Several days passed by as Rood, Dio and Sky were still on their plan to become Lidusis' friends. So far, they have made some progress. Lidusis was starting to open up to them. He had spoken to them for the first time yesterday, much to the trio's delight.

Today, one of Chevel's lackeys, Manon, had come up to "nicely" warn the trio to stay away from Lidusis. Rood and Sky ignored his warning as they did not fear Manon nor the fact that he was Chevel's lackey. But Dio had freaked out because he was scared of offending the Klads and Chevel in particular. Several hours after Manon's warning, they walked to the backyard and had encountered Chevel by coincidence. Lidusis was there as well.

Lidusis, on the other hand, panicked as he knew what Chevel was capable of. He tried to chase the trio away as he did not want them to be hurt. Seeing Lidusis' actions, Sky was touched and some part of her admitted that Lidusis was cute. Just a little cute, as he stood in front of the trio, trying to block Chevel from them. It was a futile attempt as Chevel had seen them.

Suddenly, Chevel held his arm out and grabbed Lidusis' face pinning him down to the ground. Rood's eyes widened and tried to intervene.

"LIDUSIS!!!!!!"

But it was too late as Chevel held a mana crystal in another hand, to amplify his powers and chanted out. "What I want is an endless nightmare."

Lidusis fainted immediately, entering a nightmare that the trio could not see. Sky flinched as she recognized the spell. It was a spell that brings out the deepest, darkest and most painful memory in a person's mind. As Rood and Dio rushed to Lidusis worriedly, Sky glared at Chevel with hatred. Before she could get into a fight with him, Professor Heil arrived at the scene after a worried student had notified him. Seeing the professor, Sky could only stop. Professor Heil brought Lidusis to the infirmary and took Chevel with him, to question what had happened. The trio decided to head to the infirmary and waited for Lidusis to wake up.

~ • ~ • ~

In the nightmare that Chevel had casted on Lidusis, Lidusis saw her. A girl with blonde hair and eyes, holding a flower and smiling at him in a meadow of flowers. Lidusis' eyes softened at the sight of the girl.

"Lidusis! Look! It's pretty isn't it?"

Smiling, he nodded and began to walk up to her. Soon, he froze as he stopped in his steps. Blood began to roll down the girl's head as her dress was slowly tainted by blood. Lidusis fell back in shock as the girl walked up to him smiling, inducing fear inside of him. Behind her, was a shadow with demonic red eyes and it looked haunting to him.

"What's wrong, Lidusis?" The girl smiled as the shadow behind her suddenly wrapped around her, seemingly devouring her existence.

Lidusis screamed out as he woke up from his nightmare painting. "N- No..."

Rood's eyes narrowed as he saw a faint blue glow in Lidusis' eyes. Is this illusion magic?

Before Rood could get closer to Lidusis, the nurse stood in front of him and shook her head.

"He seems to be traumatized. Give him some rest. That would be the best for him."

Sky grabbed Rood's shoulder as she looked towards Lidusis and frowned. "She's right, Rood. Lidusis seemed to have suffered from his nightmare. It would be best if we leave, so that he could recover."

Rood glanced back at Sky and sighed.

"You're right. Let's go." Rood walked out of the infirmary with Sky and Dio following behind him.

"W- What do you think happened to Lord Artian? He looked like he was in tremendous pain." Dio asked worriedly.

Sky frowned and looked towards Rood. "You noticed it, right? That was illusion magic. The spell Chevel used was to bring out the most darkest memories of the target. Illusion magic is tricky. If the target believes in the illusions, it could bring potential harm to the target. It would seem that Chevel is an experienced caster of illusion magic." Sky explained as Rood stopped walking and he turned towards Sky.

"... You're thinking what I'm thinking?" Sky nodded as a suspicion arose in her mind while Dio was confused by the duo's conversation.

"W- Wait! What are you two talking about?! Chevel is experienced in illusion magic. What does that even mean?!" Dio exclaimed.

"Dio. Remember what you said? About Lidusis suddenly transforming into a monster in the library. What if that was an illusion casted by Chevel? To make everyone truly think of Lidusis as a monster." Rood explained patiently and Sky nodded in agreement.

"If that's true then... Ahhhh!" Dio had finally caught on with the duo. "T- Then Lord Artian... isn't a monster?"

Sky snorted. "I doubt so. Sometimes... the true monster resides in the human heart."

~ • ~ • ~

The next day, Lidusis had recovered and was attending class. But unlike the previous days, he did not greet the trio. It became clear to them that there was something between Lidusis and Chevel. Something that Lidusis was unwilling to talk about. Sky sighed as she left the classroom, deciding to skip class for once. She walked up to the rooftop and leaned against the railings, taking a deep breath of the fresh air from the rooftop. This is unfair. Lidusis has such a nice and sweet personality and this is the treatment he gets from others.

Sky gritted her teeth in frustration and almost screamed aloud. After several minutes of breathing, she calmed down as she looked at the scenery before her eyes. The scenery outside of Helios was beautiful. From the top of Helios, she could see the imperial city and the people in it. It was breathtaking and the city sits peacefully in the afternoon sun. Taking the chance to admire the scenery before her, Sky's mood instantly improved.

Suddenly, she heard scuffling noises below her and looked down. She spotted several Klads guiding her classmates to the assembly hall. Instantly, she knew something was off as the current period should be Professor Yubino's lesson on magical artifacts. She quickly walked towards the assembly hall discreetly and met Dio and Rood on the way there.

"Something's off, the Klads are taking our classmates to the assembly hall." Dio nodded and he took us to a secret door that leads to the assembly hall. Rood and Sky raised an eyebrow at Dio, surprised that he knew a secret entrance. Dio looked behind him and gulped at the suspicious looks that the duo were giving him.

"W- What?"

"Nah. Just wondering how you knew a secret entrance." Sky pointed out.

"I- I found out during one of my explorations in the school!" Dio explained.

Placing their trust in Dio, the duo followed Dio through the door and hid in a corner as they watched the commotion in the sports hall, careful to slip in unnoticed. Their classmates had followed the Klads after hearing that Professor Yubino was waiting for them in the sports hall. After seeing no professors in sight, they began to get worried as there were a number of Klads surrounding them.

Meanwhile, Manon stood on the stage with several Klads, explaining to them how mana stones worked. Sky watched as she noticed the type of mana stone in his hand. It does not enable the students to use magic but the strength of the mana stone will be enhanced by the level of mana in the wielder.

As Manon explained, a large target board came in and the trio's eyes widened in alarm. These bastards!......How dare they! They have crossed the line this time!

Lidusis was tied to the target board and now, he was their target practice. Manon began announcing to the Idun students. "Today's target will be slightly different from our usual practice boards. I want you Iduns to aim at this monster here. He shall be your target practice for today. Don't be afraid c'mon, we tied both his legs and hands so he can't retaliate. Shoot him, unless... you guys want to join him?"

His voice hardens at the end as the threat becomes apparent. All the students stayed rooted in fear, not knowing what to do.

"C'mon! ... Alright you shall go first." He pointed to an Idun girl who was standing near the front and the girl trembled after being pointed out.

One of the Klads dragged the girl out and forced her to throw a mana stone at Lidusis. The girl trembled as she had never attacked a person before. Looking at the Klads who were watching her menacingly, she struggled as she threw out the mana stone. Luckily the girl was too scared to hit Lidusis so her shot went wild, missing him. But then, a brown haired Klad grabbed a mana stone and threw it right at Lidusis' head.

"Now that's how you shoot! Got it?" The brown haired Klad snickered out as the students watched in fear at his demonstration.

Watching how the stone rebounded from Lidusis' head, Sky gasped in anger and clenched her fists tightly. She turned to Rood, but he wasn't behind her anymore.

"So who's next?" The brown haired Klad shouted out.

Sky looked back as the Klad had a smug look on his face and she narrowed her eyes.

"Me! I'll give it a try!" Rood's voice rang out in the hall. Dio and Sky's eyes widened when they saw Rood standing in the middle of the students, raising his hand with a smile on his face. Sky smirked as she figured that Rood was planning on something.

Time for revenge, bastards.

Rood slowly bent down and grabbed a mana stone and stood upright staring at the target board. "Of course. If you hit the monster, you will get bonu-" Before waiting for Manon's sentence to finish, he threw the mana stone right past his face and hit the target board, creating a large hole. Manon watched in shock at the hole that Rood created. T- That board is 5 inches thick!

"Ahhh...... I missed it. But don't worry. I won't miss the next one." Rood chuckled as he grabbed another mana stone, preparing for his next target

Suddenly, a mana stone flew past Rood and hit the brown haired Klad in the face, knocking him unconscious.

"Ooooopsie! I missed it too! Let me try again." Rood turned around and saw Sky giving an innocent smile and chuckled. Taking Sky's appearance as cue, he threw the mana stone towards the target board with enough force to release the cuff around Lidusis. Once Lidusis was free, Rood looked towards Manon who was staring at him with a shocked expression on his face. Slowly, he could feel a smile working its way onto his face.

"I have an idea! Why don't we switch targets? For example...... The event planner standing on the stage now." Rood suggested.

Manon immediately lost his cool as he glared at Sky and Rood. "Switch targets? Alright...... THE NEW TARGETS ARE YOU TWO! SKY ACKERS! AND ROOD CHRISHI!"

Excluding Manon, the other Klads began to attack Rood and Sky. Rood easily dodged their punches and kicked them in the face while Sky looked like she was dancing out of their reach gracefully and twisting the wrists of incoming punches. Rood looked toward Sky as he watched her fight. I wonder how he does it so beautifully, like a war dance. Maybe he isn't so simple like the first time we met.

Suddenly, a mana stone flew towards Rood. But as he was about to dodge it, Lidusis stood in front of him and took the hit instead. He heard a cracking sound and looked at Lidusis worriedly, "Are you okay? I swore I heard a bone crack......"

Lidusis quickly shook his head and Rood noticed that his hands were still tied behind his back. He sighed as he stared at the man who protected him. "Lidusis...... Why did you block the attack for me?"

"I- It's because...... everyone getting hurt here is my fault." Rood frowned and glanced at the Klads that were picking up the mana stones and sighed. "It's not your fault. And besides...... I just really... hate those guys." He quickly dodged the incoming mana stones and grabbed some from the ground and threw them towards the Klads, knocking several of them unconscious.

Eventually, Sky knocked out 8 Klads while Rood knocked out 9 Klads and the only one left standing was Manon. Feeling satisfied, Sky walked towards Rood and patted his shoulder, "Go all out. I will take care of Lidusis' wounds. Make sure he regrets it." He nodded as Sky ran off to untie Lidusis and began to take care of his wounds.

As Rood began walking up to Manon, he had completely lost his composure. "You piece of shit! Chevel will not let you go for this! You and the monst-"

"I AM SICK OF PEOPLE CALLING LIDUSIS A MONSTER!" Sky's voice rang out in the hall and everyone turned to look at her. "What did Lidusis do wrong huh? He did nothing wrong! Look! He even used himself as a shield to protect the students from getting hurt while Manon and the Klads didn't care! SO WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER HERE?!" When her words fell upon the ears of the Idun students, they started to look down in shame.

"You little bastard!" Manon rushed and swung a punch at Rood but before he could land a hit on him, a mana stone flew by and hit him in the face, knocking him out.

"P- Professor Rowell...... It's Professor Rowell!!!!" The Idun students shouted out. Both Sky and Rood looked up as they flinched at the sight of Tessiana walking in. They recognized Tessiana from the auction hall, particularly Sky, who saved her from Shicmuon.

Rood began to wonder if she had seen the both of them fighting against the Klads. Soon, other professors busted the main door open. Before Professor Heil could ask for an explanation, Sky tossed the mana stone in her hand aside while Rood quickly collapsed on the stage to avoid suspicions.

Who knew Master's idea for me to be a genius with a chronic illness could come in handy?

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