The interior was a cacophony of collisions and inhuman roars, one after another.
The Flesh Reshaping ritual had been interrupted, and Gale's mutation was incomplete.
Although his sanity could suppress his own desire to attack, it couldn't stifle the obstinate resistance of another consciousness.
When faced with the threat to his life, that sanity was swiftly devoured by the instinct to survive, and the "Master Baigu," a being of pure negative emotions, took control of his body.
Heine had retreated outside the door quite early on.
This wasn't cowardice, it was wisdom.
In the hallway, he skimmed through the documents in his hands.
At the top was a letter to the old Viscount, unaware that he had passed away the day before.
Gale also didn't know that the Bone Burial Ground had been cleansed by the Holy Light Railgun.
After dinner, he had passed out, and when he woke up, he was in the office, and the ritual had already reached its midway point.
Hunter had long since taken advantage of his position to transform the academy into a ritual site, trapping the students on the surface and drugging all the teachers into unconsciousness.
The storage room was just a hub.
Gale couldn't leave the academy before the completion of the ritual, and after it was complete... he wouldn't be himself anymore.
This was the origin of the "Bone Dungeon" dungeon.
It was a prison for the Master Baigu.
Beyond these, the majority of the rest were bills, land deeds, official documents, and correspondence.
Gale had been striving to prove the legality and orderliness of the Bone Burial Ground, to show that he had never dabbled in any forbidden rituals.
Yet this very person was ultimately defiled by an evil ceremony and died in the form of a monster...
Heine sighed.
Five minutes later, it quieted down inside.
A large amount of experience passed through the door and entered his body, as comfortable as drinking a mouthful of hot milk in the dead of winter.
Heine felt he had "leveled up."
His body felt lighter, his senses keener, and his thoughts much clearer.
Listening to the two of them habitually begin to summarize (blame) where they hadn't dodged well enough or coordinated properly, not letting go of even a slight imperfection, Heine thought their strength was indeed not without reason.
He pushed open the door, and there Gale lay in a pool of blood.
His eyes were clear at the time of his death, and his face bore an expression of relief and peace.
After closing Gale's eyes, Heine turned to Zhuo Yang.
The latter's already battered armor lay shattered on the ground, with one of his ribs also broken. The cutting board, however, was intact – a testament to the quality of a one-handed shield.
He had no sentimental attachment to the heirloom of his original father; if it was destroyed, so be it, but Skeleton's injury was distressing.
He cast a skeletal repair spell on Zhuo Yang and watched the bones gradually mend, nodding in satisfaction.
Although he couldn't lend a hand in the battle, he had no problem managing the damages.
The academy's most valuable items were all on the surface, having been devastated by the Holy Light Railgun, leaving only part of Gale's book collection of any value.
It took three trips back and forth to move all these books, after which they buried Gale in the center of the graveyard and erected a sign as a form of consolation.
Taking one last look at the now flattened Bone Burial Ground, Heine, with the unconscious Xiya La, headed for the broken bridge.
Luckily, by the time they reached the fourth section on the opposite shore, the bridge still hadn't collapsed.
It was waiting for a foolish warrior to leap heroically toward it.
...
When they had set out, two moons were high in the sky; by the time he returned home, dawn was breaking.
Heine settled Xiya La in the tidy room and had two Skeletons continue to clean the entire house.
He threw together something to eat and, after getting organized, he looked at the blond youth in the mirror and suddenly felt a bit of a stranger to himself.
At the academy, Xiya had said he was so reserved he was nearly dour, like a boring middle-aged man.
But now, the eyes of the person in the mirror were a bit brighter, and his face had a hint of youthfulness befitting his age.
"After all, there's something to look forward to in life now," he mused.
Leaving the two Skeletons wallowing in their emo, Heine rode to town.
It seemed only then did they realize they were in another world, not a game, their conversation laced with melancholy...
And the unease of not having cleared their browsing history and study materials.
Heine once again empathized fiercely.
When he had just transmigrated, he relied on these socially embarrassing scenes to overcome his initial fears and confusion with a dose of his own medicine.
As they moved further away from home, the sound of their conversation grew fainter, but neither of them seemed to notice.
After they had left for over a hundred meters, the sound disappeared completely.
Heine had some realization that it wasn't a voice channel inside his mind; he just happened to be able to hear it.
...
In the Lord's Mansion's study,
The new Viscount George Albert Sewen finished reading the letter and handed it to his aide Donald beside him.
Donald was an old man with graying hair who carefully read the letter with his glasses on.
"...Gale Gittler, headmaster of the Bone Burial Ground Necromancy Academy... Husband to Alice Gittler, Hunter Jettile is his father-in-law. If I remember correctly, doesn't the Gittler family own a farm to the north?"
"Yes, that supposedly haunted farm. It was a great headache for my father when he was alive; every year at least a hundred serfs would die there under mysterious circumstances."
"I see, no wonder they are a well-known family of necromancers in the Makala region, that even the headmaster of the Bone Burial Ground had to marry into them."
"This headmaster claims that the Gittlers want to use the academy as a tool for making money and conducting evil experiments. He resisted for a long time, even killed his own wife, and was afflicted with the Soul Repelling Curse—what do you think?"
"I am skeptical about this, my lord."
Donald rubbed a ring that was both gold and red.
"The Makala region was a battleground for four nations in the past, and countless civilians died tragically here. It's their bones that have led to the prevalence of necromancers on your lands. If not for the spread of the Holy Light Doctrine, there might have been more than one Gittler family here."
Seeing that the Viscount remained impassive, the aide continued, "Last night's Holy Light Judgment has already clarified everything. You should be asking the person who brought this letter what exactly he saw.
"Is this an innocent man's self-defense, or the frenzied bite of a dying sinner? This letter, the trial, and this expelled student all coinciding so conveniently—it's hard not to overthink."
The Viscount stood up.
"Let Mr. Heine come in."
...
A few minutes later, Heine sat opposite the Viscount.
Donald was staring at him the whole time, his aversion clear without a word.
After leveling up last night, Heine became very sensitive to death energy, equally sensitive to the Holy Light.
He noticed Donald's ring, a devotee of the Eternal Dawn.
Little George was like a younger version of the old Viscount, even more ambitious.
After some pleasantries, under George's questioning, Heine recounted what he had witnessed—Hunter's actions, the Flesh Reshaping ritual, and what he saw in the headmaster's office.
He only stated the facts, without voicing any opinions, leaving no chance for Donald to attack him based on any presupposed stance.
Who hasn't seen a few BBC and CNN interviews...
Sure enough, after Heine finished speaking, Donald furrowed his brow.
"It sounds like you sympathize with the headmaster?"
"Do you think I should not sympathize with him?"
"No, I just think that until things are proven..."
"You assert that they are unproven, yet you are questioning what I stated as facts—so you're simply doubting me? Where does your hostility come from? Is it because I come from the Bone Burial Ground and you follow the Holy Light?"
"No, I..."
For a moment, Donald was at a loss for words, but it was George who said with interest, "Mr. Donald, you believe in the Holy Light?"
"...My lord, this is irrelevant to the matter at hand."
"Indeed."
George no longer looked at him, turning instead to Heine.
"What do you think about Headmaster Gale's claim in the letter that he was framed by Hunter?"
"I concur with Headmaster Gale; he has already laid his heart bare for you to see. As a witness, I can confirm that Hunter left the cellar with five unconscious teachers. Once Xiya La regains consciousness, it's not too late for you to ask her."
The aide scoffed, "How do you explain the coincidence of all these events?"
"First, let me correct a mistake of yours—the timing of my appearance is not coincidental. I returned to the Bone Burial Ground three hours after the judgment descended.
"Secondly, I have some additional information that is not in this letter."
He rolled up his sleeve and pointed to his wrist.
"I, too, have been afflicted with the 'Soul Repelling Curse' mentioned in the letter."