"Nrao!"
"!?"
Blanid thought the danger had passed, so Polaris's urgent growl took her by surprise.
Only that the golden bear cub wasn't informing her about the incoming danger.
It was trying to make her pay attention to the front gate.
And indeed, someone was there...
A silver-haired, golden-eyed, Saria Vallhall.
She was riding on top of a particularly disturbing-looking, murky-black spider-wolf hybrid of sorts.
At one point, Saria did inform Blanid about her contracted fae's actual appearance, and since she did not look as if she was captured or showed signs of deofolization, the disguised girl figured out that this must be it.
"Oho! I was about to start feeling bad that we didn't show up sooner after the explosion, but it seems you have everything under control."
"...Saria. There are SO MANY people dead! Where were you!?"
The silver-haired girl gasped playfully seeing the messy remains of a deofolized human, but Blanid didn't really appreciate the attempt to lift the mood.
"Hey! I got abducted in my sleep and kept asleep by one of three defolozied humans! Or at least a copy of it!"
Saria frowned and grumbled defensively.
"Which one…? Was it teacher Brice Hervolst?"
"Eh? So you know?!"
Blanid tensed up and inquired, causing Saria to gasp.
"We know there were at least three. Oliver Berdon…"
The disguised girl nodded, motioning at the frozen corpse behind her.
"Brice Hervolst."
She added, nodding at the silver-haired girl to acknowledge her situation before looking towards the dark half-dome…
"And Kyle Houndred."
"K-Kyle Houndred?! THE Houndred?! As in Rotsard's former maid!?"
Blanid finished the count, making Saria's golden eyes widen in shock.
"What are you practicing like that? Weren't Vallhalls already looking into that branch family anyway?"
"O-of course they were! They still are! That's why I can't believe that one of theirs would just walk into the Royal Academy, deofolized or not! Especially Kyle!"
The disguised girl couldn't quite understand the silver-haired girl's reaction, but got quickly enlightened on the matter.
"Do you think that my family would just let her go without informing anyone?! Without informing me?!"
Saria called out, getting agitated.
"I must contact them! Something had to happen! Fenri! Can't you do something!?"
She raised her voice, calling out to her fae without waiting for Blanid's reaction.
Balnid herself went silent and backed off a step.
She never considered that something could have happened to THE Vallhall family, and, honestly, she doubted that any of the others who helped bring down former Kyle Houndred was any different.
…and that could spell danger…
Overlooking the circumstances surrounding a deofolized human was a mistake that they shouldn't have made.
*WHOOM*
While both girls were quite troubled, something that neither of them expected happened.
Right in the spot where the entrance to the main building had been before the whole thing got leveled, a magic gate opened.
*thump*
"...ghh-huagh…!"
Not even two seconds later, someone tumbled through it, plopping pitifully on the bare ground, gasping for air.
"Ghugh… Uuughghg…! …ard..! R… ard…!"
The person did their best to crawl up but kept slipping, or rather, their arms were giving up on them, as they whimpered like a beaten dog.
"I-isn't that vice headmaster!?"
"Syon Gemleware? That's supposed to be him…?"
"...ease…! Help…! R-Rotsard…! Please, help!"
Blanid gasped in shock, Saria furrowed her brows and shook her head in disbelief, and Syon cried out pitifully, like a bullied child seeking their reliable older brother to come to their rescue.
The magic gate behind him closed without letting anyone else pass through, which was already suspicious in and of itself, but even so, the most intriguing part of it all was most definitively Syon.
"Rotsard…!"
"What is going on? How did you end up like this, vice headmaster?!"
The cry repeated as if Syon wasn't actually aware of his surroundings and whether Rotsard was around or not, causing Blanid to approach him and kneel down by his side, placing her hand on his shoulder reassuringly.
"Student Justin…? Wh-where's Rotsard…? Wait… did I mess up the gate's coordinates? Where are we?"
Seeing Blanid in her disguise, Syon mumbled in confusion, looking between the partially destroyed boys' dormitory and the empty lot where the Academy's main building stood for so many years.
"That's terrible… I need to… What in the world is THAT?!"
Syon mumbled, shaking his head before inadvertently noticing the black half-sphere and gasping in utter shock.
"Well… good news is, you got back to the Royal Academy properly. Bad news is…"
Blanid leaned back, glancing over at the Academy's grounds before taking a deep breath.
"...we were under attack by three separate deofolized humans…"
She revealed in an awkwardly quiet voice, bothered by the vice headmaster's reaction.
"Th-there's deofolized human here too…wait… THREE!?"
Syon flinched and gasped, only to turn pale as a ghost and cry in panic.
"Three deofolized humans and a couple of corrupted humans. But we've dealt with them… only not without suffering some losses…"
"DID YOU SAY 'TOO'!?"
Blanid explained with a wry smile and a shrug, but Saria suddenly joined in on the conversation with a very valid question, although slightly too aggressive.
"Eh? WAIT! That's right! Did you ask whether there are deofolize humans here too?! Were you fighting a deofolized human!? But, weren't you supposed to be in the royal caste?!"
Once Blanid realized what she missed, she also could barely hold back her voice.
"..."
"Vice headmaster!"
Syon bit his lips, choosing to stay silent while dodging eye contact, causing Blanid to grab him by the shoulders and shake him up.
"Get a grip! What happened?!"
She called out, trying to force an answer from the silent man.
"Who deofolized!?"
"...i-it was…"
Blanid insisted and, finally, her actions brought results she wanted with Syon focusing his eyes on her and opening his mouth…
"What the…?! What happened to your eye!?"
But the disguised girl ended up interrupting him herself, as she was now able to notice that one of Syon's eyes was missing.
It wasn't gauged out, or at least it didn't look as if it was done recently.
There was no blood, only an empty eyesocket allowing one to peer inside Syon's skull…
…and it did not look like a human bone in there…
"The eye? Don't tell me the eye with Mana Sense is missing?! So there's a deofolized human with Mana Sense running wild?! Even the Royal Magician won't stand a chance!"
"...!"
Upon learning the disturbing fact, Saria jumped in, basically forcing Syon to face her before anxiously gritting her teeth, making the vice headmaster flinch.
…only that he didn't flinch because of her action, but…
"...Royal Magician…"
"!!!"
Blanid, who ended up on the side, swallowed her saliva and just spoke up quietly as if trying to check something, and ended up causing Syon to flinch again…!