Chapter 22: 20 – The illusionist, the lizard, the rat, and the overly righteous monkey

January 5^th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

Inside a dorm room in the middle of the night, a youth 16 years of age was bowing down to a cute girl who was sulking at him.

That kind of situation was good drama material. I would have loved to watch it unfolds if it wasn't for the fact that I was involved in said situation.

"Sorry!" I bowed my head to the pouting Alicia who was sitting in my dorm room.

"..."

She remained silent. Clearly, she was mad at me.

It was then that a loud voice unbefitting of the tense atmosphere rang out.

"HAHAHAH! That's what you get for abandoning cute little girls like this in the middle of the night" A man slapped his own thighs as he burst out laughing.

I looked at the man weirdly. A person of his age and position really shouldn't call every little girls he met 'cute' as he would just look like a lolicon if he did so.

But I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious.

"So, how did you and Alicia meet? No, more importantly, how is she here?"

"Well, you see..." Unexpectedly, Alicia was the one to answer my question.

Was it just me or her tone had just became more enthusiastic like a daughter wanting to brag to her father? I probably imagined it.

---

***

What's the basis of Illusion magic?

For most people, it's mana-based mental attack against the mind that cause their enemies to hallucinate.

However, Alicia's Illusion magic was different.

Her magics were based on manipulating and alternating the refraction, reflection, and diffraction of light.

As such, she could do things like disguise herself as a completely person, or even make herself entirely invisible.

And due to the non-invasive property of her magic, mental defenses can do absolutely nothing against her Illusions.

Although, as a trade-off, she couldn't really do any kinds of sensory or auditory Illusions.

Thanks to her high proficiency in her Illusion magic, none of the C ranked guards of the Academy was able to notice her sneaking in. 

The academy grounds was rather empty. It was late in the afternoon, so students either were practicing in their training rooms or staying in their dorm rooms.

However, the students that Alicia did come across, even the 4th years that were on average C+ rank, didn't seemed to have noticed her.

That just goes to show how subtle her mana control was.

Despite that, there was one thing standing in Alicia's way of getting into Theodore's comfy dorm room, and it was that she didn't know where the dormitories were.

There were no physical maps on the academy's grounds as the Holographic smartphone already had a map system built into it.

And she couldn't just deactivate her magic and ask someone either, since she didn't have anything to prove that she was a relative of a student in Avaron.

Worst case scenario, she would get arrested and interrogated for infiltrating into one of the Great academies. And her shaky background wouldn't help her case either.

Thus, she wandered around the massive main building of Avaron academy, looking for the dormitories.
...

Alicia was standing in front of a room that reeks of blood, pus, and antiseptic.

It was... the infirmary.

However, there were some people inside the infirmary, which was strange. Even Alicia knew that the infirmary would close down once it's dark.

Intrigued, Alicia peeked into the infirmary.

A boy, who looked too handsome for his own good, was lying on a bed with bandage covering his entire body. Next to him was a beautiful Elf girl with long green hair and jade eyes.

Normally, Alicia would have blushed at the sight of the boy's face just like any other girls would.

However, she sensed that she wouldn't want to associate with him. There was something about him that screams trouble, and troubles were the last thing Alicia wanted.

Seeing that the Avaron insignia on his clothes were blue, Alicia confirmed that he was a first-year student. And since the infirmary would soon close, she decided to wait and follow the boy to the dorm buildings.

Well, it was inevitable that Alicia overheard some of their conversations.

"Arthur... are you alright?" The Elf girl asked.

The boy, whose name was Arthur, replied in a sad tone.

"I'm alright, thanks for asking"

Seeing Arthur's obviously depressed expression, Marie clenched her fists in anger.

"That bastard! Don't worry Arthur, I'll definitely make him pay fo—"

"Marie! Stop it! I'm fine, really. Vengeance will just make you fall further into the darkness"

Sighing, Marie supported Arthur up and got out of the infirmary with him.

"Well, if my Arthur says so. Come on, let's me walk you back to your room"

Although Alicia cringed at Arthur's cliché statement about revenge, she still decided to follow them.

They soon arrived at the entrance to a building complex.

"Arthur, I have to take my leave now, be careful on your way back!" Marie waved her hands as she ran off to the right side of the complex.

Arthur nodded and walked to the left side.

However, neither Alicia nor Marie noticed Arthur's depressed and hopeless expression as he continued making his way towards the male dormitories.

Alicia followed Arthur for a good minute before she noticed a white-haired girl with lavender blue eyes and a pale blue scaly tail, along with a girl with pinkish-red hair and ambers eyes making their way towards Arthur.

The scene of two country-toppling beauties walking side-by-side was so mesmerizing that even Alicia stood in daze for a moment to etch this scenery into her head.

The girls then came up to Arthur. But before anyone could say anything, the red-haired girl suddenly turned her head towards Alicia's location.

"Sylvia! Someone's over there!"

The white-haired girl then immediately disappeared from her spot and grabbed at the location where Alicia was standing. However, all she managed to catch was a few strands of pink hair.

'Strange', the girl, whose identity was Sylvia Adrancus, fell into deep contemplation.

A person stalking the first-ranker of the first year was definitely suspicious. Especially at this time of the day.

'Could it be a spy?'

Nodding her head as if her thoughts were correct, she quickly sensed the mana on the pink hair and chased after the mana signature.

Arthur just looked at the departing figure of Sylvia in confusion.

'Didn't she have something to say to me?'

He then turned his gaze towards the red-haired girl, Ria, only to find that she too has disappeared from her spot.

'Huh?'
...

'WHY IS SHE CHASING AFTER ME!'

Alicia was running at top speed while being chased by Sylvia. Despite that, she was still composed enough to keep her invisibility Illusion spell active.

Seeing that Alicia was slowly but surely outrunning her, Sylvia decided to use her magic.

[Stellar projection], she chanted. 

A single star in the starry night sky twinkled for a split second before a translucent blue screen that only Sylvia could see appeared right before her.

Looking at the blue screen in front of her, Sylvia nodded in satisfaction.

'I'm in luck this time'

She then focused her line of sight on the invisible source of the mana trail, Alicia, before chanting a spell.

[Starlight shot]

That same star twinkled yet again, before multiple rays of pale white light were sent flying towards Alicia. 

Sensing danger, Alicia dodged out of the way.

BOOM—! Sizzles—!

The spell caused a small explosion on impact. The heat was so great that even the concrete ground of the academy was melted.

Gulping at the aftermath of the spell, Alicia got up and continued to run.

[Starlight shot]

Sylvia used her spell yet again. This time, the rays of light were definitely faster and more destructive than before.

However, Alicia had already analyzed the nature of the spell from the previous attack.

As such, she didn't even try to dodge it this time, but instead

[Reflection]

The rays of light forming Sylvia's spell were sent flying everywhere as soon as they made contact with Alicia's body. Some were even reflected back at its caster, Sylvia.

BOOM—! Sizzles—!

Multiple explosions, along with the sizzling sound of hard concrete melting could be heard again.

Alicia immediately halted in her track and stared at the place where Sylvia once stood.

As the clouds of dust slowly settled, beads of sweat travelled down Alicia's forehead. She was nervous.

It would be extremely bad for Alicia if an Avaron student had died in that explosion, even if she did it for self-defense.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily for her, Sylvia was still standing after that. 

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Not just that, she was practically unharmed, as layers of armors made out of ice and pure white scales covered her body, completely blocking the reflected spell.

Not knowing whether she should be happy that her pursuer was unscathed or not, Alicia decided to just continue to run away.

The chase continued for another minute, before Alicia crashed into someone. The crash immediately cancelled her spell. 

Yelping in pain and massaging her forehead, Alicia looked up to see that the person she had bumped into was a man in his 50s with gray beard.

Before she could do anything, however, Sylvia grabbed her collar from behind.

"Excuse me, headmaster. I was just catching a spy who was stalking one of our students" Sylvia respectfully bowed.

The headmaster looked surprised for a second before he turned his head towards the so-called spy.

'Wait, pink hair?'

After thinking for a bit, the headmaster spoke up.

"Just let her go Sylvia. She's my... granddaughter"

"?" Sylvia was still keeping that poker face of hers, but inwardly, she was very confused.

After all, the headmaster was known to have been utterly disinterested in women. A person like him having a grandchild? What kind of sick joke was this?

The other students who was in the hallway also shared Sylvia's confusion, as they too were hanging their mouth open at headmaster Alan's words.

But, Sylvia still let Alicia go. It was the headmaster's order in his own academy after all.

Bowing one last time, Sylvia turned around and left.

"Oh and don't forget, you will have to clean the female dormitory for a month to compensate for all the damage you caused"

Sylvia slightly jolted up as the headmaster said that and continued to walk away, this time with a little bit more speed.

Alicia, who just woke up from her confusion, tried to cast her invisibility spell again to run away. But the headmaster noticed what she was doing and disrupted her spell.

"Little girl, let's go to my office and have a talk, shall we?"

Alicia gulped hard. She instinctively knew that she couldn't get away from this man no matter what she did.

Thus, she had to follow the suspicious old man.
...

Alicia was sitting in a dark but lavishly decorated office, with the headmaster eyeing her entire body intensely.

'Is this how I lose my virginity? To a creepy old man?' 

Alicia was about to beg the man to release her when he suddenly spoke up.

"Why are you following my students?"

Alicia judged that it would be for the best to tell the truth.

"M- my relative forgot to pick me up so I had to follow him to get to the dormitory, otherwise I'd have to sleep outside"

Nodding at her explanation, the headmaster continued.

"You're an Illusionist?"

Confused by the unexpected question, Alicia answered reflexively.

"Y- yes"

"Hm? Why are you shaking?"

"I- it's nothing" 

It was obviously a lie.

Not particularly minding this, the headmaster continued with his questions.

"So, Alicia Gray, right?"

"!" 

Alicia jolted in surprised. How did the man who she met for the first time knew her name? Was he someone sent by them?

"No need to be wary" The headmaster said.

"I simply found out about you by chance. It's pretty hard to not notice you when I investigated Theodore Gray"

Alicia sighed in relief.

'Good, he isn't affiliated with them'

'But why was he trying to gather information on Theodore?'

Gathering up all of her courage, Alicia asked in a shaky voice.

"W- why are you investigating Theodore?" 

"Hm? Shouldn't you be calling him 'Dad'?"

Alicia frowned at this, but the headmaster continued regardless.

"Anyways, I can't just reveal my student's information to anyone. But I can assure you that I meant no harm. It was just simple curiosity"

Alicia was good at judging whether people were lying or not. And while she'd hate to admit it, the creepy old man before her was telling the truth.

"That's only a part of the reason why I saved you. The main reason is... your magic"

"..."

"It refracts and bends light. I haven't seen anyone do that ever since Grandmaster Elysia passed away. She was truly an exceptional Illusionist, completely disorienting her enemies and finishing them off with her fast sword strikes"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Hm? Because I think you're the successor, no, the descendant of Grandmaster Elysia"

"!"

"So, Alicia, what do you think about being my discipline? You know, I was pretty close to Grandmaster Elysia. Maybe I can teach you some of her moves, who knows."

Alicia thought for a bit before nodding her head in affirmation. It's not everyday that you could get personal training from one of the only S ranks in the entire Empire. 

And besides, she would definitely need much more power than she had right now to complete her revenge.

After all, the Red skull bandits weren't the true mastermind behind her parents death. No, they were just hired hands.

Thus, she needed to get stronger, and desperately at that.

"Yes, master"

"Alright, be here tomorrow at 9 A.M" Alan the Headmaster said as he shooed Alicia out of his office.

A mouse came crawling out as Alicia closed the door to the headmaster office.

|Alan, that girl is a guardian of the Hall of Divinity|

"Hm?" Alan widened his eyes in surprise.

'You're getting more and more interesting, Theodore Gray'

Creak—!

The sound of the door creaking open woke Alan up from his thoughts.

"Umm, can you show me the way to Theod— I mean dad's room?"

"Right, I forgot. Let me lead you there. I wanted to see him in person at least once anyways"

---

***

Well, to sum it up, Alicia infiltrated into one of the most secure places in the Empire, got away with being caught and even became the discipline of an S ranked powerhouse as a bonus.

And my reaction to that exceptional feat was

"Good for you, I guess"

"..."

"..."

"That's your reaction?" Alicia lets out a dejected sigh. 

I was tired from being woken up in the middle of the night and didn't have any energy to be surprised. I'm sure Alicia knew that too.

What did she want me to say then?

"Ehem, now that you're reunited with your dad, I shall take my leave" Alan left my room as he said those words, not caring about Alicia's frown.

"..."

"..."

We sat in awkward silence for some moments before I decided to ask the important question that had been weighing on my mind ever since Alicia came into my room.

"So... who will get to sleep on the bed?"

"..."

"..."

"Rock, paper, scissors?"

"Okay"

Unsurprisingly, I lost with my dogshit luck.

"...I'll take the couch then", I scowled.

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