A peaceful day quickly came to an end.
Tomorrow was the day to return to school, and Aurora was still pondering how to bring Zoya into the class.
“Maybe I should talk to Professor Albert first…”
After all, Zoya was technically her familiar, and bringing a familiar into the academy shouldn’t be against the rules, right?
After turning off the lights, Aurora climbed into bed and slowly drifted into sleep…
Time passed into the early hours of the morning.
But Lorabel had yet to go to bed.
She quietly opened a crack in the door, peered inside at the sleeping Aurora, then gently closed it again.
Downstairs, she put on her heavy silver armor, strapped her holy sword to her waist, and stepped out the door.
A hero of legendary fame had appeared at Ophelia Magic Academy for the first time in a century, and the troublesome task of finding this hero had been handed to her. It was truly a headache.
Delaying the problem would only make things worse. If she didn’t find him soon—whether in a few days or even tomorrow—the elders would send others to intervene at the academy. They might even end up staying at her house, which would completely disrupt her and her sister’s lives.
So Lorabel’s principle was to solve the problem quickly. She had to find him tonight and forcibly escort him back to the kingdom. That way, tomorrow could still be a peaceful, uneventful day.
The hero’s power was bestowed by the goddess, and her own power was also granted by the goddess. Because of this, she could vaguely sense the hero’s location somewhere inside the teaching building.
Spreading her wings, she flew toward the teaching building.
Below her stretched a dense forest; following a path through it would lead straight to the building.
She flew on for an unknown length of time, but the white brick walls of the academy still could not be seen ahead.
Only then did Lorabel realize something was wrong. The academy was never this far away in her memory.
She flapped her wings and hovered in midair, scanning the surroundings, but found nothing unusual.
Slowly landing, she drew her longsword with a sharp metallic ring.
Raising her sword, she swung it forward, releasing a golden sword energy.
But when the sword energy had traveled about fifty meters, it suddenly vanished.
“Space magic…”
Unbeknownst to her, she had been trapped inside a space magic barrier. And there was only one way to break such a spell…
She exhaled deeply as golden mana radiated from her entire body.
Thick magic covered every inch of the land within this space, and everything inside it began to change…
The night sky started shedding fragments like stardust. A faint blue magic circle appeared on the moon, and the surrounding plants and trees gradually withered and disappeared.
Bang.
Suddenly, the surrounding space shattered like glass.
When the fragments fell, a blue figure appeared before Lorabel…
“So simple a space magic still can’t trap the renowned Holy Knight.”
A familiar voice came from the woman, though her face was obscured by the darkness. Lorabel recognized the voice immediately—this blue-haired woman was Albert.
“Director Albert, what are you doing here?” Lorabel asked coldly.
Her hand subtly touched the sword hilt, white wings unfurling as she prepared to charge.
“Just protecting my student… I can’t let her get dragged into any more trouble,” Albert said.
She extended her blue talons, her eyes glowing blue with slit pupils that carried a warning.
“Give me the hero. The kingdom will never harm the hero.”
“One country might not harm the hero—after all, her power benefits the kingdom greatly—but she is coveted by more than just one nation.”
“If they can’t have her, they’ll destroy her so no one else can have her. You should understand such words well—people are like that, and so are nations.”
“My kingdom can protect her.”
“You call protecting her sending a teenage girl to fight the Demon Lord? Don’t make me laugh.”
“She’s just a child. The selfish goddess irresponsibly dumped this troublesome fate onto a girl and called it destiny. It’s utterly ridiculous.”
“They say heroes can defeat the Demon Lord, but thousands of years have passed, and heroes have come and gone. So why haven’t I ever seen the Demon Lord replaced? The corpses of those past heroes are probably still hanging in the Demon Lord’s castle. You’ve seen it yourself, haven’t you, Holy Knight?”
“……”
She had indeed seen it.
Once, the king had attempted a decisive strike against the demon race, unprecedentedly forming an alliance with other nations to storm the Demon Lord’s castle.
But in reality, the weaker forces perished on the way, leaving only herself and the previous hero to reach the castle.
By then, she was exhausted—her mana nearly depleted, her mind at its limit—and the hero was already severely wounded.
In the end, the hero was easily killed, and though she heavily wounded the Demon Lord, she had to retreat due to total mana exhaustion.
It was then she saw the heads hanging in the Demon Lord’s castle—each adorned with golden gems, the kingdom’s mark for heroes.
That battle made her realize that heroes were merely a method to weaken the demon forces. In essence, they were no different from a delaying tactic, with death as the only guaranteed outcome.
“Some heroes died in the Demon Lord’s castle, some on the way to slay the Demon Lord, and some even fell at the hands of their own kin—killed by jealousy.”
“Heroes? It’s better they remain legends.”
“So, Holy Knight Lorabel, will you still take the hero back? Doing so means you are personally killing a teenage girl.”
“A teenage girl…”
So the hero must be a young female.
“I’m sorry to say, but this is a kingdom order—I must obey it.”
“Hand over the hero. I don’t want to fight you.”
“Then I’m sorry to say, protecting my student is my duty.”
Lorabel’s gaze hardened as she drew her holy sword and pointed it at Albert.
“This is my final warning—give me the hero. Besides, you’re no match for me.”
“You’re no different from that witch. Apart from your sister, you don’t care about anyone else’s life, do you?”
That seemed to hit a nerve.
Lorabel flashed forward, appearing suddenly before Albert.
“I’m nothing like that damned witch. My love for my sister isn’t something that bastard can compare to.”
Her holy sword fell, bearing overwhelming pressure as it swung straight toward Albert.
At Albert’s feet, a blue rift opened. Before the blade could reach her, Albert fell into the crack.
“Fighting me over one student will only bring more trouble to the academy. Is this really worth it?” Lorabel shouted around.
She knew Albert, trapped within the Illusion Sea space, could hear her voice, so she held her sword at the ready, awaiting a reply.
“I will never give up on any student. I have sworn that.”
Albert’s voice came from above.
Lorabel looked up to see Albert had taken her dragon form.
Black dragon horns sprouted from her forehead, and the aura of the dragon race surrounded her entire body.