Chapter 111. The Devil of Ashen (3)

The day passed by like so, after dropping off Flora and Crystal at their class, both Mana and I were suddenly called to the headmaster’s office which confused us as we separated from the two and started moving towards the headmaster’s office.

Kaori was not with us today since the Nostalgia Kingdom which she reigns has a special festival today that she is required to appear, Leisha otherwise was lazing on the house after a tiring day which leaves both Mana and me alone for today.

“I wonder what the headmaster has to talk about,” Mana looked around at the garden as little children played around it. They were children around the ages of Crystal, playing hide and seek with one another as a teacher watched them.

The school was not strict in regards of children playing since they understood that forcing them to learn without having their own enjoyment time would only weaken them or was what Aurora had told me. As her successor, she told me that the Queenshelm, specifically, wants the children to think of the place as a ‘home’ rather than a learning place.

“It might be something to do with the Fragaria Inheritance since she usually won’t call you as well if it doesn’t have anything that involves you,” I answered before she looked outwards with a wry smile.

“The Fragaria huh… I wonder when I can split off my name from theirs, that place has never shown me any happiness… not once…”

Her eyes looked distant; it was like those eyes of hers when her stepfather died. The eyes of someone whose determination on something had solidified to a certain extent. You could tell from a glance that she was already determined from breaking off from them and to be dragged back into the family that she hated is like re-entering the depths of hell.

“I will find a way in the future…” I said before she looked at me, squinting her eyes as she smiled beautifully.

“You already found a way, don’t you?” she giggled.

“I might have a way, but it’s not the right time,” I smiled back before she elbowed me on the stomach once more while smiling.

“The right time… I will wait for that, then,” she responded before the two of us soon reached the headmaster’s office doors where a lady waited, she looked as if she was waiting for a few hours now which made us a bit guilty as we took our time arriving here.

After noticing our presence, the lady soon knocked on the door before Aurora’s voice echoed as the doors soon opened, revealing a packed room with a heavy atmosphere. On one side was Mana’s sister together while on another side was the always sleepy golden-haired beauty, Hannah, and the fat chested elder sister kind… Kayla.

There was also Estelle who was combing Aurora’s hair while on the desk, the tension inside the room was super heavy that it felt suffocating.

“The two of you have arrived, do you know why I have called the two of you?” Aurora asked with a smile.

“Let me guess, it’s the inheritance battle, right?” I said before she nodded as she looked towards Mana and her elder sister with a tired expression.

“The school has already declared that it will not include itself with anything that has to do with the inheritance battle, yet as annoying as it may be, the battle has been causing tensions on the region which we can no longer ignore…” she said before sighing as she continued.

“As such, we decided to split off four members of our special intelligence team to which have found something suspicious going on with the inheritance battle. It’s better to have her explain though since she knows the situation better than us,” she looked at Mana’s elder sister.

Her majestic aura was still there as she stood up and explained, “As all of you may know, there are four different factions involved in the inheritance battle, originally, there were only two which consisted of mine and aunt’s but suddenly, half of our forces and half of auntie’s left to create another two factions…”

“The factions, namely, Historia and Aeon declared themselves as neutral which was strange as the two representatives suddenly reached out to me with a blood pact which said that the two factions will not take part in the battle but will instead oversee the situation and will intervene if a situation where a faction will cause the downfall of the family, eliminating that faction to take over… now, do you smell something suspicious with it?”

It was indeed suspicious like what Leisha had said, we only heard about the fact that there are four factions which isn’t strange at all, but what was strange was for half of the original two factions to split off at the same time to create two new factions who both had the same plans… that was indeed suspicious.

“Is there even anything suspicious with that? It could simply be people realizing that the battle is fruitless and would rather live off simple…” Kayla asked to which Mana’s elder sister nodded.

“We initially thought the same but I wasn’t completely sure yet which is why I decided not to sign the pact and hold it off for now while sending a few people to investigate to which revealed the true horrors within the sudden move…”

The tension inside the room suddenly turned even heavier as she added, “The two factions were, in reality, moving under a central leader whom they call as Aspira which is a name of someone that was once marked as wanted under the Central Defense Team of the Allied Kingdoms which led me to investigate deeper which led me to found all of these…”

Taking out several pictures from her pocket, she soon placed it on the table to which all of us had paled as it showed an underground dungeon where blood could be seen spilled all around. A single gigantic circle could be seen on the very center, it was a magic circle of blood.

Not only that but there were several hundreds of black-hooded men circling the magic circle all around, carrying black crosses on their hand as if they were trying to summon the devil. It was like a scene of carnage, many bones were laid all around with prisons containing ultra-malnourished slaves at the sides.

“This…” I took one photo and looked closely. My heart rose in an instant as I looked at the circle which was exactly like a magic circle on Solis VR… or rather in the entire Solis Occassium package, it was the summoning circle of a medium-level boss.

“What have you found?” Aurora asked.

“We need to stop it in an instant otherwise the entire city will be in trouble! This magic circle is a summoning circle for a creature that can cause the annihilation of an entire kingdom. The Circle of Lucia… the devil of Ashen!”