Sylvia tried to investigate on her own to find the whereabouts of Zero. First of all, she went to Zero's home where she found out that he was not there. However, she was reassured by Zero's parents that Zero was alright.
Next, she deployed some of the employees working under her father and tried to track Zero. Though they were very skilled, they were unable to find anything related to Zero. Because Zero disappeared during the Devil invasion, there was little to no clue about where Zero could have gone.
Sylvia even had gotten her hands on the information about people joining the army for the war against the Devils. As she saw Zero's hatred for the Devil named Xalvar, she feared that he might have joined the army but, to her relief, Zero's name was not there.
After trying hard for a long time, Sylvia gave up on finding Zero. Though she was relieved again because at least from her investigation, she found that Zero was fine and was not involved in anything dangerous, at least not in the war between Devil and humans.
Sylvia was still worried as Zero seemed to naturally attract trouble just like her friend Hiro. In Ace Academy, many incidents, some very dangerous and others not so much had happened, and Sylvia had already noticed that most such incidents usually involved Zero and Hiro.
Zero had dropped out of school while Hiro was absent from school for the past few days. She can't help getting worried about those two.
And there was another boy who could not stop making her worry.
Zion Maxwell, who was incredibly arrogant, had suddenly turned into a quiet animal. Ever since Zero and Hiro showed incredible power in the Tournament of Academies, Zion's arrogance has pretty much disappeared. He stopped acting like he was the strongest and stopped picking fights with others especially Hiro like before.
He even pestered Lisa less which was good for Lisa but Sylvia couldn't help but worry about her group of friends.
She has known Lisa and Zion since they were kids. Because of how influential their families were, they would often meet each other at parties and the parents were also trying to have them become friends.
As far as she remembered, Zion was always arrogant and liked to show off while Lisa tried to always be polite. Even for social butterflies like Sylvia, it was not easy being friends with them.
One always maintained a distance from everyone while the other didn't care much about anything other than bragging about himself.
Sylvia only came to know about Hiro this year when school started. Because of the unbelievable record that Hiro made on the Entrance Exam, everyone pretty much knew him, including her.
Since they were in the same class and other students seemed to fear getting close to them, naturally, the four of them became friends. Due to how strong they were compared to others, other students would usually have ulterior motives behind trying to befriend them or try to avoid them in fear of offending them.
Sylvia, Lisa, Hiro and Zion were considered geniuses though Hiro was on another level even when compared to them.
Even so, the three of them were much closer to level Hiro than the other students, so they became friends. After that, they experienced many dangerous incidents together which only helped deepen the relationship between the three of them.
Sylvia realized how much of a monster Hiro really is after witnessing his power time and again with her own eyes. She believed that no other person would be as talented as Hiro.
Well, that was at least until she saw the power of Zero. Taking out multiple Devil Contractors who were strong enough to kill her proved how strong Zero was. She believed at the time that Zero was an existence closer to Hiro than any other student.
At least, that's what she initially thought until Zero completely crushed a Rank-B student in the Tournament of Academies, proving that he was on a whole other level than even Monster Hiro. Not to mention, during the Devil invasion, Zero's power had reached a level where he could be on par with even senior-level professors such as Professor Theo.
In Edolas, he could already be regarded as one of the strongest. Although Hiro and the others were thought to be extremely talented and capable of becoming one of the strongest humans, that would be in the future, while Zero was already on the verge of reaching that level.
"I have to train more!"
Sylvia reaffirmed her desire to become strong. Since she could not find Zero, she focused on getting stronger. Once again, she realized that there was nothing she could do in her current condition in the face of real danger.
When she was small, she was called a genius and it was she who left other kids behind in terms of skill and strength but with the existence of Hiro and Zero, Sylvia felt that she had to train harder or else she would be left far behind by them.
If she wants to avoid burdening others and continue to be friends with them, she knows that she has to become strong.
"Just where did you go"
Lisa muttered while lying on her bed. She could not stop worrying about him ever since the Devil's invasion. She thought that she might have a chance to talk with him when school starts but to her surprise, Zero dropped out.
She honestly did not understand her relationship with Zero. Zero had once tried to pursue her intensely and at that time, she didn't think badly of him.
Lisa had met many men trying to get her but she didn't have a very favorable impression of many of them. And they would easily get scared by Zion's threat. Zion would also try to pursue her but rather than giving gifts and praising her like a normal person, he would arrogantly say things like, " Only you are fit for a genius like me" or something similar which made Lisa be disgusted by him.
Moreover, he would also beat and threaten other boys who would try to get close to her. Though it was convenient that people stopped pestering her, she didn't like Zion for using violence.
That is why she was surprised that Zero had not stopped courting her even after doing it for many days. She thought that Zero would stop after some time like many others but he continued trying to court her which really surprised her. Moreover, he didn't go overboard with his actions and didn't really annoy her.
However, it was not like she loved him or anything. At the time, she just felt that Zero was a fun person and someone interesting to befriend.
However, those types of approaches soon stopped and Zero stopped trying to pursue her. She also knew that it was not because of Zion as she would soon find out that Zero was more powerful than he looked.
By defeating the two seniors, Zero showed that he was extremely strong. Zero even saved her from the Wyvern in the mid-term exam and she would soon receive his help in the Tournament of Academies and also during the devil invasion.
Each time he would converse with her politely, neither avoiding her nor showing much interest like before.
Additionally, she had seen Zero's secret, which is that he could use Dark Energy, but she wasn't convinced that Zero was a devil contractor. If he was, he would not try to save her.
She stopped thinking about Zero and took out a picture from her drawer. She stared at the picture and softly muttered,
"Lilith was it? Just who are you?"