The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 307

“Well, I was a bit flustered, but I’ll still understand Atlas. But….”

Saintess Carmel crossed her arms and started lecturing me.

She insisted she wasn’t angry, but seeing her talk endlessly showed that I was indeed wrong for sneaking away without saying anything, so I decided to let her vent until she calmed down.

Shaara was attending to other people nearby.

‘How long is this going to last…’

I had never seen Carmel like this before, so I had no clue how long her lecture would continue.

While I was suitably nodding along to her story, a man suddenly appeared from the chaotic crowd.

‘… Did I just see that right?’

A man who hadn’t been there just moments ago had now materialized out of thin air.

It was so sudden that I almost thought I was seeing things, yet no one else seemed to notice him.

The elderly gentleman caught my gaze, turned his head slightly, and our eyes met.

His eyes seemed remarkably calm.

And then he smiled widely.

“What are you looking at, Atlas?”

Carmel also noticed my gaze was fixed elsewhere and turned her attention in the same direction.

His hand moved with an unsettling sense of otherness, as if he were human yet not entirely so.

In a place like this, it was obvious what would happen if he acted.

Before I could even register it, my body reacted.

-Wham!!!

My reinforced fist slammed into the man’s abdomen.

When you hit a person’s belly, it usually makes a thudding sound, but with this guy, it sounded like I had just popped a paper balloon.

The reason for that was clear without needing to show it.

My fist punctured his abdomen.

Not a single drop of blood flowed from the gaping hole that should have spilled forth.

“Really… You’ve had quite a journey to get here. But it seems you didn’t predict this.”

The man looked satisfied as he stared at my stern face.

It wasn’t too late yet.

I could still use space movement to escape with him outside.

I quickly took a step back…

“We’ve gotten the upper hand.”

As if he had read my thoughts, the moment he spoke, a dark magic erupted from the hole in his abdomen.

.

.

.

The dark magic spread forth with terrifying intensity.

While it wasn’t an attack meant to harm anyone, the spreading magic clearly displayed movements related to some kind of formation.

If left unchecked, I couldn’t guess what would happen.

If I had a sword, I could have sliced through the magic entirely, but it was unfortunate that I couldn’t bring a weapon into the hall.

Yet the magic that was about to spread throughout the hall would not last long, regardless of who it was.

“Let there be light!”

From the center of the hall, a pillar of light shot up and shredded the dark barrier to pieces.

The Saintess had mobilized her holy power to erase all the magic.

Once the magic dissipated, a moment of silence ensued.

We were in the midst of a party, but now we had been attacked.

I needed to prevent the ensuing panic from boiling over.

-Clap, clap, clap

But instead of chaos, what returned was the sound of withered applause.

As someone began clapping, everyone else followed suit and the hall filled with the sound of applause and cheers.

“That was amazing!”

“I didn’t know you prepared something like this!”

Hearing the applause, the Saintess forced a shy smile.

It seemed she thought the earlier events were a staged performance.

It wasn’t, but good is good.

While Carmel drew everyone’s attention, I began to move in earnest.

The first thing I had to verify was what had happened during the two seconds everyone’s vision had been obscured by the magic.

I needed to quickly ascertain whether anyone had gone missing, whether anything had been stolen, anything that had changed.

Prioritizing, I examined one person at a time.

Leoric Prigia, the king of the Five Kingdoms Union, and the councilmember of the Peace Council, all seemed unharmed.

Next was Shaara and Nivas.

Nivas had sensed the magic a few times during his time at the academy and now wore a serious expression, realizing how grave the situation was.

Then I looked towards Shaara…

“… Shaara?”

Shaara Prigia had gone missing.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, the guards inside the castle were frantically mobilizing.

Once the soldiers confirmed that Shaara had vanished, they began to scour the castle and its surroundings.

“Search elsewhere. We must find her!!”

She had gone missing in the heart of the castle.

We were already in a precarious situation due to an earlier breach discovered by outsiders, and now, this happening again put our existence at risk.

While the Prigia guards searched desperately like never before, the holy knights who entered with Carmel were also busy moving about.

In the end, one person had slipped through that dense net of surveillance.

If one was spotted, it wouldn’t be strange to assume there were more hiding in the same way, so they decided to search everywhere else, excluding the already sealed hall.

Some waited around the hall, ready to enter at any moment, while others started their search from the underground passages.

And I did the same.

As soon as I confirmed that Shaara had disappeared, I jumped out using space movement, returned with my sword, and joined the search efforts.

‘She couldn’t have gone far. She must still be nearby.’

Based on experience, other means of space movement aside from the ones I personally used usually leave traces behind.

First, the teleportation and blink spells mages commonly employed, and the shadow movement assassins used were off the table.

This was because the barrier set up throughout the castle during the party blocked all such spells from the outside.

Demons could use their own magic for space movement, but that also leaves noticeable traces.

The great demon’s powers were also unrelated to space movements, so at least we could rule out the possibility that she had been captured and taken to a completely unknown location.

Still, the horrific reality that Shaara had been kidnapped remained unchanged.

“Atlas!”

One of the holy knights rushed toward me, panting.

A gnawing sense of foreboding washed over me.

“… There are demons appearing outside the Prigia territory.”

“Outside, you say? That’s somewhat a relief.”

“Yes, we’ll switch roles; we will deal with the demons while the Inquisitioners continue the search.”

It was obvious without seeing, a ploy to divert attention and manpower.

While I would like to pay attention over there as well, heading that way was exactly playing into their hands.

The only consolation was that the attack came from outside and not in the middle of the bustling festival.

If it had attacked from within, the damage would have increased tenfold, but since it came from the outside, we could defend against it adequately.

The past week of cleaning the streets with the Inquisitioners had paid off.

In a normal situation, the appearance of even invulnerable demons attacking could lead to the city’s destruction, but I wasn’t worried in the slightest.

Right now, we had the Inquisitioners, holy knights, and most importantly, Amy here.

To breach a place where even Amy, who could hunt even the strongest demons alone, was, a great demon would need to descend personally.

With that thought, my pace quickened.

It was clear that Shaara hadn’t escaped this place yet.

It was safer to think that the barrier blocking space movement spells applied to them as well during the ongoing party.

If they’d already moved elsewhere, they wouldn’t bother with all this trouble.

It would be far more beneficial for them to simply bolt.

Since those who kidnapped Shaara hadn’t escaped yet, I speculated they had been aided by external forces.

If they snuck Shaara out of the Prigia territory, using space movement would make finding her extremely difficult.

“I had taken out insurance for situations like this…”

I could only wish for her safety.

——————

When Shaara regained consciousness, she found herself engulfed in total darkness.

Just moments earlier, she had been enjoying the party in the hall, but in an instant, everything had gone black, leading to this predicament.

Barely able to make out any outlines due to the lack of light, Shaara could sense that someone was carrying her.

“Damn it… Damn it, this is really happening… Really happening!!!”

“Hehehe, those humans had no idea we could take her like this!”

‘… Who is it?’

From her senses, it was clear that she was being carried by someone who stood about twice her height.

While she could think it was one of the guards moving her due to an incident, the roughness of the handling suggested otherwise.

Most notably, the voice sounded incredibly lowbrow.

It would be best to assume she was indeed being kidnapped and transported.

Realizing she was being taken against her will, she suddenly recalled what Atlas had said the moment he arrived at the territory.

‘So, you did foresee that someone would be targeting me, Atlas.’

While observing Atlas as he nervously safeguarded the party security, she had often wondered what had made him so anxious.

What signs had he detected to be so alert?

“How much longer to the rendezvous point?”

“Ugh… Ugh… Not much longer…!!”

As they turned a corner, a foul stench from the sewers wafted up, accompanied by the sound of flowing water.

There was only one place that fit such characteristics.

The underground sewers of the city.

As they entered, they moved towards a flickering light visible through the darkness.

When the end of the darkness came into view, Shaara caught sight of the person carrying her.

‘A fishman… So that’s the method they used.’

The man who was carrying her had the face of a fish and dark brown scales on his skin.

While ordinary fishmen lived only near water, these unique fishmen, known as lungfishmen, could survive in arid environments as well.

They thrived in freshwaters, but when necessary, could also swim through mud and sand, and those with special tattoos on their scales could swim through solid rock using unique techniques.

Just before she lost consciousness, she had a brief sensation of falling, which likely meant they had submerged her underground.

At the place they were headed, a man was seated, waiting.

He was a massive figure cloaked in a black robe.

Shadows concealed his face beneath a wide hood, but a strand of blonde hair was visibly sticking out.

“I brought her, so pay up! Where’s my reward?”

“Just wait. First, I need to check if you brought her correctly. Hmm, seems you did a good job.”

As the man approached, Shaara, who had opened one eye to observe, decided to close it again and monitor the situation.

Atlas was obsessively fixated on the demons.

Throughout the preparations leading to the party, he scrutinized everyone, especially those working within the castle, deploying both Inquisitioners and holy knights.

But looking at the situation now, the two who brought Shaara appeared to be completely unrelated to any demons.

They had found a loophole.

“Well done bringing her here. Here’s the promised reward.”

“He… Hehe! I’ll count on you next time too!”

The lungfishmen took the pouch handed to them and leaped towards the rocky wall of the sewer.

Then, as the tattoos writhed, their bodies began to sink into the solid rock, swimming through it as if gliding through the water.

It wasn’t only the fishmen who disappeared; everything he was wearing vanished alongside him. It seemed they used this method to transport themselves.

“Hello, you must be Shaara Prigia? We don’t have much time, so let’s skip the introductions.”