This time, Shiayar was the one surprised.
"I know I might have the scent of her perfume on me, but how exactly did you discern that this scent is Dyres'?"
Could it be the legendary sixth sense unique to women?
"Unfortunately, I don't have such an ability. As far as I know, Divination-type skills are extremely rare even among Time-type Pet Beasts."
Enola looked unchanged as she reached out a hand to straighten Shiayar's slightly askew collar.
"I just feel that if there's someone at St. Roland Academy with a one percent chance of posing a threat to me, it could only be President Dyres."
The confidence of St. Roland Academy's number one beauty!
Shiayar gave a thumbs up but noticed that the air around him didn't seem to lighten up even a bit from his praise.
"Actually, it was President Dyres who found me on the train. She wanted to drag me to some re-examinations and a social dinner with academy nobles, but I cleverly slipped away."
"I'm telling the truth, Ennie, you have to believe me."
"Of course, I believe you," Enola said with a tilt of her head, her golden hair cascading to one side. "Student Shiayar, what exactly are you explaining all by yourself?"
Shiayar felt sweat on his back for the first time in a long while.
So, he decided to bring out his ultimate weapon.
"CHEE CHEE CHEE! (Big Sis Silver! Long time no see!)"
"SQUEAK SQUEAK... SQUEAK! (B-Big... Grand Big Sis! Long time no see!)"
As contract creatures with souls bound to Shiayar, the little snub-nosed monkey and little white ferret appeared on his left and right shoulders, immediately starting to act cute.
It proved that this move was indeed very effective.
Although Enola's pale face remained serene, the atmosphere around them noticeably relaxed.
"Long time no see, Silver."
She reached out to rub the little white ferret's head and then turned to look at Shiny beside it.
"So you've finally finished nurturing, haven't you?"
"SQUEAK SQUEAK!"
Shiny nodded excitedly.
Strictly speaking, it had only been born just over a week ago, but as a "Sealing Stone," it had also been with Shiayar for several years.
Although the Sealed Stone Monkey in its Sealing Stone form had almost no mobility, it still retained a perception of the outside world.
Therefore, Shiny was not unfamiliar with Enola. Truth be told, she [Enola] was the true Big Sis in charge, the Grand Big Sis who ranked above Big Sis Silver.
After playing around with Silver and Shiny for a while, Enola once again looked at Shiayar with those sky-blue eyes.
She leaned in close to Shiayar's ear and whispered, "About that incident, I've found some traces."
"According to the clues provided by the Dark Shadow Council—"
"Eight years ago, a letter was secretly sent from a noble residence within the Empire Capital."
"It passed through the theocratic kingdom and finally reached a certain Lost Kingdom in the desolate lands."
"Seven days after receiving that letter, Ceylan fell."
Ceylan was a place. At least, it had been.
It was a border city located on the permanent ice field to the far north of the Empire. Though not particularly rich, it was home to over a hundred thousand residents of The North who lived and worked in peace and happiness.
But eight years ago, a catastrophe still shrouded in layers of mystery brought Ceylan to an end.
Shiayar, Enola, and Silver—they were perhaps the last survivors of that ice field.
Shiayar stared at the ceiling of his dormitory room. "What is the rank given to this piece of information by the Dark Shadow Council?"
"'Knell of the Saint.'"
Shiayar nodded his head.
The Dark Shadow Council is one of the most famous secret organizations on the Western Continent. It started in the business of information trading and is involved in various gray industries such as mercenary missions and the black market. Its status in the hidden world was no less significant than that of the Holy See or the Fresta Empire in the public world. It was truly a colossus in the gray world.
"Knell of the Saint" is the second tier in the Dark Shadow Council's classification system for information. It signifies that the content of the information is directly or indirectly related to the Legendary, or power equivalent to a Lost King. It is second only to the first tier, "Angel of Death," which represents information involving Demigod-level powers.
Shiayar fell silent for a moment.
Then, he sat up from the bed, waved his hand indifferently, and said, "No matter what, at least we have some clues and direction."
"As for whether it's the Angel of Death or the Knell of the Saint, it doesn't really have much to do with us at the moment."
"People die when they are killed, and the road is walked one step at a time."
"Ennie, you should be close to advancing to 3-Ring, right?"
"Mhm."
Enola nodded, her ice-blue eyes calmly fixed on Shiayar. "It might just be a matter of the next two months."
"I'm almost there too, so let's set advancing to 3-Ring as the primary goal."
Shiayar propped his pillow against the headboard, stretched out comfortably, and casually grabbed the little white ferret to use as a hugging pillow. "Also, we need to figure out a way to save up enough money to buy some decent Fire-type Extraordinary material to use as a fire source and complete that damned Amaterasu."
"It really does cost money everywhere. If I had known, I wouldn't have been so eager to create Amaterasu. This feeling of being able to look but not use it is too painful; it reminds me of some rip-off pay-to-win mobile games."
"MEW..."
The little white ferret, being held as a hugging pillow in his arms, made a protesting sound. But when it thought about its beloved Amaterasu still needing to drain its master's small treasury to be completed, Silver's protests also became much weaker.
BOOM—
A loud bang suddenly came from the sky, followed by a towering blaze in the distance.
The windows were shattered by the massive shockwave, and glass shards mixed with dust rained down.
In the aftermath were countless shouts of panic and the rapid footsteps of people running.
"Run for it! Run for it!"
"Help me, I'm on fire, put the fire out... I said put it out! Not for your Psyduck to use Hydro Pump on me!"
"Senior, your Blue-Winged Giant Eagle knows Fly, right? Take me with you, quick!"
"Women get rides, men fend for yourselves! You're a guy, so get out of the way. I've got to rush to the girls' dorm area to save the underclasswomen."
"Don't push me! My slime chest padding is about to fall off!"
Clearly, St. Roland Academy was having a very 'nuclear' day.
Shiayar placed the little white ferret over his ears as noise-canceling headphones and continued to ponder his money-making schemes.
It seems necessary to plagiarize another work from my previous life to make money at the Royal Book Society. I wonder whether I should choose "Revenge of Prince Hamlet of the Dragon Tribe" or "Million Rhine Gold Coins"?
"So, you're not running?"
In Enola's cold voice, there was a hint of barely detectable resignation.
"Run for what?"
"It's either some director's Sovereign Pet Beast going berserk and losing control, the Mechanical Institute's artificial pet beast project getting contaminated by the Astral Realm again, or the Alchemy Academy's magictech furnace core exploding."
"Otherwise, it's just some lawless group starting to go mad again, trying to make their presence known."
Shiayar stroked the tuft of fur on Silver's little head, arranging himself into a comfortable sleeping position. "All in all, I'm tired after sitting on a train for three days."
Let me lie down for a while longer and escape from our poor reality through sleep.
Since stepping into the world of the Extraordinary, one must be prepared to be disturbed by Extraordinary events at any time—mastering the ability to sleep amidst loud noises is an essential lesson for every Beastmaster.
Just then, the dormitory door was suddenly kicked open.
A thug wrapped in a black cloak, holding steel scythes in both hands, and the image of an outlaw clearly stamped on his forehead barged in.
He looked at Shiayar, slumped on the bed as if he had been hollowed out, and at Enola, sitting on the bedside table.
As if struck by a thought, the thug's gaze narrowed slightly. "Two students, practically still children, daring to engage in such disgraceful acts between a man and a woman..."
"The Empire truly is in a state of moral degeneracy, with standards declining day by day, already rotten to an unspeakably ugly extent."
"For such sins, let the divine punishment of the black flames, bestowed by my lord—the God of Ashes, cleanse this..."
The thug hadn't finished speaking when he suddenly saw the previously listless young man violently rise to his feet.
Like the dying suddenly jolted awake.
Then, the other party stared at him with a look the thug couldn't comprehend.
"You say... you're from the Ashes Cult?"
Shiayar's lips curled up.
The dim green light flickering in those dark eyes reminded the thug of hungry wolves in the wilderness.
"The Ashes Cult that worships the Lord of Ashes and black flames, with the dogma of burning all heresies in the world to cinders with divine flame?"