--
Sitting at the top of the Gale Phantom Preparatory School was a lady named Valerie Skywind. She's the current dean of the school and the granddaughter of this school's founder, Gerhman Skywind—otherwise known as the Gale Phantom.
Valerie is a beautiful lady. She's fair-skinned, has a thought-provoking figure, and has a face that has haunted many bachelors' wet dreams. She's tall, graceful, elegant, and soft-spoken, the ideal woman type for many men out there.
She'd be 75 this year, pretty young for a combat professional of her rank. Many have doubted if she'd be a good candidate for the dean's position back in the day, not because she's a lady or because of nepotism, but because she was a combat professional, a pretty scary one at that. But now, all of those doubts had been silenced by her excellent leadership, which raised the quality of District 13's professionalism by 10% since she tookher position.
She couldn't have done it alone. Beside her were her trusted allies and supporters.
One was Mr. Eden, now serving as the Lead Warrior Trainer of the school. Another was the Lead Caster Trainer known as Adriana Calten.
Valerie had an eye for talent. This allowed her to discover someone like Felton Crowley, who's the current Chief of Security; Ysae Morrowind, their historian; and finally, Teressa Vina (Ms. Vina), who's the head of General Studies.
While the rest of the school staff aren't as valuable to her eyes compared to the name above, Valerie still kept satisfied and fulfilled for the sake of harmony.
And, as luck would have it, she now has a protégé in one Lily Anne Heartveil, the only daughter of the renowned medical saint Anthony Heartveil and the only novice who awakened a strong affinity for the Fusion Class right off the bat.
Valerie was quite fond of her student. Her bright laughter and kind heart just attract goodwill from all sorts of people. In her eyes, Lily was a bright soul she must shelter until she's deemed ready to face the ugliness of the professional world.
It's for this reason that Valerie did not take the threats to Lily's life kindly. Not at all.
So imagine her surprise when Mr. Eden suddenly called her very early in the morning, telling her that he found an intruder in the school.
The school. Her school. One that was founded by her beloved grandfather. Her turf and second home, that school.
And who else could it be other than the Black Church Cult? Mr. Eden wouldn't make a rookie mistake like wrongfully informing her. He's been in this team for decades to make such errors.
To say that she's pissed would be a severe understatement. The only reason why she hasn't turned the school upside down just yet is because she wants to play the long game.
Before she even came to the school, she called the city lordess and informed her about this. And not even a minute after she sent the message, she got a reply that the City Lordess herself was coming.
This proves that the district government wasn't taking this lightly as well. They are just as serious as everyone else about eradicating these foul cultists.
However, that's not really Valerie's concern at this moment.
She's a teacher now, so of course, her first thought was to check how her student was doing.
Valerie left several life-saving measures on Lily, ones that even Lily herself was not aware of. None of them were triggered, much to Valerie's relief, but she still called Lily and asked her status.
Lily was fine. Valerie even saw her friends with her, two young men who are proving their worth as budding professionals.
Seeing her alive and well, Valerie's anger has subsided somewhat. She would've gone real crazy if Lily got hurt because of her negligence.
When Valerie arrived at the school, the City Lordess herself, under a disguise, caught up with her. Together, they walked to where Mr. Eden was keeping the intruder.
Mr. Eden already called the chief of security, Felton, and told him what happened. When Valerie saw him, Felton immediately groveled to her, profusely apologizing for her negligence.
His head was throbbing in anger, frustration, and fear. He blamed himself for letting this happen and was angry at the sheer audacity of these foul cultists to extend their paws all the way to this sanctuary.
Instead of saying something to Felton, she first asked Mr. Eden, "How did you find him, and how did he get in? The barriers haven't been down, and there were no cracks either."
"He's a ghost," Mr. Eden gruffly stated. "He can pass through solid objects and appear invisible to many forms of detection. I wouldn't have sensed him if it weren't for the fact that I'm sensitive to malevolence."
"A ghost," Valerie added. "Do you mean that as a class or a bloodline?"
"Should be both," Mr. Eden revealed. "Because if it was only one part, he wouldn't have been able to go this far. Having both the Ghost Class and the Ghost Bloodline formed some kind of synergy that boosted his elusiveness."
"Who was he targeting?" Valerie asked.
"Personally, he's got his eyes on one of the students who already moved ahead of the others. However, his actual target must be your protégé."
Upon mentioning this, Valerie's eyes darkened. Killing intent rose from her chest and threatened to burst out. However, she's better than that, and she knows it. Therefore, she kept everything under control.
"Where's Ysae?" she asked.
"Here, Dean," the historian replied from behind. "Sorry if I'm late; I had to prepare the necessary equipment for this."
Arriving with her were the rest of her valued staff: Adriana and Teressa. They too were carrying equipment with them.
Seeing what they brought, Valerie became slightly satisfied. At least her people knew what urgency meant. She then looked at the city lordess, who's under a disguise right now, and asked,
"You don't mind if we do this here and now, right?"
The city lordess shook her head. She didn't even utter a sound. She only watched everything like she's just a spectator.
With the dean's signal, Ysae, the school's historian with the class Knowledge Seeker, began prodding the memories of the unconscious cultist.
Knowledge seekers, like Ysae, were pure lifestyle professionals. They have a skill that allows them to see the person's past even without any direct physical contact.
However, for the sake of documentation of proof, Ysae had tools that could help her verify the truth and legitimacy of the memories she's about to see. Because as powerful as it sounds to have a skill that could see a person's past, it's not always reliable. People are different, after all.
But Ysae didn't look worried at all. It would even seem as if she's used to this by now.
Ysae's eyes, as well as the tool around her, began glowing as soon as she began her operation.
The memories she was browsing were being displayed to one of the tools around her at the same time, allowing others to see what she was seeing.
Through Ysae's skill, they could also hear the thoughts of the cultist, and right off the start, they confirmed that this guy was indeed sent here to kidnap Lily; however, this guy got distracted when he saw TJ and leaked out his malevolence, which Mr. Eden then sensed.
The backtrack to his memories continued. They saw him taking advantage of his class and bloodline synergy to get into places other cultists couldn't. They also witnessed the obscene behavior and hobbies of this disgusting guy.
However, much to everybody's dismay, they were unable to get any valuable information from this guy. Because even though his abilities are good, it apparently wasn't good enough for him to be invited to the base of the cult.
They kept distance from him. He couldn't contact them; they contacted him instead. He receives rewards from them whenever he provides something useful in return, but aside from that, there's nothing else.
This guy never even saw the face of the person he usually talks to. So, even if Ysae traces this guy's memory till the day of his birth, they'd gain no actual value from it.
"Damn it." Valerie was pissed. She bit her fingers and was tempted to punch something.
Although she wasn't expecting much, it's still something at least. But who could've thought that this guy was too useless to provide them anything useful? He never even got a name for them to work with. The person he's talking to also never took their mask off; sometimes they wouldn't even appear before him.
Therefore, even if Ysae combs through this guy's memories, she's bound to get nothing in return. This wasn't helping at all.
"Give me his body."
The City Lordess spoke for the first time. Valerie didn't even consider it; she nodded to Ysae and the rest, allowing the city lordess to have the body.
Taking the intruder with her, the city lordess said, "Raise your security. They're coming at us harder this time. They've got plans I don't know of yet, so be careful."
After saying this, the city lordess promptly disappeared as if she was never there to begin with.