30 The Dust Settles

A few days had gone by since the incident happened, and everyone had descended back to the academy.

The North, East, West, and South, Celestial Academy's representatives were present alongside the representatives of the headquarters and The Stellar 12 together with their professors.

A joyous atmosphere reigned over the area of each academy except for the South, East, and The Stellar 12. A great tension can be felt in the air as the three of them stare at each other.

Kasth was especially concerned about Z since seeing him at the peak. No matter how he thought about it, the wariness that he had toward him was unnatural.

'It cannot just be because of Thea. Why do I feel uneasy?' Kasth thought.

Almost everyone remotely paying attention to the events going around clearly noticed Kasth's sticky glare on Z, even Byron.

'Why is he so concerned about him?' he thought in curiosity when an idea lit his mind bright. With a devious smile, he slowly approached Kasth.

"Em Kasth, is something about that brat bothering you?" Byron enthusiastically asked.

"None of your business," Kasth sneered. However, Byron was not deterred.

'It must be a big deal, hehe,' he grinned in his thoughts. "Well, maybe it is. I happen to have a little grievance with him myself. I happen to fought him while I was trying to get a set of Celestial Flying Daggers--"

"Shut up!" Kasth interrupted when he suddenly came to a realization, "What did you say?"

"I fought him. I can tell you his powers--"

"No! The weapons."

"The Celestial Flying Daggers?"

After hearing it again, a spark of certainty ignited in Kasth's heart. 'Everything makes sense now. This uneasy feeling. The golden flying daggers. It should be him!' he thought with resolve. Maybe it was the strength of his gut or the fact that he desperately wanted to exact revenge on someone, but nevertheless, it made him convince himself that Z was the perpetrator.

"Tell me everything you know," Kasth said with a deep voice, hesitantly withdrawing his eyes from Z.

'I am dammed! Why is Byron talking to Kasth!? Once he finds out about the flying daggers, he would not need any other reason to condemn me for his death,' with that thought, Z immediately went to talk to Thea.

"Lady Thea," Z greeted.

"Mister Z. What can I do for you?" She said with a polite smile. Her impression of Z got better after they chatted at the peak, but it was not enough to call them friends.

"I was hoping to continue our conversation last time. How about a cup of tea? Maybe we could go somewhere nice," Z said, full of underlying messages. To any normal ear, it would be interpreted as continuing their conversation at the mountain peak, but Thea was sharp enough to realize that Z was talking about their chat at the lake.

"Of course," she said while gesturing with her hand, implying that Z should lead the way.

The two found themselves at the same lake they previously had their chat at, and when Z confirmed that nobody was around, he commanded the Arcane around to create a veil that would prevent anyone from hearing what they were talking about.

"The Northern Crown is handy, indeed," Thea uttered under her breath.

"To my point, I need your help. No, I need the help of the Primordian Land," Z said with a serious tone.

"Why? Did you kill someone?" Thea said with a joking smile that immediately turned sour after the silence that Z offered in response.

"House Eminence will surely push to execute me."

"You want us to protect you? I am not aware of who made that vow, but you should dream that it was the queen of the Primordians because to engage in a frontal war against another member of The World Force would take at least that much," Thea said in a mocking tone.

"I do not need you to wage a war for me. All I ask is for the Primordian Land to prevent The World Force and if possible, the House Eminence to take public action against me," Z argued.

"That would still take a vow from a renowned person from our race. Also, even if the vow you are holding is that valuable, do you think you can save yourselves from assassins?"

"It would be nice if the Primordian Land will also send individuals to protect me from them--"

"No! That is too much!"

"I figured. I will find a way to protect myself," Z said while handing the vow over to Thea.

After a moment of deliberation, she finally took it, swallowed a deep breath, and said, "Who did you kill?"

Z thought for a while, but in the end, he answered, "If your race decides to help me, you will definitely know."

"Tsk. You will also know whether your vow failed or not without me telling you," she said before leaving.

...

"Z, where had you been?" Anshth pried.

"I was just chatting with Lady Thea," Z said with an innocent smile. He was too caught up in his own affairs that it was only now that he noticed Lea was not her usual self. Her mood was down and she was beside herself, looking at the ground, ashamed.

'Normally, it would have been her greeting me,' he thought but he did not put too much mind into it as he was still concerned about his own affairs.

"Our group got in hot waters with The East Celestial Academy even more. We need to go back and train even harder," Anshth said which made Lea lower her head even more. "The Celestial Welcome will be very important for all of us, and if we are placed at the last place once again, it would not take a lot for me to swallow my own tongue and die of embarrassment. Let us go back!"

'Ha! Maybe we should throw in the towel, it would be a sight to see him kill himself,' Z joked in his thoughts.