NOVEL NEXT Chapter 125
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After I took everything I could find on the two lizardmen’s bodies, I could hear the sounds of armored boots so close now, that if I were to take down the wall I created, I think they would be just outside of it.
So before they decided on what to do with the unknown wall in their way, I hopped to the top of the dead-end wall and peeked to my left and right to see if the coast was clear, and when I confirmed it was, I jumped down and bolted for the nearest main road to get lost in the crowd.
The only problem that I noticed as I ran along and felt the pain of my fight start to hit me after the adrenalin started to leave my body, was that I looked like I just came from a fight. The side of my face was starting to swell from getting tail slapped, my whole body was dusty from getting kicked through a wall, and my shoulder was bleeding from having a sickle dig into it.
So if the authorities were looking for someone who was fighting nearby recently, I was a solid pick from my look alone. So I had to either conceal my appearance or make sure nobody saw me.
Luckily, the answer was just on top of me as I turned to walk an empty path. There, just hanging above me, was someone’s hanging laundry, and hanging on the laundry line between two houses, was a dark woodland green-colored hooded cloak
In one swift aura-powered jump, I reached the hooded cloak on the second story and swapped out the hooded cloak with a silver coin held to the line with a clothespeg.
When I joined the main road, I was already thinking of ways to explain to Dave and Sam how I got into the state I was currently in. I wish I had taken the healing class as one of my electives, if I did, I could have healed myself up, dust myself off and I would look like nothing had happened.
But that would still not explain the small cuts on my arms, legs, and shoulder. Especially the shoulder where the sickle cut into, the gash on the leather shoulder pad of the rented armor is too obvious to explain away.
I sighed as the best course of action I could think up was to get some adults to help me. So instead of joining my friends at the Adventurers Guild to turn in our quest for the day, I sped off toward the Royal Academy.
When I reached the academy’s gates, I had to show my identification and show my face, but besides a raised eyebrow from the Royal Guard stationed there, I was let through.
As for who to approach, I considered Professor Sageira, but decided to go to Instructor Greyham instead. He seemed to be the one running things when Dave and Sam returned with backup during the whole smuggler incident. Professor Sageira on the other hand just seemed to tag along to collect samples and poke at corpses.
After asking around, it was fortunate that Instructor Greyham was currently in, so I went to his office and knocked on his door. “Instructor, it is Luke Ironcrest.” I announced myself.
“Come in.” I heard from the other side.
I entered with my cloak and hood still on and he looked up from his paperwork to give me a questioning look, “Luke, what can I do for you? And why are you in that oversized cloak? For God's sake, we are indoors, stop being dramatic and put down that.”
I complied and lowered my hood to reveal my swollen cheek, to which Instructor Greyham sighed, reached into his drawer, and pulled out what looked like a form he was going to fill out. “Ok, with your level of strength, I am surprised to see you here like this, but at the end of the day, this is part of my job. So tell me, who bullied you?”
“What? No! I am not here to lodge a bullying incident, I am here because I was stalked and ambushed by armed men, lizardfolk to be precise.” I said as I threw off the cloak to reveal the state of my body.
Seeing me, instructor Greyham's first reaction was to stand up so fast, that his chair flew back and hit the wall.
“What?!” he bellowed, but I raised my hand to stop him.
“Before I continue, please send someone to escort Dave and Sam back here, they should be at the Adventurers Guild”
Without question, he shouted for his assistant and told him to get some Royal Guards and fetch the boys.
“Sit.” Greyham pretty much commanded, and after retrieving his chair he sat in front of me and said “Start talking.”
From there, I started spewing a slightly altered accounting of what happened. In this accounting, I never mentioned anything about our minders, I only spotted the lizardfolk stalking us by accident, and I definitely never used instinctive magic.
I also described the height, scale color, and dress of my assailant, not like it would help, they are already dead in an alley, but I mentioned it anyway, I also put two pairs of sickles on the table.
“By the way, I want those back, they are mine by right of conquest.” I said with a cheeky smile that was quickly wiped off my face by Greyham’s scowl.
“You can have it back after it has done its job as evidence.” Greyham growled out.
He then proceeded to spend the next two hours squeezing every bit of info I had regarding the attack out of me before calling someone to escort me to the Healer on duty.
After I was healed, I exited the nurse’s office to find one of the assistant instructors waiting for me with a message, and the message was that me and the boys were once again confined to campus grounds once again.
I was then escorted to get some early dinner and then straight to my dorm, where I noticed more Royal Guards than usual patrolling around.
***
Within the day word of the attack on Luke Ironcrest and the identity of his assailants reached the ear of King Argus IV and he was livid. Being the muscle for brains that he was, he could faintly remember the name Ironcrest, but forgot what the context he remembered it was for, only that it was positive.
But he was not angry because the son of the man who saved his life during war was targeted, no, he was livid because a student of the Royal Academy was attacked by entities/organizations within his own damned capital.
Especially a student from an academy under the auspices of the royal family. Now, King Argus IV may not be the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to rulers, but if there was one thing he learned from his father, the previous king, it was that the future of the kingdom came from the academies, especially the Royal Academy, and so far, the criminal element had either been successful in perpetrating crimes against students without leaving any evidence that could be traced back to them, or they avoid targeting them at all.
So now that he had the identities of the dead assailants, all he had to do was trace it back and stomp out whoever ordered this job. But to the king’s frustration, his Spy Master came back with news of a string of middlemen found dead in their homes or ditches, and no leads to spare.
Seeing as he was not going to get what he wanted, he was going to do things as he usually did, by force, and using a “proportional” response to this situation at hand.
In other words, he was going to shake the whole fucking metaphorical tree and see what falls out.