"So what were you talking about?" Elior asked, savouring in the bitter juice in one full swoop.
"How do you do that?" Shin could not help but ask, seeing him drinking all the weird and bitter juice in a single swoop.
"The trick is to ignore the taste and finish it as quickly as you can," he said, and focused on the topic.
"Did you see the news?" Ileana asked and opened an article on her phone. She gave it to him, saying, "Apparently a dungeon was cleared in the fourth ring last night, but there is something fishy about it."
Elior only needed to look once to know the article was about the dungeon he had cleared last night, but a frown formed his brows immediately. The title of the article was: Hero or Rogue, the mysterious man who was seen before the dungeon was destroyed. It was probably written by some fanatic about the guardians.
After clearing the dungeon last night, he had left the sign of stealth tech unmoved to give a sign to the federations and Guardian Associations, but none of that made the news.
Well, on that note, even the news of the dungeon should not be on the news. Even the rumours of something like that would cause a panic in the civilians, nothing good will come of this other than the unrest of people.
"Apparently this footage was leaked," Ileana said and opened a clip, which showed someone entering the public park alone at midnight. The video was not clear. It was some security footage with the satellite image. The time being midnight, and the one in the video being cautious, other than the body heat signature, they could not find a thing in it.
Elior raised an eyebrow. The one in the heat map was clearly him. He was so busy finding the dungeon last night that he totally forgot about the Real-time satellite tracking. Fortunately, he was not discovered other than the sign that someone was there.
"There were many of these types of articles," Ileana said. "It had not even been long and dozens of articles were coming out about this mysterious person."
"Fortunately, the federation has blocked most of them that could cause panic in the Safe Haven," Aanya added from the side. "Though they were a little late in this case."
"Is there anything else?" Elior could not help but ask. "Did someone claim to be the person in the clip?"
"The federation will probably announce it was someone of the guardian that dealt with the dungeon and even if there was some mysterious man, it would only be a rumour. While they will secretly investigate the identity of the person," Aanya hypothesised. "It isn't wrong for them to do it. After all, it would look bad for their reputation and would cause panic among the normal citizen."
"Wow, there are so many complications within these simple things," Shin joined the conversation. "I still don't understand why the person still has not shown himself. After all, what he did was not a crime and probably should be rewarded for it."
"Technically, it is a crime," Elior said, squinting his nose. "At least, according to the law enforced to all the guardians by the federation and Guardian association."
Even though he said it, Elior had no guilty conscience for what he did. If something went wrong, then he would have it, but not this time, as he had handled the situation like a profession.
"Yes, it is a crime." Aanya agreed as well. "According to the law, if a Guardian finds a dungeon or similar space or item in his duty—they were instructed to report it directly to the association, and then they would seal the surrounding area, move all the people to safety. Then destroying the dungeon comes. It is not the same as the person did. What if something went wrong and the monsters were released from the dungeon?
"The one that did it was probably some greedy, corrupted and depraved Guardian that wanted to earn credits."
Elior's lips almost twitched, but he smoothened it before anyone could notice. "Well, at least, Everything went alright."
"Yes," Aanya said sternly. "It went smoothly this time, but what if this corrupt person tries this again and fails? He would probably die in the process, but what if he released the chaos fiends outside for his own safety?"
"Wow, Senior Aanya," Ileana said with widened eyes. "I did not know you were so serious about it."
"Because it is a serious matter. The Guardians are all not about glory and display, if some of them screw up, people will die," Aanya added with her most serious tone. "You guys have been admitted here for a couple of weeks only, so you would not understand it now, but I hope none of you will become someone like this person."
Elior's guilty conscience was raised to another level and to hide his twisted expression, he gobbled up everything that was left on his plate. Now, after considering everything she said, he clearly found out he had been a little conceited. The dungeon that he had decided somehow has a link to Shadowblood—an organisation that does good or evil on their own agenda, and most of them were things that only meant to benefit them.
They were not some small rogues that look for small opportunities. It is an organisation that most of the time hides behind something while bidding their task on someone else. They have significant dealings in the Mother world and, most importantly, he had no idea what they were planning.
They had researched about the dungeon and the Chaos Field for hundreds of years. What if they had built a mechanism that would release the chaos fiend outside of the dungeon? His face darkened instantly on those thoughts and the food he was chewing turned heavy to stomach.
"Oh, my free time here is almost up," Aanya said. "And I had not even mentioned the main reason, I'm here."
Elior raided a brow, and Shin kept his ears open, though he was not mostly interested.
"Do you remember what I talked about the other day?" Aanya continued. "I'll leave in a couple of months, so my post as president will be empty. I'll be looking for someone else to fill the place."
"That's why she asked me about you," Ileana said to Elior, with a cheerful face. "She thinks you are the best candidate to be the next Student President. Aren't you excited?"
Elior squinted his nose and looked at the silver-haired senior. "Is there no suitable candidate in the upperclassmen?" He asked while his mind drifted off to the past memories.
"El, why do you not look excited about it?" Ileana asked, nudging him. "Do you know what important the role is? So many students are even dreaming of becoming the student council member, yet you have a chance to be the head."
"That's because I'm not interested in this post," Elior said not only to Ileana, but to the silver-haired senior as well.
"Well, I had the same mindset before I became the president." Aanya took it easier than his friend. "I just wanted you to consider it for a while and there is still time."
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