"There you are," I whispered under my breath as I managed to sense the foul, disgusting aura of the devils. It was giving me goosebumps as if millions of ants were crawling on my skin.
The sign of the aura was away, out of the borders of the Academy. It showed itself for a moment and disappeared altogether from my senses.
I would be more surprised if the devil was in the academy though. Although Isabella Rose, whom is presumed to be controlled by a devil, entered the Academy, it would be a whole other thing for a damn devil to enter.
I, who met quite a bit number of devils, couldn't sense any kind of devilish aura from Isabella. There was no way for mere professors to sense the aura of the devil while I couldn't.
'What to do with her?' I wondered for a moment before quickly releasing the girl from chokehold.
Isabella Rose was a noble heiress of another kingdom, not the empire's. So, even if she were the puppet of a devil, it would still cause a huge political problem if I killed her instead of delivering to her kingdom, Neladrik Kingdom.
As the unconscious Isabella Rose fell onto the ground and her black hair sprawled on the ground, I vanished from the scene.
Teleporting away from the scene, I found myself in darkness.
Soothing hums of the Death and the heavy scent of blood were in the air, puddles of blood under my shoes.
I was in the lair of the devil.
All around me were the cold corpses of the devil's victims. It was apparent that regardless of age or gender, this devil killed many people without any mercy, maybe even with sadistic pleasure.
The calming hums of the Death in the bloody lair indicated that all the souls were already taken, and there was no corpse of the devil in sight, so the Death was unsuccessful with their hunt.
'I see, so the devil lose his puppet's control for a moment because of its fight with the Death.'
The Death was a real being, an eternal hunter who collected the souls of the dead and hunted the people who lived more than their lifespan permitted. They would hum with a gentle voice whenever they see pitiful victims who died before their lifespans ended and soothe their souls.
The Death was akin to the force of nature. For thousands of years, the Death was present, many powerful figures met their end in the Death's hand. It was common knowledge among the strong people to be ready for them.
And, devils, who literally didn't have a lifespan, were the Death's primary hunting target.
So, the theory of the devil that controlled Isabella encountered with the Death shouldn't have been far from the mark.
Wandering my gaze to the corpses I cursed.
"Waster bastard. If you are going to eat just this much, why kill all these people?"
Most of the corpses were hung with hooks right from their napes, and the rest of the corpses were piled on the ground like a mountain, half rotten and half eaten…
While enduring the disgusting scent, I searched through the lair of the devil but I couldn't find any kind of clue for the whereabouts of the devil.
Yet there was no sign.
My head fell low. I slowly reached into my pocket and took out a pocket watch made of blue crystal.
Well, calling it a pocket watch would be a lie as it was just in the shape of the pocket watch. Its primary use was to send a signal and message to the people who own something similar to this watch via engraved magic.
In terms, the blue crystal pocket watch would be a 6th to 5th-tier item with the complexity of its engraving and the amount of mana it could contain.
Though, it was just a magic tool to send a message. It wasn't important to know or classify if it was 6th or 5th tier.
"Clean here," I ordered with a tired voice before pressing the crown of the pocket watch.
Immediately, mana moved inside and I felt that my message was delivered.
"Fuck. I want to sleep..." I muttered as I made my way towards the Academy, to see the state of Isabella Rose.
The beautiful hums of the Death made me sleepy but I knew it was not possible to sleep.
And, I wasn't in a hurry. Teleportation wasn't needed, after all, it was an expensive magic mana-wise. My mana reserves weren't so large to leisurely teleport every second.
******
- a few minutes before, in the training ground, before Caelum teleported away.-
On her wrist a black wristband, she stood rather leisurely in front of her opponent, who was wearing the same wristband as her.
Her pure white hair was tied into a ponytail and she was wearing a pair of white knight gloves. Her muscles were tense, ready to unleash a barrage of attacks when she needed to.
"I hope you won't take the outcome of the duel childishly. I don't want to be disturbed by any kind of political fight." The girl said to the golden-haired and red-eyed boy, who was her opponent.
The boy had a dignified aura and a calm expression. His presence was strangely relaxing in contrast to his calculating eyes.
"I am not a petty young master of a random barony, Saintess. I am a royal prince. Even if I lose, I will lose with my honor intact." The boy, Gabriel Celestia of the Celestia Empire, replied with a confident smile.
"We will see in the end." The white-haired girl, Saintess Celeste mumbled before taking a stance.
Then as the Saintess Celeste was about to strike and begin the duel, a black beam passed between them, and the duel stopped.
"That was a rather evil magical power, right, Saintess?"
"Yes, that was..." Saintess nodded as she looked in the direction where the black beam came from.
'Devilish mana.'
There she saw a shroud of darkness covering a small space.
Normal, maybe even relatively strong people wouldn't even be able to see past the shroud of darkness, however, the Saintess was far from normal. Her eyes and senses were especially special. No one other than her and the pope knew about this specialness.
Yet, she couldn't always use this specialness. It wasn't a passive but an active ability.
In the inside of the shroud of darkness, the Saintess now could see two blobs of lights.
One of the blobs of light was mostly whitish transparent with darker spots, and it was covered by ethereal dark chains that gave the feeling of aversion.
'Devilish Soul Binding!?'
An innate ability of most devils is the ability to sign one-sided contracts by twisting the words of their victims and taking their souls and bodies.
Although the Saintess saw this, she didn't take a step forward to help because her eyes were on the right at the side of the chained blob of light, right on the second blob of light.
No, calling the light would be wrong. The second blob was completely black, similar to the devilish mana, yet the feeling this blob gave was entirely different.
The devilish mana was sinister and devious. It was wholly evil.
But, this black blob was gentle but cruel. Shy but confident. It was twisted. It was full of contradictions. It wanted to tear apart everything it saw but also wanted to give lots of hugs. It wanted to sleep, it wanted to cry, but it also didn't want to sleep and never cried for forever.
On the black blob was a large pitch-black snake, slithering on it. Its smooth black scales weren't reflecting any light and Its movements were slow and leisurely.
And then, Its black murky eyes and slit pupils directly met with the Saintess' eyes.
"Agh!"
In an instant, blood flowed from the Saintess' eyes as she fell to her knees. The pain wasn't subdued even after a few hours and even her miraculous healing divine magic was fruitless.
That was the day Saintess learned when to look and when not to.
It was the day when she learned to be careful whenever she looked at 'him'.
But strangely, she felt warm inside. A small smile didn't leave her lips.