Infiltration 9

Another week passed and Lia was drowning in her work. When Noel said this would be easy work, it literally meant as in easy to hate.

She traversed between the three buildings with massive amounts of documents in her bag spilling all over the place. Now that the exam season started, Lia really had the hope that her schedule would be lighter than it seemed so on paper.

However, who knew it was even a worse? She had no time to care about either Zero, Nana or Timo. In the first place, why was she putting so much effort into this anyway? This was an infiltration and her mission was her priority but she was acting like a proper teacher now.

On her way to her office in the first building, several students ran up to Lia to ask her things and she, like any proper teacher would, took time to answer them.

"Thank you! You're the best, Miss Kim!" the students dispersed and Lia despaired. What was she doing?

Ready for the exam in an hour, Lia sat in her office and looked once again through all of her documents. There was no end to them.

There was a knock on the door and Nana's head peeked through.

"Lia!" she excitingly whispered and closed the door behind her.

"How are you doing?" Lia smiled at Nana's energetic form, swaying left and right on the chair.

"I'm great! What about you? I'm seeing you're always busy."

"I'm ok, don't worry. Wait, don't you have class?"

Nana nodded but said, "I wanted to tell you something tonight. Let's meet behind the dorm!"

"What is it?" Lia was confused about Nana's sudden request.

Nana eyes twinkled and only replied, "You'll see!" before she left.

Lia sighed but then went back for work. A while later, she made her way through the floor to the exam's room, however, from above she heard loud commotions.

Screams and fighting sounds dragged Lia up the stairs to find out what was happening. Two students were fighting each other and a mob formed around them. Lia rushed to pull them apart, "What are you doing? Explain."

Lia's cold eyes glared at the students who wanted to raise their voices but then meekly talked in a small voice.

"He stole my things!"

"That's not true!"

"It is! Most of my stuff's missing and you're the only one who's been in my room!"

"I didn't steal anything! Miss Kim, my things disappeared too!"

The two students glared at each other and Lia got a headache. Now she had to deal with petty theft.

"There's a thief going around!" one of the bystanders said.

"Yes, yes!" the other students eagerly joined the discussion that soon turned into loud, chaotic chatter all over the place.

Lia only got bits here and there, hearing that a thief had been stealing many students' belongings in the dorms.

"Everyone, one after another one," Lia's voice quieted them down, "Have you reported it to any teachers?"

The students shook their heads.

"Why not?" Lia felt it was weird the students kept quiet and it blew up only until now.

"Teacher, it's because we all were busy and didn't think it would escalate to this point," a fluttering white robe with golden strands emerged from the crowd and an innocent face worriedly looked at Lia.

It was Zero. Lia eyed him suspiciously but then smiled and nodded. Especially because all of the first-years excitedly looked at Zero and whispered, "Zero's here!"

They all felt secure around him. The more she saw of Zero, the more he resembled Min. The same influence and false security he gave people and the way he pretended to be someone he wasn't.

The more she saw him like this, the more she was bent on changing him. She was going to get him to help her and at the same time, she wanted to guide him to the right path.

"I see, how long has this been going on?"

"It has started a week prior, some of my belongings disappeared, too," Zero answered for everyone.

The other students nodded and Lia found it still questionable. Stealing other people's things while living with hundreds of others was inevitable because some people just didn't have a moral code or some common sense.

"I will tell the headteacher of it and this matter will hopefully soon be resolved. So, for now, everyone go back to your classrooms and don't accuse others if you have no evidence yet," Lia shooed them away.

What she couldn't stand was to have someone blamed if there wasn't even proof.

Out of all students, Zero still remained and called out to Lia, "Thank you, teacher!"

Zero smiled angelically and then also left for the classroom.

This commotion actually made Lia run late to the exam so she had to rush back to the exam's floor.

Afterwards, she wanted to raise the matter with the headteacher but she was kept busy until night.

Lia still had to meet Nana and decided to talk about the theft problem the next day.

Behind the dorm, bordering the second layer, Lia met with Nana. The spot was perfectly hidden by trees yet still gave much space. The earthy ground covered the whole radius of the dorms.

Hidden behind the wide buildings, it was almost impossible for someone to discover them, but it also made a brilliant hiding spot.

When Lia arrived, Nana was already waving at Lia. She grabbed Lia and pulled her further, "Look! Look!"

As Nana's excited voice faded, a bright light appeared and captured Lia's senses.

The night was dark and through the trees barely any moonshine was let in, that was why Lia had to briefly hold her hand before her eyes to shield herself from the sudden, blinding phenomenon before her.

Once Lia got accustomed to it her eyes widened. Like a true angel, Nana stood in the middle of the dark place and her white wings illuminated the whole surrounding.

Lia was left speechless for a second. Nana's power grew so much? Her wings were fully developed. Its length doubled Nana's arms when spread out.

"That's not all! I can also heal minor injuries and I can fly a bit!" Nana jumped gently off the ground and hovered over it, "It's only a bit but isn't it amazing?"

Lia was happy for Nana but this progress was too tremendous. Could only three weeks of the academy draw out Nana's abilities so quickly?

"It's beautiful," Lia smiled and Nana took Lia's hands, "Touch them!"

The soft feathers of Nana glided through Lia's fingers and tingled her skin. It was comforting and caressing, a power that could soothe and warm people. Befitting of Nana's wishes and her personality.

"How did you-"

"Don't get angry if I tell you…." Nana meekly lowered her head, "I… actually joined the commander's group after he offered to train me. I-I know it's wrong but he's really good!"

Lia was shocked and wanted to scold Nana but at the same time it was no doubt that Timo could achieve easily what Lia didn't, "Within two weeks?"

"One week."

This was even worse than Lia's anticipated, if Timo was this good of a mentor, then the students he trained were going to become monsters. Lia and the others would have no chance against them.

"Even if-" Lia started but a faint rustle close to them stopped her. Someone else was here.