[Frederick's Pov]
'What is that man up to...'
Walking out of the lecture hall, with a lot of the teachers following me, Mrs. Bright seemed to be as equally confused as I was.
"Say, Frederick, do you have any idea what is going on?"
Being the oldest of the teachers, and the only one who occasionally referred to me as Frederick and not principal, she was for all intents and purposes one of my most trusted employees. Not to the point where I would trust her with information about the real purpose behind the academy though.
"I don't."
It was sadly the honest truth. I had no idea what the man known as James was up to, and neither did I know how he had managed to completely isolate the academy from the outside world. All I knew was that although I had to act like I was desperate to defend my students, I didn't actually dare to do anything that might anger him.
That was the reason why I had allowed the group of unknown people to enter the area, manipulating the defensive systems set in place so as to not set up a mana barrier around us.
Even now, I could sense the perpetrators out on the practice grounds behind the academy buildings, most likely waiting for an order from a certain someone before they made a move. A fact that I couldn't tell anyone of my teachers unless I wanted them to suspect me of knowing beforehand about the attack.
Therefore, walking through the last corridor that led us to the main exit of the central building, I couldn't help but curse in my head that I was forced to dance to James' tunes.
****
[Sophie's Pov]
'Where did he go...'
Now surrounded by the many trees in the park, standing beside the large pond in the middle, I was frantically looking around trying to find the wolf that had run away. Then, suddenly, I heard the familiar voice of someone I knew very well. Or, rather, two people who I had thought I knew very well.
"Hello, Sophie."
Turning around, I wasn't sure how to react when I saw the small boy who had tried so desperately to protect everyone, always doing his best without regard for his own safety.
With his short white hair and heavenly blue eyes, wearing the black academy uniform, Zero was standing right in front of me with his signature bright smile.
It was only now that I realized that this was the same place where I had seen him stand on top of the pond before, the time when I had fully believed him to be the son of god.
Now, however, I knew better than that.
"James..."
"Ho? I am surprised. I thought you knew of this form to be Zero, not James. Well, if you won't view me as Zero no matter what, then I guess it doesn't matter."
It didn't take long until the short boy was covered by a thick layer of mist, circulating his body as it elongated. A second later, the mist dispersed and a very different person was revealed.
The white hair was now flowing down to his lower back, and his much taller height was now covered by a sleek gray suit, completed by the black-leather gloves on his hands. And no longer was there a bright, joyful smile on his face, now instead replaced with a mischievous grin.
For the very first time, I had started to doubt whether or not this man truly was the one who had accompanied me into this world. Despite him wearing the same face that I knew from my memories, the same face that had shown me that everything would be alright through his gentle smiles, I couldn't recognize it anymore.
From the time we had met each other on the other side, to how he had smiled at me even when he should have been scared of losing his life, the James that I had known somehow didn't seem to exist anymore.
"Are you... really James?"
For some reason, the man in front of me seemed to think that my question was quite amusing, as he chuckled while scratching his chin.
"Haha! That's a good question, Sophie! To be honest, I'm not quite sure either anymore. It depends, I guess?"
Somehow, his way of answering gave me the creeps, as it wasn't the answer that a normal human being would give.
"What are you talking about...?"
"Ah, don't mind it, it's not important anyway."
With him waving his hand underneath the cloudy sky, I knew that no matter how I tried, I wouldn't get a good answer from him. More than that, I still felt stressed about whatever was happening around us, stressed about whatever was going on at the academy.
"Then, why are you here? And that explosion..."
*Woff!*
Suddenly, the white wolf that I knew as Bobby showed up between the tree trunks, running toward us with haste. Behind him, another familiar face followed quickly, obviously trying to desperately catch up to the wolf who was now taking to the side of his master.
Arthur, however, stopped on the elevated outskirt of the area, his face quickly scrunching up as he realized what was going on.
"James...!"
"Oh, what a surprise! Isn't it the hero himself? What a coincidence..."
"Cut the crap, Coincidence? As if"
My boyfriend didn't seem to enjoy James' antics much at all, now slowly walking forward while keeping his hand on the sheathed sword hanging by his waist.
Shrugging his shoulders, the host of our little gathering cared little about James' outburst.
"As impatient as ever. No worries. Anyway, now that you both are here, I guess it's time for me to go."
With James' words as the cue, Bobby immediately started to run away out of the park.
At the same time, James' body started to blur, starting to dissipate into nothing but untouchable mist while his white mask suddenly emerged and covered his sky-blue eyes.
"Wait!"
But James didn't wait, and just as my outstretched hand was about to catch him, he disappeared, leaving us confused about whatever the purpose of luring us here was in the first place.
"These must be the ones he wants us to keep here."
"That seems to be the case."
However, when a total of ten people emerged out of nowhere in the air above us, all with vibrant green hair and equipped with steel spears, we got our answer.
'Fuck...'
****
[James' Pov]
Floating high up in the air above the academy building, I could see all the small pieces of this puzzle slowly come together.
From Jessica being detained by Mr. Cane to Sophie and Arthur being kept busy by other members of the Hurricane clan.
At the same time, I could see the principal and a group of teachers gathering in front of the building with the huge clock, seemingly thinking of a plan to fend off the invaders.
'Seems like most of the strong ones have left the main building now...'
It wasn't a lie to say that I was very interested in seeing what the principal decided to do, as I had told him nothing about what I was planning on doing. In the end, he wasn't part of my future plans anyway, so there was no reason not to allow him to entertain me for a bit.
However, even Loki couldn't stop himself from commenting on the fact that I was obviously going about this in a very roundabout way.
'-You are really making a show out of this, aren't you?'
'-Is it not to your liking?'
'-Oh, but it most certainly is, my dear apostle! You should know by now that I'm a fool for unnecessary dramas!'
And a drama, it would be. Yet, I was still aware that even if I wanted to mix business with pleasure, there was still a few key points that I needed to make sure happened in accordance with my plans.
First of all was to keep Sophie and Arthur away from the other students, as they were both too unpredictable for me to be able to relax with them around. If there was anything I didn't trust, then it was the unpredictability of the hero of the story.
It was to the point where even if I had sent ten people from the Hurricanes all ranging from [C]-rank to [B]-rank, I wasn't a hundred percent sure that it would keep him from coming to save the other students.
Therefore, knowing that I needed to start acting quickly, I concentrated my consciousness on my clone that was down at the training grounds.
"James..."
In front of me, down on her knees, bound by mana-sealing handcuffs, my old teacher looked nowhere as menacing as she had done in the past, still desperately holding on to her memories of both James and Zero.
Wearing her usual white shirt and black tube skirt, now dirty from the sand on which she kneeled, I knew that what I was about to do was not very likely to succeed. However, after speaking to her a bit, and knowing that our desires to some extent aligned, I opened my mouth.
"So, will you be joining our cause?"