11 | Murder at the Academy

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Was someone hitting my head?

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

No. It wasn't my head. It was the door. I slowly pried my eyes open. The first thing I saw was the ceiling of my dorm room. The lighting in the room was dim so I could tell it was nighttime. My entire body felt sore as I pushed myself up from the floor to take a sitting position.

I looked around to see my sword and my Inquisitor Gun lying about the place with splatters of blood all over the room. Wait a sec… it was all coming back to me.

That system person was the cause of all of this. I didn't think it was real but—

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"If you don't open this door right now, we're going to break it down!"

A masculine voice said from the other side of my door. What was happening? I was taming this killer headache as I got up to my feet and walked over the door to open it. I pressed the operating button and the door began to slide open.

On the other side of the door were a bunch of male students with deathly glares in their eyes and weapons pointed at me. I stared at them in confusion as I scratched the side of my head.

"What the heck is going on here?" I yawned, stretching my limbs.

"So you were in there the entire time and refused to open the door?" Someone asked. I tilted my head to one side. Who was this?

"Look at his clothes! There's blood all over them! He's the one!" Someone from the crowd pointed at me.

"I'm the one…?"

"Let's search his room!"

That voice sounded familiar. A second passed before someone came out from the crowd, wearing the academy's uniform. It was Lumina, and the expression on his face was one that I'd gotten to see only a handful of times. It was the one he wore when he went into full battle mode.

But what was there to fight here?

I was about to voice out that question when he pushed past me and walked straight into my room.

"Hey! Hey! You #######! Who gave you the right to enter my room?!"

[Consequences for speaking a negative word have been activated.]

[The stigma that prevents you from dying for one year has been given the authority to bring you pain for ignoring the terms of your Consequences.]

That damn tattoo began to sting again. Argh! This pain!

"There's blood all over the place!" I heard Lumina yell out. Afterward, the other students began to inappropriately file into my room. I couldn't even stop them since the pain I was feeling in my arm was enough to cause my body to feel weakened and blur my vision.

Why wasn't [Mental Control] activating itself? Wasn't that skill aware that I was in pain? There was no way to activate the skill myself since it was a fixed one that acted by itself. This was the worst case scenario to ever be in.

"There's human blood all over the sword!"

"It's fresh!"

"And look at the gun! It's still hot! It's just been used!"

[The stigma's consequences have been completed.]

The pain in my right arm vanished as soon as that message window appeared. Was that how this worked?

"Autumn! Why did you do it?"

Before I got a chance to sigh in relief that I wasn't feeling pain anymore, Lumina had fisted the neck of my shirt and lifted me inches above the floor as he stared at me with rage-filled eyes.

"What are you talking about?" I frowned, then grabbed his wrist tightly. "And let me go!" I freed my shirt from his grasp and landed on the floor.

"And what do you all think you're doing? Get out of my room!" I bumped shoulders with Lumina and went ahead to grab my sword and Inquisitor Gun on the floor that the boys were all gathered around looking at.

"No way! Do you think we're going to let you go scot-free after what we've just discovered?" One of the boys said.

"We're going to report you and make sure you pay for your crime!" Someone else added.

What crime? Were these people sick in the head or something? They've all been saying nonsense for a while now. Were they all drunk?

"Go and be silly someplace else. I have cleaning to do." I spoke dismissively as I grabbed a towel in an attempt to wipe off my blood on the floor.

No one moved an inch for a while. I ground my teeth as I faced them. Flinging the towel away, I raised the volume of my voice.

"You guys deaf? Get out now or else!" I waved my Inquisitor Gun at them. That was enough to cause them to flinch and each take steps back.

Heh. There was nothing as handy as an Inquisitor Gun if you wanted to get people to back off.

"What are you people waiting for? You want me to start purifying this place?!" I pointed at no place in particular and turned off the safety of the gun. Not much needed to be said after that as they began hurrying to leave the room.

After a few minutes, there was only one person other than me standing inside my room. Lumina Voss.

"What are you still doing here?" I asked him, turning on the safety of my Inquisitor Gun and attempting to place it on my bed stand.

I remembered something before I put down the weapon completely.

[You have 365 days until humanity's savior becomes humanity's destroyer.]

[Gain Lumina Voss's trust and stop him from destroying the world.]

This guy… if everything the system has been telling me so far has been right, then this guy in front of me… I clutched the handle of my gun tightly as my eyes drew into narrow slits while I stared at him.

"You killed an innocent person today. Just how many innocent people have you killed so far under the guise of being a law-abiding Inquisitor?" Lumina spoke with poison laced in his tone.

What was he so mad about? If anyone was supposed to be angry here, it should be me!

"Killed an innocent person? I can understand the other students being silly and spouting out nonsense, but you too? What are you all going on about?"

"Caden from across your room was slashed all over and there were four bullet holes in his body." Lumina said.

I veered back in surprise.

"The bullets were made of Purification Power. The only bullets made from Purification Power are the ones used by Inquisitors. If Caden was a corrupted entity, the bullets wouldn't have remained solid inside him. You know the mechanics of Purification Powered bullets more than anyone as an Inquisitor. So why did you kill him?"

Lumina summoned his sword from thin air after he finished speaking.

Oh… someone died and they all pointed their fingers at the first person they didn't like. Classic move. These dummies just wanted to get their asses whooped by me, didn't they? I couldn't catch a break.

"Look here. Just because Purification Powered bullets were found in his body and it was slashed in several places doesn't mean I'm the culprit. You people are just—"

"Your room is covered in blood! The bloodied footprints from Caden's room led straight to your room! Your sword is covered in human blood! Are you trying to deny that fact? Whose blood could it be except for Caden's? Which other human could you have killed and returned to your room with a bloodied sword with no one seeing you?" Lumina countered aggressively.

"You idiot! This is all my blood!" I fired.

"..."

"You didn't think of that, did you?" I scoffed. "Just look at my… arm."

As I raised my right hand to show Lumina the places I had slashed with my sword earlier to cut out that wretched tattoo, I saw that there was no single mark on my arm. Not even a speck of dried blood was on it.

No injuries. Nothing. My right arm was spotless.

"Are you joking right now? Showing me the hand you used to kill an innocent person! How dare you?" Lumina roared.

"No! That wasn't what—"

"I challenge you, Autumn Anderson. As the sword of justice for the first years in Gomas Academy, I will avenge the innocent life that you have taken." Lumina pointed the tip of his sword at me.

"Uh… what?"

"You purified a non-corrupted entity and led them to their death. You murderer, fight me!" Lumina bellowed.

"You're blowing things out of proportion here. You think you can challenge me just because of—"

"I don't want to hear anything else apart from you accepting the challenge." Lumina cut me off and I frowned.

He just kept cutting me off without even trying to listen to reason. How unintelligent was this person?

"Then leave! There's no way I'm going to accept a challenge from a—"

Lumina abruptly lunged at me, picked me up from the ground, and threw me over one shoulder, all in less than two seconds. My Inquisitor Gun and sword both slipped from my grasp because of those sudden movements.

"Hey! What are you doing? Let go of me this instant!"

He blatantly ignored me as he walked out of my room while carrying me on his shoulders. The students in the dormitory who had just been in my room were still lounging about the place. They began cheering for Lumina as they saw him carrying me about like I weighed nothing.

Curse this boy's strength.

I gave up on setting myself free since there was no way I was slipping from his powerful clutches. We passed through a teleportation portal at the lobby of the dorm and I found myself in Gomas Academy's battle arena.

Lumina threw me onto the stage and roared like some wild beast. A few seconds after, people began appearing by means of teleportation portals into the arena, all yelling and behaving barbarically.

Just what kind of situation have I found myself in?

I sat on the stage watching the thousands of seats in the arena being filled by hundreds of students; first years they seemed to be in particular. Why was no one against this? And where were the staff when something like this was happening?

"No one is going to interfere in this duel of ours. This is the recompense you get for all your wicked actions leading to this point." Lumina pointed his sword at me.

Everything was starting to feel like some third-rate script of a movie. I couldn't deal with any of this. I was still taming my killer headache from earlier and my Special Skills were still deactivated. Even if I wanted to accept this challenge and wipe the stage with Lumina's jaw, without a weapon or Special Skill, I'd be the one whose jaw would be used to wipe the stage.

I stood up from the ground and wiped my hands against my sweats. I was now seeing that I was indeed covered in blood, which might have made it perfect to link me up with a murder since no regular human would be covered in blood in the middle of day with their weapons drawn out and used.

Everything was just too perfectly placed to make it seem like I was some crazy, cold blooded murderer. But whosoever set me up must have not accounted for my intelligence. My Intelligence Stats were 90%. If I really wanted to fully utilize my brain power, I could turn this entire thing around and make it look like Lumina here was the killer instead of me.

But I wasn't in the mood for that. I just wanted to rest after everything I've gone through today.

"Fight me." Lumina said as he took on a fighting stance.

I scoffed and raised my hands. "It's ridiculous to think I would do such a thing without a weapon or any valid reason."

"You killed someone! That is reason enough!" Lumina yelled.

The arena became quiet as everyone wanted to hear what me and Lumina were saying.

I facepalmed myself at Lumina's expense before I spoke up. "And even if I were to be the killer in this case, what gives you the right to challenge me? Even if you and this dead Caden person were friends, is that enough reason to take matters into your own hands?

"Do you think you're some hero of justice? You're just an eighteen-year-old kid who wants people to praise him because he got rid of the 'murderer'. So hypocritical of you to turn someone's death into an opportunity for you to be in the spotlight."

"That's- that's not what I'm trying to do," Lumina's voice softened as the hand he was using to hold up his sword began to tremble.

Ahh, it felt good to make people doubt themselves. The expression on Lumina's face was so noteworthy, I could even read his thoughts.

That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm doing this for justice. This isn't to seek attention or be in the spotlight.

Those were the things spinning inside Lumina's head right now. He was trying so hard to convince himself that he was here doing the right thing. While he was bent on that, I should prove myself innocent.

"And you all who have come to spectate. Aren't you disgusted with yourselves? One of your fellow students just died and you'd rather watch a duel. Have any of you alerted the board of Inquisitors or even the dean?

"The first thing you barbarians do after the death of a comrade is to pick out the strongest and have him battle against the alleged suspect. And you call yourselves future Hunters? You all look like a bunch of pathetic kids to me."

The arena was filled with whispers and murmurs after that. People began pointing fingers at me here and there, asking what right I had to speak to them that way.

"It's funny how you people seem to think I'm the culprit because of some silly planted evidence. First, you said the bloodied footprints from the dead kid's room led straight to my room. Am I such an idiot to leave such an obvious proof against myself? And why wouldn't I dispose or clean the weapons I used to kill someone?

"In the first place, why would I even kill that person? What was so special about him that I, an S-Rank Inquisitor and Hunter, would want to kill him in such an obvious manner that would point straight at me? Even a five-year-old kid would be able to connect the dots and see that there's something wrong somewhere."

The more I explained to them how I was innocent, the more ridiculous the situation sounded to me.

"Who was the first person to spot the body?" I decided to ask as I turned to face Lumina.

He stared at me for a while with shaky eyes. "I don't know…"

I turned to the crowd. "I asked, who was the first person to spot the body? Who went into the kid's room and found them dead?"

Everyone began searching amongst themselves. No one was able to come out with a name. I see…

So this was how it was. Someone set me up and disappeared. How bothersome.

What was even more bothersome was the message window that appeared in front of me at that moment.

[The system is willing to ease your consequences.]

[This is on the condition that you solve the case of the murder at Gomas Academy.]

[The system wants you to know that this will be a second chance at your first weekly quest.]

Weekly Quest:

| Difficulty: C |

| Time limit: One week |

| Quest: Find the culprit who murdered the student, Caden Nolan, and apprehend them |

| Consequences of failure: You will serve double time consequence, which is two weeks of being stripped of all your Special Skills and losing the ability to speak negative words in the same duration |

[Consequences for failing the first weekly quest have been deactivated temporarily.]

[The system wishes you good luck on your new quest.]

"Fuck…"