Jenna froze, quickly retracting her flailing hands to her chest.
Two names swirled in her mind.
“It was Keli. She told me. She said to come find you at three o’clock.” She blurted out one of them.
“Before Keli, who else mentioned me?”
“D-Duke also did,” Jenna’s voice dropped.
Duke?
Saul raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected Duke to be involved, too.
To what extent he was involved would depend on what happened next.
“Didn’t you say a Second Rank apprentice warned you?” Saul urged impatiently.
This time, Jenna truly hesitated.Senior Sid had helped her but also warned her never to mention him to outsiders, or it would bring him great trouble.
Jenna was deeply grateful to Sid—he had practically saved her life. She didn’t want to cause trouble for him.
“Begging for help and still acting mysterious?” Saul sneered, stepping back with the intention of closing the door.
“Wait, I’ll tell you!” Jenna panicked. She dropped to her knees and crawled forward a few steps. “It was—”
“Crack!”
A sharp, sickening sound like a giant club smashing a watermelon rang out.
Jenna’s head exploded right in front of Saul.
Something splattered toward him.
Saul didn’t have time to react—he just shut his eyes, raised his arm, and leaned back slightly.
A moment later, he lowered his left hand. His sleeve was flecked with blood.
He looked at the red-dressed girl lying on the floor, not entirely surprised.
“Doze, Rocky, and so many others all joined the Mutual Aid Society, but only you were warned about the parasite. Sadly, there are few good people in this tower, and whoever you met clearly wasn’t one of them.”
The large man curled up at the end of the hallway didn’t react at all to what had happened—he remained motionless like a corpse.
The second door across the hall opened slightly. Hayden’s face flashed behind it. Upon seeing Jenna’s body, he immediately shut the door again.
Then, someone emerged from the dim hallway.
Byron gave the body a casual glance before turning to Saul. “Hmm?”
No one cared about the corpse on the floor, but the living man standing in the hallway was subjected to a thorough magical inspection.
“Hmm.” Byron stepped back, shaking his head to indicate that Saul had nothing unusual on him.
Saul took off his coat and wiped the blood and flesh from his face and arms.
When he looked up again, Byron was pulling a small notebook from his mouth and scribbling something in it.
That notebook recorded the credits Byron owed Saul. Every time he did something for Saul, he would deduct the appropriate amount without being asked.
That was one of the things Saul really appreciated about Byron.
A person who could separate favors and debts and always trade fairly—that was a rare thing.
Saul stared at the blood-soaked red dress on the ground, now even brighter from the blood, and frowned.
“Hmm?”
Saul shook his head slightly. “I don’t feel guilty.”
He used to think he was the only unlucky one—constantly skirting death since entering the tower.
But now, it seemed there were plenty of people worse off than him. Others weren’t living in a carefree world either.
At least he had his death premonition. Jenna probably didn’t even understand what was happening to her until the very moment she died.
She thought she had seen the light—only to fall straight into a deeper abyss.
Byron remained expressionless—he had seen too many deaths.
To him, the girl’s corpse simply meant: another fool had challenged the Tower Master’s rules.
“Hmm?”
Byron’s gaze lingered on Jenna’s body. Suddenly noticing something, he stepped forward and crouched down to examine her.
A moment later, he abruptly backed away and threw a cloud of black mist from his hand. The mist surged like a giant python, completely engulfing Jenna.
The corpse swelled inside the black mist, and a sharp sizzling noise echoed.
Thin, thread-like things attacked the mist from within.
The mist bulged and sank as if it would burst at any moment.
But in the end, the mist prevailed.
Its shape stabilized, clinging tightly to the girl’s body.
Byron waved his hand, and the black mist evaporated on the spot.
Jenna’s corpse reappeared before them. What was now exposed made even Saul take a step back and toss aside his coat.
Jenna’s body was covered in countless bloody holes, like a beehive. Not a single patch of skin was intact.
Her blood seemed to have been devoured—there was barely any on the floor. Her once-bright red dress was now tattered and ruined.
“What was that?”
Scratch, scratch—
Byron didn’t answer right away. The sound of writing came from the side.
Saul turned his head to see Byron once again pulling out his notebook to deduct the corresponding credits.
When he finished writing, Byron reluctantly stabbed himself in the side with a knife.
“Out-of-control parasites. The Mutual Aid Society uses them to control newcomers. Normally, they won’t attack the host, but something else must have been done to it.”
Byron stepped forward and grabbed a corner of the red dress, dragging the body to the morgue and tossing it into the big box beneath the autopsy table.
“There’s something else on her, too. It could be a curse or some kind of marking spell. Don’t touch it.”
He glanced at Saul’s left hand, hidden in his sleeve, and added,
“Left hand is fine. Right hand, no.”
But Saul had no intention of studying the parasite. He didn’t want anything to do with the Mutual Aid Society.
And the one who had tampered with Jenna was most likely Sid—someone harboring hidden malice. Saul wouldn’t risk himself out of mere curiosity.
What else was hidden in Jenna’s body?
“Senior,” Saul spread his hands, “if I had gone to check the body just now, would the parasite have attacked me?”
“Yes. Those parasites are extremely aggressive.”
Being attacked by the parasite could’ve been dangerous.
Though even if Byron hadn’t shown up, Saul would have had his diary’s warning—he wouldn’t have truly fallen into danger.
So Sid went through all that just to deliver Jenna… for this?
“Then, Senior, could I trouble you to examine me again—see if there are any other curses or seemingly harmless marks on me?” Saul tilted his head and smiled. “Take as many credits as you like.”
At that, Byron trembled.
He narrowed his eyes and slowly rolled up both sleeves.
…
Jenna had been missing for three days.
Rocky had searched every place they had ever been together but hadn’t found a single trace.
In the past few days, Saul still hadn’t shown up for class. Rocky hadn’t even gotten the chance to confront him.
That day, Duke had only told Jenna where Saul was. Rocky had tried to listen in but was driven out.
That was his dorm room!
Frustrated, Rocky dragged Doze—who was closer to Duke—to go ask him.
“Duke, Jenna’s been missing for three days!”
“Oh.” Duke seemed indifferent.
Rocky grew angry. “How can you not be worried at all?”
Duke smiled and spread his hands. “Jenna clearly had some kind of trouble when she went to Saul. Maybe she’s still dealing with it. What are you so anxious for?”
“What kind of trouble takes this long to fix?”
Duke was copying notes.
Books from the library were too expensive. Every apprentice rushed to transcribe them as fast as possible, day and night, just to return them sooner and save a few magic crystals.
He kept copying as he spoke. “I don’t know either! I asked her, and she wouldn’t say. Did she tell you anything?”
Of course not.
Otherwise, Rocky wouldn’t be running around like a headless chicken.
“Then can you at least tell me where Saul is? I want to find him.”
“Where Saul is…” Duke finally paused his pen, lips curling downward. “That’s not a good place. Best not to go there if you don’t have to.”
Perhaps annoyed by the interruption, Duke set down his pen and looked up to advise his friend.
“Saul may be a bit ruthless, but you don’t need to worry that much about Jenna. After all, this is the Wizard Tower. We have the Tower Master and our mentors above us. According to the rules, apprentices aren’t allowed to kill each other.”
At first, it sounded reassuring. But thinking it through—it was chilling.
Doze, who hadn’t wanted to get involved in the first place, looked uneasy and tugged at Rocky’s sleeve.
Rocky, however, shook him off and pressed, “What’ll it take for you to tell me where Saul is?”
Duke sighed and held up two fingers.
“Two magic crystals.”
(End of Chapter)