”…”

Zoemi gasped and took a step back looking all surprised before he dropped the act and his face twisted in annoyance, causing Elsby to close her mouth and glare at him.

”I really did not come here to fight you, but you are getting over the line.”

The jet-black-haired girl breathed out and raised her head as her shadow extended and a whole pack of the wolf-like shadow beast emerged from inside with bristled jet-black fur.

There weren’t as many as Zoemi expected though, only around seventy – without a doubt Elsby was holding back…

…or underestimating him thinking that it was enough to take him on…

”Sentinels.”

”~!” x242

As the ground was taken by the Elsby shadow beasts, the space between the trees was taken over by Zoemi’s sentinels havering above the wolf-like shadows, outnumbering them at least three to one.

”…hold on… aren’t those…?!”

Seeing the lively orbs of murky darkness the jet-black-haired young woman’s eyes widened and she gasped in disbelief.

”Learning the structure of your spell allowed me to enhance the original spell – this is what your dog was used for.”

”~!”

In response to her, the black-haired boy smirked and reached out his hand, patting the closest sentinel that started nuzzling back against his hand immediately.

”…do you have any idea how long I spend on perfecting that spell…?”

Elsby bit her lips and for the first time, her eyes showed actual fury.

”See? This is why I cannot trust you. You Ghosts only care about showing off and proving yourself, the moment something goes against your plan you go bat** insane. Maybe I don’t hate you because originally you weren’t as bad as the rest, but I guess you just spent too much time connected with the others.”

”…!”

Zoemi sighed, shrugging his shoulders about to command Ludier’s shadow and every available sentinel to attack, but it seemed like his words had a huge effect on the short-haired young woman.

”…”

She literally froze in place, before her shoulders slumped down and she lowered her head, looking at her hands in disbelief.

”…?”

In the next second all of her wolf-like shadow beasts sank back into her shadow as if pulled in by some invisible force, leaving her alone.

”I… I didn’t mean to…”

Elsby clenched her hands into fists and let out a rather pitiful cry.

If this was her acting, this was the most convincing performance yet…

”…”

Zoemi gritted his teeth, glaring at the top of the girl’s lowered head, prime and ready to get chopped off with a quick enough spell.

”…suspicions…”

He ended up sighing.

”…eh…? Wha-what did you say…?”

Elsby flinched and straightened her back, shaking her head like a dog that got out of the water.

”You said that you want to confirm a few suspicions you had. You thought that I killed that Reser-whatever, I said I did not. What is the next thing you wanted to confirm?”

The black-haired boy scoffed in annoyance and asked while over two hundred sentinels returned to him and sunk into his shadow.

”Oh? Ah! Right! We are talking! Yes!”

Elsby perked up and although the smile that returned to her face was nowhere near as cheerful as before.

”So?”

Zoemi raised his brow and motioned at her with his chin.

”You know about the necromancer living in the Bellcephora kingdom, don’t you?”

”The missing necromancer.”

Elsby asked and Zoemi corrected her, not seeing the point in hiding the truth this time.

”No. She isn’t missing. We have her.”

”…”

The jet-black-haired young woman shook her head and revealed carefully observing the boy’s reaction, and unfortunately, this time around Zoemi wasn’t able to stop himself in time before flinching.

”Well. When I say we – I mean one of us. The feminine guy callred Evorietto. His darkness blade can be used as a barrier that traps specific types of mana – he can make one that can contain all at once, but a barrier like that is really easy to break from the inside as its defensive capabilities have to be spread really thin.”

Elsby tilted her head and continued revealing detail after detail.

”Truth be told we didn’t decide to capture her because we wanted to harm her – at least to my knowledge – but instead the commander and vice-commander wanted easier access to you and the other candidate that’s in the Academy…”

”Huh…? Wait, so Xeonith didn’t make a deal with you to get rid of Aspakeony so that he could torture and **** Burushi?!”

The jet-black-haired young woman pointed out shrugging her shoulders lightheartedly but froze when Zoemi interrupted her in confusion.

”…did… did that Xeonith guy… succeded…?”

Elsby gulped down her saliva and asked, nervously glancing at Zoemi’s face.

”He did torture her, but luckily I ended up finding her in time – and assisted in killing the scum. It’s not my place to do so, but thank you for your concern. Burushi seems to be fine now. But… if you don’t mind me asking – why do you look so bothered about it? You said that abducting Aspakeony had nothing to do with Xeonith’s actions. You also weren’t the one to captureAspekony so why would you…”

The black-haired boy waved his hand dismissively before his face suddenly turned serious as he glared at the guilty-looking Elsby.

”…how did you manage to get Aspakeony in the first place? She said that no one could get into the Academy without her knowledge…”

He asked, squinting his eyes at the ashamed Elsby.

”…well, none of us did it directly… We just… I just placed one of my shadow beasts capable of using shadow connect and shadow jump into a certain earring and Kiorterell added a bit of his own shadow blade so that the wearer would seek the necromancer herself or at least one of her shadow puppets and drop the earing into their shadow so that we could gain access to all of them and get them into Evorietto’s barrier… Zoemi…?”

Elsby answered awkwardly but then take a step back once she saw Zoemi burrowing his face in his hands.

”I had all the information and never put something so obvious together…! That’s why I couldn’t properly check the shadow in that earing…! Fuck! I learned that you Ghosts must have been responsible for the earring anyway but so many things happened immediately after, that I completely forgot…! And then later I saw Teo without the earing I just assumed she got rid of it as I advised her – but her losing it was actually connected with Aspakeony’s disappearance…! Is this what Horeo means when he calls me dense?! I am a **ing moron!”

Zoemi groaned in disbelief, shaking his head in shame causing Elsby’s brows to rise higher and higher.

”Then?! Is this the actual reason for you coming to find me? What do you want me to do for you to help me save Aspakeony from that Evorietto?!”

”…!”

The back-haired boy straightened his back so fast that he momentarily startled Elsby, who shook her head not understanding how did he make a connection like that.

”I… just came to talk – I cannot force Evorietto to do anything I am not the commander or vice-commander.”

”Tsk…!”

The jet-black-haired young woman explained, making Zoemi click his tongue when…

”GHUAGH…!”

”Huh…?!”

Out of nowhere Elsby suddenly bent in half, grabbing onto her head as if it was about to explode, causing the black-haired boy to take a step back.

”What is going on…?”

He asked cautiously, as the shock brought him back to his normal self.

”Don’t speak to me…! Don’t come any closer…! Commander is calling everyone back…! No one can oppose him…!”

Elsby cried out and started waling back, only to suddenly sink into her own shadow, and disappear completely without any further warning.

|…do you think it was just an act, or she really was forcefully called back…?|

Zoemi asked internally.

Both of you acted crazy – I have no other opinion on the subject except that you should learn to control your bloodlust even a little bit. She really didn’t seem hostile at the beginning. You have learned so much new information, and you could have learned even more.

”…”

Ludier’s shadow scolded Zoemi, making the black-haired boy go quiet.

How about the bandits?

Luedier’s shadow sighed and asked changing the subject.

|They are back on their way to the main hideout. The leader and two others are not expecting a thing. The modern artifact is safe and in the hands of one of the puppets.|

Zoemi reported, ready to use the message spell to repeat the same thing to Horeo.