Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Something Important

He wants to go today?

Looking closely at his exhausted face, the sudden rush made no sense.

The dark bags under his eyes looked bruised, and his shoulders were hunched defensively.

In my past life, Ray never asked me for any help.

He just suffered in silence until his mind finally snapped and he became a villain.

Yet here he is now, standing right in front of my desk, actively asking me for a huge favour to break the academy rules.

Then the thought hit me.

’Oh,’ I realised, staring at his shaking hands.

His mission changed.

It is no longer about simply deactivating the academy’s outer barrier like he did last time to let the cultists inside.

This whole setup is specifically about me.

So Anasthesia really knew about my existence this early in the timeline.

The cult leader was focusing her vast resources on eliminating me as soon as she could.

She clearly saw me as a dangerous anomaly that needed to be erased from the board before I ruined her grand plans.

A smile formed on my lips.

"Why do you want to go out so late in the evening?" I asked, pretending not to know a single thing about his awful hostage situation.

"Ahh... my mother... she is very sick and resting in a relative’s house down in the city. I am just really worried about her condition," he stammered, avoiding my direct gaze.

He stared intently at the floorboards instead, too ashamed to look me in the eye while leading me into a trap.

My eyes showed a brief hint of genuine affection.

It feels really bad to use him as a convenient tool to get to them.

The moral difference between me and the evil cult greatly reduces when we both behave in the same manipulative way.

But I can’t afford to worry about keeping my hands clean right now.

Saving the human continent requires playing dirty, and if using Ray as bait leads me to the cult’s hidden base, then I have to do it.

"Oh, is that so?" I replied softly, leaning forward on my desk to look supportive.

"Don’t worry, Ray. I will help you bypass the guards. In fact, I will just tag along with you tonight so I can easily sneak you back inside before the morning bell rings."

Ray’s eyes widened in shock.

His original plan must have involved waiting until we reached the outer gates, then pulling me along by force or dragging me into a pre-set ambush.

But seeing me willingly volunteer for this dangerous trip will really hurt his guilty conscience.

He is a good kid forced to do terrible things to save his only family.

"You would really do that for me?" he asked, his voice cracking with emotion.

"I would," I nodded firmly, offering a reassuring look.

"Then please come to the eastern gates at nine. I will be waiting in the dark," he said.

He bowed respectfully, clutching his chest, and ran straight out of the library.

His hurried footsteps echoed loudly down the long hall until he disappeared around the corner.

As soon as Ray exited the large double doors, Zephyr walked inside the room at the right moment.

The hero must have been listening from the quiet corridor, leaning against the stone wall out of sight.

"So?" Zephyr asked, walking over and leaning his elbows on my wooden table.

"Tonight’s the night," I answered, slowly packing up my spell notes and closing the books.

He nodded silently and went back outside without another word.

Zephyr will keep a safe distance while following me through the streets tonight.

I don’t know yet whether Ray will bring me to Whispering Village or directly to his childhood home in the lower districts.

Whatever the location is, I need to put a permanent end to those cultists once and for all.

We have to strike fast before they realise we are hunting them.

A few minutes passed in peace before Melissa entered the room.

She was jumping around the quiet library aisles, singing a happy tune and smiling widely at the dusty shelves as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

"Yallo, Shane," she chirped, spinning around to face my desk with her hands clasped behind her back.

"What are you doing in here?" I asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow at her energetic entrance.

"What else? I am bored out of my mind and came to hang out with you."

She has been doing this routine for the last two days.

She just shows up, bothers me, and watches me study from a short distance.

"You still haven’t joined any noble faction?" I asked her, trying to figure out her long game and why she was actively avoiding the usual student politics.

"Not yet," she waved lightly, acting like she didn’t care about the power struggles happening across the campus.

She pulled up a chair in front of my table, sat down gracefully, and started reading a random history book she grabbed from the nearest shelf.

The silence lasted for about ten long minutes, filled only by the sound of turning pages.

"Say, Shane. Do you like blood?" she asked out of nowhere, not even looking up from her page.

’Huh?’ My mind froze.

Again with this weird, creepy line of questioning.

She always knows exactly what buttons to push to throw me off balance.

"No, I don’t," I replied, crossing my arms defensively over my chest.

But hearing the specific word blood immediately made me remember something else.

A very important promise I made two days ago during combat class with a certain vampire noble.

The deal we struck completely slipped my mind while dealing with Ray’s situation.

Pulling up my system, I quickly opened the messages and saw over a hundred unread alerts blinking in red.

[Kiara: I’m in the hall, you said]

[Kiara: It’s been an hour, idiot]

[Kiara: I’ll fucking kill you]

[Kiara: I haven’t drunk for three days, I’m about to die]

’Shit,’ sweat formed on the back of my neck.