Free Web NovelChapter 25: The Dragon Bone Badge
"Is it really that big of a deal to be attacked?"
Silas was annoyed, but he made an effort to rein in his emotions. He had begun asking himself the same question, yet he knew that demanding answers would not magically produce them.
"It is," Cher said with a slow nod. "Lisan Al-Gaia students were attacked on the same night. That isn’t a coincidence."
Her expression darkened slightly.
"Unfortunately, I killed my attackers too quickly and burned their bodies to ash. I never had the chance to learn who sent them or why they came after me."
Silas could tell she had spent a great deal of time thinking about it. Despite having no clues, she refused to give up and continued investigating. The fact that she had dug into his attack report and come to suspect him was proof enough of that.
Yet Silas knew more than she did.
At this point, he had the unsettling feeling that Cher was far better suited to uncover the truth than he ever could be.
"I managed to interrogate one of the people who attacked me."
The revelation caused the composure on Cher’s face to crack for a brief moment before she gathered herself again, a habit he had started noticing.
"And?"
"He said the order came from one of the G-Enhancers." Silas hesitated before adding, "I suspect Leopard. He seemed... authoritative."
"He can’t be the culprit." fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
Cher let out a tired sigh, and Silas immediately understood. She had already suspected Leopard and conducted her own investigation.
"He comes from a powerful clan, one that’s rapidly rising within the kingdom. Someone like him doesn’t need to rely on cheap tricks to prove his worth."
’As expected... she looked into him too.’
Silas wasn’t surprised. If she had been willing to investigate him through intimidation and blunt persistence, it made sense that Leopard had received the same treatment.
"You seem to know quite a bit about him."
"That’s normal." Cher shrugged casually. "For an L-Enhancer, knowing these things is both natural and easy."
Silas grew curious about what being an L-Enhancer truly meant, but he restrained himself from asking. The cold warning she had given him earlier remained fresh in his mind.
"Then why wasn’t he attacked?"
He steered the conversation back to safer ground, trying to piece together information about the other Lisan Al-Gaia.
"Who said he wasn’t?" Cher blinked. "He simply had a much better situation than we did. When the attack happened, he was surrounded by more than a dozen G-Enhancers. The attackers were killed almost immediately without causing any significant damage."
The contrast left a bitter taste in Silas’s mouth.
The difference between him and Leopard had little to do with talent and everything to do with the circumstances of their birth.
’No one cares about orphans.’
He suppressed an inward sigh.
"Then... who do you think it was?"
Ever since Cher had barged into his life, Silas had been forced to seriously consider that question.
"The man I interrogated said the person behind it feared what I might become. If that’s true, then it has to be someone close to us. Otherwise, why target the three of us?"
Cher fell silent once more.
It was becoming a habit, one that constantly tested Silas’s patience.
"He doesn’t necessarily have to be from our year," she finally said. "It could be someone from the higher years. Once we enter our second year, we’ll participate in Bubble expeditions alongside them. To some, we’d represent future competition worth eliminating before it becomes a problem."
Silas wasn’t convinced.
The explanation felt unnecessarily elaborate for someone powerful enough to orchestrate such attacks.
"However..." her voice trailed as if she was thinking about something, "after I burnt their bodies, something was left behind."
Silas didn’t get what she meant until she suddenly took something out of the air. It was a badge, an academy badge.
"What’s surprising about this?" Seeing this made Silas’ eyebrows twitch. "This is a badge of the academy. The ones who attacked us were students; the dean himself exposed this to me..."
"It’s not a normal badge." She raised a finger to silence him. The fact that she didn’t feel anything when he mentioned Carlos told him she already was aware of this.
"I never heard of an academy badge like this."
"As if you know all the badges in the academy."
Silas was about to laugh, but an ominous feeling forbade him from doing so. And luckily, he didn’t. Cher narrowed her eyes, and the dangerous air that accompanied her when she used her staff resurfaced.
"My bad, don’t stop what you were saying." Silas instantly raised both hands to calm her down. And luckily, he succeeded this time without the need to see her two fireballs.
"This badge is different; it’s made out of a special alloy that is considered pretty rare."
She seemed quite disturbed, though, so she swiftly stored the badge away.
"How rare?" Finding out she didn’t totally drop the matter, for reasons he couldn’t get, he tried to show his interest in what she was saying.
"It’s made out of Dragon bones," she casually threw the answer. But hearing this made Silas’ eyes grow wide.
"Dragon bones?"
"Can dragons be killed?"
"How can students possess something like that?"
"Who gives those out?"
"Is it an organisation?"
Silas broke out into a barrage of questions, but all he got was widening eyes from Cher, silence for quite some time, before she finally presented the answer to all this.
"I don’t know."
Grrr!
Before he could voice his doubts, a faint sound interrupted his thoughts. It came from Cher, as her stomach growled. And the change in her expression was immediate.
A second later, Silas’s own stomach betrayed him in exactly the same way.
Strangely, that didn’t seem to ease her embarrassment. Instead, she lowered her head even further, as though she wished the floor would swallow her whole.
"I’ll get us something to eat."
Using the opportunity to excuse himself, Silas left the room. He eventually found a vendor in the hallway, where students could take whatever they needed without payment.
He returned with an assortment of snacks, placed them on the bed, dragged over a chair, and sat beside her.
As he grabbed a snack bag of potatoes to eat, he noticed she remained rooted to her seat. He sized her up and down, inwardly sighed.
"Come on," he gestured with the snack he held in hand, "we can’t fight on an empty stomach, or even think."
He couldn’t tell whether Cher remained embarrassed by the growl of her stomach or by his decision to sit next to her. He didn’t particularly care as long as she started eating.
Cher looked a bit hesitant, extended her slim arm before pausing for a brief second over the snack bag. Then, with an encouraging nod from him, she grabbed the bag, opened it, and quietly devoured the contents.
Then the two ate in silence.
As Silas replayed their strange encounter in his mind, something she had said earlier resurfaced. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
"You mentioned that, as an L-Enhancer, you know a lot of things, right?"
The sudden question broke the quiet. Perhaps as repayment for the food, Cher didn’t mock his ignorance or make one of her usual sharp remarks. She simply nodded.
"Then there’s something I want to ask."
The look in Silas’s eyes sharpened.
"If I wanted to train my mind... is there a way to do it?"
Cher stared at him strangely. Even though she tried not to show it, the question clearly struck her as absurd. Sensing her confusion, Silas cleared his throat.
"You know I grew up in an orphanage. I never received any formal training." He lowered his gaze. "Back then, when those six attacked me, I froze. I was terrified. I couldn’t think, couldn’t fight back. All I wanted was to run and hide."
His voice softened.
"I don’t ever want to feel that helpless again. I don’t want fear to paralyse me when danger appears."
He blended truth with deception so naturally that even he struggled to distinguish between them. He was asking because of Ramus’s advice.
’See? I’m listening to you for once. I’m trusting Gaia’s ridiculous words.’
The explanation he offered was convincing enough. For a long while, Cher remained silent.
"I never realised it could be this difficult for those without an L or G lineage," she said at last.
There was an unfamiliar softness in her voice.
"Then tell me," Silas pressed. "What should I do?"
Compared to uncovering the mastermind behind the attacks, this answer mattered far more to him.
"There is a class available to all students," Cher said. "Most Enhancers dismiss it without a second thought."
"The Meditation Class."
"If you attend it, you’ll learn how to discipline your mind, strengthen your will, and remain calm amidst chaos."
She fell silent again, her expression growing conflicted. Then she looked at Silas differently, as though seeing him for the first time.
"Only truly wise Enhancers understand the value of a clear mind in battle."
Without waiting for a response, Cher stood up, gathered a few of the remaining snacks, and headed toward the door.
"Consider this repayment for the information you shared. That should settle things between us."
She paused with her hand on the handle before speaking in a quieter voice.
"...Thanks for the food."
