Chapter CXXXIX - Cursed Handshake (part 2)

I woke up around two hours later and quickly headed back to my dorm for a small bath.

It was already dark out, and the headmaster is probably still in his room.

After preparing, like taking a bath and cleaning a little bit of my dusty room, I head to the middle building all the way to the second floor. I arrived in front of a familiar golden door with a diamond handle. The moment I touched the handle, I got teleported inside his room.

"Oh. He is not here."

I look around the room to look for him, but I guess he is not here.

Whatever. The teleportation door actually also notified him if someone came inside. I found this out last year when me and the other senior healing club members sneaked into the room, and he told me about it. I was a little bit ashamed, but it was quite a fun experience so definitely will do it again.

I sat on the sofa, waiting for him while reading my books. And after reading for around fifteen minutes, he arrived in the room.

"On what pleasure do I owe you a meeting this evening?"

The guy appeared in front of the door from a pure bright light, and suddenly spoke with a disgustingly smooth tone, as if hinting about something else entirely.

"Don't say it like that. It's disgusting."

"Hahah, I'm kidding. 

So… I heard there was an explosion in the club room. And I heard the president of the student council gracefully handled the situation?"

He said as he walked towards his desk. He glared at the window outside for a few seconds before turning around and sat on his chair, facing me.

"Well, it wasn't that much of a deal. But there is something rather... intriguing."

"What is?"

"The cause of the issue was a first year that lost control over his mind. I knocked him out and questioned him, but he said he had no idea about what happened. Then he started to scream in pain, so I checked his whole body for something."

"And you found something?"

I nodded grimly.

"A curse. Possibly the same one that turned beasts into demonized beasts."

The headmaster looked quite shocked for a second, and then he focused again.

"And you know the cause of the curse?"

"I talked with him for a while and was able to find out about something. You live in Xyphon for a long time, right? Do you know anyone called 'Astar Besmar'?"

… 

Oh yeah. He knows.

That expression shows exactly that he knows.

Veneo looked quite horrified from just me mentioning his name, and he quickly looked away as he began telling me.

"... He was one of the worst humans in history… 

He kidnaps people, experimented on them. It was said that his own wife and child were experimented on, and then got turned into a non-human."

"W-What?"

"He got banished from the kingdom while all of his experiments on his labs were removed. The humans he experimented on got freed, while some others that couldn't be... saved, were exterminated."

"You mean… the ones that were no longer… human?"

"... Exactly."

Bloody hell… People like that do exist here, huh?

Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised. In a world this big, people like that tend to exist.

"Why bring up the name?"

Veneo continued asking, so I explained it to him.

"I talked with Henry, the first year student who went on a rampage. He told me he shook hands with him before when his father had him as a guest at his home. He told me it was around four years ago, around the same time that he found out that he has a curse."

"I see... He shook hands with the human trash and got cursed. From my guess, Astar must have some grudge over Henry's father, and decided to curse Henry as some sort of weapon to use against him."

"Yes. Henry said he has been controlling the curse for a while. I don't know how he did that, but he was able to tone it down and not let it unleash on anyone. Until a while ago when he had an argument with his club mates."

After I said that, the headmaster quickly entered deep thought.

"That's weird... curses are usually active right after... unless the caster decided not to activate it until a certain time. 

The curse will only be active when the caster activates it. Or there are types of curse that is active ever since it was casted on the target. And from what you said, it's the former."

"... How do you know that?"

"Because it wouldn't go active unless the caster activates it, since it needs energy to be casted. And from what you said, Henry was able to control it the whole time? It is most likely because the caster wasn't actually trying to activate it. Just simply the curse being there is already a nuisance."

"... I see. He must have thought he kept it under control, when all the time it was inactive."

"Precisely. And the fact that it is active now..."

"… Means that Astar is on the move."

"Yes. And, he should not be far."

The headmaster quickly stood up and casted some powerful scanning magic. It is similar to my senses, but it only went active for a second and has an incredibly wide range. I should learn how to do that, because that was extremely neat.

"... What in the world?"

"W-Where is he?"

"There's some evil aura… just right outside the academy's gates. Someone is approaching the academy with an evil intent…

Right now!"

"... Let's go there?"

The headmaster nodded and lifted both of his hands to the sides.

His whole body became cladded in light, then he pointed his right hand at me. In an instant, my whole body also became cladded in bright golden light.

So this is teleportation magic… damn, I still have so much to learn.

ZRIINGGG!!!

In less than a second, we got transported from the headmaster's room all the way to the lobby.

The lady at the receptionist desk looked quite startled when the headmaster and I suddenly teleported, but she seemed to have thought of it as normal.

The headmaster enchanted his eyes to see what lies beyond the gate, and his face quickly turned terrified.

"What in the name of hell..."

I followed him and also enchanted my eyes to see. 

…

I actually feel like puking.

There, a single person is walking to the gates. No, it's not a person. It's a living being all right, but it doesn't look like a human.

One word came to my mind as I watched the disgusting being outside the gate walking to us…

Chimera.