Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Handling (Please Follow)
A silver streak cut through the night sky.
Beside the corpse of Joseph, a black-robed Wizard was examining the body, surrounded by dozens of Academy Inspectors perched densely on the branches.
“Have you confirmed the identity?” the black-robed Wizard asked.
“Urich’s official Apprentice, Joseph.”
“Urich’s Apprentice? That’s troublesome.” The black-robed Wizard stood up from beside the corpse, holding a deformed chunk of dark gray metal in his hand.
“Did this lad have any enemies?”
“There were a few, but all have alibis.”
Alex rubbed the bullet thoughtfully and said,
“I should have asked more carefully. Did he have any enemies in the Alchemy School?”
“There’s one, Jolod’s Apprentice, Richard, had just been cursed; he had business conflicts with this lad.”
Suddenly, an Inspector shrieked,
“So, how did he die, Alex? We couldn’t find a single clue for miles around, not a suspicious Apprentice.
But he just died, and it’s unclear!”
Alex rubbed his ears, signaling the Inspector to be quiet.
“It’s normal that you couldn’t find anything on the ground because the attacker didn’t strike from the ground.”
Alex pointed upwards, “He attacked from up there with this little device.”
While saying this, he showed the deformed bullet to the Inspectors.
“He launched the attack from the sky, using the metal’s repulsion of Magic Power to instantly break through the Magic Barrier and then hit this lad. The velocity of this thing was so high, and its shape so unique, so Joseph just—” Alex made an exploding gesture, “‘boom’ and exploded.”
“That’s impossible, Alex!” cried the Inspector. “Wizard Apprentices don’t have that long a casting range, if they had used a Spell from the sky, we definitely would have noticed.”
“But that is the reality,” Alex floated up. “But don’t worry, I’ll handle this. Such incidents shouldn’t happen again.”
With that, he flew toward the Central Black Tower.
“Come on, a toast with your senior!”
On the fifty-sixth floor of the Central Black Tower, Richard clinked his glass boldly with Chax.
After killing Joseph, Richard hadn’t returned to his dormitory but chose to stay in the Central Black Tower.
He wasn’t sure if the Inspectors had found any traces about him. If so, if he had gone back to the dormitory, the Inspectors would have directly apprehended him, and things would have been difficult. Staying in the Central Black Tower was different; this was a Wizard’s territory, and he was currently on his teacher Jolod’s territory.
As long as there was no decisive evidence, Jolod would definitely protect him.
“Here, let’s drink together, senior.”
Chax clinked glasses with Richard, then downed the strong liquor in one gulp just as they were drinking merrily, a series of footsteps approaching from afar interrupted them.
“Damn, the senior sister is coming.” Chax’s expression changed, and he quickly cleared the table of alcohol and dishes.
“Why have you come, senior sister?” Chax asked, pretending to be serious.
Anna looked at him coldly, then turned to Richard and handed him a bottle of potion.
“Richard, drink this, the teacher wants to see you.”
Richard sniffed the potion, recognized it as a Hangover Remedy, and gulped it down; he then followed Anna to the ninety-ninth floor.
In the laboratory, Jolod was having an amicable discussion with Alex.
“Jolod, your apprentice is really something else. He had those owls totally bamboozled; they just asked me what on earth happened.”
Jolod stroked his beard, “Deputy Dean, without decisive evidence, you shouldn’t make assumptions. My student mostly keeps to himself, spending his days immersed in study. He’s not as capable as you suggest.”
“No evidence, Jolod? Who else in this academy could pull off such a fanciful murder method other than your student?” Alex chuckled as he produced a deformed bullet. “Should I take this to the Divination section of the Curse School and see who it points to?”
Jolod’s expression changed slightly.
“Teacher, Richard is here.”
“Here he comes.” Jolod raised an eyebrow and casually used a magic thread to open the lab door, “Richard, come here. Our deputy dean seems to have some misconceptions about you.”
Walking into the lab, Richard steadied himself and stood beside Jolod.
“Teacher, you wanted to see me.”
“Yes, Deputy Dean, my student is here,” Jolod continued. “He was just drinking with another student of mine. How could he possibly be the murderer you’re talking about?”
It was indeed about Joseph’s matter.
Alex squinted, scrutinizing Richard carefully.
“You’re Richard, right? Tonight, an apprentice died in the academy. Did you know?”
Richard shook his head, “Deputy Dean, I was drinking on the fifty-sixth floor all evening; I haven’t heard anything about it.”
“Is that so?” Alex shook his head, “I heard you and Joseph had quite the conflict.”
“Just a minor disagreement. It’s just that my magic potions clashed with his magic potion business,” Richard said nonchalantly.
“Oh, it seems I might have the wrong person then,” Alex raised an eyebrow and displayed the deformed bullet. “I just don’t know if the Curse School’s divination can find him, and then things won’t be so nonchalant.”
“Deputy Dean,” Richard’s demeanor was unusually firm, “I truly know nothing about this.”
He had considered the fact that he would leave behind the bullet before the murder, which is why he had given it to Ali beforehand to remove any link to him using curse magic.
Even if they brought in a curse wizard to perform divination now, it wouldn’t lead back to him.
Alex looked at Richard again and suddenly laughed.
“Jolod, you’ve got a good student here. But let’s not have this kind of thing happen within the academy anymore.”
With that, Alex placed the bullet on the desk nearby, then drifted out of the lab through the window.
Shortly after his departure, Jolod grabbed the bullet, and a ghostly blue flame ignited in his hand, instantly burning the bullet to nothing.
“Richard, did you hear what the deputy dean said clearly?”
“Don’t stir up this kind of trouble again,” Jolod said calmly. “Also, you’ll stay in the Black Tower from now on. Urich is a petty old man, and you’ve made quite a mess of his grandson, so I’m a bit concerned he might hold a grudge.”
“Hmm?” Richard noticed Jolod’s choice of words.
“Of course not.” Jolod chuckled, shaking his head. “Urich made him a small Life Box, so when he died, his soul was drawn back into the box. As long as we remake his body, he can be revived.”
“However, the costs for cloning magic aren’t small, and although that boy is just a low-level apprentice, it would still cost tens of thousands of magic stones. Plus, the body adaptation period is over a dozen years, so you probably won’t see him before you graduate.”
With that, Jolod sat back down at his desk and resumed reading.
“You’re not mad at me?” Richard couldn’t help but ask.
This sort of thing being dragged to their doorstep, Jolod should have at least reproached him a bit.
“Mad at you for what?” Jolod replied without looking up, “You’re my student. Someone cursed you, you retaliated. It’s perfectly reasonable.”
“My students should be like that.”
“Of course,” Jolod suddenly looked up and winked at Richard in a playful tone, “if you could have waited until the bloody examination to act, that would have been even better.”