Science/Magic

Wave Golden was standing in front of a window on the top floor of the Great Library with an ice-cold expression.

She had been like that for almost twenty hours already. But although it seemed as though she was doing nothing, the truth was that she was using the array of the city to try to find clues about the missing students.

Even for her, using the array for this long was exhausting. The mental calculations she needed to do to analyze all the information the array sent to her mind were outrageous.

Only someone like her, an Apotheosis Demigod and one of the strongest mages of the world, could keep up with the consumption of soul power and mental energy required to use this array.

Unfortunately, she had failed to find any information even after all this while.

It was as though the students had completely vanished without leaving behind any trace.

However, Wave did not give up yet.

She had the feeling that the students were still inside the city. Her intuition as a dragon was telling her that they were somewhere in her territory.

And she was prepared to exhaust any possible means to find them.

While she was focused on the array, someone else entered the top floor.

"Headmistress, I bring news."

The newcomer was a middle-aged man. He was someone with a stern a powerful aura around him, giving away the fact that he was not someone ordinary.

And in fact, he was no.

He was a demigod, a saint, someone just one step away from reaching apotheosis.

One of Headmistress Wave's direct subordinated.

"What happened?" She asked.

"The autopsy of the bodies has been finished. Unfortunately, we failed to find anything that can lead to the students. We also investigated the people close to them, but some of them died before we arrived and the rest knew nothing."

"So they already cut all the loose ends, huh." Wave sighed softly.

"It looks like that. However, we managed to find something strange in one of the healing mages."

"Something strange?��

"Yes. It was a tattoo with the number '54'."

Wave's expression turned cold.

"Returning Dusk."

"I fear so." The middle-aged demigod's expression turned grave "Unless someone is trying to shift the blame to them, it's almost one hundred percent certain it's Returning Dusk."

Wave frowned briefly before sneering.

"It's them. They had been moving recklessly recently, kidnapping boys and girls all around the continent. However, I never thought they would be so bold as to kidnap people in my city!"

The man behind her nodded and a sharp light flashed through his eyes.

Just as Headmistress Wave, he was also furious by the guts of Returning Dusk.

Daring to kidnap students in this city. It was the same as insulting them!

However, the bad news did not end there–

"I fear things did not end there, headmistress. After I started this case, I realized that other students have disappeared in the city recently. In fact, there have been more than thirty unexplained disappearances in the last year."

Wave's face changed.

"Thirty? How did I not learn about something so important like this before!?"

"… The disappearances were spread throughout the entire year, so it was hard to notice. Most of the time, we thought that it was a student that left the city for some unknown reason. We just realized the unusualness of the situation after linking their disappearances to yesterday's kidnappings."

"... I see. Returning Dusk sure is bold..." Wave shook her head gently.

But-

"Ugh.." The middle-aged demigod grunted and took a step back. He felt a horrifying pressure attacking him!

No, it was not attacking him. He only felt he was being attacked due to Wave's overwhelming strength.

[Dragon Pressure]! One of the Innate Abilities of the Dragon Race.

Right now, it leaked from Wave due to her extreme anger.

Fortunately, Wave restrained her anger quickly, controlling it.

"Investigate it. We can't allow Returning Dusk to continue messing around in this city."

The demigod nodded respectfully. But before he could leave, someone else stepped on the top floor of the tower.

This time, it was a young woman with an anxious expression.

"Headmistress, bad news!"

"What now?"

"It's the representatives of the four races! They are here asking for an explanation!"

Wave's expression turned colder. For an instant, her eyes flashed with killing intent.

However, it was soon replaced by a bitter smile.

"As expected, they will not let this opportunity slide."

Looking through the window of the Great Library, she saw a blue sky extending towards the horizon.

However, she knew that dark clouds were approaching Academy City.

…

Bloed exited his laboratory with an exhausted expression. But despite his exhaustion, he could not hide the excitement on his face.

He had spent the entire night studying the data that Oculus recollected during yesterday's game and using it to upgrade the predictive ability of his eyes.

And after one night of work, he had managed to upgrade his predictive ability, bringing it to a whole new level.

Although it had not been fully perfected yet, it was much stronger than before.

In fact, the result he got was much better than he expected.

'I guess I should thank the headmistress after all, huh.'

Smiling wryly, Bloed went to take a bath before eating breakfast. He wanted to sleep a little bit first, but unfortunately, he needed to do a lot today, so he would have to postpone his sleep until tonight.

Fortunately, that was not too hard for a B-Grade ESPer like him. Plus, his enhanced body meant he needed much less sleep than a normal person.

When Regina saw Bloed, she sighed softly.

"Master, you should not overwork yourself like this. It's bad for your health."

"Sorry, sorry I lost the notion of time. Don't worry, it will not happen again."

"You always say the same, but it always happens again."

Bloed smiled wryly. What could he say? Pulling an all-nighter when he was engrossed in a project was not something he could help.

"Sigh, master, you… Anyway, wait at the table. I'll prepare something for you."

"Thank you."

After sitting at the table, Bloed found an excited Prince Calisto sitting across him.

"Prince?"

"Big brother Bloed, do you know? We have received more than fifty invitations from different clubs since yesterday!"

"Fifty?" Bloed was slightly surprised, but he found it normal considering their performance yesterday.

"Even the top ten clubs in the city sent invitations! It's obvious they are anxious to recruit you!"

Bloed put on an amused smile and shook his head.

"Well, I don't plan to join any of them."

"I know, I know. But still, it's so cool. Right, we are going to visit our future club today, right?"

"That is the plan." Bloed nodded in affirmation.

Yesterday, he ended accepting the headmistress's proposal. Mainly because he thought she was right. It was better to take over a club already established than to start one from scratch.

However, he had not visited the club yet. He planned to go today after breakfast.

"Right, Sara and Gina have not returned?"

"You mean the two girls that are going to live with us? Nope, they have not returned after they left to bring their things. Don't worry, I'm sure they will be back soon."

Yesterday, Gina and Sara told him that they wanted to stay with him. Bloed wanted to refuse at the start, but Prince Calisto agreed excitedly when he heard about it, so it ended with them coming to live in the mansion.

According to them, they had been staying in the place of an acquaintance, but they preferred if they could live with Bloed.

Of course, Liu Ying and Regina were not at all happy with it, but surprisingly, none of them objected to it. Seeing that, Bloed did not have any reason to object either.

"I guess we will go to the club with them then."

Bloed was anxious and excited to see the club the headmistress spoke about.

The Golem-Making Club.