Chapter 24 : Judgment

Quite some time passed since Lisa and Christian left the park, but Arthur still didn't let go of Frederic and the chains were still bounding him, the surrounding people were astonished but none dared speak to protest, they just watched from afar excited yet fearful of what about to come.

finally, the principal came flying using her weird flying magic, accompanied with Zephir, though she didn't seem angry, in any case, she was smiling, she was surprised to see Frederic bounded by those chains but nonetheless, she didn't talk.

Arthur noticing her arrival, retrieved the chains from Frederic and willed them to disappear, he turned his head towards the principal as if expecting her to say something.

"Well, hello there Miss Sonia."

"Hahaha, Mr. Arthur, I see you caused some problems with Lisa, but that doesn't matter since she was the one who provoked you, I've come here because I need to talk to you, and it would be nice if we talked in private."

To be honest, Arthur was quite surprised to hear she knew her name, but after some thought, it's to be expected, after the commotion that happened earlier, there's got to be some students who heard his name, he just shrugged his shoulder then nodded at the principal.

He stood up from the bench, and followed her with Lucy, the principal, of course, didn't say anything when she saw Lucy following for she knew Lucy and Arthur almost never separated from each other.

They walked for quite sometime before they reached the edges of the Academy island, what Arthur saw was a gigantic building, probably the biggest one he ever saw since he came here, it was only made of stone and seemed more like a tower than a habitable building.

Sonia noticed the slight shock of Arthur and began talking "You may or may not have noticed, that although we do have some powerful individuals, they are not very strong, I mean if I fight you, I'm certain that I will lose but if we are so weak, why do you think the Academy is feared by other continents?"

It's true, Arthur always wondered about that, he was sure with his new stats, he was the most powerful in the academy, but he has never seen the pope power or LVL so he couldn't guess how much they are powerful but he judged him to be a little higher than the principal but if so, why do they fear the academy since they are more powerful than it?

The principal chuckled for a bit then resumed talking

"Actually, the holy church manpower is way stronger than us, in fact, the pope's LVL is extremely high and he can kill me with but a single attack, but we have a weapon, a dangerous one, and as long as we have it, they won't dare attack us"

Just as she finished that, she and the other council member mumbled some incantations, then the tower blurred for some time before it changed to a metallic object. Arthur observed the object, and to be honest, it looked like a cannon? but an extremely big one, with runes and patterns all over it.

"It's called 'Judgment' and it's an ancient weapon the founder of the Academy made with his companions created, it only used twice since its creation, but you must know a single use requires a LOT of mana, if it's used, maybe half the Holy church's Headquarters would obliterated. That's why none of the leaders of the continent dare attack us, because they fear this weapon, but the problem is, to prepare a single use we must inject it with mana for a week at least and we cannot fire it consecutively. Sigh, since you are a member of the council, we thought you should know about this but be aware not to divulge this secret or else..."

'Judgment huh?'

He never read about it in Zodiak's book so it must be made after his death, nevertheless he was still amazed by this weapon, he couldn't help but swallow some saliva, and imagine what if he was hit by a shot from that cannon, without a doubt it would be his doom, I mean the height of this weapon is 400 meters and it's length is about 250 meters, that's completely ridiculous.

He continued gazing at it for sometime before turning his head towards Sonia and just nodding as if understanding what she said. Though she was still suspicious of him, she nevertheless decided to tell him about 'judgment' for he is not someone to mess with and since he is a council member now, he has the right to know.

The principal only wanted to show him the weapon, so when everything was done, everyone got back to their respective duties, as for Lucy and Arthur they headed to the mana manipulation class, since it was about time to start. As always, Lucy was excited about the class and couldn't help but shake a bit from excitement, every time she is going into a class, she is happy because learning magic and becoming more powerful is her goal.

Though Arthur was in a dilemma, as he wanted her to get stronger faster and just going to class is not helping that much apart from teaching her new ways of using magic. Too bad she wasn't a parasite or else she would power-up fastly like him, nevertheless he decided to try the leeching way, it's when he lowers the opponent's health to near zero and she finishes him and takes the XP. Though it's slow but effective so he decided to try it when they got free time.

Soon, they reached class and took their seats. The same teacher as yesterday came and began explaining about mana manipulation and as always Lucy listened to him carefully, afraid of not missing anything, as for Arthur he lazily watched the students practicing and injecting mana in their bodies to get bonus stats, since he succeeded yesterday, all this gibberish is useless to him, if not for Lucy wanting to be in this academy, he would have gone adventuring and visiting all the continents.

Class passed peacefully, and the pair left the classroom and headed for their private room. Once they reached it, Arthur decided not to practice, it's been a long day, from killing an imoogi to dealing with that lousy princess and also finding of the secret weapon. As for Lucy, she too was tired, after all, she doesn't have infinite stamina.

Since both of them got nothing to do, they began chatting why sitting next to each other on the veranda. They held each other's hand and began happily chatting about various things, though Lucy seemed really curious about Arthur's previous world, nonetheless, she didn't ask him a lot, but that didn't slip unnoticed by him, so he just patted her head and said

"Silly girl, don't be shy to ask me about my world. If you want to say something just say it, no one is going to hate you."

As he said that he stroked her hair and began describing his world, the cars, machines etc..

Hours passed, and Lucy never ceased to listen to him, whenever he mentioned something new, she would stare dumbfounded at him, Seeing her like that he couldn't help but chuckle, the Lucy right now seemed completely different from the one in public, in fact, it's like 2 different people.

Since he told her to not hold back her curiosity, she bombarded him with questions but whenever he answered her, her heart softened and warmed for she knew he had a tragic past and just reminding him of that would hurt him but nevertheless he always answered her and that made her open to him more.

When it was time to sleep, they both laid on the bed, but this time, they hugged each other like the past days without embarrassment, Arthur knew she would not be angry not will she feel disgusted and just by hugging her when going to sleep made him feel as if he was dreaming.

Just like that, they both fell asleep in each other's embrace, and even though Arthur had infinite stamina, he decided to sleep for it was very comfortable and to wake up and see Lucy in his arms is something that cannot be replaced, after all what's better than to be with someone you love?

Just like that, 2 weeks peacefully passed, the holy church didn't attack and the princess never showed in front of Arthur again, maybe it was fear or maybe she learned her lesson, but Arthur happened to see her, and her legs seemed fine, however, her arm is still not regrown. It would seem to get a limb back is hard but still possible, since Arthur read in a book that with a powerful healing magic, or a miraculous potion, you can get a limb or anybody member back.

In these 2 weeks, They attended classes and practiced whenever they got time, Lucy seemed to have strengthened her body in the first week and apparently, her stats increased by 250, as for her control magma attribute, it had become near-perfect, she could even create a barrier with magma even though it was weak.

As for Arthur, the principal never contacted him in this time, and that really made him happy, to not be disturbed by anyone and just live his days peacefully is all he ever wanted, as for his relationship with Lucy, every day they would get even closer. Actually, Lucy seemed to get bolder, she would always hold his hands, and whenever a girl would come talk to him or ask him for advice, she would stare coldly at this girl as if the girl would steal him away.

Arthur, of course, didn't mind that, as for the girls he always ignored them as he didn't care about them but it was kind of funny to see the jealous side of Lucy. When he first saw her stare coldly at that girl as if telling her to back off, he couldn't help but laugh, and that only resulted in Lucy pouting and letting go of his hand while going ahead of him.

There was that one time when she even threw a puddle of lava at him while snorting, of course, the lava didn't affect him and she was aware of that. Furthermore, she didn't talk to him for the rest of the day, so he had to apologize even though he had done nothing.

As for the leeching idea, Arthur did indeed take her every day after classes to the Ghost island and would let her last hit the monsters, and like that her LVL rose to 56 in these 2 weeks, that may seem a little for Arthur, but for her it's a miracle, for one to advance a level without killing monsters, they would need months if not years, and with killing monsters they would rise quickly, but who from the students in this academy would have someone like Arthur who would nearly kill the monster and let them last hit it.

Everyone must take care of himself and level up alone, so Lucy is considered very lucky to have Arthur give her a hand. Though she never wanted help from others, when Arthur asked her to come with him to help her level up, she didn't even protest, she just followed him obediently. to be honest, Lucy never even disobeyed him, it's not like he ordered her around, but whenever he suggested something, she would instantly agree.

She didn't know why but she held something akin to blind trust toward his decision and never in those 2 weeks did she have a nightmare about her past. She would always wake up in his warm embrace and cuddle herself close to him while staring at his sleeping face, though, he may not know it because he was asleep but she would sometimes give him a kiss on the cheek, and just doing that made her blush and her ears would turn bright red.

Today was a special day, apparently, some students were picked to go a dungeon to experience real fighting to enhance their strength and Lucy was picked too since she was a new students, the one overseeing them normally would be a teacher but surprisingly Frederic volunteered to go, of course, Arthur was going to accompany Lucy, first because he can't let her go alone, Secondly because he was excited to see a dungeon for he never entered one since he came here, he only read about them.

Actually, they are going to a dungeon named 'El Kassia dungeon', it was a low leveled dungeon and apparently the dungeon-boss is only lvl 115, for the students it was high but for someone like Frederic it's nothing, plus the students were only going there to practice and there was no need kill the dungeon-boss.

There was approximately, 30 students which are going and surprisingly, Lisa was going too, though Arthur was suspicious and guessed she may try to do something, after all her and Frederic going is by no means an accident, nevertheless since he was going he was sure he can crush them if they dared to do anything to harm him or especially Lucy. Princess or not, that didn't matter Arthur, if someone causes troubles, they are dead, nothing more nothing less.

All the people going finally gathered near the teleportation array and prepared to head out to the dungeon, it was on the human continent, far in the south but since they have the teleportation array it would take them near the dungeon, they would only need to cross a mountain to arrive there.