Chapter 153: Assassins
"It’s time to work."
Silas didn’t hesitate to return to his dorm once the meeting with his friends ended. Unlike him, they had decided to head to their platform and continue training there, while he had something far more important to do.
For the first time in days, Silas was genuinely excited, and he had a good reason for it.
"If the Rune Rocks are going to be as large as the ones I saw during my previous missions, then I’ll have to move the couches and even the dining table into the training room..."
The mere thought of finally finding a cure for his curse filled him with enthusiasm. All the worries and doubts about whether he would make it in time seemed insignificant now.
There was only one problem.
The Rune Rocks were enormous. Every one he had seen so far had been nearly two meters tall and incredibly heavy, and he needed enough space to arrange them according to the formation shown on the paper.
So, Silas returned to his dorm, intending to clear the main hall completely before the rocks arrived.
"I should have asked Darius and Alfred for help..."
Half an hour later, he began to regret that decision.
What had seemed like a simple task turned out to be exhausting. The couches were far heavier than they looked, to the point that Silas began to wonder whether they had been made from metal rather than wood. The dining table was even worse.
"All for the sake of getting my power back."
That thought was enough to keep him going. He worked slowly and steadily, moving one piece of furniture after another until, five hours later, he had finally cleared enough space for the Rune Rocks.
"Now... this is a problem."
Only after finishing did Silas realize what he had done.
In his excitement, he had shoved every piece of furniture into the training room, effectively making it impossible to enter. Worse still, the main hall now contained absolutely nothing he could use to rest on.
"It doesn’t matter as long as I have my private place for cleansing..."
He returned to his bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. Normally, he would have preferred to submerge himself in water and rest inside his Time Mind World, and the thought immediately awakened a strange sense of longing.
He missed its serenity, its tranquility, and the feeling of peace he had experienced there.
Most of all, he missed Shadowheart.
"Soon..."
Silas slowly raised a fist toward the ceiling.
"I’ll cleanse myself of these black threads, and then I’ll come back for you."
Ever since returning from the mine, things had gone in the wrong direction. He could no longer properly enter the Time Mind World, and he had been unable to meet with the Shadowheart or ask it about the countless questions that had accumulated in his mind.
The most important one concerned how it had known about the dragon and the flower treasure in the first place.
"It should be time."
After resting for an hour, Silas grew restless again. He kept checking his wristwatch, waiting for a message from Cher.
Eventually, he could no longer stand it.
"I’ll message her, then..."
He had only just opened the message window when a sudden beep startled him.
Silas froze as a message from Cher arrived.
[The teacher finished the first set.]
[He will send them over to the platform, so come over and get them.]
A wide smile spread across Silas’s face.
[Just let him deliver them to my dorm.]
[I’ve prepared enough space for them here.]
He was already preparing to jump to his feet when another message arrived. The sudden beep startled him so badly that he nearly tripped over himself.
Then he read what Cher had sent.
[That’s not possible.]
[Those Rune Rocks are huge. At least ten meters tall, and your dorm won’t be able to contain them no matter what.]
[Just come here, lazy man.]
Silas reread the messages several times before glancing around the empty hall, then at the massive pieces of furniture he had spent hours struggling to drag into the training room.
"If I’m a lazy man, then you’re a snail girl."
He shook his head, accepted his fate, and stepped outside.
***
"He’s coming."
Cher’s voice interrupted the sparring session, drawing the attention of everyone around her.
All of them had shown remarkable improvements since ingesting the dragon blood, and Cher knew that the greatest leap in their strength would come on the final day, when their bodies finished digesting the last remnants of it. Because of that, she refused to celebrate just yet.
There was still something bigger waiting for them.
’And you still haven’t even tried to see what new ability you’re going to awaken...’
’Impressive self-control, I have to admit.’
Her gaze lingered on Darius, who stood some distance away from the others. Ever since they had started training, he had deliberately refrained from using his powers, choosing instead to observe and analyze the abilities they had gained.
Cher doubted she could have shown the same restraint in his place.
"Silas is coming?"
Lara was the first to approach, riding one of her babies.
"He’s on his way."
Cher waited until everyone had gathered before pointing toward the shuttle that had just descended toward the ground.
"The teacher is coming first."
Everyone turned toward it, immediately understanding why she had called them over.
"I’m curious to see what’s so special about these Rune Rocks."
Alfred seemed almost as eager as Cher to examine them. They all knew that once Silas arrived, their chances of getting close to the rocks would become considerably slimmer.
So they waited, anticipation growing as the shuttle touched down.
"What’s the meaning of this, teacher?"
When the doors opened, however, the teacher did not step out alone.
A group of masked men followed him.
Their appearance immediately put everyone on guard. None of them looked weak, and Cher felt something even more unsettling the moment she saw them.
She recognized that presence.
"Assassins..."
The word escaped her lips like a low growl.
"You brought the assassins who attacked Silas and me on the first day of the academy here?"
Her voice grew louder with every word, but the sight of the teacher’s face made her anger falter.
Something was wrong.
Terio and Alfred had no idea what Cher was talking about, but Darius and Lara knew about the attack. Even they, however, had never seen the teacher look like this.
The greed that had always surrounded him was completely gone. Right now, he looked like a terrified cat.
His entire body was trembling as he raised both hands into the air.
"D-Don’t kill me, please!"
His desperate voice snapped Cher out of her momentary rage.
"T-They came after me when the shuttle landed..."
"They forced their way inside! They said they would kill me if I didn’t bring them here!"
The more he spoke, the more frantic he became, his words directed at the assassins one moment and Cher and the others the next.
Eventually, one of the masked men seemed to grow tired of listening and struck the teacher across the back of the head.
The man collapsed unconscious, and several of the assassins released relieved sighs.
"He was very noisy."
One of them stepped forward and calmly surveyed the area before raising a hand. And then the others immediately spread out.
They did not surround Cher and the others.
Instead, they moved toward the surrounding buildings, inspecting them one by one. A few even headed toward the barbecue area and began examining the rocks scattered around it.
Cher frowned.
"What exactly are you looking for?"
At first, she had struggled to suppress the urge to attack the bastards and kill them on the spot. She was no longer afraid of them; she had fought assassins like these before, back when she had been nowhere near as strong as she was now.
But she did not act.
Lara and the others were still weaker than her, and Cher knew her friend well enough to understand that a sudden confrontation could leave her frozen in fear before she had even realized what was happening.
Besides, something about the assassins was strange. They weren’t behaving like assassins who had come to kill them.
They were searching for something.
Cher’s expression slowly hardened as she watched them. And the leader of the masked men noticed.
A faint smile appeared beneath his mask.
"Smart girl, huh?"
The leader of the assassins snorted.
"I remember how badly we were punished for failing to take your head last time. How about we make up for it today?"
Cher met his provocation with a calm smile. Crossing her arms, she stepped forward and looked at him as though he were nothing more than a worthless beggar.
"Why don’t we stop wasting time and talk business?"
She glanced around the platform, pointedly noting that they had not even bothered to surround them. Their mission had never been to kill them.
"Pretty smart..."
The leader narrowed his eyes.
"I hate pretty and smart chicks like you."
Cher merely smiled.
She knew they were stalling for time while the assassins searched the platform, but they would not find what they were looking for. Not a single droplet of dragon blood remained here.
Everyone knew why they had come.
Everyone except Lara.
"Nothing."
Half an hour later, the assassins returned and gathered around their leader. One word was enough to describe their failure.
The leader’s expression darkened.
He remembered what had happened the last time he failed against Cher and Silas, and he had no intention of returning empty-handed again.
"Will you tell me where it is peacefully, or should I tear you apart piece by piece until you do?"
He stepped forward until he was standing directly before Cher. He was taller, broader, and considerably older, but she did not even flinch.
"You should first—"
"Here. Take it and fucking leave."
Darius suddenly interrupted her.
He tossed something into the air, and the moment the leader caught it, an orange glow reflected across his face.
His eyes widened.
"Ho ho... We found what we came for, boys."
The excitement in his voice was impossible to hide as he stared at the proof resting in his palm.
"I’ll take a ride back and come for a friendly hug later."
Laughing, the leader turned and led the assassins toward the shuttle.
The moment it disappeared from sight, Cher rounded on Darius.
"What the hell were you thinking?"
The others wisely kept their distance, knowing better than to get between them.
"What did I do wrong?"
Darius feigned innocence, pointing toward the place where the assassin had stood moments ago.
"If I hadn’t done that, they would’ve killed all of us on a whim."
"No, we would’ve fought!" Cher roared. "I fought them once and survived, and so did Silas!"
"I know that!" Darius shouted back, refusing to yield. "But Silas isn’t here. He can’t help us now."
"You idiot, you still don’t get it!"
Cher shook her head, struggling to contain her anger.
"You didn’t just hand them the dragon blood. You gave them proof that we had it. Now they’ll come back for us later, and they’ll kill every single one of us!"
BOOM!
Before she could finish, a violent explosion shook the entire platform, making the ground tremble beneath their feet.
Everyone rushed toward the edge.
The shuttle was already burning, engulfed in flames as if a bomb had detonated inside it.
Before anyone could comprehend what had happened, Darius spoke calmly from behind them.
"You idiot, you still don’t get it."
They turned.
Darius stood there with his hands in his pockets, watching the burning shuttle with an almost casual expression.
"There was never any risk in letting them know we had it."
He shrugged.
"After all..."
His gaze remained fixed on the flames.
"No one is going to live long enough to tell anyone."