Suspicions

The next day, Alex gloomily sat in class listening to the lessons. Dean noticed the change in Alex's disposition and was surprised.

"Are you alright?" He asked Alex with a worried face. Alex nodded. "Yeah."

"Your gloomy expression says otherwise." Dean replied in whispers as the teacher continued to drone on.

"I've got a few things on my mind." Alex mumbled a reply. When he had tried to contact his parents earlier, he had failed to reach them. The revelations by the professor had left him distressed and confused. He remained silent for most of the next few weeks. He poured himself into the studies. Learning runes, learning the theoretical framework in detail.

He also secretly tried to practice other body preparation techniques, only to struggle and fail at the very beginning. The pain with each trial only got worse, and Alex could feel that if he tried anymore he would really be at a breaking point. He gradually realized and accepted that he really could not cultivate.

Instead, Alex began to study the theoretical studies with gusto. From history, to runes, to the theoretical framework for spells and magic. Alchemy, theory of herbs, materials and wild beasts that roamed the immortal world. The months slowly passed by. As Alex was showing no progress whatsoever, his friendships had slowly whittled away as well.

He often wondered what the point of entering Dantalian was. He was an abject failure in what mattered here for no fault of his. He often felt like his parents had played a cruel game with him. Did they wish to crush his dream? Why tell him about the world beyond the mortal realm then? He was happy as an ignorant mortal with mortal considerations back on Earth.

The headmistress of Dantalian had paid him several visits already. She seemed to exude old age, yet her appearance was one of youthful confidence. She had contacted all kinds of alchemists and doctors to look into Alex's condition out of consideration for her relationship with Alex's mom. All those considerations were for nought, for no one could even attempt to change Alex's constitution. It was as if his body was anathemic to any spiritual energy.

Soon half a year had passed by since Alex's arrival at Dantalian. The introductory classes had finally ended and the students of the new year could now take up missions from the academy for points and contribution credits.

As students were heading out for new missions, a few students and teachers who had taken missions were returning from their own missions. One of the returnees was the vice principal of Dantalian, who rarely visited school.

It was said that the Vice Principal Archibald was busy at the center of humanity's battlefield with the Shadow Race. The moment he entered the campus, however, he frowned. He could feel the familiar scent that disgusted him. It was that disgusting dark aura of his sword enemy - the shadow race.

Yet, how could the shadow race have infiltrated the Dantalian campus? Perplexed and angered in equal measure, Archibald made his way to the specific floor on the library without intimating anyone. He stealthily observed the source of the smell. A human. This confused him even more.

How did this human have such a powerful stench of the shadows around him? He could even sense the terrible aura of gloom encircling the boy who was deeply focused in reading some book about pill making.

The principal had quietly crept beside Archibald. "Rosaria?" Archibald asked questioningly. His gaze never left the boy. "Why does he smell of shadows?"

"He is the boy. Angela and Lyre's son." The principal said with equally gloomy an expression. "If my suspicions are correct, the incident with Angela must have caused this. He cannot cultivate at all. The last few months haven't been good for him."

"What are those two thinking? Why did they send him to the First Sky?" Archibald was confused. "If anyone from the battlefield sees them, they'll think he is one of the shadows."

"Do you remember the soothsayer's prophecy?" Rosaria asked.

"That hag is a charlatan. Surely you can't believe a cripple will become the enemy of all life?" Archibald growled.

"The world is vast, Archibald. We can't definitively say that he can't cultivate. In fact, it is better if we can keep a watchful eye on the brat. As long as he remains a cripple, we can discount the hag's stupid premonition." Rosaria replied as the two quietly disappeared from the scene.

A few days later, Alex suddenly broke from his book reading reverie. He made his way to the missions office. The headmaster, who was keeping a watchful eye on Alex's movements was agitated by his sudden movements.

Alex made his way to the mission office and after much browsing selected a mission that had been on the list for the past several months. It was an innocuous administrative mission where a certain supplier of the Dantalian's alchemic materials was suspected of fudging his accounting records.

"What is he trying to do?" Rosaria muttered to herself as she observed Alex quietly leave the Dantalian campus without any guards. The mission hall had warned him that he was better of performing the mission in a team, but he did not seem to care about those warnings.

Rosaria quickly requested for a student to enter her office. It was a cold and aloof girl with blood red hair who answered the call.

"Desiree, I have a mission for you. Follow this boy as he performs this mission." Rosaria calmly ordered. The girl politely bowed and expressionlessly made her way out, scroll in hand.

Meanwhile, Alex had used his mission allowance to rent a seat in a carriage to Pale Blue City where the Alchemist was located. As the carriage was about to leave, the blood red haired girl jumped in at the last moment as well and arrogantly sat beside Alex.

Alex remembered her from his first day at Dantalian, but saw that she was ignoring him. He returned to reading his own book.

"Hi." The girl suddenly spoke in a cold voice. Alex could feel her hand touching his and could feel the unnatural coldness that emanated from her.

"Hello. I thought you forgot who I was." Alex calmly replied through his readings.

"You are pretty infamous." Desiree replied."Dantalian's cripple."

"Why are you so cold?" Alex changed topics. "Something to do with your transcension method?"

"Yes." Desiree replied. "I practiced the Cold Heart Sutra. Rationality and Aloofness are primary characteristics of my transcension." She replied almost robotically.

The carriage would intermittently stop as passengers dropped off midway and others hopped on. The sun was almost about to set when the carriage finally reached Pale Blue City.

When Alex saw that Desiree was getting down at the same spot as himself he was surprised. "I don't think I saw any other mission to this city other than the one I took?" He asked her.

"Private mission." She nonchalantly replied as she split from him and walked towards a market. Alex looked at the map scroll in his hand before walking the other way, to the supplier's storefront.