For all Luke’s logical planning and cold calculations, there remained a part of him that wanted to avoid using Alice as a decoy.
“It’s okay,” Alice whispered. “I trust you, Luke.”
Luke silently looked over at her. Her eyes were filled with absolute, unyielding confidence in his every word.
…What a stupid girl, thought Luke, smiling.
“All right then. I’m counting on you.”
“Of course.”
Luke hid in the corner of the room and focused all of his attention on tracking the mana signatures he could sense coming his way. There were three of them. Luke considered the possibility that they might be using some technique to block their own mana, sending out false signals instead to trick him. They steadily grew closer and closer.
I knew it. They’re heading straight for this room.
Luke put his ear to the ground.
Yep, three of them. They’re fast, and their footsteps are quiet, methodical… They’re well trained.
The gravity of the situation could have easily caused Luke to panic, but he remained calm and focused. It was the first time in his life he’d ever experienced such danger, and he truly had no idea how powerful the enemies approaching him might have been, but Luke was confident. His calm demeanor was a testament to the infinitely arrogant belief he had in his own strength.
Such trifling foes could never pose a true threat to me.
Luke laughed faintly to himself as he gripped the dagger that Alfred had given him.
A graduation gift and proof of my mastery, eh…? Mwa ha…I never expected it would come in handy at a time like this.
A switch flipped in Luke’s mind; only the icy cold part of him remained.
“Oh my, welcome.”
“Wha—”
I knew it.
Their confusion demonstrated to Luke that the assailants had been aiming for him, after all. Following the man’s cry, everything happened quickly. Luke had already sensed that the man had clear murderous intent, and the moment the intruder took out his stiletto and directed it toward Alice, Luke made his move.
“Hmph. I knew it. Foes, then. That’s all I needed to know.”
In a flash, faster than the blink of an eye, Luke shot out of the shadows and ripped the man’s throat open with his dagger. Fresh blood spurted up into the air, splashing Alice with red—then with a wordless moaning sound, the man collapsed to the ground.
That was my first time killing another person. It was easier than I expected—now on to the next one.
Luke glanced over at the other two, quickly kicking off against the floor to close in on them.
The second man intercepted his strike in silence. The all too sudden loss of one of his comrades did, in truth, somewhat shake him. His body moved instinctively to respond, however, thanks to many years of practice. He launched a stab at Luke’s right eye, but Luke dodged it with the slightest movement of his neck and attacked again.
It can’t be. Those aren’t the moves of an amateur. This isn’t what our intel stated. Not at all.
The slight agitation in his movements proved fatal, as one of Luke’s incredibly accurate strikes embedded itself into the second man’s left shoulder. He couldn’t dodge the attack and, finding he could no longer lift his arm, dropped the stiletto that he had been wielding. Luke didn’t let up in his attack, stabbing at the man’s throat, then finally through his unguarded heart to finish him off. It was terribly elegant—a three-strike combo that flowed with smooth precision.
“Gah!”
The second man fell to the floor.
“Nobody warned me…nobody said anything about this…!”
The third man began to take slow steps backward, and for the briefest of moments, the thought of restraining him to obtain information floated into Luke’s mind. He quickly discarded the idea.
There are far too many unknown variables for that.
“Don’t let your guard down. Be most careful when you have driven your enemy back. Do not let up.”
Alfred’s words came back to him, and Luke made up his mind.
Kill.
The last man put a hand in his pocket, trying to take something out—and that was the moment that the dagger pierced his skull. Luke’s merciless throwing attack granted his target such an immediate death that he did not even have the time for a bitter, final cry before it was over.
“…”
Luke calmly exhaled a long breath. He looked down absentmindedly at the red-stained corpses that were sprawled out beneath him. He just stood there for a moment, a bit frozen and numb.
“Luke, are you—” Alice cried out, then stopped abruptly at the sight of him. “Luke!”
Alice ran over to his side, screaming his name. Her response was understandable, given the grim scene that only became darker the longer she looked. Luke had just dropped to his knees. He let his arms fall to the floor too. Something was clearly wrong.
“You aren’t injured, are you?! I-I’ll get Mia at once—”
He had no visible injuries, but Alice decided that some of Mia’s Healing magic was in order, just in case. That was the most reasonable conclusion she could reach as she struggled to find answers in her panicked state of mind.
“Why…? Seriously…” Luke mumbled to himself.
Seeing that his life didn’t appear to be in danger, Alice breathed sigh of relief and listened quietly to what he was saying.
“I just…why? Why are these people attacking me…? It’s the middle of the damn night! Why?! What the fuck is going on?!”
It was a cry that came from Luke’s very soul, the accumulation of days upon days of unrelenting stress and anxiety finally spewed out into the world.
✦ ✦ ✦
Luke’s cry from the soul woke every student in the dormitories at once and immediately brought to light the unprecedented attempt that had just been made on his life, as well as the bloody aftermath. It was by far the biggest, most scandalous incident to take place at Aslan Magic Academy, and it shocked the people of the kingdom to their core.
“Quickly. Get the carriage.”
Luke’s father, Claude, was beyond outraged.