"Wow, if you ask me, you're the childish one."
"Childish or not, this child is still a prince. I'm warning you… Miss Hilda. While you are still my teacher, while I'm still here at the academy."
"My, I'm so scared. Then, I'll just call my older brother, the king of the Wind Temple, to help me out. If it's just Ellen, then sure. Fiordall can run over us in a sweep. But with the wind temple helping out, can you people survive?" The vice headmaster asked with a mad grin, and I didn't even have to think twice to give her the answer.
"Of course. Just me and the dark knight alone is enough to wipe out the wind temple. If that's truly where you came from." I said boldly, and the vice headmaster smirked widely at me.
"All right, the test is over. I see that you do have the courage. I thought you're keeping your talents and abilities hidden because you're afraid of danger. But, it seems like you can get pretty riled up when it comes to your family." The vice headmaster said quite suddenly, but I already turned around to get ready to leave.
"Prepare yourself, then. I'm not kidding when I said there will be war--"
"I'm the best friend of your mother."
Hearing her sudden words, I stopped walking and froze on the spot. Seeing that I've stopped, the vice headmaster laughed from that reaction, but I only turned my cold glare at her.
"So? That gives you the right to talk shit about my mother?" I asked coldly, and she just shook her shoulder.
"Dunno. Ask your dead mother. We used to talk so much shit to each other that it doesn't feel like we're even friends at all." The vice headmaster shook both her shoulders while grinning at me, and I knew immediately just what was wrong with this person.
If what she says is true, that she is my mother's best friend, then something is utterly wrong with her personality. I don't know why Mom would befriend someone like her, but certainly this person is just so out of the word normal.
She is… insane. Actual lack of sanity.
"My mom would never become friends with someone as crazy as you." I said coldly once more, but the vice headmaster only laughed.
"Oho~? Is that so? Then, explain this picture." She took out a piece of paper from her storage bracelet, and she threw the paper like a card towards me.
I grabbed the card that flew at high speed, and I was really shocked at what I'm seeing. The person I'm looking at in the picture was indeed the vice headmaster and my mom, and they are both very young… and very wild.
Both of them had the same short hair, and they look more like boys instead of teenage girls. While the vice headmaster had her piercings on her lips, Mom was wearing the piercing on her nose. The two colored their eyes to look darker, turning them to be looking so… grim.
This is… not Mom.
"This is not my mother." I said aloud, and the vice headmaster burst into laughter.
"Oh my god! Oh, Fae… If only you can see your son's reaction right now… this is so much fun." The vice headmaster is really having too much joy on her chair, and I can't help but become more curious.
"Tell me, Nathan. How much did your mom tell you about her younger days?" The vice headmaster asked, and I realized that Mom really has not told me much about her life before becoming my mother.
"… Not much."
"Yeah, I thought so~. If I have to say it in the nicest way possible… she is even worse than your dad. And your dad is pretty wild! I've heard of what he can do." The vice headmaster continued, and I closed my eyes from this painful reality that I am facing.
I truly… know nothing about my mother.
"If you don't know much about your mom, then you at least know why she died. Right?" She suddenly asked out of the blue, and I turned my shocked gaze at her.
"Hmm? You don't know? Hah, I knew the king of Fiordall is unreliable."
"Why…? Why did my village--"
"Now, hold on. What good will I get if I tell you? It bothers me that I've been feeding you information, but you do me nothing good." She said right away, and I stared at her with my cold eyes.
"… What do you want?"
"Great doing business with you! All I want is for you to simply stay in the academy! Nothing hard, right?" She said so cheerfully, so I knew immediately that something was odd.
"… What's the catch?"
"Ho-Ho! Smart boy. Well, the catch is that you will have to undergo a punishment. I'll tell you what the punishment is if you decide to stay."
"I don't care about that. Tell me everything." I said coldly, which surprised her considering the punishment might not be light.
But honestly, I'd accept any punishment to obtain information. Knowing the reason behind my parents death and the massacre in my village means everything to me. I need to know.
"Well, if you say so… then, where should I start…?
Seven years ago when the tragedy happened, I was there as one of the investigators. I remember how little you were back then. Wasn't it seven years ago…? Yeah, it was seven. Wow, you were nine, and you're really small."
She is really not telling me anything so far...
"Please, stay on track."
"Oh, I'll get there! Anyway, as one of the investigators who studied the scene, we obtained some information that we can't share with anyone. The information that we got can't be shared not only to you, but also to the King of Fiordall as well as others who might be concerned about the village. Would you like to know why?"
Hearing such things, I became wildly curious. Something not even the king of Fiordall can know… that means the answer is highly political.
"Is it… war?" I guessed while looking terrified, fully wishing that the answer isn't what I think. But from how she smiled right away, it looks like I'm right.
"Correct. I actually wanted to save this information until you're a lot stronger, but you are old enough. I hope that you will make the proper decision about what to do with this information. Are you ready?" She asked, and I have to keep in mind that my actions upon learning this information can be very different than before. I took a deep breath and prepared myself, and I nodded at her.
"Tell me."
"The person who murdered your entire village is the President of the Dark Republic."
My eyes were opened wide, and I was not prepared for such an answer. Seeing that I was really shocked, Miss Hilda only smiled softly.
"I was very terrified when I learned that as well… but I was also confused. Why would someone like him go and massacre a random village at the fire kingdom? Not just that, the dark republic is also the furthest away from the fire kingdom. Why would someone go that far to wipe out a village?
The answer is obviously because of his motives. As for what his motives were… well, we were only able to guess." She took a short moment to drink her cup of tea, and I was given time to sort out my thoughts.
The dark republic is one of the seven major countries in Avenor. Just like the fire kingdom, water empire, and the earth nation, the dark republic is the home for all the darkness origin people. It is a country governed for people with darkness origin, and it wasn't exactly a small country.
That country is special in its own way. So special, that waging war with them isn't exactly a good idea.
"All right. Let's continue. His motives… Right." Miss Hilda finished drinking her tea, and she started explaining again.
"When we investigated the crime scene, we found four things that were quite odd. First, was the corpses of the villagers. You may have heard that some of your villagers are chopped to pieces, while others got cooked to death. Have you heard about this?"
I nodded firmly at her, because that was indeed the two states that the villagers were in when they were all gathered.
"From there, we concluded two things. One, the villagers who were chopped to pieces looked like they were killed by a very large bear with very large bear claws. Two, the villagers who were burned to death could've died because of fire, but there is one other origin that can also cook things to coal."
"... The light origin."
"That's right. From there, we deduced that the people who massacred the village had both the darkness origin, which was used to chop the people, and the light origin, which was used to burn them. Then we heard from you that there was only one killer, and that turned things even more confusing."
"Because the monster… had two origins inside them." I said with utmost confidence, and the vice headmaster turned really surprised by that answer.
"Is that… something you're confident of?"
"I saw it with my own two eyes. I've been trying to find out about that for years. I couldn't get anything." I said while shaking my head, and Miss Hilda immediately started thinking deeply.
"Interesting. I'll get to it more later. But for now, about the investigation.
The second thing that we learned was your mother's corpse was nowhere to be found."
Hearing that, I opened my eyes widely.
"No, that… that can't be--"
"All this time, the charred corpse that you've been crying on wasn't actually your mother. It was a corpse that we faked as your mother, but it was actually someone else. As for how I knew, it's because I would be able to recognize her mother's dead body if I ever saw it.
Because your mother has a very special ability that is unique only to her, so it doesn't make sense as to why her corpse is nowhere to be found." Miss Hilda explained long and wide, and I became very hurt knowing that I was crying buckets of tears at someone who wasn't my mother. I even buried her next to Dad, when she should've been buried elsewhere.
"Then… where is she?"
"Dunno. My theory is that she is still alive. That's why I kept on joking about her. In any case, her ability will never allow her to be killed… because she is practically immortal." Miss Hilda said, and I opened my eyes widely from the shock.
"She is… immortal--"
"This is just a theory, of course. Even if she is dead, I'll still joke about her corpse. That's what best friends are for!" She said loudly and cheerfully, and I realized that this is her way of coping with the sorrow.
She became insane because she was coping with the loss. Something that I can never understand, because until now, I still haven't accepted everything that has happened.
Her relationship with Mom… is legit.
"Are you ready to hear about the third and fourth one? Keep in mind, you will truly lose your mind once you hear them." She warned me about the third and fourth information that she got from the investigation, and I nodded at her firmly.
"I'm ready. Tell me." I said confidently, not realizing just how deep of a hell I've dug myself to.
Because I… can never be ready to hear such things.