Silvia's heart skipped a beat at the sudden explosion.
She was just as curious about the cause, but as a Candidate Saintess of the Holy Church of Light—even if she didn't particularly like the title—her first instinct was to worry if anyone had been hurt.
She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and prepared to change out of her nightgown into more practical clothes. She wanted to head to the site of the explosion to see if anyone needed help.
However, just as she stepped back from the window and before she could even turn around—
A figure appeared on the open windowsill, silent as a phantom.
The moonlight shone from behind the person, outlining them in a blurry halo, but it cast their face in shadow, making them impossible to identify at a glance.
However, the dark robes bearing the academy's professor insignia and the faint female silhouette allowed Silvia to quickly recognize the visitor.
"You... You're... Professor Audrey?"
Silvia instinctively took half a step back, her pink eyes wide with shock and confusion.
She knew this Associate Professor from the Department of Magic History. Although they weren't close, the woman always gave off an impression of being serious, old-fashioned, and even somewhat gloomy.
Why would she appear outside her dormitory window at this hour and in such a manner?
Standing on the windowsill, Audrey's face was visible under the moonlight and the interior lamplight. Her expression was blank, possessed of a calm that bordered on numbness.
She looked at Silvia and nodded, her voice flat and devoid of emotion.
"Good evening, Silvia. Though... there's a slight deviation from the original plan, I'd like you to come with me now."
"Come with you? At this hour?"
Silvia's heart sank.
Even if the woman was an Associate Professor of the academy and her nominal superior, appearing in such an eerie way in the middle of the night and demanding she come along in such an uncompromising tone...
Silvia subtly took another small step back until her back was almost against the cold wall.
Her gaze flickered toward the column of smoke still rising outside.
That explosion just now... could it be related to Professor Audrey?
Although she didn't want to think the worst of a teacher, the situation was far too abnormal. She had to be on high alert.
Her right hand crept behind her back, and her fingertips began to gather a faint amount of mana, ready to trigger a simple Holy Light Bullet at any moment to draw the attention of the others in the dormitory.
Noticing the wariness in Silvia's eyes and her imperceptible retreat, Audrey let out a very soft sigh. There was a hint of exhaustion in that sigh, and perhaps a touch of... relief after making a certain decision.
"Originally... I planned to wait until you were sound asleep before acting. That would have been better for both of us."
Audrey's voice remained flat. As she spoke, she took a thumb-sized transparent glass bottle sealed with a cork from the pocket of her professor's robes.
Inside the bottle was a small amount of white gas that swirled slightly in the moonlight.
"But that mysterious explosion just now was too loud. The Academy Patrol Team and security personnel will be drawn here soon to search the area. I don't have any more time to wait."
"What... what are you talking about? What do you want to do to me?"
Silvia's voice trembled with tension. she tried to remain calm as she questioned her, while accelerating the mana gathering behind her back.
"My apologies."
Audrey cut her off. There was no real apology in her voice, only the indifference of someone performing a routine task.
She pulled the cork and tilted the bottle slightly.
No incantation, no mana fluctuation.
But the moment the cork was pulled, Silvia suddenly felt a wave of intense weakness wash over her like a tsunami!
The strength in her limbs was instantly drained, making it difficult even to stand.
The faint mana she had just gathered behind her back flickered out like a candle in the wind.
She only had time to let out a short, muffled groan before her legs gave way, and she collapsed uncontrollably toward the floor.
Her vision began to blur and spin. The ceiling and Professor Audrey's looming figure overlapped.
Her eyelids became incredibly heavy, as if weighted down by tons of lead; every attempt to keep them open was a struggle.
"What... do you... want to... do... to me..."
She used the last of her strength to squeeze out the stuttering question. Her pink eyes stared fixedly at the blurry figure on the windowsill, filled with unbelievable horror and the sting of being betrayed by a trusted teacher.
However, the only response she received was Professor Audrey's emotionless eyes in the shadows and a faint, airy sentence:
"My apologies."
Then, Audrey walked over to the limp Silvia and with some effort, picked up the young woman's light body.
Silvia could feel herself being lifted. She could smell the scent of old books and some bitter herb clinging to Professor Audrey. She could also feel the arms holding her trembling slightly.
But beyond these vague perceptions, she could do nothing.
Extreme fear and powerlessness coiled around her heart like cold vines, slowly tightening.
"Help... me..."
She wanted to scream, but her throat felt blocked by something, and she couldn't make a sound.
Even if she could have made a sound, the dormitory was currently in a state of chaos and noise because of the distant explosion. Who would notice a girl's weak cry for help inside this room?
Audrey carried Silvia to the window.
The night wind rushed in, bringing a chill and blowing Silvia's sweat-dampened pink hair across her forehead.
Audrey began to chant an incantation in a fast, awkward-sounding tongue.
A pale green magic circle faintly emerged beneath her feet and behind her back, and the air began to gather.
Wind Wings, a Mid-tier wind-attribute auxiliary spell, granted the caster the ability to fly for a short period.
Clearly, Audrey intended to use this magic to take her away.
Her body rose slightly into the air, and a sense of weightlessness followed.
Audrey held her and leaped out of the window!
The night wind instantly became fierce, howling past her ears.
The lights of the dormitory building receded rapidly below.
The cold moonlight spilled over her without obstruction. Silvia felt a piercing cold, not just from the wind, but from the deep-seated fear of an unknown fate.
I'm being taken away... Where to? What will happen to me?
Senior Greg... Victoria...
Despair flooded over her like a tide.
Her eyelids grew heavier, and her vision blurred completely, leaving only a final trace of light perception.
A second before her consciousness sank entirely into darkness—perhaps by coincidence, or perhaps a survival instinct that made her turn her eyes at the last moment—her fading gaze pierced through the smoke scattered by the wind and caught a glimpse of the distance.
It was the exact spot where the explosion had occurred.
A shocking crater had collapsed into the ground, its edges jagged and distorted.
Thick black smoke was still billowing up from inside the hole.
Several people were standing at the edge of that crater.
They were all wearing white lab coats, surrounding a figure who stood at the very front with his back to her direction. They seemed to be in the middle of a heated argument.
That figure at the front had shoulder-length golden hair that appeared brilliant even under the moonlight and the distant lights.
He was tall, and his posture seemed somewhat casual, even a bit impatient.
"That back..."
In Silvia's fading consciousness, a very faint sense of familiarity flickered, one she couldn't even be sure of herself.
It looked like... Senior Greg...
But in the next second, she dismissed the absurd thought.
No... it's impossible... Senior Greg must still be in the dungeon right now, busy with important things... How could he be here...
The last of her strength failed.
Darkness, like the softest yet heaviest curtain, completely covered her field of vision.
Silvia's head slumped to the side as she lost consciousness completely.
Meanwhile, on the ground, at the edge of the crater formed by the explosion.
Greg, his golden hair a bit messy, stood with his hands on his hips, shouting aggressively at several alchemy students in white coats.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught something moving through the night sky at a decent speed, flying toward the academy's outskirts.
It looked like... a person's silhouette, and they were carrying something?
Greg instinctively glanced in that direction, thinking to himself: Who's the lunatic using flight magic in the middle of the night? And carrying someone? Trying to elope?
But just as he was about to look away and continue arguing with the Department of Alchemy people, a part of his brain felt like it had been hit by an electric current!
Wait...
Flight magic... carrying someone... at this time...
The anger on Greg's face instantly froze. His amber eyes narrowed, and his pupils dilated sharply.
"Holy crap, the event is already happening? But I haven't even gotten on board yet!"
Rate on N.U.
