Book 2: Chapter 2 (3/7)

It took Rogal a day to fly through the inner perimeter of the magical forest including Professor Lawson’s old camp but he couldn’t locate either Kain or the Black Panther anywhere. Rogal didn't fly deeper inside the magical forest where Saint-tier magical creatures could be lurking around.

"Kain wouldn't be stupid enough to head that deep inside the forest anyway. There is no reason for him to do that." Rogal thought to himself.

Rogal then decided to fly through the outer perimeter just in case Kain was injured laying somewhere close to the exit of the forest. “Huh? What is that down there?” Rogal saw some clothes laying on the ground close to the Southeast of the outer perimeter of the forest. He landed on the ground to pick up these clothes. Rogal saw the crest of Mages’ Academy of Nosh embedded on the Student Mage’s robe he just picked up. “This must be Kain’s robe, pants, and boots. Why is it here?” Rogal couldn’t figure out what Kain was planning. He decided to collect the clothes then high-ranking fly back toward Professor Lawson’s location to confirm with her.

After Cade examined the clothes, she confirmed it belonged to Kain. After a few minutes of silence, Professor Vincenzo Biersack said, “I figured it out. Kain must have conjured a Skeleton Warrior and forced it to wear his clothes to run toward the Southeast direction while he ran the other way. This could trick the Black Panther in chasing the wrong direction.”

Everybody nodded their head in agreement, Professor Mariel Fenoff said, “But it had been more than four days. If Kain successfully tricked the Black Panther, why didn’t he come back yet?”

Everybody once again focuses their thoughts in silence. They then decided to wait for assistance from the Army. Two days later, General Jandar Verardi of the North Army led five million warriors to the magical forest near Redkeep city. Sofia saw her father was the general that came here, she ran toward him and immediately asked, “Father, please help me look for Kain. He saved my life by fighting with a Legend-tier Black Panther while I and the others escaped. This was six days ago. Father, please command your warriors to look for him.”

“Sweetie, let me speak with your professors first.”

After Jandar spoke with the professors from Mages’ Academy of Nosh, he was happy to learn that Kain was the reason how Sofia was still alive. If it wasn’t for Kain, Sofia would have died that night. He gave the commands to his four Vice-Generals, “Each Vice-Generals lead a million warriors and spread out toward North, South, East, and West. If you encounter any Legend-tier magical creature, ask it carefully about Kain before killing it, understand?” After hearing confirmation from his Vice-Generals, Jandar led the other one million warriors to escort professors and Student Mages toward Professor Lawson’s old camp to collect their personal belongings.

Three months later. After killing six Legend-tier magical creatures, over a hundred Master-tier magical creatures, and countless Novice-tiers and Intermediate-tier magical creatures; General Jandar Verardi and his five million warriors have checked all the areas of this magical forest but they couldn’t locate Kain anywhere. Of course, they weren’t stupid enough to get into too deep where Saint-tier magical creatures reside. One of the Saint-tier magical creatures can massacre a quarter of their army then walk away without them daring to chase after it. Jandar finally gave the commands to withdraw his troops and sent a detailed letter to the Mages’ Academy of Nosh about this.

On the day Jandar's letter arrived at the Mages’ Academy, Jaane ran out from the class to Principal Myriam Starag’s office and asked, “Principal Starag, have they found Kain?” Jaane then saw Sofia Verardi was also in the Principal's Office. Sofia had tears running down from her eyes, this doesn’t look good.

“Jaane, please have a seat.” Myriam softly advised her to. The love Jaane has for Kain was no longer a secret. Everybody in the Mages' Academy knows how much she loved him ever since Kain went missing.

After Jaane sat down, Myriam handed her the letter and said, “General Verardi and his Army have done their best, but they couldn’t locate Kain anywhere. I’m afraid Kain Almos is no longer with us.”

Jaane was sad because they couldn’t find Kain, but she knew for sure he was still alive. “Kain is strong, very strong. He could easily kill a Legend-tier magical creature all by himself. Kain won’t die. No, he can’t die!” Jaane advised herself.

After reading the letter, Jaane handed it back to Myriam and went back to her class. “No wonder why Sofia was crying it was because she thought Kain had died. But I know he is alive. Kain, one day we will see each other again. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, I will wait for you. Even if it takes a million years, I will still wait for you. I have to be stronger. Kain is very talented, no doubt that he will advance into Saint-tier and live forever. I should do the same too. Kain said he believed that I will step into Saint-tier in the future as well and he won’t disappoint.” Jaane thought about the day when Kain told her that she is ‘special’ to him. She smiled in happiness while walking back to her class.

Meanwhile, inside the meeting with all high-ranking officials of the Mages Council. Wrenn Fasketel slammed his fist onto the table and said, “How can it be? Five ships?”

“I thought Lord Hardy’s disappearance had something to do with higher entities such as Archangels or Devils. I was about to send Lord Clerico to travel to Heaven Realm and Lord Donoghan to Hell Realm to gather information about it. But a day ago, one of our Executioners spoke to some merchants and they told him about five suspicious ships blocking the seaway to the Kingdom of Winhardia. We are still investigating this.” Gwenn Bigham said.

“Still investigating? It had been more than four months since we knew Lord Hardy was missing. Are you seriously putting all focus on finding my Lord? Or you were too busy messing around with-”

“Be very careful what you are about to say, Wrenn Fasketel. You are an elder member of the Red while I am the Holy Mage of the Mages Council.”

“My apology, Holy Mage. I was not thinking clearly.”

Lord Clerico burst out laughing, “Hahaha… let me finish what Wrenn was about to say. He was trying to ask if you were too busy playing romance with me. Wrenn... you have advanced into a level 100 Fire Mage. But remember this very carefully. In my eyes, you are still just a little baby that I can bitch slap in the face anytime I want to. The next time you disrespect me or the Holy Mage, I will personally castrate you then feed it to the dogs.”

“My apology to you as well, Lord Clerico.” Wrenn apologized to Noe while biting down his teeth to control his anger.

Lord Kath Donoghan said, “Noe, don’t be too harsh on Wrenn. And you, Wrenn. Nothing is going on between Noe and the Holy Mage. Going around spreading rumors like that could cost you your life, understand?”

“Yes, dear Lord Donoghan.”