It was a shame that artifacts work in such a weird way because although Gon's ability was still usable, it wouldn't regenerate unless I deplete it all the time.
So that's what I did.
It was a little sad to put Gon to rest so soon but I needed the usage of the ability at full strength the next time so I had no choice but to put it to sleep by running the ability non-stop.
'I'll see you in a bit, master,' said Gon as she yawned.
'See you soon,' I responded and the connection between us disappeared.
Wrapping the sword up with the cloth, I placed it back in the box.
Vaulheshia, the artifact that took the place of my right pinky finger, asked me, 'Master, when are you planning on using me?'
Her voice was very rough and a little deep, almost resembling a Viking man but there was still that hint of femininity which reminded me of how strange it was for all of the main character's artifacts to have the voice of a woman.
Urisha and Yanari, my two new artifacts also chimed in.
'Yeah master, what about us?'
'I'm getting bored master. Let me have some fun too.'
'Alright you three, calm down,' I said. 'Stop being so impatient. I'll be utilizing you three soon enough. Just wait.'
'Yes!'
'Finally!'
'Thank you, master.'
The three artifacts made it sound like they were about to be doing something trivial when that was the furthest thing from the truth.
Like a master thief, I was able to take off my disguise and remove all evidence that I was the one who smashed open the enclosure for the skeleton.
Once they begin investigating who it was that committed the crime, I had no doubt in my mind that they wouldn't even consider me as a suspect.
So, as if I was taking a nice walk in the park, I began heading to my next class as Beginner Leadership was already over for the day.
The students were still in the basement of the main building where the walls were fortified and there were enough defensive features to instantly kill any lower-class demon that dare try and infiltrate.
All basement of the Halls on campus leads to the main building.
Draven was meant to enter the basement and make his way to the treasury located at the basement of Alexander Hall which wasn't being guarded at the moment because every adult was focused on protecting the students.
Sitting in my seat, I was in an empty classroom and while waiting for the students to return to class, I was on my phone looking at the news.
Just as expected, people were freaking out over the eyeball and what it meant.
Most speculated that the demon king had returned while a few believed that it was just a demon trying to trick the humans into believing such a thing using an illusion of some sort.
The former was the truth.
I was having fun, seeing the reactions of the entire world.
In the novel, I only ever got to hear about this major event in passing because the novel followed the main character and he spent the majority of the first arc in this rural village where he trained with his childhood friend, then they were attacked by a demonic monster, then he saved his friend, and coincidentally one of the teachers at the academy happened to see it and noticed his potentially which led to him being offered a scholarship.
By the time he arrived at the academy, it was already the second semester, and the sexual assault of Diana, the appearance of the demon king and Draven, all that was simply referred to in conversation.
After texting my mother that I was alright, I began reading a few articles that were written in a span of minutes.
"Does this mark the beginning of the Fifth World War?" was the title of one of the articles I read.
They compared side by side the image of the eyeball that appeared in the sky with a black-and-white photo taken the year before the Fourth World War began.
The photo was eerily similar to the picture taken today where there was an eyeball in the sky.
The only difference is that this time, demonic monsters accompanied the eyeball whereas last time, the eyeball was there by itself, looking around for a few minutes before disappearing.
My question is this: If you're a demon king and you want to conquer the overworld where the humans live, why would you announce your arrival and give the humans time to prepare?
If I was the demon king, I'd simply prepare my army and when they least expect it, surprise them with an invasion.
The shitty god had fallen into the cliche of demon kings sending weak enemies to the protagonists, allowing them to get stronger.
I couldn't even blame the shitty god too much for writing this cliche into his story. This was a stupid thing that a lot of stories do.
When the students were let out of the basement and my classmates began entering the room, most of them were surprised to see that I was already there.
"What are you doing here?" asked Bictor, the one who I was closest to in this class.
"Just watching a video analyzing the eyeball and whatnot," I responded, showing him my phone screen.
"You know that's not what I meant. How are you already here?" he asked.
"I was in the bathroom when you guys were being evacuated to the basement," I explained. "I had my headphone on so I didn't even know something was happening."
"So when you came out, it must've felt like a horror movie," Bictor chuckled, imagining my reaction to a school building that was littered with demonic monsters.
"You're not wrong. I thought someone had trapped me in their illusion at first," I sighed, shaking my head.
"How many did you kill?" he whispered.
"Monsters?"
"Yeah. I wanted to fight some monsters but my teacher forced me to evacuate with the rest. Fuck. If I knew, I would've hidden in the bathroom too," said Bictor, treating the invasion of monsters like a casual activity.
Other students still looked spoked and a few were even missing from the classroom which I assumed meant they had left to go home.
"Bictor, you're pretty crazy aren't you?"
"Me? Crazy? No, never. I'm just... intrigued by how it'd feel to crush one of them with my bare fists, that's all. That doesn't make me crazy though."
I could see the bloodlust in his eyes.
"No... I'm pretty sure that makes you crazy. But hey, as long as that craziness isn't aimed at a fellow human, keep at it."
He chuckled at my response and headed back to his seat.
It was hard for the teacher to get through the lesson without it feeling weird because everyone still had their mind on the attack the school just went through.
It got to a point where he turned to us and said, "Alright. Self-study time."
Then he left the classroom and didn't return until the final five minutes of the class where he made sure everyone got packed up and left.
As I was heading outside where Jerman was waiting for me, a person stepped in front of me.
It was Diana who looked like she had just woken up. Her hair was a mess and I could see the traces of drooling on her mouth.
"Hi," she greeted.
"Hey. What's up?" I asked.
She looked around as if to make sure that no one was too close to us.
"Thank you."
"For what?" I asked, pretending to not know what she was speaking about.
"For saving me. You don't have to pretend. I know it was you who brought me down to the nurse's room. I... I won't ask how you managed to get past the vampire but... thank you."
A light smile appeared on my face and I nodded as if to acknowledge the truth.
"You're welcome."
Then she asked me, "Do you know?"
"Know what?"
"The truth about what happened to me," she said. "Do you know?"
I didn't want to place any more burden on her and make her overthink herself over and over so I did the right thing and responded, "If you're referring to the blood that is now flowing in your body then yes... I do know."
'So does the headmistress,' I thought.
She knows but the headmistress doesn't say or do anything about it because she is a great judge of character and through her interactions with Diana, she understands that Diana wouldn't betray the human race just for power when she is already one of the most talented students at the academy.
"Are you going to..."
"Tell people? No," I replied, shaking my head.
"Why? What if I hurt someone?" she asked.
"Are you planning on hurting people?"
"...No."
"There's your answer."
"How can you believe me so easily? What if my body moves and thirsts for blood on its own?" she asked. "What if I lose control? What if—"
"Diana," I interrupted her. "It'll be okay. Just relax. You're not going to do any of those things. You've read the textbook about vampires, werewolves, and other races right?"
She nodded.
"Then you should know that as long as you don't get a taste of fresh human blood then you'll be fine with the thirst. Don't tell me that you've already..."
"No," she said, shaking her head profusely. "I haven't."
Smirking, I told her, "I was just joking."
"Oh."
"You'll be fine Diana. If anything, just treat it as a blessing."
"A blessing?"
"Yes. With vampiric blood, you'll have better control of ice magic. Don't you know that their race has an extreme affinity with the cold?"
She looked down at her palm and starting from the base, she began to create a small ice sculpture of the main academy building down to the last minute detail.
"See," I said, smiling. "It's a blessing."
Walking past her who was still astonished by the control she had over her ice magic, I said, "I'll see you around."
"See you."
As I continued walking, I could sense that she was staring at my back.
'Was that a cool exit?' I asked Liona.
'That was super cool! It's like in that one movie you and Rubi were watching where the badass with sunglasses walked away from the explosion.'