Capital City of Artavia, Hotel Sun-Ray.
To celebrate their victory in this difficult and long battle, Shin and the other professors arranged a small party for themselves and the students.
"Tch! That guy ran off somewhere on his own; he hasn't returned until now… "Maybe he is afraid that we will ask him to pay for this party?"
Shin shook his head in disapproval. Jareth hadn't returned until now, and the party was already about to end soon.
It was rare for him to arrange a party, and Jareth's absence caused considerable dissatisfaction in his mind.
All of the professors had already decided not to ask Jareth for money, as he was the real star today.
Without his help, the demon incarnation couldn't have been destroyed, and they all have been killed by now; not even their corpses would have been left intact.
This small trip to Artavia has brought them a lot of troubles this time.
Who could have thought that grade-2 mages like them would nearly end up dying in this battle, which was originally supposed to be just a short battle?
Abella not only sealed Nathan in the infinite loop, but also destroyed the entire city, leaving no one alive.
This implies that their mission was only partially successful.
Although they were able to stop the problems from spreading, the reinforcement arrived too late, resulting in the loss of innocent lives.
Actually, none of the professors even cared about how many people died or survived.
In this cruel world, where even grade 2 mages can be defeated so easily within just a few moments, it was already a good outcome that they made it out alive after encountering that demon incarnation.
The matter of casualties and compensation was left to be handled by the government.
Soon, the government will put in the military there to close that area, and it will turn into no-man's land as it's already suffering from chaotic mana.
The attack they unleashed on that place utterly destroyed the geography of that area; not even a single plant will grow in that place for more than ten years now.
Just as everyone was busy eating delicious food and drinking tasty drinks, the main gate of the hotel slowly opened.
The door gave out a very dramatic horror movie-type gate opening sound effect, which attracted everyone's attention.
*Step**Step*
Jareth walked in with heavy footsteps, his extreme murderous intent still lingering around him, and his facial expressions were even colder than usual. Discover hidden tales at empire
Soaked in rainwater, he seemed like a serial killer straight out of a horror movie.
His entrance seemed so dramatic that the hotel staff hurriedly backed off in fear.
Shin rolled his eyes and spoke loudly.
"Where have you been, dude? We have been waiting for you! And what's going on? You look like you fell into a river!"
Jareth frowned a bit at his words and then placed his hand on his chest.
[Basic Magic: Clean!]
He had used all of the rest of his mana to fly here, and he was really out of mana now.
He used the last bit of mana to get rid of the rainwater and clean himself.
With the help of that spell, he returned to his usual tidy and neat self.
'If I had enough mana, I would have kept my mana barrier up, and I wouldn't have gotten soaked in rainwater at all…'
Ignoring Shin's questions, Jareth walked in without hesitation.
He glanced at Mark, who was being hand-fed by Risa, and a complicated look appeared on his face as he said,
"Don't mind me, I am just passing by…"
Without waiting for a response, Jareth walked past them and sat on an empty chair near the table where all the professors were sitting.
Thomas sipped the red colored wine from his glass and asked in a calm voice,
"So… You seem so serious… How about relaxing a bit? This place has amazing food…"
Jareth didn't reject the offer and took the knife and fork to eat. The vassal family members who raised him taught him the table manners of large families.
As a matter of fact, he's always been good at maintaining these 'noble'-like manners.
"By the way, what about that army general? He isn't here?"
Shin glanced at Thomas and asked in a confused tone, to which Thomas shook his head and replied solemnly.
"He died… The monsters rushed out of the city like crazy; his elite battalion wasn't able to stand for too long and got destroyed by the crazy charge of monsters…"
Thomas then glanced at Mark, who had a troubled look on his face as Risa was attempting to forcefully make him drink with her own hands.
"Student Mark seems to have performed better in that monster tide, though… He was the reason all of the students survived; he single-handedly killed more than three hundred monsters alone…"
Even Jareth was surprised by that statistic.
Although Mark has already reached grade 4 and is the strongest among his peers, it's still quite an amazing feat to be able to kill more than three hundred monsters.
And he did all that while still protecting his fellow classmates and the soldiers behind him.
On the other hand, the protagonist, hiding behind his harem members, barely managed to kill ten monsters; the gap is simply too large.
Seeing that the other professors were praising Mark, Gazid sipped the wine and said it in a calm voice.
"Aside from him, Student Risa is the one who slayed and seized the position of second by defeating nearly a hundred and twenty monsters…"
"Also, she assisted Mark in his fight; she's an excellent support… If she wasn't from the Shadowfallen family, I would have taken her as my direct disciple… She has excellent talent for torture and stuff… tch! What a shame~"
Upon hearing Gazid's words, Yoseh sneered at him, saying,
"No need; you will turn her into a weird person like yourself; your illegal research work is already a headache, and we don't need another of your kind…"
"I think Airin's contributions are not small either; not only is she an excellent wood mage, she also knows some basic healing magic; she saved the lives of quite a few soldiers by giving first aid healing to them…"
Shin and others also nodded their heads at those words.
Although she didn't slay a single monster in the battle, her healing and barrier spells were still praiseworthy.
Aside from her, Aiza also seized the third position by killing a hundred monsters during the battle.
He just tagged along with her.
Aiza and Risa are currently at equal levels of strength, but both of them are extremely far away from Mark's level.
Aiza was the reason Allen didn't have to worry about fighting too much.
Airin is already in love with Allen, and Aiza has become friends with him too, which means Allen already has a powerful damage dealer and a good healer in his team now.
He can just sit back and enjoy while his harem members do the bidding for him. (Such an amazing and carefree life… as expected of a protagonist…)
Shin ignored the professors who were gossiping about their favorite students, and asked Jareth something else instead,
"Before leaving for battle, we stayed at this same hotel… At that time, the principal said that you had long been kicked out of the Blaze family, so I have been meaning to ask if you still use 'Blaze' as your sir name?"
Jareth sipped the juice from his glass and looked into Shin's eyes with a serious look on his face before saying,
"Hmm… I haven't thought about it too deeply… but, I indeed don't use Blaze as my sir name anymore… It's better if you start calling me Jareth Aadhira from now on…"
Shiina's surname was 'Aadhira', which means 'The Moon'. Jareth had no other good name in mind to make it up at the spur of the moment, so he just went with her name.
'Although that moon is long gone, I can still keep its last memories with me at least…'
After hearing Jareth's words, Shin inquired in a tone of confusion.
"This is the first time I am hearing such a name… quite a unique name you chose…"
At Shin's words, Jareth simply shook his head and spoke in a calm tone.
"Whatever, I just came up with it at the spur of a moment; there's no deeper meaning behind it…"
Up until now, Shin was taking Jareth's words as a joke; he had no idea that Jareth had already exterminated nearly all of the Blaze family members, and only Aiza was the sole survivor of the Blaze family now.
You can say that Jareth has dealt a heavy blow to the Blaze family.
It's very likely that most of its major industries will collapse and the vassal families will run off with the money by the time Aiza is selected as the new head of the family.
Even though he had killed quite a few people just an hour ago, Jareth was sipping juice without showing the slightest bit of strangeness in him, so none of the professors suspected him at all.
They just thought that he likely went to do some random thing in the barren plain; none of them expected that he would exterminate a whole family in the span of a few hours without batting an eye.
While Jareth was still enjoying the juice, Shin glanced at Thomas and asked in an excited voice,
"When are we going on the vacation trip, by the way? We finally survived this great catastrophe; this is the best time to relax!"
Although Thomas wanted to agree, he also had no idea what to do.
The principal had said he would bear the expenses, but now that the principal is gone, he's not sure if this vacation will still be feasible.
Thomas sighed and lamented in his mind.
'Ugh, my workload has increased…'