After hearing the name of who the Redwing member was from Lenny's mouth. Springett actually felt a weight lift off her shoulders. The whole time she had deemed that the boy was just too suspicious. The fact that her gut instinct was right she was a little proud of herself honestly.
Then another thought came to her mind, was Nes and Ray the same person? The fighting hand to hand combat techniques were similar, but this thought was quickly diminished. Nes could only use fire magic, although he could just be hiding it, she still didn't think that was the case.
What convinced her was the fire magic Nes produced and the fire magic Ray created were too different.
Also, Ray had several different magic skills that were almost impossible for a regular person to know about. Such as teleportation and lightning magic which was used against Blake.
When she asked Lenny about it, he wouldn't comment on it either. Neither confirming or denying her suspicions, saying that it wasn't his place to tell.
'Maybe they are related somehow' She thought?
*****
A week or so had passed, and things were still not normal at the academy. As expected, some of the students that had experienced the shadow continent had decided to leave the academy. They were unable to perform magic to the same standard as before. Their magic had now become a trauma linked to that place.
Because of what had just happened, Roland was on high alert. The students where to be watched by professors at all times. Mages were placed as guard all around the school, but it only started adding to the other student's worries.
Before they had felt like Roland was one of the safest places on the continent, yet still, somehow students were able to be taken and killed. Many students started to drop out of the academy one by one. Nobles from other kingdoms feared that their son or daughter could be in danger.
The homeroom teacher Del was never seen again after the incident. People were unsure whether he had been transported into the continent and never made it back or if he was working for the shadow in the first place.
Rumours about him started to spread how he had mistreated individual students in the past. Words that were heard under his breath. It turned out that the academy had been given reports of these strange actions, but they decided to ignore them.
Due to the academy being on high alert, Springett never found a good chance to approach Nes. To reveal to him, he knew who he was and to complete the task given to her by her teacher Lenny. When the time was right, she would act.
However, there was one bit of good news for Ray, his system was back up and working like normal. He was able to contact the others through the system once again and check-up with Slyvia. Even his dragon eyes skill was now working once again.
When he went around the academy to search though, he still could find no such thing. It was as he guessed, the divine being was most likely located in one of the towers. For whenever Ray looked at them, he was unable to see inside with his dragon eyes.
A few more days had passed, and as Lenny had predicted, the whole city and academy now knew of the Redwings. The rumours had spread of how they managed to defeat a medium-size guild with only three members and how they had defended an attack from the Shadow guard.
After the first news was reviled, it only caught the attention of those in Roland city, but the next bit of information started to spread far and wide. A lot of the students at the academy were citizens from other kingdoms. The ones who had been taken to the shadow continent confirmed the Redwings really did save them.
While the others who heard of this news also reported it to their friends and family. The news had gone even more widespread than Lenny had predicted.
As the news spread, there were generally two camps of people. Those who supported and welcomed the Redwings as a strong force that could save them from the shadow. And those that were afraid of the Redwings. If they had taken over Avrion, what was next? What was their goal?
The anger from the other kingdoms was starting to be directed at the Alure kingdom. They were wondering why hadn't anything been done about such a group.
And there was one person who now had a deep hatred of the Redwings. Blake. Ever since coming back to the academy, he was still unable to perform his lightning element. He tried and tired, but nothing would come out.
The only thing he could guess was Ray had stolen his element from him. Following the news that had been spread, Blake decided to send a letter to his father. He detailed everything that the Redwings had done and how they had fought against the shadow guard.
But the part Blake decided to put emphasis on was the conversation he had with Ray. About how the Redwings weren't afraid of anyone and had planned to take on the empire. They didn't fear them and welcomed war with them.
Making sure to highlight the fact his powers got stolen and Ray's words the letter was sent off.
****
Finally, the letter had arrived. By this time Blake's farther had already heard of all the news of the Redwings. He too feared that their force might grow too powerful and c.o.c.ky one day. After reading the contents of the letter, it only confirmed his suspicions.
The man scrunched up the letter in anger and shouted.
"Call a meeting with the emperor immediately, we must deal with this sc.u.m!" He shouted.
The attendant, standing by his side, immediately rushed off.
Blake's father was a powerful man in the empire, he was the general of the magic division for the empire. If he wanted to, he had the authority to take an army of his own and march right up to Avrion without needed to talk to the Emperor.
But instead, he wanted to inform the Emperor of what Ray had said about them. Hoping to set a spark in the Emperor's heart once more. He felt like ever since the invasion of the shadow continent, the empire had grown weak. The kingdoms were no longer afraid they might get taken over by them, and he wanted to change that.
The smell of war was coming.
****
Special thanks to Sasaray, Shurikyn_13, christian_walker, DarkShadow_DS, Fenrir2040, RedStorm_8179, Brandon_Ramos_3070, and Ahmed_Kabir_7439 for the gifts they really help me with my goal of becoming a full-time author.