When Luke, Emma, and Swan dragged their exhausted bodies to the gates of Starlight Academy, it was dusk.
The academy was unusually quiet.
At this time on normal days, the plaza would be filled with students practicing magic, the library lights would flicker on one by one, and the dining hall would be filled with the aroma of dinner and the chatter of young people.
But now, the few students walking across the stone path kept their heads down, moving quickly, their voices hushed as if afraid to disturb something.
“What’s going on?”
Luke looked around in confusion with his signature block-shaped head.
He had only been away from the academy for about a month, but it felt as foreign as another world.
Emma sensed something was wrong and grabbed a passing student.
“What happened? Why is the academy so quiet?”
The student looked up, recognized Senior Emma, and a complex expression flickered across their face.
“Senior Emma… you just got back? You… haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
The student hesitated and lowered their voice.
“The heir of the Arsède Family… Riya Arsède… has been confirmed by the Ten Sacred Halls as a Blood Clan traitor.”
“The news reached the academy yesterday. The entire Imperial Capital exploded.”
It was as if a thunderbolt struck the three of them.
“Impossible!”
Luke was the first to shout, his voice so loud it drew a few glances from afar.
“How could Lord Riya be a Blood Clan!”
“We saw her save us in the Betty Territory!”
“She single-handedly repelled three Blood Pillars!”
The student’s expression grew even more complicated. They took a half-step back, as if Luke’s agitation might be contagious.
“The Ten Sacred Halls’ announcement says… that she was actually a Blood Clan in disguise, leading the Blood Clan to invade the Central Region, causing countless noble families to be ruined… The entire Arsède Family is now under seal and all family members have been detained.”
They paused, then added, “And the announcement says that Riya Arsède is actually female. She had been disguising herself as a man to inherit the family… that itself violates the Imperial Inheritance Law.”
Swan swayed, and Emma quickly steadied her.
All three of them simultaneously recalled that silver-haired figure—in the most desperate moment of the Betty Territory, like a silver lightning bolt tearing through a blood-red sky, crushing the Blood Pillars with brutal efficiency, then pausing her slaughter at the name of Yize, those distant silver-gray eyes flashing with an urgency they had never seen before, and… gentleness.
Someone like that, a traitor?
“No… this can’t be! It’s absolutely a mistake!”
Emma’s pale face was full of disbelief. She clutched the cuff of her mage robe, her knuckles white from the strain.
Luke, with his signature block-shaped head, furrowed his brow and muttered continuously, “What the hell… Did those old fogies in the Ten Sacred Halls collectively get dementia?”
“If Lord Riya were a Blood Clan, we would have…”
He thought of Riya’s cold but utterly dependable figure in critical moments, remembered the unmistakable urgency in her eyes when she asked about Yize’s whereabouts—he simply couldn’t connect her with the word “traitor.”
Swan was silent, her small hands clenching at her sides.
In her mind, Iguneel let out a snort of laughter: ‘Hah, foolish humans. Internal strife, smearing meritorious officials—this script hasn’t changed for thousands of years.’
The three of them, full of doubt and indignation, practically burst into Headmaster Kleya·Avery’s office.
“Teacher Kleya! Riya, Riya is…” Emma was emotional, but the words became incoherent due to the overwhelming absurdity and urgency.
Kleya, seated behind her desk, looked up. Her usually gentle, beautiful face was now shrouded in deep weariness and gravity.
She raised a hand to signal them to calm down, her voice somewhat hoarse: “I’ve already heard… about Riya Arsède.”
She stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the familiar scenery of Starlight Academy, her tone heavy.
“The Ten Sacred Halls, together with the Royal Investigation Bureau, have issued a formal announcement.”
“The verification result… after joint appraisal by multiple senior oracles and royal mages, confirms that her life form and energy properties are ‘highly suspected to be that of a high-level Blood Clan,’ and there are signs of ‘actively releasing Blood Clan characteristics.'”
She paused and added with difficulty, “Moreover, she led—or rather, escorted—multiple confirmed Blood Pillar members of the Blood Clan toward the Imperial heartland. This is confirmed by multiple informants.”
“Such behavior… no matter how you explain it, in the current sensitive period, is enough to be categorized as the most serious threat and betrayal.”
A flash of pain passed through her eyes.
Riya’s talent, temperament, and sense of responsibility were all top-notch.
She couldn’t understand why such a promising young person would walk such an extreme path.
“But Teacher!”
Luke couldn’t help but retort loudly, “Lord Riya went to Betty to save us!”
“She followed the Blood Clan all the way to find Senior Yize!”
“Those Blood Pillars were defeated and taken prisoner by her! How can that be called betrayal?!”
Kleya turned around, her gaze sweeping over their agitated faces, finally landing on Luke’s peculiar head. She belatedly noticed the abnormality in his appearance.
“Luke, your head… what happened?”
But at the moment, she was more concerned about the others. “Only the three of you returned? What about Dio? And… where is Yize?”
“Forget about my head for now!”
Luke waved his hand irritably. Like Swan and Emma, his greatest puzzle and worry right now was Riya’s “betrayal” and Yize’s disappearance.
Emma took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
She began to recount everything that had happened in the Betty Territory as clearly and concisely as possible:
The terrifying intensity of the Blood Clan’s second wave; Teacher Laura’s fierce battle and severe injury against No.3; how Yize “barely” managed to stall Bart, and after “luckily” defeating No.2, was taken by a mysterious black-robed figure using Space Magic, his fate unknown;
Lien’s concealment, selfishness, corruption, and madness; Luke’s use of the strange Magic Tool Yize gave him to transform and fight desperately;
Finally, Riya’s arrival like a silver thunderbolt, crushing three Blood Pillars with overwhelming force, forcing the army to retreat, and leaving with her prisoners to search for Yize…
As Emma narrated, Kleya’s expression shifted from gravity to shock, then to deep astonishment.
The Blood Clan’s strength—even the Third Pillar could match Sword Saint Laura—weighed heavily on her heart. But the part about Yize almost made her unable to believe her ears.
“Wait… Luke, you’re saying Yize… single-handedly held off two Blood Pillars? And defeated one of them?”
Kleya’s voice carried a rare tremor. She knew her fourth disciple had changed recently, but “holding off and defeating Blood Pillars” was completely beyond her cognitive limits for that boy who only had a 5% Elemental Affinity, always low-key, gentle, and even somewhat timid.
The image of Yize that Luke described—”selfless,” “drawing fire,” “incredibly brave”—had a serious disconnect from the figure she remembered.
“It’s absolutely true, Teacher Kleya!”
Luke nodded emphatically, his block-shaped head looking especially serious.
“Senior Yize did it all to protect us!”
“And Lord Riya could never be a traitor!”
“If she hadn’t arrived, all of us, including Sword Saint Laura, would probably have…”
Kleya raised a hand to stop him, rubbing her forehead wearily.
The amount of information was overwhelming. She needed time to process it.
The brutality of the Betty battlefield, her students’ growth and sacrifices, the mystery of Yize, the abnormality of Riya… all of it intertwined, leaving even her, an 8th-tier Archmage, feeling a sense of helplessness.
“I understand how you feel, and I believe what you saw with your own eyes.”
Kleya’s voice dropped.
“But reality is that the Ten Sacred Halls’ verification result has been published, and it’s indisputable that Riya ‘led’ Blood Clan members to the Central Region.”
“The Empire’s laws and public opinion will not accept ‘she did it to find someone’ as a reason.”
“The Arsède Family has already fallen. Sara, for speaking a few words in Riya’s defense, has been confined to the Royal Bedchamber by His Majesty the King, not allowed to leave.”
She looked at the three young people before her, full of resentment and confusion, and warned them earnestly, “There’s too much depth to this matter. It involves noble infighting, royal prestige, and even the Collective Fear of non-human powers.”
“Your safe return is already a blessing. Do not actively involve yourselves further, lest you implicate your own families.”
Emma’s eyes reddened. She couldn’t understand how the truth could be so easily twisted, how a hero who saved everyone could bear such a stigma.
The rules of this world seemed far more complex and cruel than magic spells.
Swan looked up at that moment, deep concern in her eyes, and asked softly, “Teacher Kleya… what about Senior Yize’s situation? What should we do?”
“That black-robed man… could he be in danger?”
When Yize was mentioned, the helplessness on Kleya’s face grew even thicker.
She slumped back into her chair, her fingers tapping unconsciously on the desk.
Yize—her seemingly ordinary disciple who had repeatedly brought about “unexpected” incidents.
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