Chapter 134 — Where’s Kael?

Kael felt a chill run down his spine.

Everywhere around him was cold, almost as though he had fallen into the middle of a fever dream. The air itself seemed to carry a strange weight, pressing against his skin while an unnatural silence surrounded him.

He instinctively pulled his blanket tighter around himself, trying to steal whatever warmth he could from it.

Then something soft touched his face.

It wasn’t quite liquid.

It wasn’t quite solid either.

Kael shivered.

His eyes slowly opened.

For several seconds, he simply stared upward.

There was a ceiling above him—or at least, something that resembled one. Yet the longer he stared, the less certain he became. The surface stretched endlessly into the distance, covered by a pale mist that seemed to shift whenever he focused on it.

Kael blinked several times.

His head was heavy.

His body felt strangely comfortable despite the cold.

He turned his head.

The unfamiliar terrain finally came into view.

There were no walls.

No furniture.

No windows.

No academy.

Nothing.

Only an endless landscape covered in a thin layer of white mist, with enormous black rocks scattered across the horizon like the remains of some ancient battlefield.

Kael slowly pushed himself upright.

"Where am I," Kael muttered drowsily as he slowly sat up from the ground his bed.

He looked down.

His bed was somehow beneath him.

That realization should have immediately alarmed him.

Instead, Kael simply stared at it for several seconds.

He was too tired to process the absurdity.

Then—

"Hello there."

Kael heard a jovial voice from behind him.

His eyes widened slightly.

He turned his head.

A man stood several meters away.

Blindfolded.

Hands casually resting inside his pockets.

A mischievous smile stretched across his face.

Kael stared at him.

"Xavier," Kael muttered drowsily, still feeling sleepy.

His expression remained blank.

"My eyes must be playing tricks. This is just a bad fever dream. Maybe the alcohol really did affect me," Kael muttered, lying back on his bed.

A moment of silence passed.

Then a loud laugh echoed across the strange landscape.

Kael’s eyes opened.

He immediately sat up.

"You damn, insane man, what are we doing here, more specifically what am I doing here?" Kael questioned, obviously angry.

Xavier merely smiled.

"Come on, you’re yet to make your decision. So I brought you here to speed up the process. We’ll start your training here," Xavier replied casually, completely ignoring the exact question Kael had asked.

Kael stared at him.

There was something deeply unsettling about how casually Xavier treated the situation.

He looked around again.

"Why? I doubt I agreed to this treatment," Kael replied.

Xavier tilted his head.

"What do you mean? I met you in school, and asked you while you were sleeping and you agreed. At least, I took your snore as an agreement," Xavier casually replied.

Kael’s face went blank.

"This is basically child abuse," Kael complained.

"Why are you calling it child abuse?"

"Because I was asleep."

"Exactly. You couldn’t object."

Kael slowly looked at him.

He wasn’t sure whether Xavier was joking.

That was probably the worst part.

"What are you gonna do? Go run to your mama, mama’s boy?" Xavier mocked with a smile.

Kael just felt exhausted, already knowing that there was no way out of the situation.

He had encountered plenty of strange people throughout his life.

Xavier was quickly becoming his least favorite.

Xavier observed Kael with a contented smile.

"I see that you’ve already accepted your impending doom?" Xavier stated.

"So you know that your training can lead to death?" Kael complained.

"Well, you’ll do fine perhaps," Xavier said.

"Perhaps?" Kael repeated hesitantly.

Xavier turned around.

"Come on let’s get going."

Kael remained seated for another moment.

His instincts screamed at him not to follow.

Unfortunately, his experience told him something else.

There was no point resisting.

He sighed and stood.

The moment his feet touched the strange ground, Kael felt the atmosphere change.

The weight of the air increased.

His eyes narrowed.

Xavier didn’t say anything.

He simply walked forward.

Kael followed.

Back at the academy, another story was beginning.

Auriella stepped out of her room after mentally preparing herself to meet Kael for their upcoming duel.

She had spent the previous night thinking about the challenge she had issued.

Tomorrow.

That had been the plan.

She would challenge Kael for the top-ranked position.

Not because she hated him.

Not because she wanted attention.

But because she wanted to know exactly how far she had to go.

The tournament had proven something to her.

Kael was no longer the boy people believed him to be.

And if she wanted to stand at the top, she needed to surpass him.

With that thought in mind, Auriella headed toward the Disciplinary Committee.

When she entered, she immediately spotted Charlotte and several other members of the committee.

Cairo and Lynx were nowhere to be seen.

Auriella frowned.

"Charlotte, do you know where Kael is? Why isn’t he here?" Auriella asked.

Charlotte and the rest of the Disciplinary Committee were stunned.

Charlotte stared at her for a few seconds before sighing.

"Are you really asking about Kael? I guess you’ve forgotten how lazy he is. I’m hungover from yesterday’s party, so I can’t guess how drunk Kael himself is. Don’t expect him here. It’s best to go directly to his room," Charlotte stated.

Auriella sighed.

For a moment, she felt stupid.

Of course.

She had spent so much time thinking about her upcoming duel that she had forgotten one of the most obvious facts about Kael.

He was Kael.

If there was an opportunity to avoid unnecessary work, he would take it.

She turned.

Then she spotted Zion.

He was standing near the entrance, his expression calm.

"I was waiting to observe the fight between the both of you. After all, you are not the only one who wants to defeat Kael," Zion stated.

Auriella glanced at him.

"I see. Then don’t get in my way," Auriella replied sternly.

The two began walking alongside Charlotte toward the dormitories.

Zion remained quiet for several seconds before speaking.

"I guess it’s like Kael to decide not to leave his room especially with the party that happened yesterday, but Auriella, seriously, would you think that Kael is in the Disciplinary Committee? The entire Class A knows that Kael is too lazy for that sort of stress," Zion commented.

Auriella gave him a deadly side glance.

She decided not to retort.

Charlotte, however, wasn’t as merciful.

"You’re one to talk. Didn’t you follow her because you thought Kael was also here? Doesn’t that make you an even bigger idiot?" Charlotte reprimanded, glaring at Zion.

Zion opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

Charlotte smiled.

She had won.

Again.

The three continued walking.

Their conversation gradually died down as they approached Kael’s dormitory.

But before they reached his room, something caught their attention.

Professor Raphael and Miss Stella were standing outside Kael’s door.

The sight immediately made all three students stop.

Auriella frowned.

Something was wrong.

"Miss Stella, what’s happened to Kael?" Auriella asked.

Charlotte looked between them.

"Why are you guys at his door? Did he do something again?" Charlotte questioned.

Professor Raphael looked at both of them and shook his head.

"No."

His voice was unusually serious.

"I know that you two have been training to defeat Kael, but that fight may be postponed until the next semester."

Auriella’s expression changed.

Zion’s eyes narrowed.

Charlotte stepped closer.

"What happened?"

Raphael turned toward Stella.

Stella looked at the students.

"I’ll tell you. Kael has been abducted by the strongest Hunter, Xavier," Stella completed.

"What?" Charlotte said, slumping.

"How did it happen? What does he want with Kael?" she continued.

Raphael remained calm.

"Well, it’s obvious. He has taken Kael as a disciple, and I’m sure you know what that means," Charlotte continued.

Silence followed.

The three students understood the implications immediately.

Xavier wasn’t simply some powerful warrior.

He was a monster among monsters.

Someone who had reached a level where ordinary standards of strength no longer applied to him.

And now Kael was his student.

Auriella’s hands slowly clenched.

"I must get stronger," Auriella said quietly.

She didn’t say anything else.

She simply turned and left.

Zion watched her back for a moment.

His grip around his sword tightened.

"I’ll be taking my leave," he stated, following suit.

Charlotte remained still.

Her expression was complicated.

She had known Kael for only a short period compared to some of the others, yet somehow, his presence had already become a strange constant in her life.

He annoyed her.

He avoided work.

He slept whenever he could.

And somehow, he kept moving further and further ahead, but now he was gone like always leaving on his own especially when he was kidnapped

And the person who had taken him was Xavier.

Charlotte slowly looked toward Stella.

"I take it you want to grow stronger too," Stella asked.

Charlotte nodded solemnly.

Stella smiled faintly.

"Then don’t waste your time here. Let’s get going," Stella said, leaving the room with Charlotte following behind her.

Raphael remained outside Kael’s room.

He stared at the empty hallway.

For a moment, his expression was unreadable.

Then a smile slowly appeared on his face.

The academy had changed.

The students had changed.

Even those who had once been content with their positions were beginning to hunger for something more.

Kael had become the center of that change without even realizing it.

Auriella wanted to surpass him.

Zion wanted to surpass him.

Charlotte wanted to grow stronger.

Others would soon follow.

Raphael looked toward the distant windows.

Beyond them, the academy grounds were quiet beneath the morning sky.

"I guess the upcoming Interhigh tournament would be worth watching. The students might actually surprise me," Raphael said with a smile.

Somewhere far away, beyond the academy’s walls, Kael was walking through an unknown world behind Xavier.

He had no idea what awaited him.

He didn’t know how long he would be gone.

He didn’t know what Xavier intended to teach him.

And he certainly didn’t know what kind of person he would become after surviving it.

But one thing was certain.

The first semester had ended.

The second semester would not begin with the same Kael who had entered the academy.

And somewhere beyond the boundaries of the academy, the path toward that change had already begun.

END OF VOLUME 1