197 197: The intruder
The attack looked to be planned but just mistimed. The attacker chose when Miss Violet was escorted back to make a move.
The attackers had positioned themselves in a way that hid him from the normal eyes but Aurora could sense the moment in the distance.
Usually, it would not be that noticeable of a move. This was a school and the students here were unique. Finding one or two of them hiding away would not be odd.
But the man had a weird aura around him. His dishonest intentions made him shine out in the sea of children around him.
Besides, Aurora could tell that something bad was about to happen and she decided to take action against the man.
“Teacher, are you alright?” The children that were around Aurora asked.
Their eyes held curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. Aurora suddenly had a bright idea to make use of this situation.
“Well, I have a task for you all. Someone suspicious managed to sneak around the school but I doubt he would be able to harm us. I want you all to spread out and find the intruder.”
The children shared a look before they ran away. They did not say anything in response to Aurora’s request but she knew that they understood what she wanted from them.
The children would create chaos that would confuse the intruder. It would make him sloppy and that was when Aurora would catch him.
Frankly, Aurora was not worried about these children’s safety. They had been selected with care and each of them had a protective spell woven in their skin.
Their intruder would get quite a shock if he tried to harm these children.
And it just so happened that the attacker chooses was the worst children to target. By the time Aurora arrived on the scene and took the intruder captive, Damian had already detained the man.
The teen had a sneer on his face, his eyes glaring daggers toward the intruder.
“Damian, nice work.” Aurora’s praise caused the teen to blush.
“It was easy enough. Next time, I want a bigger challenge. Sending such a low-level assassin is an insult to me.”
Aurora just shook her head at the teen’s words. He was not acting any different from his usual self. This assassination attempt did not seem to be bothering him.
“Now then, I should put you behind bars for now. We cannot have people seeing an intruder in here.”
Aurora picked the man up. It must have been comical to see a petite female picking up a bulky and strong-looking man by one arm.
But anything was possible when you had magic and Aurora had no problems picking the man up.
However, her plan to make a quiet exit did not work out as she had intended. Even before she could leave the corridor, she came face to face with the one person she had been meaning to avoid.
Lady Violet raised her eyebrow, her familiar eyes switching between Aurora and the man she was dragging away behind her.
“Is something the matter here?”
Rex, who was standing behind his stepmother, gave out a tired sigh. The past few days in his stepmother’s company seemed to have taken a toll on his mental health.
There were dark circles around his eyes, and he looked ready to collapse at any second. This was the worst condition Aurora had seen him in.
“No, nothing is wrong. I am just taking the trash out. Excuse me then.”
Aurora tried to go past the elder but Lady Violet stepped in Aurora’s path. Her blank face made her impossible to read for most but Aurora could feel her curious aura poking around her.
The elder lady reached out and Aurora flinched on reflexes. She had never liked anyone from her past touching her. It had been something that had carried over from her younger days.
“Relax. I am just trying to have a good look at this intruder. I feel like I know who send him here. Besides, this case has now become a security issue for the cabinet so we will need to investigate it thoroughly. Don’t give me that look, Rex. Your certificate is safe for now.”
Aurora also felt her breath ease as soon as Lady Violet confirmed the safety of their certificate.
Aurora knew that such a sloppy attempt would not become a cause for concern in her mind, but she had still been worried.
“Now that things have become difficult, I guess I will stick around here for a bit longer to make sure everything is alright. You do not have a problem with that, right Rex?”
Aurora felt her enthusiasm plummet at those words.
‘Why? Why can’t she leave us alone?’
This was the worst news Aurora could have gotten from this encounter. She had thought that she was finally free of Lady Violet but then this happened.
The intruder chuckled at the look of misery Aurora had but she could not even begin to punish him for it. She had to behave herself in front of Lady Violet.
“And you! Don’t think I have no intentions to make you pay for what you have done. The main reason I have decided to stay back is to bake you confess who your contractor is.”
The man stiffened in the face of danger known as Lady Violet. Aurora knew from experience how scary she could look and feel. The man held no chance against that glare.
“Mother, it is enough. For now, we should make preparations to detain this man and do a thorough check around the perimeters for any problems that may arise as a result.”
Rex was brave to speak up. Aurora could see that he wanted nothing more than to wipe his hands off this case but the man held his ground.
As for Lady Violet, she had a thoughtful look on her face. It was difficult to tell what she was thinking.
But she did walk out of Aurora’s way for the time being.
“Fine, I will give you people the first dibs on this man. But I want my chance to interrogate him as well. We cannot overlook this incident since the timing and intention of it occurring looks to be planned.”
It did occur to Aurora that the lady might be worried for her life. Even though the intruder did not say anything, he was looking at Lady Violet with shady eyes.
Aurora guessed the man’s intentions to charge at Lady Violet before the man could act on it. The man tried to use his superior strength to break free from Aurora’s grasp.
But he was unlucky that he was being held in Aurora’s grasp. Not only did the man fail, but Aurora also did not hesitate to knock him out.
“Ugh, I hate dealing with idiots like him. I better hand him over to Alexader. His ability to read minds will be really useful right now.”
Aurora did not want to spend any more time on this man than she had to. As soon as Alexander would be back, Aurora would hand this man over to him.
She had other plans in action and Aurora needed to do something about her corruption.
There had been a letter sitting on her desk from the Eastern continent. The king of the eastern empire had recovered and invited Aurora and her companion to come and celebrate that joyous occasion.
And that was an event Aurora did not want to miss. She needed to make connections with the East to ease their academy’s way into the trading route.
Honestly speaking, Natasha’s loss had been a huge blow to the Rocx academy’s connections with the north. The nation no longer needed to keep strong ties with the academy.
And in such a trying time, Aurora needed to find another power to keep peaceful connections.
There was no better time to head out than right now. And Rita was already standing on the stand-by to head out.
But this time, Aurora had another companion she wanted to take along. East had been the city of dragons. It was where most of the legends about the hardy dragons originated from and there was one person who was curious about such tales.
“I should send a message to Astoria as well. And I better take that baby dragon along with me. I wonder how big he must have gotten in the meantime. I all but abandoned him to that Vieras.”
Aurora did regret abandoning the dragon child but she had no other choice. The dragon was too young and inexperienced to take with her.
But now was the time to take her secret weapon out. Unlike the other regions, the East had an unhealthy obsession with dragons and dragon-born. There was a rumor that their current king had some dragon blood in him as well. (Aurora did not believe this rumor)
So it would only be right to take the dragon to such a nation.