Chapter 67

Part 17: Suspect Identification

I turned my body, leaving Pia with a bewildered expression, and walked to the back of the hall.

Then, I stopped in front of someone and spoke.

“My body is really not feeling well. Could you please guide me to the infirmary?”

I clutched my stomach and looked at him, seeking help.

Pia watched the two people, a noble son who had suddenly appeared to greet and then left, and the female teacher who had been guiding people and went out with him, with a puzzled expression.

She couldn’t understand what was going on at all.

However, since her coming to this academy and taking the new student oath were already full of surprises, maybe she could just let this incident pass as another one of those.

“Maybe I just need to keep my focus, as my teacher said.”

She didn’t know where her teacher came from or where they were now, but since her teacher had made her stand alongside the nobles, she could only believe in their words and move forward.

Her teacher had awakened her and her cousin, taught them how to use their abilities, introduced them to this academy, and taught them how to interact with nobles and people.

Thanks to her teacher, she was able to take the new student oath as a commoner representative at this academy.

Of course, she learned here that not only nobles but also some commoners could awaken, but she couldn’t forget the favor of her teacher who had awakened her and her cousin.

‘My teacher said to keep the awakening a secret.’

Her teacher left the village, warning that if other nobles found out, not only her teacher but also they themselves could be in danger.

Of course, Pia and her cousin intended to strictly follow their teacher’s words.

She realized again how significant awakening was after coming here.

Even without her teacher’s words, she intended to keep the secret.

‘But why did the duke’s son come to me?’

While Pia was tilting her head in confusion, a student sitting next to her was mumbling to herself, lost in another question.

“Was there someone named Alex among the Grecia Duke’s children?”

Unfortunately, the opening ceremony started right away, and her muttering was lost in the air.

* * *

“Are you feeling very unwell?”

“I’m sorry. It’s quite hard to bear.”

“If it’s that bad, you should go to the infirmary and receive a healing spell from a cleric. You’ll feel better soon.”

The teacher, or rather, the female teacher, who was leading me to the infirmary, didn’t look any better than I did.

Honestly, I was faking it, so I was fine.

However, there was no reason for her to look so bad unless she was genuinely worried about me.

Her eyes were trembling with anxiety, and she kept looking back at the opening ceremony hall.

That look clearly wasn’t out of concern for me.

But I didn’t intend to say anything because I had already realized the reason for her unease from the previous death.

“Uh, but what’s your name, teacher?”

“Oh, your name is Alex, right? I’m Isidora. I’m a lecturer in the General Education Department.”

A seemingly ordinary woman in her early 30s, a commoner and a lecturer rather than a full-time teacher, answered me.

She was the one who had caused Pia’s explosion earlier.

When Pia exploded again in the destroyed opening ceremony hall, I carefully observed everyone present.

I couldn’t check everyone when the hall exploded because there were too many people, but this time, there were almost no people around.

Only a few clerics, priests, staff members, and the injured.

And the female teacher walking beside me.

She had left the hall just before it exploded and re-entered after the incident.

Her body was covered in black ash, but there were no visible injuries.

Of course, I didn’t suspect her at the time.

She was at the back of the hall, so she could have left first, and it was natural for a teacher to rush in to help after the explosion.

I didn’t find anything strange about her searching for survivors at the time.

However, the moment Pia arrived, I noticed something different about her in my surroundings and senses.

She was the first to check on Pia and then looked around and left the scene when Pia appeared.

This made me start watching her, and when we were a certain distance away, I felt mana rise from her body.

At the same time, mana surged from Pia’s body, and then there was another explosion.

That’s how I died again.

If there had been more people or if she had moved further away, I wouldn’t have noticed the change.

I also understood why all the people with inherited abilities had died.

When Pia exploded, I felt the mana she had raised suddenly disappear.

Or rather, it was sucked into Pia. It seemed that Pia’s ability not only used his own mana but also the mana around him to cause the explosion.

It was a truly terrifying ability.

The more people with strong mana there were, the bigger the explosion, and the ability users couldn’t stop the explosion because their mana was drained.

Moreover, ordinary people had no way to defend themselves.

An inherited ability that targeted ability users, who didn’t know they were bombs, was even more terrifying.

Inherited abilities were more diverse and frightening than I had thought.

After a few words of conversation, we arrived at the infirmary building.

“I need to go back to the opening ceremony, so I can’t stay with you. I’ll tell the clerics to take care of you. Rest well. When you feel better, come back to the opening ceremony. Or I’ll come and find you after it’s over.”

Oh, that’s a bit problematic.

Looking around, there were almost no people on the road, and no one was watching us.

Okay.

“Tea, teacher, wait, wait a moment.”

I groaned and grabbed the teacher’s arm.

“Are you okay?”

The surprised teacher held my body, and I pulled her closer while panting.

“Huh?”

The teacher looked at me with wide eyes, and I placed my hand on her stomach, which I had pulled into my embrace.

Thud.

The mana that burst from my hand struck her stomach.

Whoosh.

My mana swept through the teacher’s body.

“Why…?”

Teacher Isidora looked at me with wide eyes. But then she closed her eyes.

She wasn’t dead, just unconscious.

She was not an ordinary commoner lecturer but an ability user with an inherited ability.

However, unless she was a physical ability user who had trained for a long time, like a knight, she couldn’t withstand a sudden attack from a well-trained knight.

My mana, honed through multiple deaths, had wreaked havoc inside her, and she couldn’t withstand the shock.

“You shouldn’t have let your guard down.”

I whispered this absurd advice into her unconscious ear. Then, I supported her and entered the infirmary building.

As we entered the building, I shouted.

“Over here! The teacher is sick.”

Surprised young priestesses and a middle-aged cleric approached.

I had seen clerics’ healing spells since I was a baby.

During the times I was poisoned, injured, and died, I became well aware of the abilities of the clerics in this world.

The abilities of the clerics in this world were not divine power from a god or the result of faith.

They were simply inherited abilities like those of the nobles.

They didn’t inherit them from their parents like the nobles, but they had inherited the healing abilities of the heroes who used them during the Great War.

Their ability to heal injuries was remarkable, but they couldn’t detect the poisoning of a baby that even an alchemist could notice.

They also couldn’t detect unconsciousness caused by a mana collision.

After laying her on a bed in the infirmary, the cleric immediately placed his hands on her body and used his healing ability, but she didn’t wake up.

“What happened?”

“She suddenly said she wasn’t feeling well and wanted to rest for a moment. I was nearby, so I came with her. But she fainted right here.”

“…What a good student.”

The cleric looked at me with a puzzled expression.

It was hard for him to understand why a student would support a teacher who was feeling unwell during the opening ceremony.

But there was no way to verify it here.

And I was indeed a good student, just in a different way.

“Her breathing seems stable, and there are no other abnormalities, but… what should we do…?”

The clerics clearly knew that their healing abilities were not omnipotent.

“You should go back to the opening ceremony. Why don’t you…?”

“I’ll go and get another staff member.”

I interrupted the cleric and took the initiative.

“…That sounds good.”

The cleric, who seemed hesitant to leave the opening ceremony due to his relationship with the school, nodded.

I placed my hand on her shoulder with a worried look.

“Rest well.”

After confirming that her mana was tangled again, I removed my hand from her shoulder and left the infirmary.

Then, I headed to the opening ceremony building. I quickly entered the building and checked the people standing at the back of the hall.

The opening ceremony had started, and people were focused on it.

As I entered the hall, a staff member approached me.

“Where is Teacher Isidora, who went with you?”

I looked at the staff member who spoke. An ordinary man in his 20s.

Was he just a staff member who saw us leave together, or was he involved in the incident with her?

I couldn’t tell at the moment.

But I could tell that he didn’t have mana, just an ordinary person.

I didn’t answer his question.

“I’m sorry, I have something else to do first.”

Instead, I asked for his understanding and walked to someone else.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?”

The chief knight who had come with the princess looked at me with a puzzled expression.

However, he didn’t ignore me.

He was one of the chief knights of the royal guard and a key figure in the queen’s faction, introduced to me by Queen Lira, the princess’s mother.

It wasn’t just a casual request to help the princess during my time at the academy.

Naturally, he had been introduced to the butler who would serve the princess and the knights who would protect her, and finally, to Chief Knight Noah, one of the pillars of military power.

He had immediately recognized my level of skill. He was indeed a chief knight of the royal guard.

“What is it?”

He moved to a corner and asked me in a low voice.

His voice buzzed around my ears, and the sounds of the opening ceremony were barely audible.

He had blocked the sound with mana.

“I have a suspect in the terrorist attack.”

His expression hardened at my words.

“Don’t tell me, the teacher who went with you?”

Indeed, he hadn’t been negligent in observing the surroundings.

To think that even such a person would be part of the massacre…

“Yes. Lecturer Isidora. She seems to be related to the Viscount Iero incident. I had my doubts, so I used the excuse of pain to go to the infirmary with her and questioned her a bit. She bit the bait and fainted. I laid her down in the infirmary.”

Although she had nothing to do with the Viscount Iero incident, it was hard to come up with another excuse.