Special Chapter XII - Progress (part 2)

I turned my gaze to the field, and there are no more purple spots that I can see. There might be plenty of bits where I missed, but those won't do that much harm considering how tiny they are.

 

I walked towards the village, and I found the village chief talking to someone.

 

"Oh! Young madam. You finished?"

"Yep. Feel free to start farming tomorrow."

 

"Damn… Did you even take any stops?"

"Nope. I endured."

 

The villagers who heard that, including the village chief, were very surprised. They did not see me rest at all, and that shocked them.

 

"T-Then… did you even eat anything?"

"Probably that potato bread you guys gave me. It was quite tasty, by the way."

 

"T-Thank you…"

 

I waved my hand at them before turning around and leaving. They watched as I left with awe and respect, knowing that they were very wrong about mages.

 

Mages… are hard workers.

 

Nnnnnnnnope.

 

Plus, I was enjoying myself. So really, it's nothing.

 

As I fly, I noticed that my body is quite hungry indeed. I only ate that potato bread the entire time, and I have no idea how I'm still this energetic.

 

I ended up dropping by a random diner in the kingdom before returning. After buying an entire bag of meat sticks, I flew to the middle castle to report.

 

I had no idea where to find Roy, so I will just go to the mages headquarters myself. But when I arrived, I found myself involved in a mess.

 

What… is happening here?

 

Everyone is on the ground. I don't see blood anywhere, but I know that these people are definitely unconscious.

 

They aren't dead, because I can still sense their energies. But, those energies are slowly disappearing.

 

I began running to approach the bodies on the ground, and arrived at an unconscious young mage. He looked to be around his late twenties, but he already had a beard on his chin.

 

Ignoring the beard, I can see a black liquid coming out from his mouth. I touched it, and noticed that it was actually blood.

 

Why is it black…?

 

I checked his condition, and was amazed by how this guy is still alive. His entire bloodstream was damaged, possibly poisoned. But, if I didn't spend so many hours cleansing an entire farming field, I wouldn't have known that it was in fact a curse.

 

From the color, it's purple. I assumed every curse is colored purple, so I had no idea that this was in fact the same curse that cursed the field.

 

At least, not until the guy told me.

 

"We all… drank it."

After healing everyone that was downed in the front yard, I went inside and found three more people inside the building that collapsed. I healed them, and we grouped outside the headquarters.

 

"The drinking water… it came from our main water source, on the storage at the bottom of this island. It came in bottles, so I'm not sure how they even put a curse on it."

The guy I healed first told me, and I immediately began thinking with my hand on my chin. I remembered, it came from a rather famous water bottle company in the kingdom.

 

"Then the curse caster must have placed his curse before the water was bottled. Who produced them?"

"A famous water bottle company called Erchards. But, that's not possible. Erchards company is owned by a famous noble in the kingdom titled Master Magician."

 

Master magician… that's different from the one who poisoned the village then.

 

"We'll figure that out later. Now, tell me why there's only six people in the headquarters?"

Everyone turned to each other worriedly. They were higher ranked and older than me, and yet they are quite afraid to tell me. They nodded at the guy in front of me, and he returned his gaze to me.

 

"Everyone else is… fighting."

 

.

.

.

 

Seven hours ago, mid day.

 

Arfius and the others had just returned from the village into the kingdom, and they were very shocked to see how the headquarters was in havoc.

 

A lot of people are shouting this and that, and some even started fighting from an argument. Everyone else was too much in a hurry to care, which makes this situation even more worrying.

 

Roy landed on the ground immediately and began looking for someone to talk to. He approached a random mage who was in a hurry, and immediately asked.

 

"What is happening?"

 

"The prisoner escaped, and the northern border was attacked."

 

"What!?"

BOOOMM!!!

 

Everyone went silent immediately. All of their gazes were turned to the north-east, where that explosion voice came from.

 

This was supposed to be very high up in the skies, and yet they can already see the tall black smoke looming in the north-east. It was taller than the island, and everyone had to slightly look up to see the top of the smoke.

 

"Was that… there the whole time…?"

 

Roy asked, because he did not see the smoke when he first arrived here. But, the mage next to him simply shook his head.

 

"No… it just happened."

 

The mage turned around and left Roy in a hurry once more, and everyone also began moving even faster. The mages that were fighting stopped and continued with their lives, knowing that things may have gotten worse over there.

 

The students approached Roy, and Roy turned to them worriedly.

 

"Students… I need you to do something."

"We're coming to that place."

Arfius declared, but Roy shook his head.

 

"No! I can't let students, no matter how strong they are, fight in a situation like this. Go to the academy and inform the headmaster! We need him more than we need you!"

Roy commanded, which makes Arfius pissed, but he knew that Roy is right. Everyone else too, knows it. They need to find Veneo.

 

The four then began flying again straight towards the academy. Roy turned around and headed to the headquarters.

 

As they fly, Arfius is arguing with the others.

 

"No! We can't let you go there, Arfius!"

Keira said to him, which makes Arfius even more annoyed. 

 

Right now, the only one that can fly is Arfius. And right now, he really wants to go there and help fighting. But right now, he has a really important job to do.

 

Get Veneo.

 

But, this is a gamble. Who knows where the elf is, he might not even be at the academy.

 

They arrived at the academy, and they quickly arrived at the middle building's balcony. Arfius rushed upstairs, leaving the others behind his dust since he is incredibly fast.

 

BZZTT!!!!

 

He touched the door handle, and immediately felt a shock in his hand.

 

Weird… he never gets shocked before since he is a lightning mage.

 

Arfius' vision turned dark, and suddenly he arrived at the dark secret room that belonged to Veneo.

 

Weird… he never intentioned to come here when he touched the door handle.

 

He studied the room, and found a note on the table. He opened it, and found a drawing of a man with a large tongue sticking out.

 

A sign of mocking.

 

"W-What!?"

 

Arfius crushed the paper with his hand, and looked around. He tried to leave, but there's a seal blocking his exit.

 

He couldn't leave…?

Arfius is trapped.

 

What is happening…??