1~Nighttime Surprise
“Aistride is returning to the Elf Forest tomorrow, right?”
“Hmm, tomorrow, after breakfast,” Aistride replied; the Elf Forest had already sent a specialist to escort her and Sophia.
“Ah, I see. Are your bags all packed?”
“Almost, there are just a few loose ends left.”
“Uh, if Aistride doesn’t mind, I could help you pack.”
“Wouldn’t that bother you, Your Highness?”
“It’s no big deal.”
“Maybe we won’t see each other for about two months, and I’ll really miss you.”
Upon hearing this, Aistride’s eyes flickered, glancing at the Golden-haired Girl next to her.
The evening breeze swept by, lifting strands of her silk-like hair, while the splendid sunset bathed her stunning face in an almost perfect glow.
The two walked shoulder-to-shoulder back to the dormitory, entering Aistride’s room.
The hallways were eerily quiet, devoid of the usual vitality and noise. It had been less than a week since the end-of-term exams, but things felt dramatically different.
“Are Wenfu and Philicia leaving tomorrow too?”
“Hmm. They’re leaving in the afternoon and have already filled out the forms and packed their bags.”
Looking at the unusually quiet, spacious hall, Aistride’s sensitive heart had an indescribable sense of emptiness. It was just a vacation, but she felt like she might never see her teammates again.
“Will Princess Tillysha stay at the academy for the break?”
“That depends – I might want to go out and explore too?” Tillysha didn’t give a definite answer.
While packing Aistride’s belongings, Tillysha discovered an interesting item, a towel hanging in the bathroom.
Wasn’t this towel the one she had previously bought for Aistride?
Judging from the color and appearance, it was undoubtedly the same. And even holding it, the unmistakable cheap quality—it had to be the towel she had given to Aistride. But wasn’t this towel thrown away already? Why was it still around?
Tillysha clearly remembered finding this towel in the trash can once.
Unless… the one she found wasn’t the one she gifted Aistride?
“Aistride, are you taking this towel with you?” Tillysha swung the small bear-patterned towel in her hand.
“Oh, it’s here! I’ve been looking for it.” Aistride took the towel and carefully packed it into a bag.
“Is this towel important to you?”
“Yep.” Aistride nodded decisively. “Very important.”
“Really? Was it a gift from someone important?”
“Yep.” Aistride nodded again silently.
“Ah, I see,” Tillysha smiled warmly for some reason. “Take good care of it then.”
Early the next morning, the specialist from the Elf Forest arrived with a carriage to pick up Aistride. Since Coleman Academy was originally founded by Elves, the escort service was easily arranged from the local area.
As farewells were being made on the crisp morning, a cat-eared girl was crying while eating breakfast, turning a simple “going home” into something akin to a permanent departure.
Soon enough, the carriage pulled up in front of the villa. Sophia poked her head out of the window, searching for her sister amidst the crowd.
“Safe journey, Aistride,” the four of them stood at the courtyard gate bidding her farewell as she boarded the carriage. Aistride, her perpetually calm face unchanged, nodded in response before drawing the curtain.
The carriage gradually faded into the distance.
That was the end of the semester.
Tillysha looked up at the golden sun shining warmly above the rooftop and couldn’t help but reflect on how time flew by. Time flowed through her fingers every moment, yet most people remained oblivious to its fleeting nature.
But for elves, it was different. The span of a few months was an infinitesimal part of their lifespan.
Thinking about this made her glance sidelong at Filicia and Wenfu.
The maximum lifespan of a human was three hundred years, and demi-humans even shorter, only a bit over two hundred.
A hundred years for humans was their entire lifetime, but for elves, it was merely a fleeting instant.
If this wasn’t a dream, what would the world—and she herself—be like a century later?
As the sun gradually descended, the armored knight and the cat-eared girl carrying large bags of luggage gathered in the entrance of the villa.
“Alright then, see you in two months,” Filicia waved to Tillysha. “Tillysha, don’t let Dillin bother himself to see you off – don’t interrupt his reading!”
“Tillysha-sister, Mr. Dillin, goodbye!”
After waving goodbye one by one to her teammates, Tillysha turned back to the quiet villa. Despite it being almost dinner time, there were no signs of Wenfu bustling about in the kitchen, and no footsteps echoing upstairs. Tillysha suddenly felt a pang of loneliness.
The villa suddenly seemed so quiet.
When she had first arrived, she hadn’t felt lonely, but was it because she had simply grown accustomed to the company?
Shaking off the emotions, Tillysha returned to her room.
With no one else in the villa, she didn’t need to be discreet. She went into Dillin’s room and finished packing the rest of his things.
Tomorrow, she had to leave too.
After dinner and a bath, the vast villa was silent except for his solitary sounds. This night, he was all alone, one of the last to leave the school, and with the school’s usual excellent security, Dillin was in the habit of leaving the doors unlocked.
After tidying up everything, he went back into his room, closed the door, climbed into bed, and bid the night farewell.
—
A thick, pungent smell of bl**d woke Dillin’s consciousness, and he realized he was in pitch black darkness.
Where am I? Why is there such a strong smell of bl**d?
The icy air sent shivers down his spine.
Dillin covered his mouth and nose as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, faintly spotting dark red puddles on the ground.
It’s bl**d.
Following a streak of bl**d, the surrounding gray-black seemed to lighten somewhat, and he could dimly see a few vague shapes in the distance.
As he approached, the bl**d stench grew stronger, wrapping around his nose and throat.
When he was ten steps away from the blurry shapes, he finally recognized them.
These were corpses, covered in bl**d, lying face-down on the ground. Most of their bl**d had drained away, leaving a faded crimson that streaked across their clothing.
Clearly, these bodies had been there for some time.
Dillin glanced down at the face-down corpses, recognizing their familiar hair colors.
All had the same vibrant, sunlit gold, a shade of blonde distinctively seen only in Gold Elves.
In humans, gold often leaned toward a duller, wheat-colored hue. This radiant, vitality-filled shade posthumously glowing was unmistakably that of a Gold Elf.
As his vision cleared, Dillin recognized another trait: their skin was unnaturally pale, their ears not human but sharp, elongated elf ears.
These dead bodies were Elves—Gold Elves, to be exact.
Dillin was shocked. Gold Elves were one of the rarest species, practically treated like endangered wildlife. Who could be ruthless enough to m*rder entire groups of them?
As Dillin looked at the victims, he suddenly realized his vision had become clear. He seemed to be in a village nestled against a colossal tree, drenched in bloody red, wreathed in smoke, and yet devoid of any signs of life.
A heavy sadness descended on Dillin’s chest, squeezing his breath.
What happened here? How did he get here?
Intermittent sobbing and cries of grief pierced the air, sounding like both children and young adults.
This tide of sorrow and anger overwhelmed Dillin.
And just as he wondered if it was his imagination, the bloody corpses twitched.
He rubbed his eyes, and the bloodied bodies laboriously stood up, resembling crawling insects.
All of these dead Gold Elves, whether male, female, or child, stared at him with bl**d-shot eyes full of rage, as if judging him for some sin.
Chills ran down Dillin’s spine as his hand instinctively reached for the dagger he usually carried, but found nothing.
“It is all your fault!”
“Everything that happened is because of you!”
That sweet tone twisted into something hateful. The standing corpses shuffled toward him, encircling him, leaving no room to escape.
“If only you didn’t exist, none of this would’ve happened!”
What do they mean ‘if not for me’?
Facing their accusing glares, Dillin was confused.
“Come join us,” they growled, lunging at him like vengeful spirits.
Dillin struggled to open his eyes, and in the dim room, a gleaming blade loomed dangerously close to his neck.
His reflexes, honed through practice, instantly triggered a reaction: he decided he needed to dodge now.
He felt a person straddling his waist—too dark to make out who, but small enough to be not even up to his chest.
A cold gust of wind brushed past as Dillin’s head swerved to avoid the blade that nearly found its mark on his forehead.
Why didn’t the attack target his neck?
Dillin wondered if the attacker made a mistake, was inexperienced, or simply a first-time killer.
“Tsk!” The assassin, upon noticing Dillin’s alertness, muttered indignantly, “Did the illusion expire so quickly?”
“Illusion??” Dillin’s brows furrowed, disregarding the familiar tone. He grabbed the bedside lamp and swung it toward the attacker’s face.
A girl’s voice. Tsk. Too young to be doing this assassination business – starting so young with evil intents?
Just as she pulled her blade out of the mattress for her second attempt, the big lamp headed her way, forcing her to twist her flexible waist to dodge.
This destabilized her, and her lack of strength made it easy for Dillin to throw her off and land her flat on the ground.
The girl, wincing in pain, tried to continue but had missed her best opportunity.
Besides, with the dim lighting, her blade had been lost somewhere in the room.
That was when Dillin switched on the crystal lamp.
Wakened by the sudden attack during sleep, Dillin was shocked and horrified. He couldn’t recall who he had offended so severely to warrant such deadly hatred. Whoever they were, infiltrating Coleman Academy to assassinate one of its students was audacious.
The room lit up with gentle light.
Upon realizing the electric lamp was on, the person subconsciously used her sleeve to cover her face, but some unmistakable features still stood out.
That striking golden hair was enough to reveal everything.
“It’s you!?” Dillin was both startled and infuriated.
He immediately recognized her as the young blonde girl from yesterday, the one he had half-heartedly confessed to: Miss Yimi.
“Yimi??”
Having been exposed, Yimi no longer bothered pretending. She rose, lowering her hands from her face, and those clear emerald eyes stared directly at Dillin, without a word.
“Why are you doing this?” After a moment of silence, Dillin demanded an answer. “If my confession offended you, there was no need to go this far.”
“Too far?” Yimi shook her head, her doll-like face curling into a mocking smirk. “Do you really have amnesia?”
“Amnesia??”
“Too many sins, leading to memory loss?”
“Unfortunately, amnesia is practically a blessing for someone like you.” Yimi’s voice, sweet yet cold, chilled the room.
“What exactly have you been talking about since the beginning? What amnesia? I’ve never had amnesia, and I didn’t even know you before yesterday, Miss Yimi.”
Seeing her identity discovered, Yimi didn’t hold back any longer. She stood up, lowering the hand covering her face. Her crystal-clear green eyes locked onto Dillin with silent intensity.
“You want to act like you have no idea what’s happening? Still pretending just like before?”
“Still holding onto your privileged and condescending attitude, as high and mighty as ever.” Yimi tilted her head slightly with a sneer. “Looks like even erasing your memories doesn’t change your character, does it?”
“Wait, what do you mean by Ti—Tillysha? What Tillysha? Who is that here?”
“Still playing dumb, huh? Like you always do, walking around with your deceptive mask.”
“But unfortunately for you, your act doesn’t fool my eyes for a second.” Yimi sneered, a faint flicker of gold in her eyes.
Dillin’s pupils contracted.
This was… Divine Analysis Technique?
