Special Chapter IX - Jelard Hoaqin (part 2)

I chuckled and flew back down. The healers came out from the crowd and headed to the old man. They healed his wounds immediately, while I am still approaching them. When I arrived in front of him, he forcefully stood up to face me.

"That was a good spar. I'm surprised you can move considering your age."

I said to him, and he chuckled rather loudly.

"Honestly, I feel like I will just drop into bones after today… but it was indeed great."

The old man laughed, and I guess it's okay to speak casually with him from now on. 

Strong individuals recognize other strong individuals, after all.

"I admit your existence, Rize Violet. You are definitely worlds beyond me, but I am already at my old age while you are still very young."

"Hey, if it makes you feel any worse, I learned magic just a few years ago."

"I… do not have anything to say about that."

My turn to laugh, really hard. The old man was chill after all. He may seem cold and mean from the outside, but after getting to know him through fists, I'd say we are besties.

Or it was simply because he feared me. Either way, any alliance is indeed welcomed!

After being healed, the old man bade farewell. It was already night time anyway, and the people wanted more fights in the arena.

After he left, the night continued. More spars and challenges were held in the arena, and everyone watched. There are plenty of challenges that came from the students towards the mages, and it was great that the mages accepted these challenges. But the students did get beaten up every time, leaving only me, Arfius, and Jericho as the only three students that defeated the professional mages.

The night ended, and everyone went to their rooms. Since it is a limited number of rooms, the students were forced to stay in a group of three per room, and they are free to pick who is in which room with who.

How convenient!

I ended up staying with Jericho and Manda, since the three of us are simply inseparable. Until midnight, we shared stories on the events that happened today. 

Jericho kept going on and on about Manda and her little junior who kept clinging on her. It was rather cute listening, but it must be even funnier seeing it in person.

Wait… did I just unironically enjoy girls talk?

"So how did it go for you?"

Jericho asked me, and I lifted both my shoulders. I'm still sitting on top of my bed, which is the most left bed. Jericho is in the middle, and Manda is the most right.

"We destroyed the dungeon."

"I guess so… your team is totally an overkill. Who even put together that team?"

"Me."

Both Manda and Jericho looked wildly confused. Seeing the confusion on their faces, I couldn't help but laugh.

The night got darker, and we decided to sleep at midnight.

The next day, we were woken up by the sound of a bell that came from the first floor. We woke up and bathed one by one, and we went to the large field from yesterday's night event.

We held the morning grouping here instead of the floating castle, because going there will take more time. The supervisors greeted the students and regrouped with their respective teams.

Roy came to us with another mission. We expected it to be a much harder mission than yesterday, so we are quite excited.

He handed the mission scroll to me, for some reason. I took it and opened it, and everyone else read it from behind.

"Help needed… village… crops…-Are you kidding me!?"

I crushed the paper mid reading, and everyone else seemed to have agreed. I turned my angry glare at Roy, and he looked very confused.

"I-I haven't read the content yet!"

"… Surely you weren't the one who gave us the mission."

"Then who did?"

Albert, the senior, asked Roy. The answer was rather enjoyable for some.

"The magic king… Juli-"

"That damn old man!!!"

Arfius cursed to the top of his lungs, and anyone can tell that he hates his dad to that point. We all stared apologetically at his angry back, wondering what will change from his family's chemistry.

Everyone began moving to their mission location. Jericho told me before she left that her team's mission was dungeon conquering, and I got very jealous.

During the flight there, me and Arfius didn't race because I was busy helping Keira how to fly with shadow wings. She was a slow learner, but she surely gets it.

After a long flight, we arrived at the village. Keira was tired due to flying, so we gave her some time to rest while Roy went to meet the villagers.

Our mission today… is dealing with crops.

Basically, becoming a farmer.

It's clear to anyone that this is a slap in the face for us. Sending the most capable squad to farming, probably becoming the largest laughing stock in the entire kingdom.

Albert and Arfius was very pissed about it, and I know Keira doesn't like it as well. Leo probably don't seem to really care about it. As for me… I'm just going with whatever.

Who knows, maybe there's something to gain from this.

Right now, we are waiting in the center of the village, being watched by everyone. Roy returned with the village elder after a while, and they gave us the details.

"I apologize for requesting such help… I know that you young ones are strong…"

"Enough with that. Just tell us what needs to be done."

Arfius said coldly to the old village elder, and the village elder bowed once more at him.

He doesn't need to be cold, but I know from his words that he knows that staying angry won't do any good. We should just finish this job as quickly as possible, so we can return and smack Julius in the butt, and Arfius knows that.

Looks like he wasn't a complete snot after all.

The villagers led us to the village farms. To our surprise, it was rather wide, and something looked wrong.

The crops looked withering.

"As you can see… the crops don't really grow that much anymore. They became pale after a few days, and slowly died when they reached their limit. It didn't matter how much water we put in or what kind of fertilizer we used. In the end, they will just die."

One of the villagers, a middle aged one, said to us while we were walking on the crops field. The crops around us are already dead, while the ones that still stand don't look fresh at all. These are wheat, and they don't even resemble normal wheat anymore.

"Say, has there been anyone who visited these crops before?"

I asked the villager who was guiding us, and he turned to us with shock.

"Y-Yes… the landlord in fact, visited us just a few days ago..."

"What rank was he?"

Next to me, Arfius asked. Looks like he has noticed it as well.

"M-Magister, I believe… he was from a prestigious family…"

I turned my gaze to Arfius, and his expression told me that I was right.

"Can your father demote people from the Magister rank?"

"He can even put them in jail."

"Fantastic."

As we conversed, everyone looked very confused. I noticed their confusion, and lifted my hand. My hand was lifted upwards, but my finger was pointing downwards.

"You see, the reason we asked, was because we already noticed the issue, and we assumed that the cause of that issue was by someone who came here the most recent."

"W-What was the issue??"

The villager asked, and I turned to Arfius.

"A curse."