Once Human, Now a Parasite 16 Chapter 17 : Unexpected Encounter

"Speak, what have you found out about 'him' and where is his location?!"

One of the 2 black clothes figures bowed respectfully and said with a calm voice

"Lord Edward, apparently his travel speed is beyond ordinary, in less than a month he managed to arrive at Govore city and it was reported by our spies there that today he took the teleportation array leading to Nemia academy accompanied by a lady who was the same one he bought at the auction in Willsden town."

Hearing this, Edward's face boiled with anger 'bastard! To think he would go to the academy, how can I capture him now!'. After pondering for some time he waved his hands toward the 2 figures and they disappeared without saying anything else. Edward picked a paper and began writing on it for a couple of minutes before he called his butler who was standing outside of his office and told him

"Deliver this letter to Frederic in the Nemia academy, but you have to hand it to him personally, do you understand?"

The butler nodded continuously, not daring to disobey and soon enough he left the room after bowing respectfully toward Edward.

The Principal seemed really angry at Arthur and with that shout of hers, not a single person dared speak, since they were even afraid to make a noise by breathing. She used a special magic and slowly flew towards Arthur while staring daggers at him.

Even the 9 council members quickly followed after her, as they saw how the female beastman who was named Mary couldn't kill or even injure the black-robed man, so they knew he was dangerous.

Probably a spy from some continent or something similar, because to have that amount of strength why would he pose himself as a mere participant? If he had shown his talent, he could have easily become a teacher in the academy. They also noticed how Mary's punch didn't even as much as scratch him and he just stood there doing nothing, so he was by no means someone to underestimate and they knew why the principal interfered and stopped Mary from doing anything reckless.

Arthur wasn't surprised when he saw all the council members and the principal coming toward him, for what he did was truly excessive and brutal, but he didn't care and if he was given a second chance to redo it, he would do the same thing with no hesitation.

Lucy was everything to him and seeing her hurt was something he couldn't handle and watch, he wondered why they didn't stop the fight, after all the beastman clearly was perverted and wanted to touch her and it was obvious he was winning for it, so why didn't they finish the fight or stop it? Didn't they care about what happened to her? Or they simply accepted the strong no matter how they behaved?

Just a couple of seconds passed and the principal was in front of Arthur and Lucy, she was standing near Mary who was still holding her hand, which had some broken bones; nonetheless, she stared at Arthur with anger and a little bit of fear, for she knew he was strong and maybe stronger than her.

She was a beastman and also a member of the council with a very high level and still couldn't injure him, or even scratch his robe, so of course, she would be a little afraid, but she only used her fist and didn't use any skills so she couldn't gauge his power.

"Mary told you to stop, so why didn't you listen to her, moreover, you clearly got your revenge by injuring him that much, so why continue any further and brutally kill him? Do you have no heart?"

The principal scolded Arthur angrily while still using her special skill which emanated pressure, but of course it didn't affect him; nevertheless, he still created a small dark barrier around Lucy, since she was not like him and clearly the pressure from the principal affected her and made her pant heavily, so he had to make that barrier to ease the pressure, yet surprisingly the barrier completely blocked it.

"No heart? You must be kidding, right? If I don't have a heart, then what about you? Didn't you see my companion struggling and clearly losing? So why didn't you stop the fight? He clearly had a bad intention and everyone could see that, but none of you made a move or spoke up, do you even have morals or do you just worship the strong?"

Arthur replied with another scolding as if blaming them for what happened to Lucy.

The principal seemed surprised by what Arthur said, she expected him to make poor excuses for his action but instead, she got harshly scolded by him.

Normally a person who interfered would be disqualified, so of course, she planned to do that, but when she saw that Mary's punch didn't even scratch him, she seriously was astonished. She thought that he may be a spy but soon gave up on that, for if he was one, he wouldn't try to attract this much attention and would instead lay low.

To send him away would be like losing a good seed, especially when he was going to join her academy, it would bring her more benefits if she kept him in the academy rather than letting him go, it was true that he broke the rules she set and even killed a participant ruthlessly, but what if he broke some rules? She didn't have to just let him go because of some stupid rule and to be quite honest, she felt a little guilty, after all, she saw what that beastman intended to do but nevertheless, she just watched. After some thinking she spoke:

"You and your companion, follow me"

Once she finished, the principal returned to her seat followed by Arthur, Lucy and the rest of the council members of course. Once everyone sat down except for Arthur and Lucy, the principal said loudly

"No need to stare, this participant was using a high leveled enchanted item and used it to kill 'huge build' and defend against Mary. Continue with the tournament at once!... As for black-robed and Ice queen, they are both disqualified from the second test"

None of the participants dared to say anything back to her and resumed the tournament as if nothing had happened, but you could still notice some who were glancing at Arthur every now and then.

Just when the tournament resumed, the principal looked at Arthur who was still standing not far away from her and said

"Wait until the tournament is finished and we selected those who passed then I'll see how I can punish you, for the time being, wait here!!"

Her tone was quiet but angry, still Arthur was confused since he thought that he would just be disqualified together with Lucy and be sent away, yet surprisingly the principal told him to wait here, so he was curious as to why she did that.

Truthfully he thought of the possibility of her wanting to rope him in because he displayed a decent amount of strength, but he snickered and felt disgusted toward the principal, if she really wanted to rope him in because of his power, then that really made her no different from greedy people, she would let him join her academy just because he was strong, even though he broke the rules and killed a participant.

The tournament finally finished and some participants, who even though they didn't win, still got accepted. The skinny demon won in section A and there were some powerful individuals in the other sections too, the beastman with the axe on his back and the second prince were also accepted.

The principal soon left the stage followed by Arthur and Lucy. They walked past many big buildings and Arthur was quite amazed when he saw them, even Lucy never stopped gazing as she seemed more cheerful. Since she was a child she dreamt of coming here, so of course, she was happy, even though she still didn't forget what happened earlier, but with Arthur, by her side, she felt comfortable and joyful.

After half an hour or so of walking, they entered a 5-floor building. The building was decorated from head to toe either with symbols or gold lines, even the structure of it was fascinating. Arthur couldn't help but be amazed at how well constructed this building was and not only this one. When they passed through the academy grounds, each and every building was luxurious and they were all connected by long hallways, except this particular building, which they entered right now.

They finally stopped walking when they reached a big office which was obviously the principal's office, it was quite a large room decorated with paintings and runes, and there were also a lot of bookshelves put next to each other neatly. In the center of the room there was a desk with 2 chairs in front of it and a large chair behind it, there was nothing on the desk except for a few scattered papers and a crystal.

The principal sat on her 'chair' and gazed at Arthur with cold yet curious eyes. She broke the silence by finally saying "Now that we are alone, how about you tell me who YOU really are?" she said that with a smile hanging on her face.

Lucy remained silent as she gazed coldly at the principal while Arthur replied with a mocking tone:

"No one you should have heard of, I'm simply someone who wants to join your academy along with my comrade here"

He chuckled softly after saying that and stared at the principal to see her reaction and what she would do to him. If she tried anything against him, he was prepared to go all out and escape with Lucy, even if she was high leveled, he still had confidence in his power and if he couldn't win he would just escape.

When he was attacked by Mary earlier he could feel that she was strong, but compared to the earth dragon, she was a little weaker and to him, who had gained the dragon's stats plus his previous stats and also got the bonus stats from creating a body, so he should be several times stronger than the dragon and that's only physically. If he used his magic, especially the destructive ancient fire, none would be able to guess the outcome of a battle between him and this principal, so a person with Mary's strength was no threat to him at all, even if he didn't do anything all day, she couldn't hurt him and if all the council members had more an or less the same strength as her, then he shouldn't worry about them.

After seeing Mary's power and judging that he was stronger than her, he guessed for someone with his level he was overpowered, no! Overpowered would be an understatement for he was god-like.

Even though the principal told the participant that the black-robed man was cheating and had used a powerful enchanted item, that was because everyone saw how he wasn't hurt when he was hit by Mary, who was one of the council members and if she didn't say that, Mary would have lost face and would be probably called weak to not be able to injure a single participant who didn't even defend against her attack.

The principal had to make an appropriate lie or else how could she protect the honor of Mary, but deep in her heart she was curious about this black-robed man 'Just who is he? To be able to take a bare attack from Mary and still not budge'

"How about you take that hood off so I can have a good look at your face."

To be honest, Arthur didn't hide his appearance for special reasons, he was just used to hiding it because when he was in Zodiak's body he didn't want to show his creepy appearance. However, now that he had a body for himself he didn't mind showing his face, but he found it unnecessary so he just covered his face the same way he did when he was in his previous 'body'.

When he heard the principal he wasn't surprised, for he knew she would ask him that since anyone would be curious as to who he was after what he did. It would be the second time he showed his face to someone, the first time it was Lucy, Hell she even saw when his face was being created.

He soon pulled down his hood and his appearance was finally revealed. His face was stern with cold blood red eyes, there was the same long-boned face, tapered to a pointed chin; nonetheless, he looked quite charming and pleasing to the eye.

The principal was stunned when she saw his face, the steady but slightly cold gaze of his made her dazed for a second but what astonished her most was his red eyes.

You must know that even though there were different races in this world, none of them had red eyes, only beasts could have them and even for beasts, it was quite rare to find one with that eye color. She soon snapped out of it and stabilized herself "I don't recognize you, you are neither royalty nor a noble, speak honestly, why did you come here?" her voice this time contained a threat and the air around the room seemed to turn cold.

While keeping a poker face Arthur replied with calm voice

"I already told you, I'm not going to repeat myself, as for what happened earlier I will not apologize doing something right." He then proceeded to ignore her, not paying any heed to her flushed face, which turned red from anger.

"Y-you!!!.."

the principal stood up while slapping her hands on the table with anger, she thought Arthur was mocking her and just playing around while not telling the truth.

After staring at him for some time she sighed and sat back down, truthfully she was in a dilemma, either to send him off and lose such precious fighting figure or take him under her care and gain a powerful figure in this academy, but she knew that Mary would be against it, since she seemed to be very angry and would hold a grudge toward this man.

Minutes passed and finally, after some pondering, she crossed her hands and was about to say something when Zephir barged into the room and seemed in a bit of a rush. He came near her and whispered something in her ear.

Arthur saw Zephir coming in and his whispering next to the principal's ears but he paid it no heed as he was not interested. Once Zephir finished whispering, he stood behind the principal while waiting for her to say something, which she finally did

"You two, go sit there and wait for me to finish speaking with our guests then I'll see what I'll do with you."

while speaking she pointed at a corner of the room where there were a comfortable sofa and a small table. Arthur didn't say anything, he just held Lucy's hand and sat on the sofa with her.

Not even 5 minutes passed when 2 figures entered the room, it was 2 old men, one had a long white bear and deep blue eyes while the other one was an old man with a missing hand. Arthur immediately recognized one of them, since it was Theodor from the holy church, but he didn't know the other so he immediately appraised him

Erik Vilsmore (human) : LVL118

It was the same person who spoke with Theodor through the crystal. When Erik heard from Theodor that Rein died fighting a mage, he was honestly surprised and even though he said he wouldn't search for the girl anymore he still had to, after all, it was a direct order from the pope. He was curious as to why the pope was so interested in this lady, but he didn't dare ask him, for the pope was considered a god-like figure in the holy church and all his orders must be obeyed without question or doubt.

He didn't want to lose more men to the black-robed man, but since the girl was with him, he had to send men to monitor the black-robed mage's location and soon his spies told him that this 'man' was last seen using the teleportation array leading to the academy, so he suspected that this man was one of the members of the council, but he soon gave up on that idea as the man was supposedly using a strange kind of magic that none of the people in this academy had.

Nonetheless, he used a teleportation array which teleported him directly from the holy church headquarters to the Nemia academy and he took Theodor with him because Theodor knew the appearance of the black-robed mage, so if they encountered him on the academy grounds he should be cautious.

Erik didn't go to the academy to look for the black-robed mage but was ordered directly by the Pope to head to the academy and retrieve the girl at any cost, he was even permitted to use force but he must first consult the principal and ask her if he could take away the girl without resorting to force.

That was why the first thing he did was coming to the principal's office, he was going to ask her if she saw any silver-haired demon in the entrance exam and if she did, he would ask for her permission to take the girl for she was a fugitive from the Holy church and also is someone evil who must be taken away. But never in his wildest dreams would he think to bump into her when he just got here.

When he entered the room he first saw Zephir and the principal and in the corner he saw a black-robed man and a silver-haired girl who wore a green dress, she truly was pretty and Erik immediately recognized her, after all, every single person in the holy church was instructed to try to capture the girl when they saw her.

Erik didn't do anything suspicious and just gazed at her for a second before continuing to walk towards the principal, whereas Theodor stood there stiff, you can see fear in his eyes when he looked at Arthur, but he soon regained his senses and followed Erik; nonetheless, his behavior didn't pass unnoticed by the principal who had keen eyes.

She saw Theodor look at Arthur and then freeze up with fear and she was astonished since she didn't actually think the holy church would have relations with this unusual individual; nonetheless, she didn't say anything and simply smiled toward the guests while speaking

"Hello lord Erik, what brings you to my academy? The continents meeting is not until a year from now, so what does the holy church want from me?"

Even though she was smiling her tone was domineering, she didn't like the fact that the holy church would come and not only that, but the pope didn't even come personally, as if she wasn't worth the time so her pent-up anger from earlier was released on these guests.

"Ohoh, Ms. Sonia, please excuse us for coming uninvited, but we are merely seeking someone who came to your academy and if you permit it, we would like to them away with us"

The principal frowned to the old man's request, to think the holy church would have the gutts to come here and demand to take someone away, they seemed to forget that the Nemia academy had a power equal to them and only sent a little representative like this old man to make such a shameless request 'they really are thick-skinned!" even though she was angered by what he said she still remained calm and replied:

"Ohhh? And who might that person be? To make the holy church personally came, it must be a very important person."

her voice contained some sarcasm as if she was interested in who this person was and was going to hand this person to them.

"Ohohoho, Ms. Sonia, luck is on our side as it seems, the person we are looking for is that girl over there with the green dress, she really caused us big trouble, if you would permit us to take her away" when saying that he pointed with his hand at Lucy who was also gazing at him with cold and piercing eyes.

Arthur was slightly surprised when he saw Erik lvl but he wasn't the least worried for he knew he could handle him with ease. He just laid on the sofa with Lucy while looking with interest as to why these people from the holy church came here, but he already had a guess and when he heard Erik say he came searching for a person his guess turned to be true as Erik pointed his finger toward Lucy. Arthur seemed calm, but he was ready to fight at any moment if he heard the principal accept the old man's demand he would immediately bombard them with ancient fire and all kinds of attacks then try his best to get out of here with Lucy.

Sonia was quite surprised when she saw where the old man was pointing, for the holy church to go to such means to capture a girl, she must really be important to them, or else they wouldn't dare come like this and be this shameless; nonetheless, she wasn't going to accept their stupid demand in the first place, she was merely surprised to see they were looking for the demon girl.

"I don't think that's possible Mr. Erik, this girl was just accepted as a student in this academy and every student here is protected by us, moreover she is Zephir's personal student so you taking her is out of the question."

She smiled smugly at Erik observing his reaction, and indeed it was priceless, his face was red and he looked angry, for he didn't expect the principal to refuse his demand. After all, he came here representing the pope, so refusing him is like refusing the pope and he didn't think she would dare to reject his demand so openly and without hesitation, he gritted his teeth and tried to keep a smile on his face but it only made him look uglier.

"You see Ms.Sonia, The pope personally ordered me to bring her back, since she's really dangerous. Even to you and your academy, so it would be wise to let go of her"

Even though he was plainly rejected, he still persisted and tried again, but he was suddenly caught by an immense pressure and he heard the principal snort while gazing at him coldly so he no longer talked. He just bowed and left the room with Theodor but before he left he stared daggers at Lucy 'little pest, don't you think you got away just because you are here, don't forget we have means to capture you even if you escaped to the end of the world!'.

When the 2 old men left, the room regained its silence and the atmosphere became kind of awkward, Sonia glanced at Arthur who was laying on the sofa relaxingly while Lucy was leaning on his shoulder and seemed lost in thought

'Now it's time to think of what I should do about them'

Chapter end