Silvia's heart also gave a sudden, violent thud from the sudden explosion.
She was equally curious about the cause of the explosion, but as a Candidate Saintess of the Holy Church of Light—even if she disliked the identity—her immediate reaction was still to worry if anyone had been injured.
Taking a deep breath, she suppressed the uneasiness in her heart, preparing to turn around, change out of her nightgown into easy-to-move casual clothes, and head over to the scene of the explosion to see if anyone needed help.
However, just as she stepped back from the window and before she could even turn around—
A silhouette appeared silently on the open windowsill like a spectre.
Moonlight streamed from behind the figure, outlining a blurry halo around their body while leaving their face shrouded in shadow, making it impossible to see their features for a moment.
However, the dark robe bearing the academy professor emblem and the faint outline of a woman allowed Silvia to quickly recognize the visitor.
“You... You are... Professor Audrey?”
Silvia subconsciously took half a step back, her pink eyes filled with shock and confusion.
She recognized this Associate Professor from the Department of Magic History. Although they weren't close, the woman had always given off a serious, rigid, and even somewhat gloomy impression.
Why was she appearing outside her dorm window at this hour, in such a manner?
Standing on the windowsill, bathed in the light spilling from the room and the moonlight, Audrey had virtually no expression on her face, showing only a composure that bordered on numbness.
She looked at Silvia and nodded, her voice flat and devoid of emotion:
“Good evening, Student Silvia. Although... there is a minor discrepancy with the original plan, I would like you to come with me now.”
“Come with you? At this hour?”
Silvia's heart sank abruptly.
Even though the other party was an associate professor of the academy and nominally her instructor, appearing in such a bizarre manner in the dead of night and demanding she come along in a non-negotiable tone...
She took another subtle step back, her back almost pressing against the cold wall.
Her gaze darted to the rising plume of smoke outside the window.
Could that explosion just now... be related to Professor Audrey as well?
Though she was reluctant to harbor malicious suspicions toward a teacher, the scene before her was far too abnormal, forcing her to be on utmost alert.
Her right hand quietly slipped behind her back as faint mana began gathering at her fingertips, ready to trigger a simple Holy Light Bullet at any second to draw the attention of others in the dormitory.
Noticing the vigilance in Silvia's eyes and her almost imperceptible retreat, Audrey let out a soft sigh. It seemed laced with weariness, yet also carried a sense of relief from making a firm resolve.
“Originally... I intended to act after you were completely asleep. That would have been better for both of us.”
Audrey's voice remained flat. As she spoke, she withdrew a thumb-sized transparent glass bottle sealed with a cork stopper from the pocket of her professor's robe.
Inside the bottle was a small amount of white gas, swaying gently under the moonlight.
“However, that inexplicable explosion just now made too much noise. The academy's patrol teams and security personnel will be drawn over shortly to search the area. I have no more time to wait.”
“What... What on earth are you talking about? What do you want to do to me?”
Silvia's voice trembled slightly from tension. She feigned composure to question her, while accelerating the gathering of mana behind her back.
“I'm sorry.”
Audrey cut off her train of thought. Her voice held little apology, carrying only a matter-of-fact coldness.
She pulled out the cork stopper and slightly tilted the mouth of the bottle.
No chanting, no mana fluctuations.
Yet the instant the cork was removed, Silvia suddenly felt a surge of intense weakness sweep through her whole body like a tsunami!
Strength was instantly drained from all her limbs and body, making even standing difficult.
The faint mana she had just gathered behind her back flickered out like a candle in the wind.
She only had time to utter a short grunt before her legs gave way, collapsing uncontrollably toward the floor.
Her vision began to blur and spin; the ceiling and Professor Audrey's looming figure overlapped.
Her eyelids grew unimaginably heavy, as if weighed down by thousands of pounds, making every attempt to open them wider an agonizing struggle.
“What... do you... want to... do to... me...”
Using the last shred of her strength, she squeezed out the broken question from between her teeth. Her pink eyes stared fixedly at the blurry figure on the windowsill, filled with unbelievable terror and the stinging pain of betrayal by a trusted teacher.
Yet responding to her were only Professor Audrey's emotionless eyes in the shadow, along with a light, airy:
“I'm sorry.”
Then, Audrey walked over to the limp Silvia on the floor and, with a bit of effort, scooped up the girl's light body.
Silvia could feel her body floating in the air, smell the scent of old books mixed with a bitter herb emanating from Professor Audrey, and feel the arms holding her trembling slightly.
Yet aside from these hazy sensations, she could do nothing.
Extreme terror and powerlessness wound around her heart like cold vines, slowly tightening.
“Help... me...”
She wanted to cry out, but her throat felt blocked by something, unable to make any sound.
Or even if she could make a sound, the dormitory building was currently in utter turmoil due to the distant explosion—who would notice a girl's faint plea for help inside this room?
Audrey carried Silvia to the window.
The night wind surged in, carrying a chill that stirred the sweat-slicked pink hair on Silvia's forehead.
Audrey chanted an incantation in a low voice, the syllables awkward and rapid.
Cyan magic circles faintly emerged beneath her feet and behind her back as air currents began to gather.
Wind Wings, a mid-tier wind-attribute auxiliary spell, granted the caster brief flight capabilities.
Clearly, Audrey intended to use this spell to carry her away.
Her body lifted into the air, and a weightless sensation hit.
Holding her, Audrey leapt out of the window!
The night wind instantly turned fierce, whistling past her ears.
The lights of the dormitory building rapidly receded below.
Cold moonlight fell unhindered onto her body. Silvia felt a bone-chilling coldness—not just from the night wind, but from deep within her heart, a fear of her unknown fate.
She was being taken away... Where to? What would happen to her?
Senior Greg... Victoria...
Despair washed over her like a tide.
Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, her vision blurring completely until only the last lingering trace of light remained.
Just a second before her consciousness sank completely into darkness, whether by coincidence or survival instinct causing her to turn her eyes at the last moment, her unfocused gaze pierced through the smoke blown apart by the night wind, faintly catching sight of the distance—
It was the exact place where the explosion had just occurred.
A shocking, massive crater had caved into the ground, its edges jagged and strewn with rocky debris.
Inside the pit, thick black smoke roiled endlessly upward.
At the edge of that crater stood several people.
They were all wearing white lab coats, surrounding a figure standing at the very front facing away from her direction, seemingly engaged in a heated argument.
The figure standing at the front had shoulder-length golden hair that shone brilliantly even under the moonlight and distant streetlamps.
The silhouette was tall and slender, their posture appearing somewhat casual, even carrying a touch of impatience.
“That back...”
Through Silvia's fading consciousness, an extremely faint sense of familiarity flickered—one she couldn't even be certain of.
It looks like... Senior Greg...
However, she dismissed the absurd thought in the next second.
No... It's impossible... Senior Greg must still be in the dungeon right now, busy with those important matters... How could he possibly be here...
Her final thread of strength gave out.
Darkness draped over her vision like the softest yet heaviest curtain.
Silvia's head slumped limply to one side as she completely lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, on the ground, at the edge of the crater formed by the explosion.
Greg, sporting a slightly messy head of golden hair, stood with arms akimbo, spittle flying as he cursed out the lab-coat-wearing students from the Department of Alchemy in front of him, his tone unabashedly irritable.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something gliding through the distant night sky at no small speed, flying toward the academy's exterior.
It looked like... a figure holding something?
Greg subconsciously glanced in that direction, thinking to himself: Who's the lunatic using flight magic in the middle of the night? And carrying someone? Trying to elope?
Yet the moment he was about to look away and resume arguing with the alchemy students, a spot in his brain felt like it was hit by a jolt of electricity!
Wait...
Flight magic... carrying someone... at this time...
The anger on Greg's face instantly froze, his amber eyes contracting sharply as his pupils dilated in shock.
“Holy crap, the event is already happening?! But I haven't even gotten onboard yet!”
Rate on N.U.
