Chapter 198
As Hector rose to his feet with a menacing presence, Walter asked with a gentle smile,
"What's the matter?"
A soft charisma.
Though there was no aggression in Walter's smile, there was a certain dignity that made it impossible to treat him lightly.
Hector, flailing a bit as he stood, muttered something about Professor Keyzen under his breath. Countless conflicts seemed to be flickering in his eyes in real-time, but eventually, his gaze returned to normal focus.
"I sincerely apologize, Professor."
Hector backed down.
'…As expected, I figured he'd react this way.'
Simon sighed in relief internally.
Among students, Hector was known for his reckless, hot-tempered nature, but toward the professors and adults, he was always polite and composed, which earned him a good reputation. Truth be told, he was quite a clever one.
"I'm not a Professor at Keyzen yet, you know."
Walter scratched the side of his head, looking a bit bashful.
"I'll ensure that the Moore family takes full responsibility for cleanup so there'll be no further trouble. If punishment awaits me at Keyzen, I'll accept it without complaint."
With that, Hector turned his back and trudged away.
Simon quietly watched his retreating figure.
What set Hector apart from students like Special Admission No. 10, Malcolm, or the third prince, Andre—those with similarly fiery tempers who ended up falling—was that Hector knew when to lower his tail.
As if realizing the fight was over, the spectators also dispersed quickly in all directions. Walter and Kamibarez were chatting away.
'…?'
But on the ground lay a very expensive-looking golden fountain pen.
Simon bent over and picked it up.
'How do you read this again?'
Engraved in elegant cursive on the pen was a single word.
'…Judah? Sounds like a name. Whose is it?'
Just then—
Simon felt the sensation of every hair on his body standing on end and turned his head.
"!"
The always warm and kind Walter, who greeted students so cheerfully, was now staring at him with an expression like that of a terrible monster, filled with deadly intensity.
Startled, Simon blinked, wondering if he'd seen wrong, only to see Walter back to his usual soft smile.
"Ah, thank you. Must've dropped it earlier."
Walter extended his hand, and Simon respectfully returned the fountain pen with a bow. As he accepted the pen, Walter asked in a quiet voice,
"Did you see it?"
'…What did he mean?'
The name "Judah" engraved on the pen? Or those terrifying eyes from a moment ago?
Simon opened his mouth.
"This fountain pen, you must've received it as a gift, Professor."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because it had the name 'Judah' engraved on it. I heard it's a tradition to have one's name engraved on high-end pens like this."
Simon said this while carefully observing Walter's reaction. But he simply gave a small smile.
"It's a keepsake from the deceased. It was passed down to me."
"Ah, I see. My apologies."
Walter placed the pen inside his suit's inner pocket, then extended his hand again.
"Student, what was your name again?"
Shaking hands with him, Simon replied,
"Simon Follentia."
"You're a sharp student. I look forward to seeing more from you."
The two smiled as they shook hands. Kamibarez looked on with pride.
"Professor! Simon is in the same group as me!"
"Ah yes, the anonymous boy you kept talking about, right?"
"Ah, Professooor!"
Kamibarez flushed red. Walter turned his gaze to Simon.
"I've heard a lot from Master Sillage. Since I've received all the research results related to the SM-1 blood sample you have, you'll be able to take Haematology classes normally from the second semester."
"I'm looking forward to it."
Simon nodded.
More than that—
'This guy. When's he going to let go of my hand?'
The handshake had ended, and Simon tried to release his grip, but Walter was still holding on.
Simon, though it might seem a bit rude, burst his strength in a single motion to free himself from Walter's hand. Then, naturally, he bent down as if to tie his shoelaces.
"Apologies, Professor, for such improper posture in front of you…"
"Hm? Your laces came undone, I see. It's alright. You fought quite fiercely earlier."
At that moment, Kamibarez cautiously glanced at Walter and said,
"Professor! Simon wasn't trying to fight, he just…!"
"Don't worry. I have no intention of punishing him for something that happened before I became a professor."
Walter said this and then extended his hand toward Kamibarez.
"More importantly, do you have a place to stay? Come to our dorm. I'd like to continue our discussion about Ursula's blood, like we talked about before."
At his words, Kamibarez gently clutched Simon's sleeve with both hands.
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm fine! I already planned to stay with my group."
"I see."
Walter lowered his hand, smiling as though a little disappointed.
"Well then, I'll see you both at Keyzen. The city's been a bit unsettling lately, so be careful."
"Yes! See you at Keyzen!"
"Take care, Professor."
Walter waved to them both, then turned and walked away. Simon, who had been bowing his head, lifted his eyes slightly.
That man would be the new Haematology professor, replacing Sillage.
'…Judah. Why does it feel like I've seen that name somewhere recently?'
"Is something wrong, Simon?"
"Oh, no. Just got lost in thought. Maelyn must be waiting. Let's go get that quill pen."
"Okay!"
The two bought the quill pen and packed up plenty of food for lunch before returning to the clocktower dorm.
"Maelyn! Dick! We're back!"
Kamibarez called out as she rushed into the living room with the shopping bag looped over her arm. But the dorm was empty.
"Huh? Where did they both go?"
"What's wrong?"
Simon, following behind and changing into indoor slippers, asked.
"Maelyn and Dick are nowhere to be seen."
Simon placed the side dishes he was holding in the kitchen and checked the bathroom, but the two weren't there either.
"Maybe they went out for a bit while doing homework?"
"Looks that way."
Exhausted from fighting Hector, Simon flopped down on the soft sofa. It finally felt like he could breathe.
"Take a break! I'll prep the meal before they get back."
"No, I'll help too."
Simon rose from the couch again.
"..."
As he stood up, something in his gaze changed.
Furrowing his brow slightly, Simon knelt and slowly brushed his hand across the floor.
'Dirt, and traces of footprints.'
You were supposed to change into indoor slippers in this dorm, and yet there was dirt. Simon began carefully inspecting the floor.
There were signs that someone had tried to erase the footprints. But it seemed they hadn't had enough time to completely clean up.
Would Maelyn and Dick have any reason to erase their own footprints? Besides, both of them had been wearing slippers after waking up.
"..."
Following the faint traces of erased footprints led him to the terrace. Simon stepped out and sharply scanned the surroundings.
One section of the terrace railing was unusually clean of dust, leaving a distinct mark—almost like something, perhaps a rope, had been fastened there.
"Simon?"
Realizing something was wrong, Kamibarez also stepped out onto the terrace.
"Your expression is scary. Is something wrong?"
"It seems so."
Simon looked at Kamibarez with a stiff expression.
"I think there was an intruder in the room."
* * *
Dim lighting, damp air, and a moldy smell.
Maelyn let out a deep sigh.
"…Haa."
She was tied up.
Her arms were bound behind her to a metal chair, and her legs were secured with rope, leaving her completely immobile.
A deja vu, reminiscent of the time in Deathland.
The fury she'd been holding back began to creep up again.
"Ahhh, this is so annoying!"
As she screamed and stomped, the nearby men flinched and turned toward her. Whether they looked or not, she ground her teeth in irritation.
'I could've beaten them all on my own!'
After Simon and Kamibarez had gone out, Maelyn was pestering Dick, making him work on their vacation homework. Then Dick, complaining about being cramped, had gone out onto the terrace to study, when suddenly he let out a scream—"Ugh!"—as if he'd been struck.
Maelyn, startled, rushed to the terrace, but it was already too late. A group of burly, muscular men had already climbed in using ropes. Whether he had taken a direct hit or not, Dick was already sprawled on the ground, still wearing his Keyzen uniform.
Then came the battle.
Maelyn managed to take down eight of the unidentified men on her own, demonstrating unmatched strength. But when the intruders stripped off Dick's uniform and held a sword to his neck, she had no other choice.
In the end, they dragged her to this unknown place.
'If it weren't for that idiot!'
Her eyes drifted downward. Dick, also tied up with rope and collapsed on the floor, was squirming like a caterpillar.
Perhaps he'd been hit with some weird poison, he was muttering nonsense in a daze, and it was utterly pathetic.
"You can rest easy. It's a neural-disrupting toxin, and he'll recover without any side effects in one or two hours."
Came a slightly awkward Continental tongue.
Maelyn, tied to her chair, raised her head. A man was approaching from the darkness.
It was the same person who had subdued Dick.
"Who are you people!"
Maelyn shouted.
"Kidnapping Keyzen students, are you crazy? What kind of backwater hovel did you crawl out of? Or did all of you take arrows to the head on purpose?"
Some of the men twitched their eyebrows, but the one approaching Maelyn gestured for them to stand down.
Like the others, he wore no shirt and had strange patterns painted on his body. But he was clearly much larger, the designs on his body were more elaborate, and he wore the entire hide of a lion's head draped over his own.
This must be their leader, Maelyn guessed.
"My name is Wichasha Wahamrata. And we are the 'Hupa' tribe."
"Hupa, Shupa, I don't care! Untie me right now!"
"Apologies, but I cannot grant that request."
Wichasha looked down at her with cold eyes.
"Prepare her."
At his command, the men came forward from the darkness carrying odd items. Wichasha himself took what looked like a red cloth and stared down at Maelyn.
"This won't take long."
He raised his arms to drape the red cloth over Maelyn's head. She squeezed her eyes shut.
'…Please, hurry up and come! Simon!'
* * *
Haa! Haa!
Simon and Kamibarez were running through the streets, panting for breath.
They had gotten a tip from some travelers near the clocktower.
A group of large men in robes had been seen leaving the clocktower. Dick and Maelyn must have been abducted by them.
"What in the world is going on?"
Kamibarez spoke through tears.
"Why would they take Dick and Maelyn…?"
"I have no idea."
There were no clues. Too many possible scenarios.
'What did I miss?'
Simon decided to calmly review all the information he had gathered since arriving in the city.
First, the kidnappers had violated an unspoken rule, one that any member of the Dark Alliance would know well, never touch a Keyzen student.
That alone suggested the culprits were not locals from Langerstine or just some gang, but likely outsiders. As much as he didn't want to consider it, in the worst-case scenario, it could even be a fanatic priest hiding in the city.
And there was another key piece of information.
—Be wary of men with strange markings painted on their bodies.
Kajan's voice echoed in his mind.
Kajan wasn't someone to spout nonsense.
Why had he specifically warned them about men with markings? Could the large men seen leaving the clocktower be those very individuals?
Just as Simon's thoughts reached that point—
"M-Maybe…!"
Kamibarez's lips trembled as she suggested another possibility.
"What if it's related to the murderer from the newspaper…? The one who's been causing a stir in Langerstine?"
"…Hmm."
He couldn't say for sure, but that theory felt off. Simon opened his subspace and pulled out the newspaper they'd bought earlier.
The crime scene was gruesome.
A shattered wall, a body laid out in the middle of the street with arms spread wide.
It seemed somewhat spontaneous. There was no effort to cover up the traces.
But the men who kidnapped Dick and Maelyn were different. They had climbed all the way up to the clocktower, kidnapped them, and erased their tracks.
These two incidents didn't quite match.
'Ah!'
Then Simon's eyes widened as he examined the photo of the murder scene. On the victim's stomach were chaotic painted patterns.
'No way!'
Simon stopped in his tracks.
"Simon?"
"Hold on, Kami."
He rushed into a nearby general store and bought every local paper from the past few days. Every one of them had articles about mysterious killings on the front page.
'My hunch was right.'
Though the sizes and colors varied, all the victims had bizarre patterns painted on their bodies. The murderer wasn't just killing random people in a frenzy.
'He was only targeting men with those markings.'
Kajan's warning wasn't about the recent serial killer, but about those men with the strange patterns.
That confirmed the high likelihood that the men who kidnapped Dick and Maelyn were the same group.
But then, who exactly were these men?
Why were they being murdered?
And more importantly, why did they kidnap the two of them? What was their goal behind all this?
'Should I try to find Kajan?'
But in such a wide and complex city, locating Kajan was like finding a needle in a desert.
And Kajan was likely already pursuing those men himself, so there was no need to go out of the way to find him first.
'Now then, what's the best move to make?'
Simon's mind raced with rapid calculations.