When the three of them returned to the common room for some rest after a busy morning, they found the atmosphere in the room unexpectedly tense. As they walked in, they were met with the stares of almost everyone in the college.
"What's going on?" Barry asked cautiously.
"Oh, you're back." Kane simply said, glancing at them before turning back to the older students he was talking with.
Little Bruce nudged Barry to join the conversation, but Barry hesitated, causing Little Bruce to roll his eyes in exasperation.
After a while, Kane tapped on the table to gather everyone's attention. He cleared his throat and said:
"I must once again emphasize, you must absolutely not go to the corridor at the end of the fourth floor of the main castle. If you break other school rules, you might only face punishments like manual labor, but if you break this rule, you bear the consequences!"
When everyone was gone, Barry approached Kane, who was leaning against his bedroom door. Kane sighed frustratedly, "I heard someone from Zatara College was injured after accidentally entering that corridor and has been sent to the hospital.
"As you know, that college has the most students and is harder to manage. Someone probably forgot the professor's and class president's repeated warnings and carelessly triggered some sort of defensive magic. All their class presidents have been punished. I don't want to be punished, so Barry, I'm begging you, keep an eye on the students in your class. Don't let anyone wind up in the hospital!"
As he spoke, Kane glanced at Little Bruce not far away. Barry also looked at him, then heaved a deep sigh.
At ten o'clock that night, Barry intercepted Little Bruce on the steps of the floating spire.
"I knew you wanted to go on a night tour." Barry sighed, "Don't tell me you're still aiming for the fourth floor corridor. Someone was already hurt, don't you know?"
But Little Bruce simply smirked, "That's exactly why I want to go. Either follow me, or go back to sleep."
"That's not happening. I won't let you go!" Barry stood firmly in front of Little Bruce. He was about the same age as Little Bruce, but Little Bruce, perhaps having had better nutrition, was taller and stronger than he was.
Even so, Barry didn't back down, no matter Little Bruce tried to push him aside, he wouldn't move, until another voice rose from behind them.
"Barry, I think we should go with him. At least, we should know what hurt that student."
As he watched the platinum-haired girl step out from the darkness, Barry sighed deeply, "Halley, are you going to be foolish with him, too?"
"You've always been the foolish one, it's you guys." Little Bruce seized the opportunity to push Barry aside and walked ahead briskly, without looking back, he said, "If you guys want to wait here until dawn, be my guest. I'm going now."
Barry could only grit his teeth, stamp his foot and follow behind Bruce. Though he knew he was falling into Bruce's trap, he had no choice. Both his duty as class president and his conscience wouldn't allow him to stand by and watch Little Bruce walk into danger, no matter how annoying Little Bruce was.
The floating spire was some distance away from the main castle, so they had to cross half of the garden, walk through the hallways, cross the central garden of the manor, to arrive at the main castle.
As they crossed the hallway towards the courtyard, Bruce looked up at the fourth-floor window of the castle.
Gothic windows are often tall and narrow, but symmetrical on both sides. The moon was currently behind the castle and the moonlight shone through the windows into the corridor, reflecting the scene inside.
"What's that?" Barry widened his eyes in horror, as he just saw a huge shadow flit past one of the fourth floor windows.
Little Bruce didn't seem too surprised, he quickened his pace and said, "It's not hard to guess, if that room really contains something very important, there would certainly be a guard."
The professors' warning to all students to stay away from the fourth floor corridor might be because the guard is extremely ferocious, not something students could handle. They're not worried about students stealing treasures, they're worried about the guard hurting the students."
"Their worries make sense." Barry caught up with him and increased his volume, "The guard has already hurt students."
"That's not the point." Little Bruce looked up at the window again, quickened his pace and said, "Aside from guarding against student theft, who else is there to guard against?"
"Haven't you considered why they would place such a formidable guard in the school, rather than simply setting up a few inconspicuous barriers to deceive the students?"
Barry wasn't stupid, he understood what Little Bruce was implying and ventured, "They set a trap?"
"It's definitely a trap."
Little Bruce sighed softly, "If I'm not mistaken, the monster guarding there is the tree demon, Sergei."
Both Barry and Halley gasped in unison. They had seen Professor Pamela's tree demon partner during the day. That tree, though not particularly tall, was at least four or five meters high and lush. Pat, which was the name of its arm, was much thicker than their thighs. If this tree demon named Sergei was similar to Pat, he would certainly be beyond their capabilities to handle.
As they talked, the trio had already entered the castle. The castle, deserted at this time, was only lit by a few night lights. The flickering candlelight cast terrifying shadows on all the familiar objects of the day.
Barry felt a chill, and Halley was startled. But Little Bruce kept pressing on. The trio quickly ascended three floors to the entrance of the stairs leading to the fourth floor.
Three little heads were neatly lined up next to the corner wall, watching a massive, wobbling shadow at the end of the fourth-floor corridor. It was like Pat, the massive tree-man they saw this morning, only more terrifying in the dark corridor. Its two glowing green eyes were like ghostly fire, its sharp claws as if ready to shred any enemy.
"Really a tree-man." Barry squeezed his words through his fingers over his mouth, and Halley blinked, saying, "Do you remember? Professor Pamela said this morning that someone borrowed this tree-man. It's probably guarding this room."
"The Magical Defense Network of Earth..." Little Bruce said this phrase without his usual disdain but spoke in a serious tone: "The guys who followed me today mentioned this term to me. They said it's important to the magic realm."
"The energy core of the Magical Defense Network is in that room." Halley's tone become serious, just like she said, she had only heard about many things before, but hadn't seen them, so her understanding was somewhat skewed.
She knew about the existence of green lantern energy, but she didn't know where it came from or how it existed. Following this line of thought, it would make sense that there was a core for storing this energy.
Barry was still a bit confused, but Halley's tone became very serious, "I enrolled first, so I knew some things about the magic realm. The magic realm has just gone through a great catastrophe. Do you know why?"
Halley explained the previous situation of the Magic Realm to them as quickly and precisely as possible. Barry listened with clenched fists.
"So it's all the fault of those human traitors. How can they unbearably compromise with angels and demons? If it weren't for their constant concessions, how could the magical world have come to this?" Barry said indignantly.
"I heard Master Andrew say that sometimes it's not entirely their fault." Halley said in a low tone: "The status of angels and demons is far beyond humans', so if humans are not careful they will be trapped. Many magicians think they have a clear will, but they are actually already under the control of demons."
Little Bruce squinted his eyes and said, "Maybe the dean and the professors know that there might be humans controlled by the demons mixed into the school. They want to disrupt or even destroy the construction of the magical defense network, so they set up this trap?"
"It's very possible." Barry raised his tone, "Because if the magical defense network is built, they'll be out of luck, right? And if it's not built, they're the ones who benefit the most."
"Hiss..." Halley drew a breath and instinctively said, "Then we should hurry up and tell Professor Shearer."
"Why do you think he's reliable?" Little Bruce turned his head and stared at Halley, "Even if he has other solutions, why would he set this trap?"
Halley paused, but she was not convinced by Little Bruce. She knew Shearer better than any of them. She thought that if the energy core were truly in danger, Shearer wouldn't have recklessly left it there.
Since it's here and there's a trap, it means that Shearer might have a plan. So, it's better to wait and see.
But at this moment, Barry squinted his eyes and said in a low voice, "Look, there seems to be someone there!"
The other two immediately followed his gaze; a figure in a black robe appeared behind the tree-man, and because of the robe, they couldn't see the figure's face or shape. After darting behind the tree-man, the figure discovered that the door of the room was locked. The tree-man reacted quickly and swung its twig-filled arm at the figure.
The figure was too close to dodge, so it instinctively stretched out an arm to block. After a low cry of pain, the figure clutched its bleeding arm.
Taking advantage of the tree-man's pause, the figure darted beneath the tree-man's arm and jumped out of the window. The trio dashed down the stairs to the castle courtyard, but no one was there.
The next morning, during breakfast in the dining hall, Little Bruce intently watched Shearer.
Shearer was using one hand to spear a piece of bread with a fork, while the other hand was constantly hidden beneath the table, concealed inside his sleeve.
Victor, who was working part-time, sat next to Shearer, and Little Bruce pricked up his ears to listen to their conversation.
"What's the matter, Shearer, did you hurt your hand?"
"Just a minor injury."
"That's strange, you actually got hurt. How did it happen?"
Shearer stayed silent, but Anna from the other side giggled and leaned in to whisper to Victor.
"He injured it while playing with the shredder!"