fatherly figure Rodrick?"
Kurt gritted his teeth.
’They know...’ "Your eyes are the only things that don’t change completely, even when your disguises are on."
"Damn it, clever boy..." The headmaster’s voice sounded again from Rodrick’s throat. "You should’ve just stayed in that coma!"
And Rodrick’s body charged towards Kurt.
