I'm Sorry?

I returned to class like normal after being discharged from the hospital. Since I've been away from school for a quite a while, I was forced to take supplementary classes after school to make up for it, thus I haven't been able to progress much in my cultivation or have the time to test out any of my new spells.

It was surprisingly strange to see that, not even one person was curious about where I've been for the last two weeks. They'd probably already knew I was diagnosed in the hospital, however, shouldn't people normally be more interested in how I got bedridden there in the first place? I understand that not every single person in the world were snoopers, but it's definitely strange when everybody in your class was like that.

"Damn, this is weird, not even those that love to gossip in the class is saying anything..." I murmured.

I did, however, recalled the several stabbing gazes I received when I first came back into class and I think I'd also noticed that Zhu Huo was looking in my way with a strange expression. The atmosphere was definitely eerie then, but nothing unusual happened afterward, so I didn't really put in too much thought about it.

"Ehh... come to think of it, I haven't heard anything at all from Zhu Yan - well, I doubt she would come looking for me anymore, not after seeing how I reacted back then and all..." I thought.

Back then in the hospital, I remembered myself being extremely agitated when Zhu Yan introduces herself to me. I couldn't believe that the person who had saved me from the monster, was actually a member of the accursed Zhu Family. However, what had shocked me, even more, was when she told me that, the hospital I was being diagnosed in for these past two weeks, was in fact, owned by the Zhu Family as well!

I immediately lost my composure after hearing that and before I knew it, I'd found myself madly storming out of the room.

The nurses tried their best to settle me back onto my bed, however, I continued to push myself out of the room while violently shaking their grips off my arm. Once I was out, I immediately sprinted down the corridor to meet with a series of stairs. I eventually made my way down and I continued running around aimlessly until I finally found the hospital's entrance. However, before I could even manage to get close to it, two large burly security guards grabbed me by the wrist and effortlessly dragged me back into the patient's room.

"What's gotten into you!?" Yelled Zhu Yan with her arms crossed. "Why did you do that?"

I didn't reply, I just sneered at her as I rest on my bed. Zhu Yan's face was unsightly from my response and she looked as if she'd had something to say, but in the end, chose to remain silent instead.

Afterward, I was discharged a few hours later and ever since then, I haven't seen Zhu Yan at all. Deep down inside I felt extremely guilty for behaving like that, however, my hatred for the Zhu Family was too overwhelming, that even the slightest mention of their name would make me feel enraged.

.....

Ding! Ding!

"Attention all students! There had been a monster incident close to school proximity this afternoon and we would like to advise that all students must remain cautious in traveling back home! Thank You..."

Ring!!! Ring!!!

"Alright class - Dismiss!" Announced the homeroom teacher. "Also just to remind you all, there will be a pop quiz next week, so look forward to it!"

"Ehhhh? A quiz!?" Cried a male student. "Gimme a break, we're not even that far in the semester, urghhh..."

"Crap, I'm so not ready for it..." A female student whined.

"Hey wanna study together tomorrow at the public library?"

"Hmmm... Nah I'll pass, I agreed to take my sister to the mall."

"Hey, hey! Do you guys think that monster is still on the loose?"

"Fuahh!? That's scary... I'm still at Tier-3 so I can't cast magic yet, running into one would be scary as fuck!"

"Don't be stupid, that monster was probably caught by the 'Mage Bureau' by now, nothing can get away from them!"

"Hey man, don't jinx it... I want to go home and see my family you know?"

As always, the entire school was lively at the end of the day, but for these past few days, however, it was especially hectic. With the entire incident and reports of monsters, seen randomly sprawling around the streets and school districts, the students in school would naturally have more things to gossip about. Most of the gossips, however, were either just strange rumors or overly exaggerated descriptions of the monsters, although there was one thing similar in all of them. According to the students, the strange monster appearances in the city apparently had started just several days after my encounter with the monster that had appeared in the restroom.

Every time I thought back to what had happened in the restroom, I couldn't help but remember the words the monster said to me back then.

"The master will eventually come to collect what was rightfully his in due time..."

"My apologies master... but I had no other choice but to resolve into this..."

It kept going on and on about a 'Master' and something about getting back what was rightfully there's. Could the thing they were planning to take back, the object that the monster had placed in my chest? Could it be that the sudden appearances of monsters in the city, and that most of the appearances were in areas where there are schools because they were looking for me?

"I have a strange feeling that it's not just a mere coincident..." I murmured.

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. It was no use contemplating in such matters now, such a thing should be left for the adults to handle not some high school student like me. For now, I'll just focus on how to make myself stronger, so in the future, I could deal with certain situations such as this.

"Oh crap, all this thinking made me forget about supplementary class!" I cried. "That teacher is gonna be grumpy like last time again if I'm late!"

I hurriedly dashed down the corridor outside of the school building and took a shortcut through the auditorium while running along the aisle. I finally made my way out of the auditorium into the back of the campus and continued traveling towards the school courtyard. Since the path there was mostly a straight line, I took the opportunity to bring out my phone and checked the time.

"Fuck! I'm already late by five minutes!" I cried.

I pocketed my phone back and continued to run with all my might. As I reach the courtyard, I did some parkour of jumping over benches and hoping over thick and wide bushes. Eventually, I came across a tall building that had a long banner attached above the entrance of it, which says 'Senior Building'. I made my way through the building and dashed up the flight of stairs until I reached the third floor. I took a left turn as I got up, and hastily grabbed the doorknob of the first door I see on my right.

"Pardon my tardiness!" I called out loudly while panting.

As the door fully opened, I could see the teacher standing in front of the class looking at me with indifference. When I saw her face like so, my body instinctively made a bowing gesture towards her.

"Well, well - Look who finally decided to show up!" Said the teacher in a sarcastic tone.

"Please excuse me! I promise this will never ever happen again - "

"Oh don't worry about that..." The teacher interrupted, her tone strangely calm. "Since today is your lucky day and all - "

"Huh?" I gasped, my body jolted back up. "It is?"

"Of course!" She replied, her calm demeanor suddenly turned sinister. "Since I have a lot of spare time today, I guess I can use this opportunity to make you stay back after class, to make up for all the time you had missed from being late, up until now! How lucky!"

Several chuckles could be heard after the teacher said that and there were even a few waves of laughter somewhere along the line.

"Let's see..." The teacher continued. "Of all the time you had been late up until now, it would be approximately 39 minutes and 16 seconds!"

That 'seconds' part was obviously bullshit! Was what I would like to say, but obviously, saying that would only bring me into more trouble.

"Congratulation Huang Fen! You will now remain behind for another 39 minutes and 16 seconds with me before you can leave, " mocked the teacher. "Alright, you may take a seat now."

She gestured her hands towards an empty table. Sighing heavily, I dejectedly made my way to my seat and sat down feeling extremely exhausted. There were a couple of students who'd sneered at me but I was too tired to bother with them.

"Alright then - please turn to page 268 of your Magic Theory Textbook and we will go over - "

My mind was in a daze for the entire class and there were even times where I felt like I could just go to sleep on the spot. Recently I've been feeling extremely tired most of the time, I was never like this before as I was almost, always attentive in every class I have. Perhaps it must be some of the leftover side-effects of advancing through several stages in such a short period of time, then again, that took place 2 weeks ago.

Time passed by quickly, eventually, every student in the class left with only me and the teacher alone in the class together. I felt even more nervous now since I am the only one left in the class, this means that the teacher will only have to focus on me alone which would be dreadful!

Every passing second made me sweat profusely. I really just want to go home right away, the awkwardness in the class made it hard for me to remain calm. I glanced at the teacher and I was surprised to see that she was already staring at me with a look of amusement o her face. When she noticed I was looking at her, she quickly changed back to her usual serious tone.

"Well someone seems to be enjoying this..." I thought to myself, holding back the urge to show even a hint of annoyance.

"Well then, where should we begin... " Said the teacher, however, before she could continue speaking there was a buzzing sound of a phone ringing on her desk.

Bzzzt - Bzzzt!

"Ah... Hold on for a minute - Hello? Yeah, it's me - yeah? Hmm... alright - ah... hmm... I see - yeah... yeah alright - yeah... ok then... yeah, oh don't worry I'm not that busy at the moment - "

She paused for a while and turns back to gaze at me with sharp eyes, she smirked slightly and turned away.

"Ah no! Yeah, I'll be right there - yeah... ok then... bye ~! Ahem... Looks like you really lucked out today, you may leave now but I hope next time you would be a bit more punctual."

With that, she packed her belongings and left the room nonchalantly, I guess I'd really lucked out back there. Simply just by imagining staying with her for another 39 minutes while being monitored the whole time was bone-chilling.

.....

I was closing in into the neighborhood of my home, the sun in the sky was now almost fully set and the silhouette of the moon began to take shape in the sky. Despite everything that had happened today, the gentle breeze of evening made it so that everything was calm and tranquil. It was a nice feeling and coupled with the orange sky of the sunset, it felt as if there was no single care left for me in the world. As I continued walking down towards the neighborhood, I allowed the dying rays of the sun to bathe upon my face and at the same time enjoying the serene atmosphere of the evening.

As I reached the neighborhood, I turned left and enter an alleyway between two houses. I moderately made my way through it and arrived at an intersection joint by three roads. Eventually, the sun finally disappeared and in its place was a bright white crescent moon. The lamp post on the streets lighted up illuminating the roads, I continued to go through alleyways and intersections as I navigate my way back home.

Thud... thud... thud...

"Hehehehe..."

Finally, I've arrived at the last alleyway where my apartment was located in. The alleyway was much, much longer than the other alleyway in the neighborhood and also much wider. The alleyway was also quite a famous tourist attraction as it was one of the three paths that lead all the way to district 65 which is the City Central. Therefore, most people decided to set up a business here due to the frequent amount of people that come and go through the alleyway, as well as, better security due to the high number of people.

Unfortunately, the alleyway was deserted today due to the road ahead being under construction, and because the road was under construction, it was impossible for people to get to district 65. With district 65 closed off, there were no more visitors in the alleyway at this time of day. I continued walking deeper into the alleyway until I arrived in front of a relatively tall building called 'Ling Estate'. Just as I was about to enter the building I felt something like an arm approached towards me.

"Hurrghh!" I cried while jumping backward, my face towards the assailant.

"Nice reaction!" Said a middle-aged man.

"He's pretty good for a mama's boy!" Laughed the attacker.

"Hehehe - a tit sucker!" Said a teenager.

One, two, three... there were three men together in crude attires and punk appearance. One was a tall middle-aged man, another was a muscular well-built man in his twenties and the last was a hysterical looking boy who seems to be around my height. From the aura they were giving off, it doesn't seem like any of them were mages. They were, however, carrying jagged knives on their belt which would certainly pose a threat towards mages below the 7th tier of the Freelance stage.

Without giving me any more time to think, the same man who attempted to assault me from before rushed straight towards me, this time, while clutching a knife on his right hand.

"Hey kid, we just gonna mug you alright?" The attacker smugged arrogantly. "There's nothing wrong with this right!?"

"Haha, look, boss, look! The kid's gonna die, he's gonna die ~!" Said the teenager while jumping up and down happily.

"Yeah, yeah I can see that you idiot!" The middle-aged man replied.

There was no time to think or to cast a spell, the attack was too sudden. It was only a matter of time before the knife would land a clean hit on me, there was nothing I could do to block.

"Haha! Night - night kid!"

The knife was now approaching at high speed towards me, the distance between us was closing by every nanosecond. I could feel my heart beat thumping loudly, time was slowing down as I stared at the blade in horror. Somewhere within that short period of time, I thought I'd caught a glimpse of something flashing brightly, the light was bright gold and there was a somewhat familiar warmth within it. Then I started to hear a voice yelling out to me and for some reason, I decided to close my eyes, to try to call out back to the voice in my mind. The voice grew louder and louder until eventually, I could hear it more clearly.

"Danger detected! Commencing auto-combat mode!"

All of a sudden, a golden humanoid-like specter manifested into being behind the attacking man and grabbed him by the shoulder. With close to no effort, the Knight lifted the man up and jerked him backward. This humanoid knight was none other than the Golden Knight!

"Die -! Wah! Woah! Wha - what!?!?" The muscular man cried while being dragged backward.

"Resistance is futile!" Said the Golden Knight in a mechanical tone.

I watched as the man who's blade was supposed to pierce through me, was now being forcefully pulled back by the Golden Knight like a child.

"Heeeee! What, what is that thing!?" The teenager cried.

"CRAP! This guy's a mage!" The middle-aged man yelled.

The other two thugs were struck with astonishment. The teenager was no longer hoping about in one place, he was instead feverishly taking tiny steps backward in an attempt to retreat. The middle-aged man was even more decisive than the teenager, as he immediately took huge leaps after seeing the power displayed by the Knight.

"Intruders attempting to retreat!" The knight said while veering its head facing toward the two thugs. "Commencing recapture!"

As it said that, the knight blinked from its initial position and reappeared right in front of the middle-aged man and teenager. The Golden Knight then tossed the now unconscious muscular man's body to the side and rapidly snakes its hand around the neck of the two escapers, while attempting to squeeze them hard. I was extremely astonished by this turn of events and immediately yelled out before things got worse.

"Hey wait! What are you doing!?" I yelled. "Don't kill them! Stop it! Let them go!"

The Golden Knight, after hearing my words immediately dropped the two thugs and slowly hovered towards my side. Both the middle-aged man and the teenager choked while gasping for air, they hastily grabbed the muscular man and made a beeline out of the alleyway.

"My apologies master for acting crude - " The Knight said to me. "If you wish, I could disable the auto functions for future occasions..."

"Ah no, no it's fine..." I replied hesitantly. "Wait... master?"

"Master is the contracted host that I was fused with, therefore, calling you master is not incorrect..." The Knight replied. "Is something the matter with my current way of addressing you? If so I will change it to your preference master."

"Uh... don't worry about it, just master is fine I guess..."

I didn't want to put too much effort on the spot to have it call me something else, I'm already exhausted enough from classes and walking. Having it call me by name was did not bode too well for me either as it felt weird, so I decided to have it call me whatever it likes for the moment.

If I was not mistaken, this Knight was probably the same Knight that Zhu Yan and I had encountered back in the restroom. Like before, the Knight looked just as majestic and dazzling as when I first saw it. Similar to before its appearance was nothing more than an outline shaped humanoid figure, and its existence was ethereal as if it didn't exist in the same world as we do.

I made a thorough scan of the Knight, examining its every feature. The Knight just simply stood there without making any sudden movements whatsoever. The more I analyze it, the more intrigued I was about its existence.

"What exactly are you?" I asked.

"Checking database for your question..." The Knight replied, its eyes flashing rapidly for a moment before it continued to speak again. "I am sorry master, but that information is currently corrupted and therefore I cannot answer you."