“W-what?! What do you mean he’s not here?!”
Back in the encampment, everyone had woken up early by Radakel’s order. His first announcement shocked everyone.
“Please calm down, Hero Amelia,” Radakel said, trying to soothe a panicked Amelia.
“I-I won’t calm down until I know where Nathan is!” Amelia’s voice rang out, loud enough for everyone to understand what had happened, including all her students.
Nathan had disappeared.
“We don’t know yet, but I think I have an idea of where he might be,” Radakel said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
“W-Where then?!” Amelia demanded, her expression pale and fearful.
All her students and the knights understood why Amelia was panicked. She cared deeply for her students, and they noticed her anxiety. However, none of them realized how much more scared she was for Nathan than anyone else. She was struggling to control her emotions, but it was hard.
Nathan.
He had been one of her precious students until a month ago, but for nearly two months since they were summoned, Amelia had felt small changes in her feelings as she spent more time with Nathan. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn’t help herself. She had these strange feelings and eventually fell for her student.
She felt ashamed and tried her best to avoid Nathan, but her feelings only grew stronger. Then, two weeks ago, they had crossed a line.
Since then, Nathan’s words had reassured her, telling her not to worry about the trivial student-teacher relationship since they were in another world. Amelia came to accept and embrace her relationship with Nathan. Everything had been going well; she was in love with him.
But now he had disappeared.
One thing she was sure of now: she couldn’t live without Nathan.
“Probably in Uteska. Some demons seemed to have visited our camp to gather information, and they kidnapped Hero Nathan,” Radakel said, shocking everyone.
Amelia’s face paled even further.
“A-And you didn’t stop him? What about the knights? They were supposed to be guarding us to prevent such things! So why…” Amelia’s voice trembled with rage and fear, unable to hold back her emotions.
Radakel had been the one to bring them here, and he couldn’t even protect Nathan. What if they kidnapped another one of her students?
Radakel couldn’t admit that he honestly had no idea where Nathan had gone. He had noticed a demon roaming around their camp but had purposefully ignored it. Why? Because he didn’t care. In fact, he had hoped the demon would kill one of the students to instill a deep hatred for demons in the remaining heroes. But something strange had happened that morning.
Nathan’s presence had vanished around the same time as the demon’s.
How? Radakel had no idea, but his theory was that the demon had noticed Nathan and decided to kidnap him. Nathan’s sudden disappearance seemed the most plausible explanation. However, this didn’t account for why Nathan’s presence had vanished entirely. He could detect the demon’s presence but not Nathan’s.
Radakel’s first theory was that the demon had killed Nathan and buried him somewhere, causing his presence to vanish because he was dead. But he wouldn’t tell Amelia that—not yet, at least.
If Nathan was dead, it would be like killing two birds with one stone. Nathan had been a thorn in Radakel’s side, not because he was strong, but because he thought differently from the other heroes. More importantly, Nathan had been with Oscar when Oscar died. Radakel didn’t think Nathan had killed Oscar; Nathan was too weak.
Radakel, with his powerful skills and strength, could sense and gauge others’ strengths, and Nathan was average at best.
Unfortunately, not even in his wildest theories did Radakel suspect that the Goddess Khione, whom he respected and trusted the most, had given Nathan a ring capable of hiding his strength from even powerful beings like the Divine Knights.
Instead, Radakel and the other Divine Knights believed that Nathan had a powerful ally who had killed Oscar. Their plan was to kill Nathan to draw out this ally. Everything was going smoothly until now.
Uteska.
A village infested with demons, which Radakel despised. He intended to use this village to eliminate both the demons and Nathan in secret, making Nathan’s murder appear as though it had been committed by a demon. This way, he could kill the demons, kill Nathan, and incite hatred towards the demon race among the heroes, following Nathan’s death. It was a plan to kill three birds with one stone.
But his plan to kill Nathan fell apart the moment Nathan disappeared.
If Nathan were dead, and by a demon’s hand, Radakel would have been satisfied, as he would be free of suspicion. However, he had no idea what had happened to Nathan. Still, he wasn’t about to abandon a village full of demons just to search for Nathan, whom he wanted dead in the first place.
So, he lied. He told Amelia and the other heroes that Nathan had been kidnapped by demons, hoping to drive them all towards Uteska.
“Please, calm down, Hero Amelia. You have to be strong. If you want to save Hero Nathan, then we should hurry to Uteska. If they wanted to kill him, they wouldn’t have kidnapped him. He could very well be alive as we speak,” Radakel said, his voice steady and reassuring.
Amelia quickly understood what Radakel meant. If the demons had wanted to kill Nathan, they would have left his body behind. But no body was found, fortunately.
“Everyone!”
Fortunately for her, someone else took the lead and spoke up. It was, of course, Jason.
“Our classmate Nathan has been kidnapped by the demons! We can’t abandon him!!” he yelled.
“YEEEEAAAAAH!!!!”
Most of his classmates cheered in response, not necessarily because they wanted to save Nathan, but because they were swept up in Jason’s charisma.
“Let’s save our classmate! Lend me your strength, everyone!” Jason shouted once more, raising his sword high. “No mercy for the evil demons who try to hurt our comrades!!”
“YEAAAAAAH!!”
“LET’S KILL THOSE BASTARDS!!!”
“With Jason, Aiden, and Sienna, it’s already a done deal!!!”
“Let’s support them then!!!”
“Let’s show them what heroes are!!!”
Jason’s words ignited a fervor among his classmates, their desire to tear apart the demons burning brightly. The image of the demons was already negative in the heroes’ eyes, thanks to the careful brainwashing speeches given by the knights and Oscar previously. Now, with Radakel’s manipulation, Nathan’s disappearance, and Jason’s rousing speech, they all thought of only one thing.
Tear apart the demons.
Usually, at this moment, Amelia would have intervened to caution against unnecessary killing, but she wasn’t in her right mind at all. Her worry for Nathan clouded her judgment. She didn’t even notice Radakel’s smirk as he observed Jason rousing the heroes to kill the demons.
Radakel’s plan was unfolding perfectly.