Cotton

Hearing the door close, 

A deep sigh left President Braum's lips.

Miranda with her lime eyes looked at the troubled legend. 

Seeing the awkward silence slowly cover the room she opened her mouth.

"What do you think, sir?" 

"Could he have killed Professor Carn?" 

"No,"

President Braum shook his head. 

"Even though he possesses an ancient aura, it was too faint and too little to even put a dent in Carn's aura." 

"And when I felt it, I could tell,"

"it was made for the blade, not for a bullet."

Miranda could not help but scratch her head as they had now stumbled into a dead-end.

"So? What do we do now, Sir?" 

"Do we keep looking?" 

Braum sat there caressing his chin as he became swallowed with his thoughts. 

In his mind, countless questions rang. 

'What is the true identity of that masked killer?' 

'Why did he kill one of his professors?' 

'Why was one of the pages of the notebook missing?' 

'How did a first-year student attain an ancient aura?' 

In the end though, 

He could only let out a sigh. 

"Sir," 

"Yes, Miranda?" 

"Do you think that assassin was from the AOA?" 

"Hmmm...." 

"I don't think so." 

"What makes you think of that, sir?" 

"Long dark trenchcoat with a metal mask covering his face, wielding a weapon from the past." 

"That's what our masked killer looked like, yes?" 

"Correct, sir." 

"Well, that same description fits one of the assassins that fought amidst the celebration of the only daughter of the Coldfeathers." 

"According to the witnesses, he called himself the Unseen Threat." 

Miranda's eyes widened. 

"Isn't the other assassin in that party an elite killer from the AOA?"

Braum nodded in response.

"But, that doesn't make any sense, sir, why would he fight against them?" 

"That I do not know off, but it troubles me greatly, Miranda." 

President Braum's gaze became stern. 

Miranda froze seeing them. 

His presence could almost make her faint. 

She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth to keep herself from falling from the sofa.

"If that masked killer who was able to infiltrate our walls and our eyes, truly did not work for the agency of assassins," 

"Then who?" 

"Who does that killer work for?" 

[Theos, may I ask you something?] 

Troi, who was currently riding the transit back to his dorm, chatted with the god within his mind to pass the time.

[What is it human?]

[Don't you feel any jealousy seeing the other gods still reveled and worshipped?] 

[Yes, human, sometimes.] 

[But seeing the sun my brother created after an eternity.] 

[No longer my eyes hindered by the dark depths and my ears numbed by the silence of the sea.]

[I am content that the chains that held me deep beneath the waves have been broken.] 

[I may have been forgotten, human, but at least I am now free.] 

[I understand.]

Troi then gazed through the rumbling glass of the metal transit.

And as he did his mind drifted into his plans that were delayed by a balded professor. 

'Okay, time is ticking I have to enact my plan later tonight.' 

But then a realization hit him. 

'Wait, can I do it without one of my skills?' 

He remembered that he had used his [Mind of The Murderer] for today. 

A skill he knows he heavily relies on. 

One that makes him able to stay composed and keeps his emotions at bay. 

And without it, some doubts started to seep through his mind.

But he shook his head.

'No.'

'I have to do it tonight.' 

'I can't rely on that skill forever.' 

After strengthening his resolve he saw that he had finally reached his destination. 

And so he got off the metal transit and started to walk through the same concrete path leading back to his dorm. 

One that had trees by the side. 

Yet while he walked he heard an awfully familiar voice from a distance.

"I told you, Reynold, It was just here!' 

'Wait this voice?' 

Troi gazed at where the voice was coming from. 

Near a bench, there lay a girl dressed in a green turtleneck, with black long hair, brown eyes, and a black tail.

She was breathing rapidly as she tried to talk to a man with blonde hair and a chiseled jaw, who as you look clearly through the shirt he was wearing, had no ounce of fat in his body.

Some of the students passing by the same path could not help but glance at them.

As the girl was clearly distressed about something. 

'Isn't that Millia and Reynold?' 

Troi immediately recognized the odd pair near the fountain. 

But he could not understand why was Millia acting that way. 

Until.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!, I was petting him earlier!"

"It was the same crow I swear!"

Troi widened his eyes. 

He remembered one of his crows was missing when he had woken up. 

'No way...' 

Realizing where one of his crows went when he was asleep

In his mind, he let out a scream.

'COTTON!!!!!'