As I watched the enticing angelic figure of the headmistress wresting with an ever-growing pure aura of light as if she was trying to prevent herself from burning up. As the light aura grew stronger and stronger, I was able to detect the pull of an unfamiliar radiance that I actually sensed through my soul. It didn't take a genius to realize it was the call of the Divine Spark, something I was finally able to detect without the assistance of the system as the intensity of the power increased.

A potential power source was here, and the headmistress was clearly at her weakest, giving me the perfect opportunity to make a move.

Unfortunately, I was quick to abandon that tactic, even as a possibility, because as I absorbed a sliver of aura, it burned inside my soul space ceaselessly like it met with an enemy, forcing me to push it out, creating a mana flare as a result. Luckily, her out-of-control aura was enough to drown the small flare of mana that exploded.

The effect of the divine spark, even a sliver of it, was much more violent than I had expected, enough for me to abandon any hasty attempt trying to absorb that. I needed to get a better understanding of the nature of the Divine Spark as well as how to contain that.

However, that was a task for a later time. The brightness around the headmistress got stronger and stronger, to a point that I could barely see a silhouette of her.

It was the best opportunity to leave the room, and since she was clearly had other priorities, it also meant a small opportunity to visit her office. With the additional control given by the weird crystal —even though its effects already started to fade noticeably— I was able to break through the defenses of the office quickly. One interesting thing was that the moment I stepped out of the confines of her room, I lost my ability to detect the aura of light she was spreading despite the intensity.

The magical isolation in her room was impressive if it could keep that explosive aura completely contained. With that isolated, it was going to be an easy job…

… at least, that was what I had been hoping for, but the fates decided to give a different gift to me. The moment I cracked open the door, I came face to face with another hooded figure with absolutely no visible location. Her clothes and the cloak covered her body perfectly, not revealing even a hair. Despite that, however, it was very clear that she was a female.

A skin-tight leather suit was not particularly efficient in terms of hiding the delicious curves of the body.

The more important detail was her reaction. Even if the way she dressed hadn't been enough to reveal that she didn't have any more right to actually be in this place rather, her panic at seeing me revealed that she didn't have any more right to be here than I did.

Unfortunately, she moved even quicker than I could react —at least, not without summoning enough mana to risk being caught in the first place. So, I watched as the thief threw herself back, breaking through the window, triggering every single ward in the office in her hurry.

"Fuck my luck," I murmured as I used the stairs to dash out before the headmistress could react. I had no idea how long it would take to suppress the Divine Spark and join the chase, but I certainly didn't want to get caught. Still, I didn't want to get away empty-handed, so before leaving, I arrived at the bookshelf, used my cloak as a bag to shove everything on the desk before treating the books on the shelf the same.

Then, I dashed away, undecided about whether I should be happy or sad about the sudden intrusion. While the surprise thievery prevented me from examining the office carefully, it also gave me a convenient scapegoat to steal everything from her desk. While the thief was being chased by the guards after her very noticeable escape through the window, I dashed to my room and put the cloak in a corner —warded it carefully to prevent detection in case the headmistress decided to rely on magical investigation methods— before leaving the room to join the hunt for the thief.

Whether to thank her for making my life easier or ruining my plan, I would only know after examining my accidental loot.

The moment I stepped outside, I was met with total chaos, with people running around like a headless chicken. Apparently, the extensive defensive preparations they deployed against a possible invading army weren't enough to catch a thief. I wondered whether it was because of the monster hordes forcing the school to deploy the elites out, or the effectiveness of the spies inside the school sabotaging the defense efforts.

Regardless of the reason, however, it didn't bid well for the survival chances of the school, even with the magical defenses updated. I really needed to come back and pay some attention to it.

But before that, I needed to catch a naughty thief and teach her a lesson. After sneaking out of the school, I was quick to cast a spell that was quickly becoming my most favorite one, and summoned another elemental mount.

[-1183 Mana]

With the speed advantage it granted, it hadn't been difficult to catch up with the thief and a large group of guards following her. The headmistress was absent. Unfortunately, I didn't know whether it was because she didn't want to have the risk to act and get ambushed like Titania had been ambushed earlier, or the stuff I managed to steal wasn't important for her to bother acting.

Also, pity that she had used her cloak to wrap her body completely, not giving me another glimpse of her curvy body wrapped in a leather bodysuit.

I watched from a distance —with an illusion to cover my presence— as the guards attacked the thief again and again with a dangerous mixture of ranged weapons and spell attacks, only for our thief to dance between the attacks. It was an impressive combination of skills, stats, and endless practice, and even more impressive because I could see that she wasn't stretching herself to her limits.

I was wondering the benefits of intervening to look like I took her down to get some brownie points from the headmistress —but not actually catch her, as doing so would remove my convenient scapegoat. I didn't hurry up, because, despite the relentless attack, she was yet to attack back.

However, as she ducked and weaved between the attack with beautiful grace, I noticed a pattern in a particular direction the thief was driving the guards. I prepared myself to intervene. While my sense of belonging to the school was shaky, it wasn't shaky enough to actually let them be killed by a bunch of random people. I gathered my mana, ready to cast an inferno that would turn the thief and everything fifty feet around her to remove the even slightest hope of escaping —and also conveniently giving me an excuse about the lack of books and other trinkets in the possession of her body— when her dark figure delved through overgrowth and dashed out at the other side…

Or more accurately, a dark figure dashed through the other side of the overgrowth. It wasn't a disguise in the first place despite the advantages given by her cloaked body. The new figure was taller by a couple of inches, for example, not to mention lacking her natural grace when she displayed during her endless dodging.

But there was no hope for them to trick me, because, from the difference in their movement, it was clear that the new figure was a man. Just the way he stepped was enough to reveal that.

The new figure dashed forward furiously, using pure speed to open the distance between him and the group, luring them away from the outgrowth. A rather impressive switch, I noted as I watched them disappear, satisfied with their lack of actual violence.

From what I could read from her abilities, the thief herself was alone to take a significant portion of the group down, and the man that took her place as decoy didn't look any weaker. They could have taken down the guards if the man had ambushed them, but instead, they were being really careful to handle things without violence.

So, I stayed back with a clean conscience, hiding myself —rather easily, as I was still under the effect of the weird buff I received from the crystal platform— while I waited for my sexy thief to step out of the outgrowth.

And she did so after five minutes, dashing forward at a decent pace. I followed her with a wide smile, because without the absence of a respectable horde of guards, she had finally loosened the cloak around herself, giving me a better view of her body, wrapped in tight leather, her strong legs tightening with every step deliciously, tempting me to unwrap her from that leather outfit like a gift, curious what I would find underneath.

I just needed to find her destination.

I hadn't had to wait for long, as barely twenty minutes of desperate dash later, she finally arrived at a caravan, and sneaked into it. It was a large caravan, surrounded with a well-armored guard regiment, clearly proficient. The first layer of the guards hadn't even noticed her presence, but I saw a guard defending one of the inner carts move slightly to allow her to pass easily. She clearly belonged to that caravan. I didn't follow her, because the guards surrounded the inner coaches looked too strong to trick easily. And if the damaged state of the carts and the guards were any indicator, things were clearly not

Unfortunately, it wasn't convenient for me to attack the group, because of one important detail. The caravan was flying the personal standard of the Royal family, which meant only one thing.

The crown princess had finally arrived.

I couldn't help but sigh as I decided to return to the school. The current situation was complicated enough with the necromancers, their spies, a mysterious organization with the ability to control monsters and create artificial warriors, the surprising twist about the true nature of the headmistress… Things were hard to navigate enough before adding a royal family member who was supposed to be in the school just to craft a weapon, but turned out to be daring enough to steal stuff from the most secure room from the

And while technically it was possible that it wasn't the crown princess that sent the thief, that wasn't good news if that was the case. Because if there was someone in the royal caravan that could not only send such a capable thief out but also arrange a guard to ignore her presence but with a differing goal from the princess herself, that wouldn't help any in terms of a complicated situation. So, I really hoped the princess was responsible for the thievery.

I started traveling the same route, my mind occupied by the possible ramifications of the latest revelations, and whether I could turn them to my own benefit…

—

[Level: 30 Experience: 447193 / 465000

Strength: 41 Charisma: 53

Precision: 35 Perception: 37

Agility: 35 Manipulation: 40

Speed: 34 Intelligence: 44

Endurance: 34 Wisdom: 46

HP: 5370 / 5370 Mana: 6219 / 6600 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [97/100]

Expert Speech [70/75]

Advanced Craft [50/50]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 21/25]

[Helga - Level 17/21]