The black-haired boy appeared in the back of the Academy's building – right on the spot where the second- and third-year students were supposed to have their mandatory duels.

Right in front in the very middle of the marked arena, a gigantic icicle – with the diameter of the entire fountain in the front of the Academy – was sticking out of the ground unaffected by the temperature outside, it didn't bear any traces of melting at all.

"…

"

Just being in its presence was enough to slow down the flow of mana in the body of any magician aside from the few chosen ones wielding the ice attribute, and Zoemi was no different…

…so he simply switched his enchantments into that of an ice attribute ones, getting rid of the problem entirely…

|This would probably also serve as an evidence or something, but I need to replenish my mana…|

The black-haired boy thought to himself while reaching his hand to the transparent pillar and…

*CRACK*

…the murky shadows erupted from the ground and swallowed it whole without the slightest problem – it went so fast because there was no reason for the black-haired boy to be as careful as with the stone wall back in the dungeon.

"…huh… that was a lot… that guy must have a lot of mana, or he spent most of it on this one…

"

Zoemi muttered to himself before disappearing again.

He made sure that no one from the Academy or the dormitory would see his face, hoping for the casual clothes he had literally never worn before would mask his identity well enough…

…no, actually, he wasn't even thinking about it, he just wanted to get stronger before he would hunt down Xeonith Zarble Derizno because he didn't want to just catch him.

He wanted to absolutely obliterate him and end him only after that **ing sadist would start begging for mercy – of course only after admitting with whom he joined forces and what happened to the gray-haired necromancer and her corpse puppets.

—-

After that, Zoemi showed up right next to one of his sentinels on the wall surrounding the Aspakeony Academy.

"…he sure doesn't want to fight the murderer, he only wants to use the confusion to get himself an alibi for what he did to Burushi… Or maybe he really is trying to catch the murderer himself…? A sadistic torturer and an aspiring rapist at night and the hero protecting his family's best interest during the day…? Oh… I will make sure that you will meet your end from the ice attribute one way or another…

"

Zoemi gritted his teeth while crouching at the wall as a translucent ice-blade with a threatening aura grew straight out of the base of his palm.

It wasn't the lousy darkness blade the size of a dagger but a full-sized sword blade with the length perfectly matching the black-haired boy's height.

"…sentinels…

"

Zoemii called out and a dozen new sentinels appeared around him.

"You all will search for that piece of filth Xeonith. A transcended earth magician, either he's a cunning coward or a hypocritical here-wannabe. Find him for me.

"

He ordered, motioning with his chin at the buildings close to the Academy's walls.

The black-haired boy didn't just appear at that particular spot randomly – this was the only side of the Academy that was neighboring any sort of buildings.

Warehouses in particular – and some of them even belonged to the Academy as well.

They would provide a perfect hiding spot for someone in need of it.

Zoemi appeared there because that was the spot where he would flee with Miriette and plan their next move if the Academy would be contested – at least it WAS the plan when Zoemi had a lot less mana than he did at the moment…

Still, if Xeonith would follow the same pattern…

He would get outside the Academy's grounds, not too far away, actually, it would be preferable to stay very close, and when the teachers that were alarmed by Reo would start looking for him, he would come out to meet them all angry and grumpy saying that he couldn't find the murderer even after he searched for so long.

And to tell the truth, immediately after arriving at the Aspakeony Academy while still believing that the world was a game, Zoemi has already checked out the best hiding spots outside the academy grounds just in case he would have to help MIriette hide to escape the bad ending.

Well, he just wanted to be prepared just in case flying wasn't an option and they had to evacuate.

If Xeonith and Zoemi were truly thinking alike, the brown-haired capture target would definitely pick one of those hiding spots.

Thanks to that, the range of search became rather contained – and it was now searched thoroughly by the dozen shadow sentinels.

Funnily enough, he didn't even wait for all that long for the positive result.

What was even funnier was that he could have actually seen the place from where he was standing at the moment – although, to his defense, most of the building in question was obstructed by another one.

Still – it must have been the place – it wasn't normal for a storehouse to have huge holes in their walls and crumbling roofs, was it?

The black-haired boy teleported towards the sentinel who traced the shadow of the powerful earth spell…

…together with ice spells…

"Pffft…!

"

Zoemi couldn't help but snort at the irony.

Whether Xeonith was trying to use the search for the murderer as an alibi or not – low and behold, he did find him splendidly and was fighting for his life!

How come Zoemi could tell that? Well – the storehouse wasn't a ruin when he first checked it a few months back.

"Perfect, a snack~

"

Zoemi smirked, reaching out to the several ice spears sticking out of the wall, and instantly turned it into his own mana.

As one would expect, the biggest and most important change that happened to his spells was the change to his mana conversion – where he was using it to create shadow mana, it was ridiculously inefficient – but where he merely adjusted the spell a little bit with the idea of changing the mana into one without attribute that would then be changed into whatever was necessary, it not only cranked up the efficiency to almost one hundred percent, it also just so happened to be replenishing his existing mana.

That was a proper cheat ability.

With that in mind, after regaining half the mana he spent on conjuring the sentinels, the black-haired boy peeked inside the destroyed building and…

"I SAID, DON'T COME ANY CLOSER, YOU SCOUNDREL…! ROCK BLAST! ROCK BLAST! ROCK BARRAGE!

"

A voice full of both panic and desperation came from inside the warehouse – and Zeomi certainly didn't need to empower his hearing to be able to notice how absolutely scared that piece of ** Xeonith was~!

The brown-haired capture target already had his stone armor activated but even so, he was backing off and casting spell after spell to keep the distance between him and a pale-blue-haired man.

If not for the hair color, that man could be easily mistaken for some random passerby, not even a merchant or a lower noble, just a basic commoner.

Average height, normal clothes, he had a mustache and beard that made him look a bit scruffy though – although maybe because he was constantly on the run, he most likely didn't have much time to take care of himself.

But there was no chance to mistake the chilling aura of the ice magic.

The man had his enchantments activated, his whole body was glowing with an icy shine and the temperature around him was low enough for a white frost to cover the many bags neatly stored along the walls of the warehouse that he found the heir of the Derizno family.

How could anyone have any doubts about that scene!

Seeing Xeonith in person actually made Zoemi lose any trace of amusement he had over the situational irony…

The black-haired boy looked around going as far as sending his sentinels to check whether someone could interfere with the ambush, and nodded to himself in satisfaction when it was confirmed that the three of them are the only ones there.

"…isn't that perfect…?

"

Zoemi breathed out with ha grim satisfaction glancing at the translucent ice blade growing from the base of his palm.

Even if the murderer won't be enough to finish Xeonith on his own, the brown-haired capture target will meet his end through ice – that much was certain.