"Verdict? What verdict? There are serious repercussions to what I just saw Hashimora."
The headmaster was standing there alongside Akashi, watching the incident unfold. The headmaster isn't somebody to take lightly. One of the five founding fathers of the Alliance guild that is now spread across the whole continent is here, right in front of him. Akashi shook his head in disappointment with himself.
"I was really hoping that something like this wasn't going to happen."
Nagumo: The headmaster - Rose his eyebrow at that
"You mean this all just speculation?"
Akashi looked at him and shook his head
"At this point, if you said that you have a 6th sense for stuff like this, I would just believe you. So, do you want me to save your friend?"
Akashi shook his head
"No, I will save her myself. Even though he is an S ranker, I think he doesn't have any spatial awareness skills, or we would have been spotted by him."
He nodded to what he just heard but sighed
"What is your motivation behind this? Why do you want to go this far? Give me the upmost honest answer."
Akashi gave the headmaster his utmost and honest answer
"That would ensure that those two A rankers would be getting expelled for instigating on attempted murder and having Kelvin slapped on the wrist with a written record for attempted murder. Does that suffice?"
The headmaster shocked
"You are one evil young man..."
"I didn't claim I give mercy, did I?"
There was a brief silence between them as Nagumo was digesting the information
"Hashimora, if I help you with this, will you uphold your end?"
Akashi shook his head as if he was already regretting it
"Grudgingly, yes"
The headmaster headed off towards Jin-Ae and the three A rankers as Akashi bolted off to where Namo was being dragged to.
***
Flashback
***
"I have a favor to ask of you."
Both of them stopped at a stall, watching the cook work on the food
"What favor are you going to be asking of a headmaster? I can see that I have nothing to gain from doing a favor for a first-year student."
"You haven't even heard of it yet."
"Right right..."
The cook presented both meals to Akashi and paid for both
"I need you to observe a scene that is going to happen soon. Most likely some troublesome students are going cover up a death of an S-ranked student."
The headmaster raised his eyebrow at that and sighed
"If what you are saying is true, then I shall comply with what you are about to ask of me, but I will need two things from you."
Akashi raised his eyebrow and motioned for headmaster Nagumo to continue
"I know that you are now freelance, but from what I speculated, your raw sword skills are not to sneeze at. Don't show them unless you need to on this continent."
Akashi sighed to this and nodded as he agreed to the first term
"What's the second condition."
Nagumo scratched his head and shook it
"I will tell you that second condition later, in turn, I will help you a bit more than the extent that you ask of me, fair?"
Akashi nodded as he hoped that this would happen.
"I'll agree to this then."
"Great! You have so much potential young man!", Nagumo gave a hearty laugh.
They were heading towards the edge of the market now, entering the school area
"Alright, I just want you to follow me in the forest and observe what is going to be happening, if it's nothing, then it was for no reason, but I suspect that something will happen, so take action after the scene calms down."
Nagumo looked at him and gave a small chuckle
"You indeed have a strange mind, but I will see how true this holds Hashimora."
The headmaster suddenly disappeared from sight and Akashi sighed
"I keep forgetting that he's one of the most powerful S ranks in the continent... I know that he's much stronger than me but..."
He set the food down and bolted off to where he left Namo
***
Present
***
Namo was being dragged through the forest as Kriss was dragging her by the arm that was stabbed, causing more pain to her. They were deep in the forest at this point and he thought this was far enough to stop. He threw her onto the ground with force and she hit the ground with a -thud-.
"W-Why... do you do this?..."
Kriss gave Namo a hard stare and chuckled. It was a wicked one as his laughter was joy instead of remorse and sorrow for her.
"Why?... Why?! Why you ask?! It's pretty simple! Seeing the pain and agony of one person is much better than any other entertainment! Putting them through torture is one of the best things you could do to a human being! Watching them crumble, cry for mercy, begging to put them out of their pain, it's wonderful! Once you're dead, I could just use your body as a plaything all I want! Hell, I would put you in a display case, knowing that you are the first noble I've killed in years!"
The rain started to pour down onto them. The sky was dark with thunder clouds. He groped onto her body as he felt her all around.
"The body of an elf is quite extravagant if I do say myself... but I'll just leave you in the forest as they need evidence of a body, or else, even I could get blamed!"
With this, Namo knew. She knew that he was long gone from being sane. S-ranks are few, and they are assigned very dangerous missions, and those missions can turn those few into monsters with little to no sense of reason, while the other has their sense of reason, they are agonized by how much they are put through. Killing and killing and killing some more, adding more burdens to the mind.
"S-Stop... I-It...", she meekly cried out.
Kriss was still laughing like a maniac, after which he crouched next to her
"I'll be needing this back."
He grabbed onto the sword and yanked it out of her with ease. Though with him pulling out the sword so abruptly caused her great pain.
"AHHHMMMPH-"
Kriss had put a cloth in her mouth, muffling her screams of pain. She was in agony, the pain was unbearable, and she started to see black in her vision.
"And with that, my job is done."
Kriss walked off in the direction he came from, leaving Namo on the ground, dying with a pool of blood mixed with rain and mud around her arm. Her pale silver eyes are starting to discolor and she was nearing death. She couldn't even use the healing magic without a catalyst crystal.
"Is this... how I'm going to die?...", she thought to herself
-Patter... patter... patter...-
"The sound of rain... can put me at rest at least...", she thought.
She blacked out the next second