128 Infiltration 15

In order for Zero to quickly raise his power, Timo was the best person to draw out his talent. Lia had to bite the bullet and sent Zero to Timo after all. Seeing how Nana improved so much, Lia would be stubborn not to use this opportunity.

Not noticing Zero's feelings, Lia went to Timo's room. She knocked again. This time Timo let her in, "Come in."

Lia didn't really want to be in Timo's place, alone with him.

"You wanted to talk?"

Timo sat on the sofa, Lia opposite to him, "I went to your room but you weren't there."

"You did?" it was a surprise that Timo made an effort to find Lia.

"Why do you look as if that's a miracle?" Timo moved forwards.

"I did?" Lia could see that Timo was getting annoyed and she slightly enjoyed it. But she was here for business and not to have him turn on her.

"Well, putting that aside, you can take back the favour."

"Take back?" Timo's blank face was visibly confused.

"You can train Zero, in fact, change your favour to train him."

"After you made him hated by everyone in school, you dumped him on me," Timo relaxed on the sofa yet Lia's sharp gaze startled him.

"Just to be clear, I'm not dumping him on you nor do I do anything that makes it seem like he's an object. He's a good boy, although he has troubles shedding off his defence mechanism, but that's not the point," Lia looked briefly out of the window,

"The problem is he's doubting his abilities and doesn't put any effort to train. His power isn't bad, if utilised right, it can become incredibly powerful, so if you choose him, it'll boost his mentality."

"You care for him so much?" Timo stood up and made himself a drink, "But I'm not a teacher caring about a student's well being. I'm here to scout talent, just because you tell me to train him, doesn't mean I'm going to if there's no profit."

"Profit as in creating mindless soldiers?" Lia huffed and pushed Timo offering her a drink away.

"We really don't see eye to eye," he sipped on his drink while watching Lia.

Lia coldly sneered, all pretences were shed in front of him.

"This is the favour you owe me."

"I already did you one by not touching him.

Lia's lips curled up, "I think we have a misunderstanding here, you want Zero as your pupil too. Don't pretend you don't. Also," Lia stood up and towered over Timo.

She poked him in the chest, "Do you think your stubborn heart will be able to take it if Maria ignores you forever? Maria will do as I say and not what you want her to do."

Timo's emotionless face remained unchanged but he agreed, "Let's do as you say."

"You should've done so from the beginning," Lia pulled away from him.

"But you really change your face quickly."

Lia's friendly smile confirmed Timo's statement as she wordlessly walked out.

The door clicked behind her. Lia breathed a sigh and her eyes coldly stared at the lift. Then one step after another one, she made her way out of the building, out of the academy.

But what she didn't notice was that a certain puppy was following her. His expression hurt and disappointed. Zero, keeping a bit of distance, trailed after Lia.

However, Zero couldn't keep up once Lia left the capital and at an insanely fast pace rushed to another city. Zero could only turn back around and head to the academy but his head was full of questions as to why Lia left the capital in a hurry and the biggest one, that crushed him to the ground, was if she had really given up on him.

On the other side, Lia headed to her house in the other city next to the capital. She needed to tell the others about Min's plan and wanted to know how they were doing. Also, she missed them.

Lia was a bit anxious as she stood in front of her front door. Yet when she opened the door, Susa instantly fell into her arm, "Lia, I saw you from the windows!"

Susa took Lia's hand and led her to the sofa where Noel and Xavi sat.

"Oh, who's that?" Noel's cheeky smile was undeniably annoying but she was happy to see him.

"Lia!" Xavi choked out and removed the lollipop from his mouth. Lia ruffled his hair and Xavi's ears turned red.

"Mika and Lily went out to check something," Susa explained.

"Things going bad? That's why you came back?" Noel never failed to take an opportunity to stab at Lia.

This time Lia didn't retort, "Yes."

A simple word drew everyone's attention, Xavi was worried, "What happened? You can't find the person? Were you discovered? How?"

They all looked at Lia's new appearance, there was no way she was found out, right?

"No, it's not that. The commander of Min's private army is also teaching, no training students at the academy to scout the talent for the army."

"What?" all three of them didn't anticipate that.

"But that's not the problem," Lia continued, "I've overheard his conversation with- with another captain and it seems Min has planned to take care of the Mortal World first."

Lia told them what she has heard.

"The day when the portal opens? Hmm," Xavi thought, "It's random but if they mention it, it might be soon."

"My thought," Lia agreed.

"To be honest we haven't found out anything about the ring," Susa admitted, "However, we found a new facility for creating ghosts."

Lia's eyes widened, "You mean…"

"Yep and guess what. It's closer than the last one," Noel self-deprecatingly said.

"Where?"

"Do you know the Red Light District?" Susa had a sour look.

Lia nodded.

"They remodelled it and no one's allowed in anymore under the new law that such vile activities aren't allowed but what they're doing is even worse."

Lia could've guessed that Min would open another facility but for it to be so close? Even if it was hidden behind an illusion, the public could still catch on.

Was Min throwing away all precaution to go after his goal? Just what was his plan? How was he going to kill all of the mortals? He couldn't just massacre them, no? But now that Lia thought about it, Min had no remorse in anything he did, so killing all mortals wouldn't make him bat an eye.

"So, you'll be taking care of the facility?" Lia asked as they had to think of a way to counter what Min planned to do.

"Yeah," Xavi nodded, "If the Ghost King pushes his plan forward, we have to adjust ours too. For now, you'll focus on healing your soul, we split up into two teams. One to find the ring and the other to take care of the facility. We have to move our plan forward, now that the Ghost King wants to harm the Mortal World, we have to stop him before that happens."

"During these few weeks, we've trained and my power's better. We use it to form a plan, so rest assured," Susa nudged Lia. Lia felt a bit warm, they were all trying to take the burden off her.

"Ok," Lia agreed. For now, she couldn't do much until she could use her power again.

"How's Nana?" suddenly Mika's voice appeared.

Behind him was Lily. Lily hugged Lia while Mika awkwardly sat next to Lia. She rubbed his head, "She's doing fine. She's actually receiving training from Timo."

"What?" Noel was confused, "Why?"

"It's fine, under his training, she's growing fast," Lia recounted everything that has happened during the weeks at the academy while the time slowly ticked away to an inevitable fate.