Zoemi woke up basically in the middle of the night and at first, he didn't know why...

Maybe it was the familiar pleasant scent that shouldn't be in his room...?

Or the familiar warmth pressing into his stomach...?

Truly a mystery!

"...

"

"...

"

...though a pair of gray eyes of the hooded figure gazing at him merely a few inches above his face was a good starting point of figuring things out...

|THE ASSASSIN FROM ARISU'S ROUTE?! IF I'M GOING DOWN, YOU ARE GOING DOWN WITH ME!|

Zoemi's brain instantly cleared out from the sleepiness and the black-haired boy sprung into action, without any hesitation – or incantation for the matter – he activated the shadow enchantment in succession with shadow emerge and reached out gabbing the attacker – who already was far too close to get away with any other way.

"KYAAAAH!

"

The attendant grabbed onto the unexpected guests and was going to dive right into the darkness where he had an absolute advantage – up until he heard a familiar voice once a certain equally familiar softness pressed against him because of his maneuver.

Instead of diving into the darkness, Zoemi bounced off of it and ended up sitting upright, firmly holding the unexpected guest in his arms.

"For goodness sake, Aspy...! What would you do if I stabbed you with the darkness blade?!

"

Zoemmi breathed out and complained glaring down at the dark-skinned girl whose hood ended up slipping revealing her face and short unevenly cut hair.

"It's not my fault that you woke up the moment I got on your bed! I was going to call out to you and wake you up normally – but you just jumped up and hugged me! Kids these days are way too forward! At least confess first!

"

The necromancer squirmed in the boy's embrace feeling her face burn with embarrassment – but she discovered that getting away from the black-haired attendant wasn't as easy as she expected.

Honestly – his arms felt sturdy like metal bars – warm, comfortable metal bars that she didn't actually feel like freeing herself from...

But, no!

She was the headmaster!

At least she should keep a clear mind in this situation...!

"...now let go of me... unless you do want to confess or something – I don't know...

"

...Aspakeony ended up lowering her head and murmured bashfully too embarrassed to the tey and look Zoemi in the eyes...

"Oh...! Right! Sorry for that...

"

"...!

"

The black-haired boy flinched and hesitantly let go of the gray-haired girl – hesitantly enough to make her heart flutter even more than it already was.

"Alright – now, first thing first – why are you in my room in...

"

Zoemi breathed out to compose himself and reached out towards the nightstand to grab the pocket watch he would always leave there before going to bed, and checked the time.

"...in the middle of the night – geez, just look at it...

"

"...eh...?

He added showing the face of the clock towards the necromancer – but she didn't seem fazed by his movement and only after a few seconds did the black-haired attendant realize that she wasn't able to see in the darkness like he was.

...so the boy's next move was to turn on the magic crystal lamp on the nightstand, illuminating the embarrassed face of the actual headmaster – and the origin of the name - of the Aspakeony Academy...

"I read your note and came to talk.

"

Aspakeony shook off the shame and furrowed her brows, looking at the younger boy.

"Ah, so you...!

"

Zoemi's face brightened up and he gasped thinking that the girl's objective must be informing him about the security measures that will be enacted – or at least discuss what should and what could be done to make sure that the murderer wouldn't be able to attack anyone – namely Miriette – on the campus.

"How in the world were you able to access my office?! That barrier was created during great wars ages ago! I am supposed to be the only person in existence capable of freely opening and closing it!

"

...but as the dark-skinned girl became visibly agitated, it became obvious that he was very much wrong...

"It just used death mana as a key – what's the big deal? I merely recreated it with my shadow mana – I am quite sure that I wrote about it in my note too...

"

Zoemi explained slightly grumpy that things weren't going as he hoped for.

"No! You don't understand!

"

But to his even greater surprise, Aspakeony shook her head vigorously and leaned towards him overly animated.

"There are others necromancers in the world – they are rare but they are living somewhere outside of the Bellcephora kingdom – I took the precaution from them allying with my enemies or straight up trying to get me by putting up this barrier in place – that spell doesn't react to any death attribute mana – it reacts to only mine death's attribute mana! It's the fruit of the magic engineering lost to the world millennia ago!

"

She declared poking Zoemi's chest with her index finger.

"Well – I just used your spells and mana as a sample so, of course, the result would be similar to your on mana – where is the problem? Let's better talk about the security of the Academy...

"

"NO! Why can't you understand that's not how the shadow attribute should work!

"

The black-haired boy wanted to change the subject to the one he thought was far more important, but the gray-haired necromancer wasn't going to allow that to happen.

"What...? Hold on, you were the one who told me that my attribute must be the weaker version of the darkness attribute – shadow attribute. It copies things and I copied your mana!

"

Zoemi shook his head and argued back.

"Kid – that's the problem – spells from the shadow attribute allow the user to use inferior versions of the spells from other attributes – it doesn't allow to make almost a perfect copy of a completely different MANA! Shadow attribute creates copies with shadow mana – what you did with my barrier was using the death mana! Argh! Just follow me – I show you what I mean!

"

Aspakeony couldn't handle it anymore ad ended up jumping out of Zoemi's bed – she grabbed the boy's hand and started pulling him towards the door.

"...

"

At first, the black-haired attendant wanted to refuse and shook her off, but then he came to the conclusion that after the girl will show him whatever she wanted to show him, she might be more willing to talk about the actual important and pressing matter of assuring the security of the Academy – specifically Miriette's safety!

The necromancer pulled her hood back on before walking out of Zoemi's room and led him through the dark dimly lit hallways.

The black-haired boy was wondering how come they never encountered even a single teacher on duty...

"You came out in your original body, aren't you worried that you will get spotted – your existence is supposed to be a secret, isn't it

"

…that question bothered him to the point of voicing it out loud...

"In your opinion who approves and schedules the night guard duty...?

"

"Ooohhhh... yeah – that makes sense.

"

The gray-haired girl shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in disbelief over the silly question, making the black-haired boy gasp in realization.

After a few minutes – and a walk from one building into the other that clearly bothered the girl much more than walking through the hallways – most likely because of the open space without many places to hide and wait – the two of them reached the headmaster's office without any trouble.

"What do you want to show me?

"

Zoemi asked in a serious voice, eager to just get over some trivialities and speak about the important matters.

"Look.

"

*click*

Aspakeony declared, straightening her back and snapping her finger.

"!!!

"

Within the next second, a tall gold-haired woman showed up next to them in a flash of golden light – and she brought up a dark-haired man who honestly looked as if he had seen better days – needless to say, the sudden appearance of the two put Zoemi in the alerted state.

"Relax – they both are my puppets – sorry for the looks of the guy – it was very hard to track a grave of a shadow magician. This one was considerably old so even after replenishing his mana, that's the best I could do.

"

The gray-haired girl waved her hand and then tilted her head looking critically at the dark-haired corpse puppet – who actually looked like a corpse puppet.

...as for the gold-haired woman, Zoemi could tell that she was dead only because of the shadow of the necromancer stuck to her...

"Wait – shadow magician – so you were gone today because you went outside to search for the shadow magician corpse? Why?

"

The black-haired boy asked, furrowing his brows in confusion while looking over at the gray-haired girl.

"...you already know about me – I might want to stay in a friendly relation so I thought it would be nice of me to get you a teacher that knows how to teach you...

"

The necromancer turned away with no intention of looking the black-haired boy in the eyes – mostly because she was far too embarrassed over what she just said.

Seriously, such favoritism shouldn't be allowed – but she just couldn't help herself....