Chapter 124: After the Training... A Terrifying Question

"SERA! ELIRA!"

A panicked voice echoed as hurried footsteps rushed closer.

Aria came sprinting at full speed, her face completely flushed with worry as she dropped down beside the two smoking figures.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no...! A-Are you two okay?! Please say something!"

"Ugh... A-Aria... m-my goddess... please heal me..." Sera groaned weakly.

Elira simply turned her face away, lying completely motionless on the floor.

Just seeing them like that and hearing those weak words, Aria’s eyes began to water.

"Stay with me... both of you. I will heal you real quick..."

As she began casting her healing magic, she puffed out her cheeks in a cute pout and narrowed her eyes fiercely at Lucian. Because from her vantage point, it was crystal clear, and she had seen absolutely everything — even if the fight had happened at super speed.

Quickly and sheepishly pulling his hands behind his back, Lucian started making vague, frantic gestures in the air, trying to explain himself.

"Ahem... well, Aria, what happened was..."

Aria’s pout only grew slightly larger as she continued to heal the girls.

"I mean... yes, it was my fault. Totally my fault..." He chuckled nervously.

Failing to find any good excuse, he turned his head toward Myra, now glaring at her with narrowed eyes.

"Oh dear... you look at me as if I’ve done something unforgivable," Myra said softly while keeping her tone entirely too innocent. "And yet, I barely even lifted a finger."

Lucian didn’t really have an answer for that anyway. After all, she was right.

"Well then..." she finally took a single, leisurely step back from the spot she had been glued to this entire time. "I think that’s quite enough training for today. You’ve all worked very hard."

Ding!

[Mission Reward Completed]

[+3,000 FP]

[+6,000 Farming FP]

[Skill Leveled Up: Overdrive (Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2)]

[Reward: x1 silver Skill Stone]

[Notice: Your partners, Seraphina Ashenblade and Elira Frostveil, have successfully gained ’High Resistance’ toward Lightning-based attacks.]

Lucian frowned.

’So... high resistance can be gained like this too...?’

[’Yes... it actually can be...’]

For a few seconds, the System didn’t say anything else. Then, another notification popped up, shattering his train of thought.

[You shameless bastard, stop making that creepy face.]

A short while later, the girls finally regained consciousness. They didn’t have any major injuries — though they would probably be traumatized by high-voltage lightning magic for the next few days. After that, they would be perfectly fine.

They all stepped out of the time box. Since almost no time had passed on the outside, it was still early morning, just in time for their first lecture. Without any arguments or complaints, the four of them began heading toward their class.

Behind them, Myra waved goodbye with a wide, thoroughly satisfied grin.

"Bye, kiddos! That was quite fun. We’ll train even harder tomorrow~"

"Oh, and Lucian, darling... ’old hag’, was it? Make sure you stretch properly tonight. I’m going to beat the youth right out of you tomorrow."

Lucian swallowed hard, mentally cursing his loose tongue. Beside him, Elira and Sera visibly winced. Without a word, all three forced their battered legs to move faster.

Aria simply said her goodbyes and followed them down the academy corridors.

Midway through the corridor, Aria wanted to mention something important to Lucian. She looked up at him, her steps faltering slightly in hesitation.

He immediately noticed and looked back at her.

"Yes..." He already knew exactly what this was going to be about in a split second. "Aria, are you okay? You look a little pale. Do you wanna talk about something?"

Now that Aria had finally stopped suppressing her feelings and had been honest with Lucian, she couldn’t avoid the looming issue of her engagement with Cassian. Tangled up in these heavy thoughts, her eyes dropped to the floor as she began to murmur.

"Can I... can I take a little bit of time? I mean, to explain everything to Cassian... Now I have to talk to him about breaking off our engagement... it will probably be a massive shock to him..."

"Hmm... don’t worry. I understand," Lucian replied softly. "If that’s what you want, I won’t tell anyone about us."

A deep, warm blush instantly bloomed across her face at the words ’about us’.

Just then, Lucian raised his voice slightly, directing it at the two girls walking a few steps ahead of them.

"You two heard that, right? No gossiping about Aria’s situation."

"Huh... why would I even do that?" Sera muttered, glancing over her shoulder. "Anyway, you should be telling her that... so she doesn’t open her blunt mouth at the wrong time..."

Elira didn’t even bother to turn around as she replied flatly, "Sera, don’t expect me to do something as clumsy and thoughtless as you."

"You little...!" Sera growled, immediately ready to snap.

"Okay, okay, you two, calm down now... no more arguing, please..." Aria mumbled sweetly, stepping in to soothe the situation.

Lucian just smiled faintly as he watched her soft, gentle gestures.

The class proceeded exactly as usual. Almost half of the students looked completely bored out of their minds during Professor Throne’s painfully dull theory lecture.

Suddenly, the heavy, echoing clangs of metal armor resonated from the hallway, steadily approaching the classroom.

The heavy doors pushed open, and two fully armored knights marched inside. They were holding something in their hands — a shoulder cape and a traditional scarf. The knights simply stood there in absolute silence, as if waiting for someone to arrive.

Seeing the entire class’s attention completely diverted toward the door, Professor Throne immediately barked in annoyance.

"Excuse me! What is the meaning of this?! You cannot just interru—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, a third knight stepped through the doorway.

He was an absolute giant of a man—towering, broad-shouldered, and packed with thick, bulging muscles beneath his heavy armor. His rugged face bore the faint scars of countless battles, and his sharp, beast-like eyes radiated an overwhelming pressure.

This was none other than the strongest man in the entire kingdom... Knight Commander Gideon.

The sheer, suffocating weight of his aura instantly washed over the room, intimidating the entire class into absolute, pin-drop silence. Even Professor Throne swallowed his words, frozen in place.

Gideon calmly walked over and snatched the torn cape from the subordinate knight’s hands. His deep, booming voice echoed through the utterly silent classroom.

"I found this cape lying beside the scorched bodies of fifteen hundred goblins at the edge of the Forbidden Forest."

His sharp, piercing gaze slowly swept across the terrified faces of the students, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Now... which one of you dropped it?!"