-Spurt!

"M-matriarch!"

Splurting black blood on the ground, inside of a dim light room, an enchanting figure clenched her heart.

A black silhouette appeared next to the Matriarch who had just splurted black blood on the ground and hastily helped her sit on her throne.

Though her breath was weak, her presence remained majestic as the servant did not dare utter a single word.

Gripping the armrest of her throne, the matriarch whose figure was now incomparably pale said

"He failed..."

-Crack! -Crack!

Tightening her grip on the armrest, cracks started appearing on the throne as a red glow started emanating from the Matriarch's figure.

"...Fortunately because he was much weaker than me, his death has only cost me a small internal injury"

Hearing what the Matriach had said, the servant worriedly asked

"How long do you need to recuperate?"

"I should be healed in about a year's time..."

Turning her head to the servant that was next to her, she coldly ordered

"Get someone to send me all of the information regarding the incident that Elijah was responsible for"

"Yes mother Matriarch"

Nodding his head, the servant disappeared into the darkness

As soon as he disappeared the red hue around the matriarch increased many folds enveloping the whole room.

"Once I find out who was responsible for killing my pawn..."

-BOOM!

The throne behind the Matriarch suddenly pulverized as she stood up. With a distorted face and eyes that were dyed red in rage, she slowly spat

"...I will personally make sure they suffer a pain worse than death!"

...

Amanda's consciousness was awakened by a dazzling light coming through her eyelids, stimulating her pupils

Waking up in a large spacious room, Amanda blankly stared at the familiar ceiling she had been seeing for the past month. Lightly lifting her head, Amanda stared at her room.

The room was large, and besides her, there was a massive bookshelf filled to the brim with books. A large desk stood in the right corner of the room. On it, a white desk lamp sat on the right corner of the desk with books neatly piled around it.

The room had a nice woody, tranquil feeling around it that could calm anyone who was in it. The sunlight directly entered the room from the large windows around the room, brightening the surroundings. Before entering the academy, because of her outstanding results, she was asked by the academy how she wanted to design the room and this was the outcome.

The tranquility and silence in the room calmed her mind.

"...ugh!"

Touching her head, she felt a strong headache whenever she tried remembering what had happened the night prior. It felt as if her head was being split into two.

The last thing she remembered was seeing two emotionless eyes staring at her.

Recalling the young man that was responsible for killing Elijah, Amanda's head was filled with questions.

Although she had never paid much attention to him, she still did observe him from time to time like all of her classmates. In fact, because he tended to do weird things, she more or less had an impression of him.

In both elective and class, he looked like someone who was sloppy. He cared for no one around him and always seemed to be bored in class. Especially in the elective where he would forcefully try to pay attention to the lecture, though it always ended with him making strange faces.

...However, after the happenings of the party, her previous impression of him had completely shattered. Recalling his two eyes devoid of emotions that perfectly calculated the exact time to strike, Amanda felt a cold chill run down her spine.

Even though she was indifferent to most things, she couldn't help but want to find out more about him. In one moment he was a sloppy good for nothing weirdo and in another a calculating cold-blooded killer.

...what was his true personality?

-Bam!

Snapping Amanda out of her thoughts was the sound of the door opening as two stunning girls accompanied by two extremely handsome boys entered the room.

Rushing next to Amanda, Emma worriedly looked at her as she patted her body all over to make sure she was okay.

"Amanda, I saw on the news about what had happened...are you okay?"

"...hm"

Nodding her head slightly, she looked at the four individuals that had entered her room. Jin, Kevin, Melissa, and Emma. Though she didn't show it on her face, seeing that they had come to visit her, Amanda felt a little warmth in her heart.

Interrupting Emma who was all over Amanda, Kevin spoke

"I was extremely surprised when I received the news of what had happened, how did you manage to defeat a D rank villain?"

"...eh?"

"Don't tell me you forgot?Here take a look"

Seeing the confused look on Amanda's face, Emma took her phone out from her pocket. She then proceeded to turn on the holographic function and swiped towards Amanda. Soon a virtual newspaper article appeared before her.

[At 10:22 p.m. in Ashton city, D rank villain who had infiltrated top human academy 'lock' attempted to kill more than 50 students. An anonymous tip had alerted the authorities beforehand about the sudden attack, and upon arrival, the corpse of D rank villain was found. The corpse of the villain had multiple arrow wounds all over its body. Upon investigation, all drinks and foods present in the venue had been drugged beforehand by a potent drug containing a strong sleeping agent. Currently, the venue owners of [le farat] are under arrest on the suspicion of collusion with villains. Fortunately, thanks to the courageous efforts of one individual, this disaster was prevented. If not for the heroic feats of top student, Amanda stern, this day would've turned into a tragic massacre. The motive behind the attack is still unkn..]

Looking through the article, Amanda slowly and carefully read the article from top to bottom. Not skipping a single detail.

'Was it his doing?'

She knew for a fact that she wasn't the person responsible for Elijah's death. Yet, from what she was reading in the article it seemed like she was the one who had killed him.

The fact that she was passed out with her bow in her hand, coupled with the multiple arrows that belonged to her which were found on Elijah's body, made everyone assume that she was the one responsible for killing him.

...only she knew the truth.

She had only shot one arrow that night, and all it did was leave superficial wounds. It didn't injure him at all. The real killer was not her...it was 'him'

Though at that moment her head was dizzy, she remembered the moment when Elijah was killed. It was one swift sword movement so fast that Elijah, a D rank villain had no time to react.

What was even more impressive was the fact that he had done this, exactly when Elijah's guard was at its lowest. Almost as if he knew this was going to happen. Had he failed, only death would've been his outcome.

Cold, precise, cunning, many words came into her mind as she tried to describe 'him' the best way she could...

"Hey, hey, Amanda!"

Snapping Amanda out of her thoughts, was Emma's concerned voice.

"...Sorry"

Lowering her head, Amanda apologized. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she had ignored everyone that had come into the room.

"It's fine, you must still be in shock."

Shaking her head, Emma patted Amanda on her shoulder as she gestured for the other guys in the room to leave.

"We'll let you have some rest, call us if you need anything"

Winking at Amanda, Emma quickly brought everyone out of the room

-Clank!

Closing the room's door, silence permeated the room once again leaving a stunning young girl alone in her thoughts.

...

"You think she's okay?"

Standing outside Amanda's room, Emma looked at the four people beside her.

Thinking for a bit Kevin said

"...hmm, honestly I can't tell. Her face is always indifferent so I'm not too sure"

"True"

Nodding her head, Emma couldn't help but agree with Kevin's evaluation. Despite the fact that Amanda had just gone through a traumatic experience, her expression never changed. She remained indifferent. Even for her who was extremely outgoing, talking to Amanda was difficult. She never knew what she was thinking.

Did she even think of them as friends?

Seeing everyone's somber expression, Kevin tried lightening up the mood by changing the topic.

"But hey, I didn't expect her to be strong enough to defeat a D rank villain by herself"

"Yeah you're right, who would've thought she was that strong. What do you think Melissa?"

Realizing what Kevin was trying to do, Emma redirected the conversation to Melissa.

"...hm?"

Melissa who was unamusingly scrolling through some research papers noticed that Emma was talking to her and unenthusiastically said

"I guess it's pretty impressive"

Noticing how uninterested Melissa was, Emma pouted and said

"...geez, can you at least look a little bit more interested"

"No chance"

Despite having known Amanda and the rest for a month and a half, to call them close would be a lie.

Because she spent most of her time in the lab doing research, she barely had enough time to get to know them better. Not that she was interested in knowing them...

To Melissa, anything that wasn't related to her research didn't really mean anything to her.

Though to outsiders, it looked like they all got along well with each other, the only reason why they talked to each other in the first place was because they were living under the same roof and would make good connections for the future.

Since they were all going to be future pillars of humanity, it wasn't a bad idea to make a connection with them.

Moreover, for some reason, people always tended to avoid them. Jealousy? fear? worship? No one knew why they avoided them, but that only made their social circle smaller.

Seeing how uninterested Melissa was, Emma sighed and looked at Jin.

Behind Melissa, Jin stood there dumbly. His expression was that of pure indifference. He looked to be deep into his own world ignoring everyone around him.

"...well I'm gonna head back now"

Seeing that this conversation was going nowhere, Emma gave up and decided to leave. Following her, Kevin and Melissa left leaving Jin standing there by himself.

A couple of minutes after everyone left, clenching his fist extremely hard, veins appeared on Jin's forehead. Though he tried extremely hard to suppress his rage, Jin's face became incomparably dark.

Right now his mind was torn.

Not only Kevin was stronger than him...but Amanda too?

No matter how many times he tried to visualize it in his mind, killing a <D> ranked villain was impossible for the current him.

Though people assumed that he was ranked third because of his status and talent, no one knew how much he worked for his rank.

He had come to the lock thinking that he was going to be the highest-ranking first year...yet when the results came out he was ranked third. Moreover, the gap between him and the first place, Kevin, was absurdly high.

His failure to come first was also emphasized by his family who had high hopes for him.

He was in total shock.

He understood Melissa, her academic achievement was so absurdly high that it managed to propel her to second place, he was fine with that...but Kevin? Someone that no one knew about prior to entering the lock?

It was a heavy blow to his immense pride. The pride of having grown up thinking that he was the best among the younger generation.

Despite his failure, Jin did not let rage cloud his mind. Though he disliked Kevin, he looked at him more like an obstacle to surpass rather than an enemy.

To try and bridge the gap between himself and Kevin, Jin trained two, no, three times harder than he had done previously...and just when he had thought he managed to bridge the gap between them...Amanda killed a <D> ranked villain.

This news came as a shock for him, and even now that a day had passed he still couldn't stop thinking about it.

Because Amanda's father was the guild master of the first ranking guild in the world 'Demon hunter', and his father was the greatest shareholder of the second-ranked guild 'Starlight guild', he had known Amanda since young.

Since birth, because of the rivalry between the two guilds, he had been continuously compared to her. He took great pride in the fact that he had gotten a higher rank than her when he enrolled in the lock.

His father also took great pride in that as he praised him endlessly, further feeding his ego. He had managed to suppress the 'Demon hunter' guild rising momentum.

...yet this sense of accomplishment all seemed to be a lie.

The more he stayed here, the more he realized how normal he was.

He had been showered with praises since young. He became arrogant, but he managed to back his arrogance. He was the best.

...was he?

"What am I?"

Staring at the long dark corridor, Jin was lost in his own thoughts.

A seed of inferiority slowly started implanting itself inside of his mind.