Free Web NovelChapter 24: The Unanswered Question
"You..."
"It’s you!"
Silas had barely begun sorting through the turmoil in his mind when the door to his room swung open. His instincts sharpened immediately.
A girl stepped inside, closed the door behind her, and the room fell into silence. The two of them stared at each other.
Standing before him was Cher. She wore a short gown, and a medical strip clung to the side of her neck. She looked exhausted and injured, yet there was a fierceness in her violet eyes that Silas had never seen before.
She was angry, no... she was way beyond furious. Silas doubted she had come in peace, and the next thing she did proved him right.
"I heard someone else had been attacked that night and brought here," she said coldly. "I thought it was Leopard. Turns out it was you."
There was neither sympathy nor curiosity in her voice. It sounded as though she was restraining herself from unleashing her rage. Then, a short staff appeared in one hand, and a crystal in the other.
Two white spheres of fire manifested above her head, radiating dangerous heat as her eyes glowed with a fierce violet light.
Silas froze.
This was the first time he had seen Cher use her ability. Until this moment, he had never realised that Cher was a mage.
"Hey... hey. What are you doing?"
Panic surged through him.
He had only just decided to stop relying on the Time Mental World, and somehow disaster had found him anyway. His gaze darted around the room.
’Shit. My daggers aren’t here.’
Only then did he realise that his clothes, belt, and weapons had all vanished. Following his gaze, Cher calmly said, "The teachers confiscated everyone’s weapons."
Silas glanced between her staff and the floating fireballs.
"...Then what about those?"
"I’m a special case," she replied flatly. "I have more than one staff."
For a moment, she seemed to realise how absurd it was to explain herself under these circumstances. The brief calm disappeared, replaced by a cold, threatening stare.
"Now answer me." freēwēbηovel.c૦m
She tightened her grip on the staff.
"Do you know who planned the attack? Are you into this?"
"...What?"
Silas blinked.
For a few seconds, he genuinely wondered if he had misheard her.
"Are you saying I’m part of the group who arranged the attack on you... and then arranged the same attack on myself?" fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
He pointed between the two of them, disbelief written plainly across his face. To his horror, Cher nodded seriously.
"It’s the perfect cover," she said, narrowing her eyes. "If you were attacked too, no one would suspect you."
Silas stared at her in stunned silence. Then he exploded.
"What the hell are you talking about?! I nearly died that night! I fought six enemies, my dorm was set on fire, and I ended up here unconscious for two straight days. What kind of genius murderer comes up with a plan like that? It’s the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard!"
For a brief moment, uncertainty flickered across Cher’s face. Then her expression hardened once more.
"So you’re saying you didn’t do it?"
"Hell no. I was attacked just like you were, by the same bastard behind all of this."
Silas had never expected the famed Lisan Al-Gaia to have loose screws rattling around in her head.
Taking a deep breath, he pointed at her.
"Using your logic, you’re a suspect too. Maybe you orchestrated the attack against me, then staged one against yourself to divert suspicion."
"Sounds good." Cher’s reaction didn’t change: "You can’t be a suspect."
Silas crossed his arms.
"See? It sounds ridiculous no matter who’s saying it."
"Yet when I looked at the report of your attack," before he would feel the danger relieved, she added, "it says all six of them were killed by daggers or sharp, short weapons. Even if you have daggers, even if their blood is covering them, you are a Buffer. How come a buffer kills six enemies using daggers? That doesn’t add up."
’Not this point again.’
Silas inwardly cursed, and yet he preserved his calm mask and gave the same reason he told Carlos about.
"Someone appeared mysteriously and saved my life back then," he paused, "and before asking, I didn’t see his face, don’t know who he was, and can’t even tell why he appeared there in the first place to save me."
The room fell silent again.
’Carlos didn’t fall for it, but he is the dean. For sure, she will buy it, right?’
Feeling nervous, he tried his best not to evade her stern gaze. If he showed a single hint of worry at this moment, she wouldn’t believe anything he said and would instantly attack him.
Luckily, after a while, Cher dismissed the fireballs, though she kept hold of her staff.
"Your story is suspicious... but so is everything else."
A long moment of silence landed, felt like an eternity.
"But I don’t think you’re the enemy either."
She said quietly. And with her words, Silas knew he had bypassed the danger.
’First the Shadowheart, now her...’
He rolled his eyes.
’What’s wrong with me?’
"I know how ridiculous I sound," Cher continued. "But after everything that happened during the test... I can’t trust anyone anymore."
Something dark passed through her expression before vanishing beneath her usual cold mask. Silas hesitated before asking, "Did Dark Hunters attack you too?"
"Not just them."
She let out a bitter sigh.
"The team I joined betrayed me first."
Silas paused.
"I can relate to that," he said softly. "Aside from one person, everyone else tried to kill me."
Silence settled over the room once again. This time, however, it felt different. The two exchanged glances, each seeing something painfully familiar reflected in the other’s eyes. At that moment, Silas understood why Cher had felt strangely familiar to him. She had endured the same kind of betrayal during the admission test.
At least, that was what he thought. Soon enough, he would learn their experiences had not been nearly as similar as they appeared.
"And here I thought I had the worst luck in that test."
Cher released her staff, and it simply vanished into thin air. Silas stared in doubt and disbelief. He had not noticed whether she had entered the room carrying it, but now he was certain; the staff had simply disappeared.
"My teammates turned on me," Cher continued, ignoring his bewilderment. "Then the Dark Hunters attacked. If the academy teachers hadn’t intervened and killed them, I wouldn’t be here."
She dragged a chair across the floor and sat opposite him. But Silas barely noticed. His mind had already seized upon something else.
"The teachers saved you?" he asked slowly. "Did the attack happen after the test ended?"
"No."
Cher shook her head.
"It happened on the fifth day."
She frowned.
"Why?"
"...No reason."
Silas lowered his gaze. He kept his thoughts to himself, but unease had already begun to spread through him.
’So my ranking being this low wasn’t simply a mistake.’
His eyes narrowed. For an instant, a surge of fury surfaced within him, intense enough to frighten even himself. Then he forced it down.
’Screw that Shadowheart.’
"There is still something I don’t understand," Cher said after a while. "I know why they targeted me. I’m an L-Enhancer."
She studied him carefully.
"But you... you came from an orphanage. Why would they target you?"
"L-Enhancer?"
Silas blinked.
"Loser Enhancer?"
The reaction was immediate.
"Say that again," Cher said dangerously, summoning her staff once more as the white flames reappeared above her head, "and I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you ever say."
Silas swallowed.
"...Don’t tell me that’s not what it means."
The silence that followed was painfully awkward. Realising that he wasn’t mocking her, Cher slowly lowered her staff.
"You seriously don’t know what an L-Enhancer is?"
Silas shook his head, and Cher stared at him in doubt and surprise.
’How could someone this ignorant survive the admission test?’
She looked him up and down once more before dismissing her ability. Then the question that had been lingering in her mind returned with an even louder tone.
"Why were you targeted?"
She asked it again. And this time, Silas found himself strangely offended.
