"You… how do you know that person?" Shirotsuka Sanae asked. She finally showed a big emotion on her face for the first time.
"What do you mean?" Kai looked at her weirdly.
In the message, she saw the picture of Kai's acquaintance. In that picture, there were two women. The first one was a female of the same age as Kai. She had blonde hair with blue crystal eyes. She looked stunning, and her body didn't lose to Ayaka.
The second one was also a female, but her age was close to Shirotsuka Sanae. She had dark brown hair, reaching only her shoulder. In the picture, she made a peace sign with her hand and a very big smile. She looked very happy in the picture.
"I said, how do you know that person?"
"?!" Kai tilted his head in confusion. He thought she must know about his acquaintance since she was a bit famous, so he told her, "She's my childhood friend. Her name is Michelle. She visited this place two years ago, and I communicate with her once in a while nowadays."
"No! I mean the person beside her!" Sanae said desperately.
"The person beside her?" Kai couldn't understand what she meant. He just explained briefly, "She is Yoshiie Asuka, her mentor. They live in the US base. She told me that she became her student a year ago."
"So… she's still alive…" Sanae was full of emotion, and tears even started to form in the corner of her eyes.
Kai was startled to see that the cold and natural Shirotsuka Sanae could show these many emotions simultaneously.
"Teacher?" Kai frowned.
"She was… No, she is my best friend."
"You mean your best friend that you said has passed away?"
"Yes."
"..." Kai looked down a bit, weighing something in his mind. "Michelle said that she had a tragic incident that almost killed her. And after many twists, she came back to life from that brink of death. After some time, Michelle met her and became her student."
"I see… She's still alive… I'm glad." Shirotsuka Sanae felt relieved. "I owed her too much… and she died… She almost died because she wanted to save me."
Because she was too overwhelmed by her emotions, she unconsciously started talking about the past. "Back then, I was also the same as you students, full of energy. I was fearless and slaughtered magical beasts without thinking of the consequences.
"It was because of her that I could keep doing that. She always supported me and cleaned up all of my mess. At that time, I accepted a certain mission in Russia. Because of my mistake, I was knocked out by magical beasts, and it was then that she came.
"She rushed and saved me from the horde of magical beasts. But because we were chased by so many beasts, she decided to hold the rear, and I was told that she died there. She's my best friend as well as my savior.
"And I realized how useless I was when I lost her. Even with the new squad that was more powerful than she was, no one could replace her. The squad kept experiencing failures, and I was demoted to become a teacher.
"I thought I would just lock my emotion and desire since those accursed things of mine were the ones that caused the disaster. I agreed to become a teacher because it was her dream. She wanted to be a teacher and live peacefully, so I swore to live like that."
Kai twitched his eyebrows. He felt that this scene was very familiar. It wasn't his experience as he clearly remembered that he didn't experience something like this. It was more like a story, where the main character met a powerful foe, he would then get a card that he could use. He thought, 'Ah, this must be 'that.' If I'm not mistaken, this is called plot armor. Well, I don't mind having her to help me though. But the problem is, how will I convince her to help me… Should I blackmail her for this?'
Kai was in a dilemma.
Shirotsuka Sanae calmed herself down and said with a smile on her face, "Ah, I'm glad to know that she's alive and happy like that. Anyway, we need to go back to our problem here."
'Oi oi, don't you think you should say more things about her, and say you're going to help me or something because of her?' Kai thought. He really needed all the help he could get, and it seemed that she was neutral about this. If he could get a veteran like her to his side, it would greatly improve their strength.
Kai shrugged as he said inwardly. 'This is reality, not a story. I'm not an MC since the readers will cuss at me as a beta since I just want to live peacefully. Well, she's not poor ooh armor as well. I really need to solve the problem with my sister.'
"Fine, you can ask me anything." Kai nodded.
"Well, let's start with the magical beasts first. Care to explain it from the beginning?"
Kai nodded. "I noticed the magical beasts from afar, but because of the heavy rain and lightning storm, I could only detect them when they were around a kilometer away from us. We were camping to shelter ourselves from the rain.
"When I noticed them, I immediately informed the others as we immediately flew toward the stadium using the woods as our cover. Surprisingly, the magical beasts continued to chase us as though they knew where we were without needing to see us.
"It was at that time that I realized that there was a mole. They weren't chasing me. Instead, they were chasing Carmina Elvera and Fujino Chitose," Kai explained.
"You said their target was you." Sanae frowned.
"Indeed. After a while, I found out that the beasts were chasing someone and that someone knew the position of Carmina Elvera and Fujino Chitose. I chose to separate from them, and it turned out I was right.
"I brought Ayaka to hide in a cave. It was then that we met the man that was chased by the magical beasts and the one that led the magical beasts to our position. He might have wanted to use those magical beasts to make me die naturally.
"I knew he was targeting me when Ayaka and I hid in the cave. It seemed he was going to hide there until the situation became normal again and left. But at that time, he was cursing because he failed to kill me. I even heard my name come out of his mouth.
"And not long ago, I was convinced it was Katsuragi Takaki who wanted to kill me. Sadly, the only proof I have is his voice, but I couldn't record it. If I could, I wouldn't mind giving it to you here."
"Hmm…" Shirotsuka Sanae pondered for a while. "I see. This is a bit difficult. All right, I'll note this first. Let's go to the second one, about Inshov Tanas Georgiy's murder case. Tell me what you know."
"I don't have anything to say, since I'm clueless about this. I told George to be careful against Katsuragi Takaki a few days ago, and this happened…" Kai shrugged.
"..."
"Then what about the clue? That '1H' thing." Shirotsuka Sanae asked.
Kai shook his head. "Nothing comes to my mind. One hour or anything, nothing rings a bell."
"Hmm... Well, when we examined the bodies of Carmina Elvera and Fujino Chitose, we noticed that they were first attacked by the killer before the magical beasts also attacked them. But I don't think you were lying either, so I'll note this down first and make a report about it. Let's just consider them accidents to make it easy for you and for me."
"As for the case of Inshov Tanas Georgiy… We, the teachers, are also completely clueless. And our clue is only that '1H' thing. We don't have any clue other than that, and his case is more troublesome, since he's the prince of the south."
"The prince of the south?" Kai frowned. When he heard that, he immediately recalled that name and was surprised.
If she were talking about the crown prince, it would be the ruler family of Kyushu Island, the third biggest island of former Japan, the Inshov family. He never thought George's background was that big, and if he wasn't mistaken, that family also had an S-rank magician.
"Yes. We need to give some explanation to his family. Well, we're also clueless, and their family might be able to investigate this case faster than us, so we'll just provide them with the basic information.
"Luckily, this only happened in this practical test. Their family might not be able to pressure us since they had been informed about this. Simply put, we're not really that responsible for his life. And we also need to deal with your case…" Shirotsuka Sanae said while looking at him.
"Haha…" Kai was trying to cover it up with a chuckle.
"All right, I'/l help you with this case," Shirotsuka Sanae suddenly declared.
"What!? You…" Kai was surprised to hear that, and when he wanted to ask why, she immediately gave the answer.
She said with an embarrassed tone. "I immediately threw everything away after I lost her, so I can't contact her and she shouldn't be able to contact me either. So in exchange, you need to get me her contact address."