The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Over the course of the next few days, the amount of time Aurora spent with her after returning from the Wonderland of Doom became less and less, and although the platinum blonde refused to admit it, Evelyn knew that something must be wrong.     

In the end, she felt like she couldn't let her poor teacher keep banging her head against a wall, and stopped her before she could leave.     

Evelyn frowned. "How can that Craig bastard escape from all of you for so long? Are you sure he's even still in the forest? Isn't it possible that he's not there, and that's why you can't find him?"     

Aurora gave her an appalled look. "W-Who taught you to talk like that? E-Especially in front of your teacher!"     

The pink haired girl rolled her eyes. "That's not the point, anyway, what I said is possible, right?"     

The platinum blonde sighed. "Un."     

Evelyn shook her head. "Then… aren't you wasting your time there?"     

Aurora frowned. "Should I just give up? But if I do that… even if he's not escaped now, he will be able to escape then, right? So—"     

The pink haired girl sighed. "Teacher… aren't there other strong people like you looking there too?"     

"Un?"     

Evelyn smiled. "I saw three other cloaked figures that day when you were making that old hag Augury eat dirt, they went with you to the forest as well, right?"     

Aurora nodded.     

The pink haired girl hummed. "So, let them keep looking, and you can focus on what's important."     

The platinum blonde gave her a skeptical look, wondering why her student seemed so bent on making her give up the search. 'I-It can't be because she's feeling lonely, right? I-I forgot that children at this age get lonely very quickly. Un, and she just separated from her parents a few weeks ago, it could be…'     

Evelyn sighed as she saw her teacher not agree immediately. Maybe she was thinking what her motives were? In that case, she could only explain first before Aurora misunderstood. "Well, I'll admit, you being here will be great for me. But… well, I could be wrong, but… while you weren't here, something just didn't feel right about the academy."     

Aurora frowned. "Y-You… missed me so much?"     

The pink haired girl scratched her head. "I-I don't mean like that. I mean… like, something sinister was going on. That's just how I felt. I've been meaning to talk to you about it, actually."     

After cultivating in the 'Searing Soul' to the extent that she had, Evelyn's understanding of the advantages her high soul value brought had increased greatly, and she knew very well that these 'impending doom' intuitions stemmed from her soul.     

The stronger someone's soul was, the 'worse' the upcoming calamity would have to be for them to get such a feeling. At least, that was her understanding. And for her to be able to feel anything at all, she would rather not take any chances.     

Of course, to make her teacher consider her words seriously, she also shared this insight with her.     

In any case, Aurora had known about the ordeal in the beast taming class being caused by her strong soul, so she couldn't be completely unfamiliar with the concept.     

Aurora thought about it for a while before nodding. "I-I understand, but don't be too worried. It doesn't work so accurately. Depending on the total soul value of the people nearby who are directing malice towards you, such feelings can be either strong or weak, but you cannot rely on them being 'true'. But… ignoring it is also not a good idea."     

Evelyn nodded. 'So even if they're not plotting to do anything, as long as I have enough enemies nearby cursing at me, I will get this feeling? That's… fun, I guess.'     

Of course, Aurora's words only confirmed her conjectures. 'It can't be just those champion club brats plotting against me. They're too weak. Even if it is completely unrelated to them, there has to be someone stronger…'     

As for who that could be, Evelyn had no idea at all. After all, Professor Dane and Madam Augury had long since been kicked out of the academy.     

Her best guess was that it was some professor who had been close to them, and held a grudge against her for getting them expelled, but there was always the possibility that it could be someone completely unrelated.     

In either case, with Aurora being within the academy, Evelyn could rest better assured, and her growth rate would also improve greatly, so this 'calamity' at least ended up benefiting her there.     

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━      

As Aurora returned to their rendezvous point in the Wonderland of Doom, the three of them knew that something was different about her today. Of course, she had always returned a little better after visiting her student, but she looked much more calm than usual, as if she had only come to convey a decision that she had already made.     

Lord Mantis frowned under his cloak. He had been having so much fun observing the girl huff and pout every day whenever they returned without any decent results, but his fun time was over far too soon. It almost didn't seem worth the effort!     

The other two pillars breathed a sigh of relief. 'Has she finally decided to give up this pointless thing? Good…'     

Aurora cleared her throat, her voice turning dignified. "From tomorrow, I have something to do, so I won't be joining you three in the search. You continue looking. If you find Craig or any important clue of what's going on, you can either bring it to me or signal me to come. Un, that's all."     

Mantis couldn't believe it… his plan had backfired on himself!     

And without any further room for discussion or even a single goodbye, she flew back towards the academy.     

The three of them looked at each other, perplexed.     

"…"     

"…"     

"…"     

After a while, the other two still left to continue their 'pointless search', while Mantis was left alone to wallow in his grief.     

He had almost wanted to pull the bastard prince out right away and quit the game, but then Aurora would know about the veil her mother left behind, which would mean she will learn about everything else, which would mean his head would fly. That little brat can be quite ruthless, after all. And… his head wasn't detachable, after all. If it really flew, he could never fix it back!     

Of course, this could also be used as an opportunity to finally get rid of Aurora, that adorable but annoying little tyke, but it was hard to say whose side the other pillars would take at that time. After all, they all had their own goals, and although Aurora was the strongest, she was also the most 'negligent'. If someone else took her place as the 'leader', it was difficult to tell if their freedom would be reduced or not.     

Most importantly, Mantis himself felt reluctant to 'end' Aurora like that, even if it had been possible. Her ending should be to end devoid of that power she was so proud of, left to rage and pout helplessly while he laughed in her face while she cried.     

If he did it any other way, it would be no fun, after all.     

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━      

Of course, although Aurora returned to the academy, no one but the three pillars knew of it. And those three were still in the Wonderland of Doom, searching for and rooting out any Terrans they could manage to find.     

This was Evelyn's plan to 'lure out' whatever dangers she could find, and also her way of making Aurora babysit all her friends while she was out, except for Cecilia.     

Of course, since her 'apartment' was Cecilia's second home, it was impossible for her to not know of Aurora's existence. And thus, the platinum blonde felt her burden increase further, as she was also forced to lose 'kingdom' twenty times a day.     

Evelyn felt that she was quite pitiful, as her current situation was probably not any less frustrating than her pointless search in the forest, but hey, at least she could rest whenever she wanted.     

As long as she didn't mind a little puppy jumping on top of her head, that is.     

Of course, although Aurora was still in her room, she could arrive by Evelyn's side within seconds, as soon as she received the signal.     

And not to mention Evelyn's own strength, she also had the shielding bead, as well as the shield from her grade five belt, so no matter what kind of tricks her opponents had planned, surviving till Aurora arrived shouldn't be an issue at all.     

Evelyn never thought what she would face would be a direct attack, however, since if the opponent had wanted to do so, there was no need to wait so long, was there?     

Moreover, Evelyn was almost never in an area where successfully assassinating her without anyone being able to notice would be possible.     

Evelyn knew, therefore, that what she would face would be some kind of indirect scheme. And with how intense the malice directed at her today felt… Evelyn knew that it was time.     

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━      

~ To be continued ~     

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━