Chapter CXLII - Castle Above The Floating Island (part 1)

"So it's that brat Julius's son, huh?! Okay, you don't have to tell me anything."

Astar said to his comrade, Evelina, while he was fixing stuff on the giant tube filled with water right in front of him.

"Are you sure you know about him?"

"Yes, yes. There is a whole piece of data about him on my note. Just in case he became a hindrance in the future. And apparently he did..."

Astar managed to finish patching up something on the machines under the giant tube. He slapped away his dirty hands and closed the gap.

"Done. Now feast your eyes!"

He pressed the button on the tube, and a shadow came out from the top of the tube. 

Even without ever seeing one in their lives, anyone can tell easily.

A chimera between dragon and human.

"T-That's..."

"This is my strongest chimera! I will use it to target Julius and the headmaster. And you say Arfius is the third threat? Then he will also become a target!"

Astar walked to the wall and clicked the switch. The lights on the room turned on, showing the whole scene inside this dark laboratory.

There are two other gigantic tubes filled with a dragon chimera, while tens of smaller ones filled with other chimeras. The other chimeras consisted of many monsters, like orcs, demon beasts, or king serpents. But, they all have the same ingredient.

Humans.

"This is..."

Evelina mutters as she watches the army of chimeras inside the tubes. Each and every single one of them is either stronger or far stronger than the one that attacked the academy.

"Oh, you think '301' is my strongest one? His name is literally the lowest! He is the weakest, if you ask me!"

Evelina turned her eyes to the top of the tubes, where the names of the chimeras are written. And they all are numbers far greater than 301. The smallest one is already 1002. While the biggest one is...

"This one is the strongest?"

"So you know how to count! Of course, that… is a dragon we are talking about here. And it's not just any dragon… 

It's an Elder Dragon."

Evelina turned her gaze from the maniac professor to the chimera in front of her. The size of this dragon chimera is far larger than the other two dragon chimera, and it is so much more muscular and fearsome.

An Elder dragon is the highest level a dragon can be, and only one of them has ever been sighted in the past. Which was rather mysterious as to how the professor managed to get his hands on the dragon's corpse.

"How did you even… Who are you going to use this for?"

Evelina asked, and Astar grinned. He lifted one finger, and spoke.

"The strongest known man in the continent! 

… The Polaris."

.

.

.

Three weeks after the attack on the academy, and nothing happened.

The headmaster has told me that the spy somehow left, but he wasn't exactly sure that spies left just like that, so he told me to still be careful.

But really, it has been a whole week, and nothing happened. This spy, whoever it is, is really planning to play around in the dark and only to gather information. Meaning that they have no intention of bringing this into the sunlight at all.

Because if they do, they would have done it by now.

… By the way, is it just me or is this boring?

The council is having a meeting discussing the weekly budget, and thanks to the academy, we are now at over budget.

The council is discussing what to do with it, like maybe getting a much larger room because this room felt rather stuffed.

Manda rejected that idea because she thought the student council won't need a room aside for meetings. Everyone else agreed with her, but the council vice president can't help but feel the need.

"Rize, what do you think?--"

Manda asked me, but she quickly retracted her question seeing me placing my chin on the table.

"Can we aaaadd a sofaaaa to the rooomm...?"

I said with my chin on the table, and everyone looked at me with disgust. They decided to ignore me and continued with the discussion.

We ended up deciding not to use the money on our room, instead to save it for next week where we will be able to afford an even more pricey stuff. After that decision, everyone left after ending the meeting.

"Can we reallyy not aaddd a sofaaa??"

Everyone ignored me with disgust and left.

After the council meeting, I went to the canteen to grab some food and got called by Elmone who was also having a meal in the canteen. We ended up sitting together on the table to talk about some things.

He told me about his shadow magic as we ate on the table in the canteen. He said he can feel that he is nearly advancing to the Knight tier. I told him that's a great thing, but then realized that I somehow had raced him in terms of shadow magic.

Is it just me or am I tiering up faster than everyone?

Is it because I'm weird again… or it's because I'm talented?

After eating, Elmone left for his dorm because his friends from the old class E wanted to have an evening party at his dorm room. They did get separated between class A and B, so they are using this chance to have some party at their dorm. Meanwhile, I went to the ceiling of the class building to chill.

I don't have much to do anyway. One of these days, I might just die out of boredom. I'm trying very hard not to get bored by keeping on reading.

Ah, right... Maybe I can do that now.

Every weekend over the past year, I have been visiting the library that is located on Xyphon's main castle, which is above that gigantic boulder that is floating on the sky like some fantasy land.

Well, technically this is a fantasy land… With magic and knights and all that.

But it is still bizarre to look at even though it's right there in the skies.

I looked at the time and there is still around six hours until midnight. The sun is coming down right now too, but it's still quite far from sundown. I'm saying it's the goddamn afternoon.

I have time. Let's go visit the kingdom's library.

VWOOOSHH!!!

I activated my wings and quickly left the academy, flying thousands of meters in the air to reach the floating island in the middle of the city.

After coming out from the clouds, I can see the castle right away. It is a white castle owned by the king and queen of Xyphon. It is also the place where the magicians and the guards of the kingdom train and work.

I flew towards the front gate where the elevator is located. There is an elevator on the southern side of the island and it is extremely large. It can fit around fifty people at the same time, and it will still lift them up at the same speed.

I landed on the road right next to the elevator, scaring the guards a little. I walked towards the gate a few meters away from me, and the guards quickly noticed who I was.

"Ah, the student! I thought you only visit on weekends?"

"I have some free time."

The guards let me enter the gate like we had done this a million times already. I mean, I did visit this place nearly every weekend during the past year, so it would be weird if they don't recognize me.