It was currently Sunday morning, 11 a. m. I had until Friday evening to apprehend the culprit behind Caden Nolan's death before the System would turn on me once again.
But that was the issue. Caden wasn't dead yet. He would die soon according to Vanya's visions but what if he died after the period of my Quest expires? Fuck, there were too many questionable variables about this.
I needed to apprehend Caden's murderer, but he wasn't dead yet, and he was also involved with the Respondents. I needed to talk to Alex Monroe and something told me I would have a harder time finding him than finding Caden.
And I couldn't ask the Inquisitor HQ for help. It seemed to be a restriction set by the System. When I wanted to explain to my mother what happened after ignoring the System's first quest and all the things that came after it, I couldn't.
A message window kept popping in front of my face, warning me not to. The words I wanted to speak didn't even sound coherent while saying them. So I was on my own, and I was running out of time.
But before I would begin working on the weekly quest, there was something more pressing I had to attend to.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
How was I ever going to come back from what I did yesterday? How could I have behaved so stupidly? I undressed in front of a fellow man and literally 'begged' him to touch me! What was worse than that? And it wasn't just any fellow man, it was Lumina Voss.
The person who, apparently, was going to destroy the world! What the hell was in the drink that Five gave to me?!
"Stop it, Autumn. Stop freaking over spilt milk. I need to pull myself together."
I could just avoid Lumina Voss for the rest of my life. That was the only way.
[You have 365 days until humanity's savior becomes humanity's destroyer.]
[Gain Lumina Voss's trust and stop him from destroying the world.]
As though the System could read my mind, those messages blinked in front of my face.
"Fuck! What do you want from me?!" I snapped.
[Stop the destruction of this world.]
The lone message made me want to strangle something.
"Again, I ask. Why me? What the hell is my business with the destruction of the world?!"
[The System chose you.]
"Well, choose another person! It's not too late, is it?"
There was no response from the system after that. I've noticed something about this System person. It only spoke to me whenever it wanted something from me or wanted to taunt me. When I tried to get answers from it, it would ignore me. How cruel was that?
[Mental Control] activated itself and I calmed down and decided to behave responsibly.
I needed to gather my thoughts. I could cringe at myself concerning my actions yesterday and think about disappearing from the surface of the Earth another time. Let me focus on the weekly quest for now.
Luckily for me, today was Sunday. There were no classes and I had time to investigate. Tomorrow and the rest of the week wouldn't be the same. I couldn't skip classes because of the strict rules here at Gomas Academy.
If I skipped more than three days of classes without permission or good reason in a school year, I would get kicked out. And if I got kicked out, I would be the laughing stock of my family and my credibility as an Inquisitor would reduce drastically.
First of all, I would use my time well. I would only work on the quest after classes, not that there'd be a lot of time after classes but it was still worth a shot. For now, I needed to look through the files Vanya sent me.
Among them was a description of the place where she had seen a glimpse of Caden actually dying. It was in a deserted area with a red moon hanging on a gray sky. Apparently, there were little goblins creeping around the area.
The structure Vanya had seen Alex and Nolan entering was an incomplete one at the exterior but the interior was well furnished like a cult hangout.
It was obviously a Dungeon, so I sent out requests to both illegal and legal Dungeon operators in Gomas, inputting the details of said dungeon to see if they had anyone like it or if one like it had already been cleared recently. That'd help quicken the process of pointing out their location or giving me a direction to look at.
And then, there was information that would help me find Alex. Since Vanya said Alex was the one who would murder Caden after all, I needed to catch him.
According to what I was looking at from my laptop, he was actually a pretty outstanding guy. He was an A-Rank Hunter with both a mental attack skill and a physical defense skill. The mental skill was unfortunately [Memory Trigger].
It was a skill that could activate even the deepest memories of a person and bring them to life. Looking at it positively, it was a very helpful skill that could remind a person of their happiest memories and give them a chance to relive it in bliss.
From a negative point of view, if he wished to conjure a person's worst ever memory and made them relive it… it would be a form of mental torture. But either way, this skill of his would be futile against me because of [Mental Control].
His other skill was the one I was actually worried about. It was a skill that hardened his skin against any kind of assault. I wondered how tough his skin would prove to be against my S-Class magic ether sword. I'd find that out once I found him.
I glanced through more of his personal information details and something caught my eyes. Alex Monroe seemed to be close friends with Kim Dooshik. Apparently, they were childhood friends, and Alex was set to join Kim Dooshik's family Guild after he graduated from the Academy.
The name of the Guild was Starry Night. For some reason, it sounded familiar. I couldn't remember why though.
"Kim Dooshik…" The name tasted bitter on my tongue. He was a guy that I didn't like for obvious reasons. One of those obvious reasons was that he hated me and never bothered to hide it.
He acted arrogantly against me, fully knowing I could squash him like a bug if I ever wanted to. I've never appreciated people who liked going up against what they could never conquer.
But for now, I'd have to put away my dislike for him and question him about his childhood friend's whereabouts.
* * *
"I need to talk to you."
I said this in an open area but somehow I could still hear my voice echoing. Strange, wasn't it? That was because everyone outside in the archery practice field went silent when I appeared here two minutes ago and have been not-so-discreetly watching me.
After questioning a few people in the dorms, I found out that Kim regularly practiced his archery in the practice field almost every time he was free. Luckily for me, I got here the exact time he was going to call it quits and return to the dorms.
He was awfully surprised when he realized that he was actually the person I came seeking out. My Inquisitor Gun was tucked inside my shirt so it was obvious that I wasn't here to purify any corrupted entity. But even with that in mind, everyone was still wary of me.
"Me?" Kim repeated with a flabbergasted tone.
I frowned. "Yes, you. Come with me right now, we're wasting time."
Expecting Kim to nod and understand the situation, I turned around and began walking. After taking three steps, I realized that he wasn't trailing after me. I turned back to see that he hadn't moved an inch from where he was standing.
"What are you doing? I just told you to come with me."
"Why? Why should I do that? You might as well just tell me to stab myself and die right here." Kim spoke with a frown on his face, which somehow mirrored the one on my own face.
"I'm not going to kill you. I just have some questions." I said calmly, deciding that being rude wasn't going to prove to be helpful in this situation.
"Questions? And why would I answer any question of yours? You killed my friend!" Kim roared.
My brows furrowed. Friend? Which friend of his have I killed?
"It's not surprising that you don't even remember," Kim said. "In the Tower, Dexter. The guy you killed along with your teammates!"
Oh… that person.
"Stop using the word 'kill'. I purified a corrupted entity." I said in my defense. But my choice of words did nothing but fan the flames of Kim's rage.
"I'm done with this." Kim spoke in a defeated tone, then turned his back to me to walk away.
No way. I grabbed his arm and flipped him around. He quickly reacted, about to land a blow on my face but I used my other hand to catch his hand. I turned him around and crossed both of his arms around his back, locking him in place.
I could hear some of the students around, protesting that I let him go and what not. But I ignored them. It seemed like the only way to get this guy was to use violence.
"Listen here, I don't have the time nor energy to deal with your arrogant ass. Now, be quiet, come with me, and answer my questions. I'll let you go once I'm done. Understood?" I spoke in a voice that allowed only Kim to hear what I was saying.
After a few moments of struggling, he realized that he had no chance of overpowering me, then gave up.
"I understand." Kim said through gritted teeth.
"Good," I freed his arms. "Let's go."
Turning to look at me, I didn't miss the murderous intent in his eyes but he didn't act on it. Wise of him. Kim didn't say a word as I led him out of the practice field and into the empty locker room of the archery club, locking the door afterwards.
Once I confirmed that the place was empty, I didn't waste any more time.
"Tell me about your relationship with Alex Monroe."