Shadow Monarch: Heroines Could Hear My Thoughts?!

Chapter 149- A Father And Mother (Part 2)

The student felt all of the air leave his body and even his soul exited his core for a good second. His eyes bulged out of their sockets as he was blasted back to the edge of the arena.

The silence as his body was dragged across the dirt terrain was impressive. Jaws opened as students looked at what happened with sheer shock. No one dared to believe what they saw with their eyes.

It was, in a sense, even more surprising than what Rin did before as not only did this come out from a mere child, the sheer strength of that simple move could only send a shiver down their spines.

In Rin's case, some people still expected to see a great show of strength from Rin so not everyone was blown out of their minds. However, in this case, no one was anticipating seeing such a scene.

"Boring… That wasn't fun." Sorophi said as she looked at her teddy bear before walking back to Elise's side as if nothing happened. When she reached her, she held her hand and didn't say anything else.

Everyone looked at her as they unconsciously retreated away from the little monster. No one wanted to end up like that boy at all.

The first one to wake up from his shock was Donnie who ran toward the boy to check on him. After popping out a healing potion and making him drink it, he sighed in relief. He didn't sustain any major injuries or internal bleeding. The hit didn't touch his ribs or they would've been pulverized, instead, the strong momentum of the punch spread all over his body from his stomach which lessened it to a certain extent.

'Damn it. Dealing with a monster is already a huge trouble. A monster that has the mind of a child is even more troublesome!' He thought as he lifted up the boy.

"Class is over. I will carry your friend to the hospital. He is fine, nothing bad happened." He tried to assure the students but none of them were even listening to him.

"I said class dismissed!" He repeated with a higher tone that finally caught their attention. Finally, they regained their senses and quickly scurried away, whispering and talking. Even with that, they were still not finding the right words to say.

"What… Happened?"

"I… have no idea."

"Are… we hallucinating?"

"Like hell I would know! I don't even want to think about what just happened?!" One of them snapped off as he ran away from the training ground.

The place was quickly emptied of students and the only people left were Elise and Sorophi who stood silently, not saying anything to each other.

***

"That's what happened," Elise said.

"..." Rin could only blink a few times speechlessly.

"All of this happened in the few minutes I was away?"

"Yes."

"Sigh… What a headache. I guess I won't be able to let Sorophi wander alone from now on."

"That's for the better. She oddly listens to you, to a certain extent." Squinting her eyes, Elise replied.

"... What?"

"No, nothing."

"Then, why are you looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like that. You are doing it right now."

"I'm not doing anything."

Rin shook his head as he pointed at her eyes.

"I know that look. It's the look of 'He's troublesome'."

"Is it? I don't think so."

"No! Sigh… Never mind, I give up." Feeling defeated by Elise's deadpan look, he could only stop and stay silent.

The three then went to a restaurant nearby that offered some fast food. Rin was craving a good old burger and fries with a few dipping sauces. This world was something created from his previous world so these things do exist.

The three then ate their meals and sat down to rest before the next classes start. Sorophi, who didn't utter a single word during this whole matter, sat next to Rin as she rubbed her teddy bear's head. Her eyes seemed listless as they blinked slowly. Then, out of nowhere, she closed her eyes and fell to the side, on Rin's lap.

"Hmm? You are going to fall asleep?" He asked.

"Mmmm…" The only response he got was a small moan of agreement before Sorophi quickly fell asleep. She didn't care about the fact that she was this close to Rin at all as if she trusted him fully which was odd for the young man.

"What a weird girl…" He sighed as he looked at Elise.

"When is she going back to the high floor?"

"One more day, I think."

"One more day to go… huh," Rin murmured to himself as he watched Sorophi's sleeping face. She looked exactly like a very cute and adorable little girl. It was different from anything she was capable of doing. This powerless, defenseless attitude could only make him wonder more and more who this girl was.

She came out of nowhere and immediately barged into Rin and Elise's life without even knocking on the door. Although her position alone should allow her to do anything she desires, she barely asks for anything other than her weird requests from time to time. Were her powers that useless to her?

He didn't know and even if he asked, she probably would never answer. She was that type of person after all.

"Mommy…"

As he was like that, he heard a small murmur coming from the sleeping Sorophi. Bending down, he tried to listen again.

"Mommy…"

'Is she dreaming of her dead mom?' He wondered.

"Mommy… Why…" She said again.

Rin kept listening as he tried to piece things together from the small fragmented sentences she was saying.

"Why… did you do that?"

'Why did she do what?' Rin signaled for Elise to come closer and listen to him. He knew prying on someone else's dreams and secrets is a bad thing but he could only be curious about what she went through and most importantly why she acts like a child and even changes her form to be like that of a child. Was it just merely for the fun of it?

"Why did you kill…?" She asked.

'Kill?' Rin's face frowned a little bit.

'Who did she kill?'

He expected to hear her talking about how she missed her deceased mother but instead, it seems that her mother's relationship with her mother wasn't as simple as that.

'Is she going to say anything else?' Rin and Elise waited without saying anything, only conversing with their eyes, trying to piece whatever they heard together. However, sadly, Sorophi's mouth stopped moving and she seemingly wasn't going to say anything else.

Seeing that, Rin sighed and rested his back on the seat.

"What does that mean?"

"No idea," Elise said as she rubbed her chin.

"Her mother seems to be quite the person. Well, it's predictable considering the fact that she's master's sister. Was there anything about her mother in the original game?" Rin asked.

"I'm trying to remember since she wasn't mentioned a lot at the beginning of the game until where I stopped."

Then, a few seconds passed before Elise's expression lightened up as if she recalled something. Then, her eyes widened slightly.

"Emilia's sister… she was one of the few that graduated from the academy as a top 10 ranker. This was a long time ago. But… she died, along with her husband, in an expedition." She said.

"Expedition? What expedition?"

"An expedition done almost 17 years ago to the land of demons."

"Wait… what?"

"Yes! I remember now. It was an expedition arranged by the academy to explore more of the uncharted land of demons. But, all of those who participated in the expedition never came back." She said.

"..."

Rin felt his thoughts running wild as all kinds of points started linking.

'An expedition to the demon realm? Why was this never mentioned before?' Rin thought.

Students, by nature, liked to talk about history and its mysteries and Rin naturally could hear them. It was a great way to harvest information about this world. However, no one, not even once, had mentioned an expedition to the demon realm where everyone died including a Top 10 ranker graduate at that.

Yet, it also doesn't make any sense that such a huge event that could be considered one of the most important points in the long-lasting fight between demons and humans be ignored by everyone. It's simply impossible.

'Did the academy hide this information from the public? But, how can they hide such a huge event?'

All kinds of questions appeared in Rin's head like annoying flies as he felt more and more confused the more he thought about it. It just doesn't make sense at all.

"This is not normal… Now that I can remember… It's definitely not normal at all." Elise murmured.

"I have to research more about this. The library should have some books about the history of the demon realm, maybe I can find something there." Rin added.

(A//N: The Plot thickens.)

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