Arc 2 - Chapter 10: Wizarding Academy (2/3)

"Who would put their room three hundred meters up..."

Yu was out of breath when they reached the headmaster's office. He had a fit body, but he couldn't afford to climb all those stairs and had to stop several times.

In fact, the time they stopped to rest after climbing half of the stairs could rival the time it took them to walk.

"Oh, aren't you ever tired?"

Yurine said, slapping her hands on her legs, "Unlike you, I'm a real number ten, I don't get tired easily. You weak, stupid human, look at you."

While Yu was still taking deep breaths, the knight who had accompanied them knocked on the headmaster's door. "The sword fairy and Mr. Valarfin are here to see you."

"Come in." The voice from inside the room was slumped and shaky.

When the door opened, standing before them was the man who had managed to gather all the evidence in the case against him. He was a tall, thin, human male in his forties. His unkempt black hair, which fell to his eyebrows, looked as if it had never seen a comb, and the bottoms of his dark blue eyes were swollen and bruised from lack of sleep.

As they entered, Salery raised his hand and held it out to Yu.

"Yu Valarfin and my daughter Yurine Valarfin, pleased to meet you. Though you already know her."

There was not even a hint of surprise in Salery's already dead eyes. "I beg your pardon. Your daughter? Yurine?"

"There's nothing difficult to understand, I gave her a new name."

Yurine used her silence to confirm Yu.

Salery looked more stressed than surprised. He must have gotten the news from the knight that Rie was alive, but he couldn't possibly have been this exhausted in the time it took for Yu and Yurine to get here.

He must have been suffering from some other problem before Yu came here. In that case, it might not have been possible to figure it out from his reactions to hearing that Rie was alive and dead.

"Maybe he's stressed because he thinks Rie is alive."

"How did you manage to give her a name? Didn't Rie say anything?" Salery spoke wearily, as if he had given up on everything.

"Unfortunately, Rie is not here to say anything. He was assassinated in the Sigma Tower, we lost him."

"Killed... killed... I see." Salery's eyes flickered. "I'm sorry for your loss, Neko. I know it's hard."

Yu was trying to figure something out. It was difficult to speculate as Salery was mentally and physically broken, but Yu interpreted his relaxed cheeks as him trying to smile inwardly. He was almost certain that Salery was involved.

"You said Madam was in Urta!" The knight raised his voice and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Neko, aren't you going to say something about this?"

"Shut up, I say, stay out of our business."

The knight grew angrier. Yu knew what she was thinking. He had read it before in novels and manga, seen it in anime. The Knight thought Yu was controlling Yurine.

"Eleny, you can come out."

"But!"

The knight protested at first, but at Salery's glare, he gave Yu one last look. "Don't think this ends here." Then he left the room.

As Yu tried to make deductions, Salery motioned for him to sit down. The view from his room overlooked the tower to the east.

"I am Salery Von Bishory, headmaster of the Wizarding Academy. Pleased to meet you."

Yu only nodded since he had already introduced himself when they entered.

"Neko, I'm really sorry. Do you need any-"

"Are you sorry? Didn't you know what would happen when you sent us to our death? Why are you sorry?"

Salery couldn't react, Yurine's words had frozen him cold.

"What are you doing?"

Ignoring Yu's voice, Yurine slammed her hands on the table and jumped up from her chair, which she hadn't sat in thirty seconds.

"Why did you send my mother to that tower? Why did you do it? TELL ME!"

"Neko, I understand you were in a difficult situation-"

"ANSWER!"

Yu could see the papers on the table moving as Yurine raged. The winds whirled around her.

"Yurine, enough."

This was where Yu would eventually come to, but the path Yurine had chosen would not be fruitful. They were only provoking Salery with this method, Yu had to ask the next question.

"We know that it was you who told Rie about the Sigma Tower and gave her the map to get there. I don't think you'd deny it either. What we want to know is why you did it."

"Who are you in the first place?" Salery pushed himself back, using the support of the table to get up from his chair. "You have no right to accuse me."

"DON'T DODGE THE QUESTIONS" The wind around Yurine's body was getting stronger and stronger.

"I am officially Yurine's father, so I have the right to pursue her case. Now please answer me, why did you send Rie there and did you know what would happen?"

Salery preferred to dodge the questions rather than answer them, not realizing that by doing so he was only increasing the suspicion on him. "I don't know how you managed it, but you are here to accuse me, and I won't allow it."

"Mr. Bishory, please help us. What happened to Rie was clearly premeditated and it was you who led her to the Sigma Tower. It's only natural that you should be seen as a suspect and questioned, and if you are uncomfortable with that, you can help us by answering the questi-"

"WHERE IS MY SON?!"

Yu had to interrupt his speech when a tall, dark-haired woman suddenly burst into the room. A man and the dark-haired girl he had met yesterday were trying to stop him.

"Stella, now is not the time."

"Sharley! Where is Sharley?!"

Salery's words could not stop her screams. Stella ran straight to Yurine and grabbed her by the shoulders and screamed in her face.

"ANIMAL! WHERE IS MY SON?!"

Yurine pushed Stella hard and shrugged her shoulders. "He's the one who killed him you unrespectful bitch, ask this bastard," she said, pointing at Salery.

"What?" Yu and Salery reacted at the same time.

Even though Salery had gotten Sharley killed, Yurine's words were more than tolerable. Stella's trembling knees could no longer support her and she fell to the ground wailing.

"Yurine!"

"Am I lying? C'mon, call me a liar."

Yu couldn't call her a liar, so he turned his attention to the woman on the floor.

"Are you ok- No, can you get up?"

At first he thought about asking if she was okay, but it was obvious that she was not. He knelt beside her and held out his hand to support her, but she hit him hard with the back of hers.

"Sharley, where is he?" Stella continued to call his name in a trembling voice as tears streamed from her eyes as she opened her lips to call his name.

"Mr. Valarfin?" Lylphia wanted to ask what was going on when she saw someone familiar, but Yu didn't even notice her.

"Because he went after that whore..." Stella said. Yurine heard her voice, even though she was whispering. Stella's words were the last straw for Yurine.

"Be careful what you say. I don't care how are you feel right now, if you don't take your words back I will send you to your son."

Yu wanted to defend Yurine, but her words were completely cruel.

"NEKO!" Salery shouted.

"Who do you think you're shouting at?" Yurine tried her best to make people angry, but Yu would continue to defend her. He walked over to Salery.

"I'm asking you guys to calm down a bit..." Lylphia spoke but again no one paid attention to her.

"Are you threating me in my school!"

"What the fuck are you slurring about? Isn't she right? Didn't you send them there?"

"Stop right there." A knight put his sword to the back of Yu's neck as he continued to walk towards Salery.

This knight had heard the voices and burst into the room. The knight's sword extended to Yu did not stay in the air for long, and Yurine threw the knight out of the door with a gust of wind.

Salery raised his hand when he saw Yurine using magic, yellow halos of light started to appear around his hand, but Yu intervened to prevent them from forming.

"Back the fuck up, back the fuck up!" Yu pushed the table in front of him with his hand and it hit Salery. Yu pushed so hard that Salery lost his balance and fell to the ground.

"Calm down..." Lylphia was trying to calm things down, but when she realized that no one was listening to her, her voice trailed off.

"You!"

As Salery tried to get up, Yurine raised a hand towards him. "Fuck you whoreson."

Yurine's second spell spread from her shoulder, traveled to her fingertips, and slammed into Salery's body, who hadn't quite managed to get up, pinning him against the wall behind him. Salery spat blood from his mouth.

"ENOUGH!"

Before things could get any worse, a man Yu didn't recognize walked in with a dozen knights and separated the sides.