Luke didn’t believe a single word of Ize’s “light element affinity is only five percent” explanation.
With healing that effective, smoothing over all superficial wounds in the blink of an eye, and you tell me your affinity is only five percent? Who are you trying to fool!
He watched Ize’s hurriedly departing figure, and a “reasonable” guess gradually took shape in his mind, growing ever more certain:
Dean Kleia must have known about Senior Ize’s true talent all along!
Think about it—how could Dean Kleia possibly take on a disciple who’s just an ordinary, talentless commoner?
And that genius, Lien, is also a commoner.
Is that a coincidence?
Absolutely not. Dean Kleia is clearly trying to cultivate the next generation’s candidate for Starlight Academy’s dean.
But Dean Kleia is obviously much more astute than Dean Yalan of Liyue Academy! Instead of advertising Lien as a prodigy like Liyue Academy did, she chose to completely hide Ize as her trump card.
Letting him disguise himself as an unremarkable nobody, growing silently in the shadows.
Now that’s true foresight! And Senior Ize’s brilliant ability to conceal himself only proves that he’s been entrusted with great responsibility!
The more Luke thought about it, the more he was convinced this was the truth. His gaze at Ize’s back was full of admiration and the knowing look of someone who had “seen through everything.”
At this moment, the completely unaware Ize only felt a chill down his spine. He tugged at Luke’s sleeve: “Stop spacing out! Hurry up, let’s go! We can’t stay here any longer!”
“That’s it… it’s over? Aren’t we supposed to do something else, like leave a note as a hint or create some other trace?” Luke felt the cleanup was far too simple.
“No need!” Ize (in a girlish voice) replied with certainty. “Our disguise was perfect. He won’t recognize us. Besides, he’s got even more secrets than we do. I bet he’s more afraid of being exposed than us and definitely won’t go tattling to Dean Kleia.”
Right now, all he wanted was to leave this place of trouble immediately. The unease brought by Swan’s dorm was even stronger than facing a monster’s lair.
The two quickly slipped out of the cabin. Ize even stopped to carefully channel his mana, wiping away the subtle traces left by the magical formation at the doorway, making sure there were no clues left behind.
After finishing, he turned around, eyes beneath the mask (though Luke couldn’t see them) locking onto Luke with extreme seriousness, and spoke in his sweetest girlish voice, delivering the harshest threat:
“Luke, listen up. What happened tonight—only the heavens know, the earth knows, you know, and I know. We’re tied together now, in the same muddy water. If you dare leak a single word of tonight’s events, whether on purpose or by accident…”
He paused, releasing a faint, almost indiscernible “killing intent” (though in reality, it was mostly regret and lingering fear): “…Then don’t blame your senior for having to do some… things I might regret.”
It wasn’t that Ize didn’t trust Luke’s loyalty. It was just that this guy was so hot-blooded and impulsive, he’d blurt anything out once he got excited.
If he didn’t hammer this warning in now, he was afraid this blockhead would be boasting in the cafeteria tomorrow, “Me and Senior Ize pulled off something big last night.”
Luke’s face immediately took on a wounded expression, his falsetto voice trembling: “Senior! How could you doubt me?! I, Luke, am your most loyal follower! I would rather die than betray you!”
Ize, deadpan behind the mask, retorted: “Heh, a dog can’t change its habit of eating shit.”
Luke: “……” He instantly withdrew into himself, feeling like his devotion had just taken a crushing blow.
Not long after Ize and Luke’s figures disappeared into the night, in Swan’s dormitory bedroom.
“Swan… Swan… Wake up…”
A deep, ancient voice echoed in the depths of Swan’s mind, gradually pulling him out of a heavy stupor.
“Ugh…” Swan groaned, slowly waking up. He instinctively rubbed the back of his head—which, instead of hurting, actually felt unusually refreshed—and stared blankly at the familiar ceiling.
Why am I lying on my own bed?
He sat up with a start, glancing around, and memories flooded back—being ambushed and beaten by those two Xis family thugs, and then… Wait, what happened after that?
“Igunir!” he called out in his mind, urgent. “What happened just now? How did I get back?”
The ancient dragon soul residing deep within him—Igunir, the lingering soul fragment of the legendary dragon slain by Starlight Academy’s first dean, Gerald, a hundred years ago—responded with a dull tone.
“Finally awake, are you? Hmph, the plan was ruined by two inexplicable strangers.”
“The people in black?” Swan remembered glimpsing two shadowy figures before passing out. “Who were they? Why did they help me?”
“Help you?” Igunir’s dragon soul let out a snort, with a faint hint of gravity. “Those two—didn’t you just see them earlier today?”
“I did?” Swan was even more confused. Those black-clad rescuers (from the voice and build, one seemed female)… “Was it Senior Emma?”
“No!” Igunir denied. “It was that human called Ize, Kleia’s fourth disciple. The red-haired kid beside him is his sidekick.”
“Senior Ize?!” Swan was completely stunned, disbelief all over his face. “How is that possible?! He seems so… ordinary…” He simply couldn’t reconcile the non-existent presence in the dean’s office, the senior often disdained by Kleia, with the mysterious expert who could block sword energy barehanded and instantly heal wounds.
“Ordinary?” Igunir’s voice was graver than ever. “Kid, your perspective is too narrow! That human called Ize—his body contains mana as vast as the deep sea, so immense it doesn’t even seem human! And his physique… I even sense a trace of a… secret that makes even me uneasy.”
Swan still found it unbelievable. “But why would he hide like this? And save me…”
“That’s exactly the most troublesome part!” Igunir’s tone was warning. “He has too many secrets and unclear motives. His presence could severely hinder our plan to resurrect the dragon race, help you take revenge, and bring your mother back to life! From now on, you must be extremely wary of him—never trust him lightly!”
Hearing this, Swan’s expression grew heavy as well. He sighed: “In any case, this plan has completely failed.”
He had intended to use the illusion of being “persecuted” by the Xis family to further inflame the conflict between Starlight Academy and the Xis and Betty families, hoping to provoke Dean Kleia to act and stir things up. Amidst the chaos, he could then search the academy for Igunir’s sealed remains to resurrect the ancient dragon.
“Igunir,” Swan’s voice carried a trace of vulnerability and longing, “you promised that as soon as you’re revived, you can use dragon magic to bring my mother… back to me, right?”
“But of course!” Igunir’s dragon soul emanated proud waves. “I am among the greatest and most supreme beings in existence. To reverse life and death, to resurrect a human—what could be easier?”
Swan couldn’t help but mutter quietly: “But if you’re so great, you were still killed by a human…”
“Ahem!” Igunir seemed to have had his tail stepped on (if a soul could have a tail), his soul waves agitated. “Th-that was a despicable human plot! A trap! Otherwise, how could I… Hmph! Don’t forget who preserved your soul and saved your life when you were dying from demonic corruption! To doubt my power is to doubt your own second chance!”
Starlight Academy, Dean’s office.
Night had fallen and all was silent, but Kleia had not the slightest intention of sleeping.
She sat behind her wide desk, holding an antique picture frame, her fingertip lightly brushing the glass as her gaze grew distant.
In the frame was a photo of her and her teacher—Starlight Academy’s former dean, Gerald, the only human in history recognized as a dragon slayer.
A hundred years ago, the dragon Igunir went mad for unknown reasons, attacking the human empire and bringing devastation wherever he went.
Gerald, then the empire’s strongest, stood forward. In an earth-shaking battle, he sacrificed his life, perishing alongside Igunir to safeguard the empire’s peace.
As Gerald’s finest disciple, Kleia naturally inherited Starlight Academy.
Yet she was far too young and nowhere near her peak in power at the time. Starlight Academy was a fat piece of meat eyed by countless noble factions, rife with both internal and external threats.
To uphold her teacher’s legacy and protect the academy and empire, she exerted unimaginable effort, rising with astonishing speed—ascending to eighth-rank Archmage within just over a decade, standing at the empire’s summit with power and prestige equal to her late teacher, and taking on disciples of her own.
Though… among them slipped in Ize, with his strange mannerisms and “uselessness” that constantly gave her headaches.
As for taking in Swan this time, it was not only out of pity, but more importantly, to repay a century-old debt of gratitude.
The Raymond family had been on good terms with Starlight Academy since Dean Gerald’s era, offering great help when the academy was first founded.
Kleia had always remembered that friendship.
Even after the Raymonds declined over time, she still looked for a chance to repay them.
She never expected that news from the Raymonds would be such a tragedy—almost total annihilation. Both publicly and privately, she could not ignore the family’s only surviving bloodline.
“Raymond family… what did you provoke, exactly?” Kleia set down the frame, her gaze falling to the thick investigation dossier on the Raymond family’s destruction atop her desk, brows tightly furrowed as she muttered softly.
Her instincts told her that the truth behind this matter was far more complex and dangerous than it appeared on the surface.
“Damn this random stat-draw system!!! Defense! Again with the defense!! I want attack, dammit!!!”
Back in his “safe and secure” dorm, the first thing Ize did was, with a pious (and abject) heart, spend the NPC points he just earned for a new round of ten consecutive talent draws.
Yet once again, reality hit him hard. Staring at the results that popped up in his vision—[Defense +3], [Mana +4], [Spirit +2], [Constitution +1]—Ize finally couldn’t help but curse aloud (cursing in a sweet girl’s voice was especially jarring).
He felt just like an unlucky gacha player watching the guaranteed draw hit the already maxed-out defense stat yet again.
…….