"Move and you are dead."
Mikhail heard the voice right behind his ear, no higher than a whisper.
But it wasn't the chasing people.
Rather, from how the voice matched the scream, it was probably the escaping target on his last breaths.
He probably assumed Mikhail was a threat as his face was covered.
Despite the danger though, he was calm as ever with no change in his expression.
It was because the guy behind him posed no threat, being on the verge of death himself.
Ignoring his warning, he opened his mouth.
"I think you should worry about yourself first. This bullet will tear through you faster than that blade can snap off my neck."
The gun pressed to the person's heart at the last moment pressed deeper into him.
"You sound pretty confi-"
BOOM!
The sound of a gunshot and tearing flesh was heard as Mikhail moved his gun to his thighs in a split moment.
"ARGH!" The person screamed in pain, giving the former his chance to take advantage.
Grabbing him by his wrist, Mikhail spun him in the air, slamming him into the ground.
Disarming the blade, he bent his arms and got right on top of him.
"Pathetic. Who told you that you are safe while talking?"
Click. Cluck.
Reloading his gun, Mikhail pressed his foot to the man's back, applying sufficient pressure to make him scream out.
"Argh.."
But it was a dying scream and Mikhail knew that. The people had probably only left after knowing that he was going to die.
Grabbing him by his hair, Mikhail quickly turned his head to face him.
And he instantly recognized him as one of their mates back at the academy.
And as their eyes met, the person recognized him as well.
"Wait…wait.wait..I-" He coughed up blood on the ground.
"Yes, I already know you. Stop wasting your breath and tell me who they were."
"K-k-killed…" The light had started to fade from his eyes.
Mikhail immediately knew that was talking about his squadron.
They had most likely been killed by the people there.
"Killed your whole squadron? I don't care. Tell me who those people were." Mikhail pulled him closer.
His cold blue eyes underneath the cloak bore into the guy.
He had been rude and heartless but the guy understood what he meant.
There was no relation of Mikhail with his squadron anyway so why would he care?
The only thing he was keeping him alive for was to get intel on who those guys were, so he could report back to the camp.
At the end of the day, it was normal survival instincts.
"S-s-s…Pact….k-killed….b-b-betrayal…protect….the D-Dominique."
As the words left his mouth, the light faded from his eyes and the man died in Mikhail's arms.
He throwed him back in the grass roughly as he was previously when shot by the people.
The last words were still etched into Mikhail's minds.
He could go right now to the lake and see what it was all about but not without multiple risks involved.
He had no idea how many people there were.
Sure, he could beat up one or two but a group would end up with him being the unlucky one.
Furthermore, there was a high chance they had already left because of the trackers.
The academy had probably been alerted by now of their deaths. They should be on their way to retrieve the bodies.
Mikhail, having already gotten what he needed, had no plans to get caught with the bodies.
Hurrying to his horse, Mikhail pulled the reins and rushed back to the academy.
***
Entering through the gates, Mikhail quickly checked in at the guards.
After informing that nothing was out of the ordinary except some minor disturbances, he got his tracker removed.
As he was handing his horse over to the stallhand, he noticed the horses of his squad.
They were safely resting in their stalls which meant that hopefully nothing had gone wrong.
And fortunately enough, it was true.
Mikhail saw his whole squadron sitting outside their tents on wooden boxes, chatting with each other.
Modric was the first to notice him from afar as he stood up, making the others follow.
"Returned safe and sound?" he asked, his tone neutral.
Mikhail nodded.
"Yeah, just as always. Nothing out of the ordinary. What about you guys?"
The first one to answer was Icarus.
"Same on our side. There was no need for pairs at all, everything was normal as usual."
Amariel also spoke up.
"I sensed some slight mana disturbances. They weren't much to warrant a wormhole reaction but it was still something."
"Hmm, alright."
The group looked at him if he had anything else to ask. But Mikhail shook his head, waving off the topic.
"That's all. I need to report to Sir Daniel about the late reporting today so you guys can stay here."
Everyone gave him a simple nod and Mikhail headed inside of his camp tent.
'I can't let them get involved in this.'
The words of the messenger were still ingrained in his mind.
And from what he said, it was already made clear to Mikhail that this wasn't just a normal killing.
'Those people, how did they even enter the vicinity of the camps?'
From what he knew, the academy had a safety mechanism for informing them of any outsider that stepped within a certain radius.
Verified personals, however, were of course let go. And also cadets like them, who had trackers.
"S-s-s…Pact….k-killed….b-b-betrayal…protect….the D-Dominique."
There was no doubt in Mikhail's mind that it was related to the mission he had.
Protect the Dominique.
The mission had stated that he needed to uncover the assassination plan.
And the fact the person told him to protect the coming Dominique definitely tied up.
Of course, he wasn't 100% correct as the man could have also asked him to protect him from something else.
However, he 90% suspected it to be this.
There were still many things that made no sense to him.
Who the hell had killed them? And what did he mean by betrayal?
'He said something about a pact. S something.'
Was it some kind of treaty or promise?
It looked more along the lines of a group as the man seemed to say that the pact killed them.
'I can't remember anything along the lines of a pact.'
He could only go further if he knew who they were first. There was literally no information on them.
Standing up, Mikhail chose to visit the only place in the academy which could help him.
Even if it was a little.
The academy library.
While students here barely had any access to the information, the management granted higher levels on higher positions.
Squadron leaders like him had more access granted to them to know about how to deal with the outside world.
However, Mikhail planned to take it a step further.
He doubted the academy would give him any information about groups.
Which was why he planned to use Daniel's access card and gain more information.
As the head staff and security team management leader, the academy would definitely provide him with more information on such things.
After writing the words of the member down precisely, Mikhail packed his stuff and headed straight outside.
To Daniel.
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