The four of them had left the room, and there were more guards that belonged to the academy escorting them. It seemed like they were staying by their side to make sure that they left the main building of the academy and didn’t wander anywhere else.
When they finally exited the building and were on the large courtyard, the whole place felt quieter than usual. There was next to no talking, and the sound of the wind could be heard cutting through the air.
“I guess it’s true there is a break going on. Did most people decide to go home?” Simyon asked. “Well, I guess until the break is over, we’re still Blue headbands, so we should just head back to the sleeping quarters and stay there.”
Just as Simyon was about to turn and make his way through, he crashed his head into something solid. Usually, it was others who would crash into him and feel like they had walked into a wall, but now it was his turn.
“Pink?” Simyon said, rubbing his head.
“Hey, those two people that are meeting with Raze right now, who are they? How does he know them? You’ve been with him for a while, right?” Dame asked.
He would have asked the sister, but since she wasn’t really able to speak, he thought he would ask someone else who would be able to get answers more clearly.
“Oh, that. I’ve never really seen them before. Maybe they were impressed by Raze’s skills and want to ask him about how he learned his skills and such,” Simyon smiled and was about to head toward the sleeping quarters.
That was until he felt a hand grab his shoulder. Immediately, Dame started to dig his fingers into the wound that was created, causing Simyon to scream out in pain.
“Arghh!” Simyon yelled. He wanted to curl up and fall onto the floor, but Dame’s grip was so strong that he was being lifted into the air.
‘Ah crap, I knew there was something up with this guy that Raze met. He seems nice, but the entire time, he’s scared me even more than those damn disciple leaders! Is he going to kill me?’ Simyon thought.
Immediately seeing this, Safa had gone to strike, but before she could, Dame had lifted up his foot and slammed it onto the ground. A wave of Qi went out and had practically pushed Safa backwards, causing her to fall on the ground and her backside to skid across the floor.
‘Freaking hell!’ Liam thought seeing it. ‘Isn’t that… isn’t that the same move that Raze used as well, with the stomp, but look how strong it was. How much Qi does this guy have, and what is going on? I thought we were all friends and on the same side.’
Simyon continued to scream in pain, and as he did, he decided to say at least something. Otherwise, he was afraid this person would go for Safa next, and while Raze was injured, he couldn’t do much either.
“They’re from Alter!” Simyon answered. “That’s all I know. They’re a group that visited us once before from Alter, and they are here as well.”
Having gotten an answer, Dame let go of Simyon, dropping him to the floor.
“Who is Alter?” Dame asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Wait, what?” Liam said, surprised. “You don’t know who Alter is? Even I know who they are.”
It was strange, even Simyon thought so. This person, although he didn’t know his background, was someone who was strong and from the Dark Faction. Surely their clan would have known about Alter. They were an organization nearly all the top clans knew about in the Dark Faction. So why didn’t Pink know about them?
—
Back inside the room, Himmy and Charlotte had both greeted Raze with a polite little bow toward him.
“It hasn’t been too long since we last saw you, kid,” Himmy commented. “You managed to put on quite the show for us. I have to admit it was quite entertaining.”
“Yeah! You managed to catch onto this Pagna stuff really well. Everyone is calling you the star of the Dark Faction. You could actually really become something!” Charlotte said with a smile.
Raze wasn’t flattered by the comments at all. Instead, he had an extremely uninterested look on his face. He desperately wanted to unlock the seal on the soldier statue, but just like last time, if it was a high-level item, there was a good chance that it would unlock a portal. If that was the case, he would rather do it when these guys weren’t here.
“So why have you visited? Does Alter have a task for me?” Raze asked.
“No, don’t be silly,” Charlotte said, waving her hand about like it was a stupid question to ask. “We had a job that was not too far from here, and I remembered you said you were going to join the Pagna Academy, so I wanted to see your progress here, that’s all, and see if you had any problems settling into this new world. It can be hard after all, especially learning the language and words.”
Raze didn’t reply straight away because he thought of something that happened during his time at the academy that was strange. If they weren’t here to give him a job and were just here to see him, then what about that time? 𝞸𝓋𝑙xt.𝒸𝗈𝑚
“Would you happen to know if Alter tried to contact me?” Raze asked.
“Contact you?” Himmy replied. “That shouldn’t be the case. I haven’t been informed of us needing any field agents in the academy itself. Usually, only then, a squad leader like myself would make contact, asking for the field agent’s help. Or, as I said before, if you felt there was the need to report something, you could try to seek us out in certain ways. Come to think of it, I didn’t even tell you how.”
Himmy started to laugh, but Raze felt like it was no laughing matter.
“So are you saying that it’s impossible for someone to know that I was in Alter, other than you two?” Raze asked.
“Well, not impossible,” Himmy replied. “But other field agents wouldn’t know about you. As far as I know, there isn’t anyone that is squad leader level in the academy. Although if someone was even above me, then I wouldn’t know either, and they possibly would know.”
Although that could be the reason behind the letter, Raze just didn’t feel like it was the case. Why leave a letter to meet up, and then never make contact again? The person was clearly trying to hide their identity from him, and would a person in such a high position do that?
“I see. Well, is there anything else you need from me?” Raze asked, leaving it at that. He didn’t want Alter to get involved and wanted them to leave as soon as possible.
“No, that’s it,” Himmy replied.
Shortly after Raze had left the room, when he did, Charlotte had immediately turned around.
“I thought you were going to ask him to be promoted from a field agent to an official member?” Charlotte asked.
“Couldn’t you tell?” Himmy replied. “Someone knows about him here, and there’s a good chance that it isn’t Alter… maybe we should have told him about that group.
Maybe we should stay in the academy for a few days. Who knows, the kid might be good bait.”