Meanwhile, as Kael was being questioned by Silva, Gabriel, the young student who had originally spotted Kael and Aldric that day, walked through the school halls toward a particular office.
It was the office of the school nurse, Alistair.
He knocked timidly and waited for her to respond before proceeding inside.
Shutting the door behind him, Gabriel bowed his head as he greeted her, avoiding eye contact. His demeanor showed the depth of fear buried within his heart.
"Speak up. What's wrong?" Alistair asked, confused by his behavior. He looked very uncomfortable, as though he were being stabbed or tortured.
"Uhm, I—I came here to see you, Mrs. Alistair, about the missing student," he finally mustered the confidence to speak, his voice shaky and disheartened.
"The missing student?" Alistair's eyes widened. Could he have been the one to take down Aldric? she wondered. But as she spotted the Grade One badge on his necklace, she dismissed the idea—it was impossible. She proceeded to ask, "What do you know about the missing student?"
There was another long silence as Gabriel hesitated and stuttered before finally speaking.
"I don't know who it was, but Aldric ran after someone into the storeroom, and that person ran out a short while later," he said softly, his voice just loud enough for Alistair to hear.
She processed the information carefully, not dismissing him despite his nervousness. While she had more questions to ask, Gabriel's current state made it clear that any further questioning would take forever. Instead, she decided to verify his claim first.
She called in one of the academy teachers to her office.
In record time, as though the teacher had been standing nearby, he barged in, his heavy breathing filling the room.
It was Mr. Hart, the teacher of Beast Types and Weaknesses.
His quick response stemmed from his past confession of love to Alistair—a confession she had obviously turned down. Hart, however, had brushed it off as immaturity on her part, convinced she would eventually come around. This had made their relationship awkward ever since.
"You called for me, Alistair?" he said, running his hand through his hair in an attempt to appear more handsome. But to Alistair, the more he tried, the less attractive he seemed.
"Yes, about the missing student. I have new information we can work on together," Alistair explained, rising from her desk. She waved to dismiss Gabriel, who immediately bolted out of the room with his head down, like the snitch he was.
Now alone, Alistair explained Gabriel's account to Hart in detail.
After the explanation, the two prepared themselves by gathering necessary medical tools and set off, walking quickly toward the storeroom.
If Gabriel's information was accurate, there might be a knocked-out or tied-up student trapped in the storeroom for more than a day.
That was their assumption—until they opened the double-arched doors of the storeroom and were hit by a familiar, nostalgic smell.
The two froze, staring at each other.
"That smell..." Hart muttered, clenching his teeth. He stepped forward, using his nose to trace the source of the unbearable stench. Alistair followed suit.
It was a smell they hadn't encountered since the Wave—a time when beasts ruled supreme. The smell of rotting human flesh.
They continued searching through the storeroom until they noticed an oddly stacked pile of boxes in one corner. As they approached, the stench became overwhelmingly worse.
Hart, using his soul ability that granted him immense strength, began moving the boxes.
"What the fuck happened here?!" Alistair exclaimed, the words escaping her mouth unfiltered as her eyes met the horrifying sight.
A pile of flesh, clustered together and barely recognizable, lay before them.
The dreadful sight was an eerie reminder of the Wave.
Alistair hunched over, vomiting the food she had eaten that morning.
"Are you okay?" Hart asked, concerned. He felt the same way upon seeing the body but restrained himself to maintain composure, knowing Alistair needed support.
"I'm fine. It's just... it reminds me of that time," she replied, standing upright and staring at the pile of flesh with a disgusted expression.
"So, what do you think did this? Was it a student or... what I'm thinking?" Hart asked in a low tone, and Alistair nodded grimly.
"If it was a student, no child could be this brutal. No ability could tear someone apart like this, as if they'd gone through a grinder. It has to be a beast of some sort that got into the academy somehow."
"If it's a beast and it's still roaming free, the students will be in danger when it gets hungry again. We don't even know this beast's habitat," Hart said, his teeth clenched tightly.
"I guess so. But from the sight alone, this beast has claws and sharp rows of teeth, which it used to tear apart the student. It can consume three-quarters of a human, including the bones, which are as thick as an adult's. It could just as easily rip you or me apart in seconds. This isn't a basic beast we can take lightly," Alistair explained.
Then she noticed an iron rod lying on the floor, seemingly out of place. The sight left her bewildered.
"If it was a beast, then why on earth did it use a metal club to strike down its opponent?"
Doubts began creeping into her mind. Was it truly a beast, or could it be a human?
She didn't know yet, but one thing was certain—whoever or whatever did this wouldn't escape justice.