Albert brought a bowl of rice porridge to the bedside.
She sat at the edge of the bed, handed the porridge to Shia, and said, “Your stomach should have fully healed by now, you can eat some food.”
When she was pierced by Lola Bell’s spear, most of her stomach and intestines had been torn apart, but now she was fully recovered, with only a small scar that was still slowly healing.
This was not a human’s self-healing ability, nor was it the powerful regenerative power granted by the Blessing of the Goddess like Lola Bell had. This was the formidable self-healing power bestowed upon her by her demon bloodline.
Unlike Lola Bell, who could instantly heal from injuries, Shia’s self-healing came with a delay, only beginning to accelerate several hours or even days later.
“Haha, looking at it this way, I’m really not that different from the demons, am I?” She gave a self-deprecating laugh.
Dong.
“Ow, that hurts.”
A knuckle rapped down on Shia’s head. She covered her head and let out a small cry of pain.
She looked up at Albert with a hint of defiance.
“Why did you hit me?” she said, her tone a bit confrontational.
“I’m really curious, Shia. How do you manage to look down on yourself and still sound so feisty when you talk?”
“I don’t look down on myself.”
“Still being stubborn…”
Albert reached out, pretending she was about to knock on Shia’s head again.
But before her hand could get close, she saw Shia nervously scoot to the other side of the bed.
“For someone so afraid of pain, you sure like to act tough. In that respect, you’re not so different from humans either.”
“…….”
She sighed, and in the next moment, her expression turned serious.
Her lips parted slightly as she asked, “Tell me, what were you and those two students sneaking into my office for in the middle of the night?”
“And how did you get into that space?”
Shia drew her legs up, eyes shifting to the side, avoiding Albert’s gaze guiltily.
“I was helping my classmates change some things…”
“Change things? Change what?” Albert pressed.
Suddenly realizing something, she spoke angrily, “You, the top student in your year, went to change test scores with those two at the bottom?!”
“I didn’t change my own scores, I just helped them unlock the Sealing Magic.”
“My Sealing Magic…” Seeing how righteous she sounded, Albert could only rub her forehead speechlessly.
Another knuckle landed on her head.
Dong.
“Ow, that hurts.”
“Fran, if you keep this up, you’ll knock me silly one day.”
Dong.
“Ow…”
“How many times have I told you, call me Teacher Albert or Director, you’re not allowed to call me by my name.”
“…”
She pressed her temples with a headache and sighed again.
“Do you know how hard it was for me to convince the principal to let you into the academy?”
Back when she found Shia in the forest, Shia was covered in wounds, with purple demon markings on the right side of her face and a half-broken black wing on her back.
At first, she thought Shia was a demon, but when Albert saw the forcibly torn-off white wing on Shia’s left side, she realized Shia was half-human, half-demon.
Like most people, Albert’s attitude towards demons was to kill on sight, but for a half-human, half-demon like Shia, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
For observation, she first kept Shia under house arrest elsewhere, and only released her when she discovered Shia meant no harm.
But such a misfit would never have it easy on either side.
Not long after her release, Shia returned to her place of confinement, wounded all over again.
She found Albert, looking at her with pleading eyes, the desire to be taken in as clear as day.
If she took Shia in, she would undoubtedly be bringing herself a world of trouble—Albert knew this all too well.
But when she saw Shia’s pitiful gaze, she unconsciously nodded her head.
Later, Albert discovered that Shia’s learning ability was extraordinary. No matter what kind of Magic, she could quickly master it. Even with intermediate Magic, she could perfectly draw the Magic Circle, though she currently lacked the mana to cast it.
She also mastered the human language in less than three months, and it was then that Albert learned of her origins from Shia herself.
She was the child of a Succubus and a Divine Messenger.
A so-called Divine Messenger was someone in a kingdom responsible for conveying the gods’ commands to the kingdom—in other words, the gods’ envoy.
No one knew which kingdom’s Divine Messenger had fallen in love with a Succubus, resulting in the birth of a half-human, half-demon like Shia.
By now, it was impossible to find her parents. Shia told her that her parents had already been executed, leaving her to wander among the demons.
Whenever those demons saw her white wings, they would beat and kick her, and in the end, they even tore them off by force.
They threw Shia alone into human territory, deliberately leaving one demon wing so that the humans would torment her, making her life unbearable.
The wounds on her body would heal quickly, but her torn-off wings never recovered. To this day, the heart-wrenching pain of losing her wings was still deeply etched in her memory, impossible to forget.
“You’ve always been a clever one, so why did you help them with something like this?”
“Because…”
Shia said shyly, “Because they promised to bring me tacos from outside if it worked.”
“…You.”
Ever since Shia was brought into the academy, Albert had placed her under house arrest, not allowing her to leave the academy grounds.
As for her being a half-blood, besides Albert and Shia herself, only the principal knew.
Albert promised the principal to keep Shia confined within the academy and hide her identity, acting as her guarantor. If Shia’s identity was exposed or if she left the academy, Albert would also have to leave and face judgment.
So, while it did restrict her freedom, it was also for her protection.
“This time, you and those two students must each write a reflection of no less than 5,000 words and hand it in to me tomorrow, understood?”
“Understood, Fran.”
Dong.
“Ow, that hurts.”
“Call me Teacher or Director, you little rascal.”
Albert glanced at her pocket watch and saw it was already seven o’clock.
“It’s already this late…” she murmured.
After getting up, she looked back at Shia, who was still holding her head.
“Don’t ever do something so foolish again, do you hear me?”
“I hear you,” Shia replied with an indifferent look.
Seeing her like this, Albert could only sigh again.
She had lost count of how many times she’d sighed today.
Just as she was about to leave, Shia suddenly spoke from behind.
“That silver-haired woman, what’s her name?”
Albert’s steps halted abruptly. She turned around again, looking at Shia with a stern expression and said, “From now on, don’t go near her again. She’ll bring you trouble.”