Chapter 62: Failed Missions
"You can rest easy, she’s stable now. Just make sure she doesn’t do... whatever it is she was attempting that caused the problem," said a woman dressed in a black-violet gown with a white coat over it. A symbol at the top of her left pocket displayed her role in the infirmary.
"I will, thank you," the young man replied to the healer, who simply nodded in acknowledgment.
"You should head back to your dorm. You have only a few minutes left to be here. You would be penalized if you stay any later than this—you’ve already missed roll call," she warned. But the young man said nothing, his grip on the unconscious girl’s hand tightening slightly.
She sighed, shaking her head at how affectionate the boy was toward the girl. Youthful exuberance, she thought to herself.
She then left them alone.
"We failed again," the young man said, his voice heavy with resignation.
This wasn’t the first time they had failed on a planned mission. The first failure had been during their final exam in second year—a mission that was supposed to prove their capabilities. A student named Azalea, who was oddly proficient in Runes, had been brought in by Vena to help with the plan. Azalea wasn’t a new face to him, though. After all, who wasn’t aware of the simp who always followed Isabelle around?
But that day when he appeared before them, he looked different from how he always appeared in class. Cold and calculating, his presence was unsettling. His gut told him not to trust the young man, but Vena for the first time since he knew her actually sounded confident about someone. She said she trusted him completely. And that had annoyed him back then—he didn’t like the fact that she had gotten so close to the young man that she actually TRUSTED him. But he didn’t let his emotions dictate his decisions, so he accepted Azalea into their group.
And the young man delivered. At the peak of the mission, the barrier placed by the dean mysteriously broke and monsters invaded the academy grounds. While the staff and authorities were scrambling to contain the chaotic situation, they were able to sneak into the vault of the academy to steal a certain relic they had been tasked to retrieve.