Chapter 188: The World Went Dark

A boy named Sue.

That song came to mind when the guy sitting one desk away from me raised his hand. Apparently, he was Nythera-blessed, the goddess of dreams. He had somewhat curly hair and a bobcut that definitely didn’t suit him, but there was a calmness about him that made him seem older than he probably was.

"...then Ambly struck God down," he replied.

Mr. Hips rubbed his long beard, then nodded with satisfaction. He was our history teacher, and the man took his subject seriously. He had a bald head, a long robe similar to what most of the teachers here wore, and blue eyes. He looked somewhere in his sixties or seventies, although it was hard to tell.

"That is correct," he said. "Ambly, may her blessing reach all of us, struck the evil down. Then, this whole world was rid of His wretchedness. Good job, my dear student."

"Thank you, sir." Sue sat back in his chair.

"Then, the gods decided to bless us mortals with their powers," Mr. Hips continued. "So no god would die."

I wanted to ask what he meant by that, but it seemed like common knowledge, and I didn’t want to look like an idiot. I made a mental note to look it up in the library during the next break or whenever I had some free time.

"It was Ambly who taught us how to tell time. The clocks we use were all her invention," he said. "And chess. According to some writings, Ambly loved playing chess."

"Chess?" I muttered to myself.

This crazy woman had brought stuff from my own world to this one and acted like she had invented it? I was curious how people here had managed to tell time before all these technological advancements, so apparently, that was Ambly’s doing too. Of course it was.

"And since we have an Ambly-blessed here..." The professor pointed at me. "Mr..."

"Walker." I replied with a fake smile.

"Mr. Walker," he continued. "You’ve been blessed by the powerful goddess. I wonder why you’re here in F-class."

"My mana pool is low," I replied, getting up. "That’s why, sir. I guess she made a mistake."

"Blasphemy." The professor recoiled as if I had just kicked him in the nuts. "You should wash your mouth with soap, young man."

"S-sorry."

"Anyway," he said, sitting back in his chair. "I think that’s all for today. You may leave. Be careful on your way to the dormitories. I know they’re only a minute away, but still. Don’t talk to any strangers. We all know what happened yesterday."

The students began getting up and gathering their books before leaving the classroom. I lingered for a few seconds, then grabbed the backpack the academy had provided, put my notebooks inside, and headed out.

As soon as I stepped into the corridor, I saw Nanda waiting for me. She was resting both elbows on the windowsill across from the classroom door, her tail wagging behind her.

"Yo," she said, the smile that seemed permanently attached to her face never disappearing. "How’s my favorite woman-pleaser?"

"Keep it down," I said, glancing around to see if anyone had heard her. "What are you doing here?"

"Sermara sent me a letter-nya." She licked her palm, then her ears twitched slightly. "She wants to meet with you again."

"That woman nearly killed me, Nanda. Thanks, but no."

"Five golds for you, five for me." She smirked. "Sounds good?"

"Sounds terrible." I exhaled. "Bye."

I turned to leave.

╔══════════════════════╗

> Status Effect Detected!

> Type: Mind Control

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> Source: ???

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> Passive Activated:

> Mental Immunity (Ambly-blessed)

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> Effect: NEGATED

> Status: UNAFFECTED

╚══════════════════════╝

I stumbled forward as the UI appeared in front of me, my eyes widening. What? Someone had tried to mind-control me. If it had been Nanda, the system would have told me. But it hadn’t. So someone else had just attempted to mess with my head.

"Did you just cast a spell on me?" I asked, my voice tense. "Mind control?"

Nanda tilted her head to the side. "Nya?"

Of course it wasn’t her.

I looked around the corridor, trying to figure out where the spell had come from. That was when I noticed someone in the crowd. A girl stood near the beginning of the corridor with one hand raised toward me, her palm open. She seemed to be struggling with something, her expression tense as she stared in my direction.

"Hey," I called out, walking toward her. "Stop."

She muttered something under her breath, then immediately turned and hurried away.

"Shit."

I pushed through the crowd of students leaving the classroom and followed her. When I reached the point where she had turned, I went left as well and looked down the corridor.

There she was, running toward the building’s double doors.

I took off after her, nearly running straight into a group of students coming out of another classroom.

"Hey! Watch where you’re going!"

"Careful!"

"Don’t run in the corridor!"

"Sorry!" I called back without slowing down.

The girl was already halfway down the corridor, weaving through the students with surprising ease. I followed her as best I could, slipping between people and nearly knocking a stack of books from a student’s arms.

"Hey!"

"Idiot."

"Don’t run!"

"Fuck-face."

She reached the end of the corridor and shoved open the double doors. Daylight flooded through the opening as she rushed outside.

I followed immediately.

The stairs leading down from the academy were wide enough for several people to walk beside each other, but she took them almost two at a time. I hurried after her, gripping the railing as I descended and nearly losing my footing on the last few steps.

Professor Kroua was standing near the bottom of the stairs with another teacher. She looked up just as I rushed past.

"Ace?"

I didn’t have time to explain.

The girl was already crossing the courtyard.

She was heading straight for the academy gates, where two guards stood watching the entrance. As soon as they noticed her running toward them, both straightened and reached for their spears.

"Stop her!" I shouted.

The guards exchanged a quick glance.

"What’s going on?" one of them called.

"Just stop her!"

The girl didn’t even slow down.

The guards shifted their stance, but neither moved to intercept her. She passed between them and through the gates, leaving me to wonder for half a second why they had let her through so easily.

I didn’t have time to question it.

I ran after her.

The moment I passed through the gates, the noise of the city swallowed us. People moved along the main road in every direction, merchants shouted from their stalls, and carts rolled between the crowds. The girl used all of it to her advantage, slipping between people without hesitation.

I followed her through the crowd.

She ducked around a fruit cart, forcing me to jump sideways to avoid crashing into it. A merchant shouted something at me as several oranges rolled across the ground.

"Sorry!"

The girl glanced over her shoulder.

She was fast. Really fast.

She cut across the road just as a wagon passed, forcing me to wait for it before crossing. By the time I reached the other side, she had already climbed onto the edge of a wooden market stall and jumped over a stack of empty crates.

I couldn’t believe she was doing this.

I followed, stepping onto one of the crates and using it to get over the stall. The merchant behind it yelled at me as I landed among several baskets of vegetables.

"Are you insane?"

I pushed myself up and continued after her.

She turned into a narrower street lined with small shops. I caught sight of her again as she ran past a tailor’s shop, then disappeared behind a group of workers carrying wooden boards.

I shoved through them.

"Move!"

"Hey!"

I caught another glimpse of her farther ahead.

Could she be the killer? The one who had thrown Pix into the Circle and taken her place? Maybe she had taken the form of another student. It would explain why I recognized her from the girls’ dormitory. If she could disguise herself well enough to fool everyone there, she could have been anyone.

And now she was specifically targeting me. She knew I was onto her. God knew what she would have done if that mind-control spell had worked. I was damn lucky Ambly’s blessing had given me immunity to things like that.

I couldn’t let her get away.

She cut between two buildings and entered another street. I followed, my boots pounding against the stone as I gained a little ground.

"Hey!"

She didn’t answer.

She suddenly grabbed the side of a low wall and swung herself over it, landing in a narrow passage on the other side. I followed without bothering to look for another route, grabbing the wall and pulling myself over.

My shoulder clipped the top on the way down, but I kept moving.

The passage opened into another street filled with people. She pushed through the crowd, then suddenly veered left between two buildings.

I followed.

The street narrowed considerably as I went deeper. The sounds of the market faded behind me, replaced by the echo of my own footsteps against the stone walls.

She was still ahead.

I ran harder as she turned right at the end of the narrow street.

I followed her around the corner without slowing down... then something slammed into the left side of my head.

My vision lurched sideways. I hit the ground hard as the impact sent a sharp pain through my skull. I groaned and tried to push myself up, but my arms felt weak and my vision wouldn’t settle.

Someone stepped into view. The girl stood over me. And she wasn’t alone.

A masked figure stood beside her, dressed in dark clothing that concealed most of their body. The girl looked down at me with an amused smile.

I knew her. I’d seen her before. The girls’ dormitory. She had been one of the students there.

"If mind control doesn’t work," she said, her smile widening, "then I’ll use the old-fashioned way."

She lifted her foot and brought it down hard against my face.

The world went dark.

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