The Hidden World

“What a mess.”

 

Yuna was standing in the middle of what used to be part of the forest but seemed to have became a clearing. There were trees cut down and bushes destroyed, their leaves and branches scattered everywhere. And in the center of the newly made space was the bloody body of someone that Yuna knew.

“Nataru Katem? What happened here?” she said out loud.

The person in the black cloak who had stolen the jewel was nowhere to be seen. It seemed that Yuna has lost them. The only person who was around was the dead body of her former homeroom instructor.

‘Hmm? What’s this?’

She bent down and picked up a golden pendant, a pendant that she recognized immediately. This was like the one worn by the man who attacked her. It was the symbol for the Shikaku.

‘Did someone leave this here? Or…’

Yuna looked more closely at the body on the ground. Next to the dead body was a black mask that resembled the one worn by the person who stole the jewel. When she examined Nataru’s face, she found small indented outline that matched the outline of the mask. Looking off to the side, she saw a sword looked like the one the thief wielded.

‘So Nataru was the thief,’ Yuna realised. ‘But then why was he killed and where is the jewel now?’

A noise behind her drew her attention away and she saw the figure of an attractive elf with long pink hair. She wore a long sleeve shirt that hugged her tightly and a pair of track pants. She looked at Yuna with soft blue eyes.

‘The headmaster, Selene,’ Yuna recognized. ‘She’s just as beautiful as her photos.’

Then Yuna noticed the person beside the Selene for the first time. It was the deputy headmaster, a rather buff wolf beastkin. Yuna had seen multiple articles on the internet about how attractive he was as well as a number of fan clubs.

‘But you don’t see him all that often. There are only a few pictures out of him. Selene has even less.’

“Oh, you’re Yuna aren’t you?” Selene said. “I’m Selene as you should very well know and this here is Gale. He’s the deputy headmaster if you didn’t know.”

Gale growled in greeting.

“He doesn’t talk all that often,” she explained. “And he hasn’t married so he hasn’t inherited his family name yet.”

“I understand,” Yuna replied.

Beastkin weren’t allowed to bear their family name until they had found a partner. Once they did, Yuna heard that parties were held that varied in size depending on how large the family was.

“You wouldn’t mind us impeding on a LIA investigation would you?” Selene asked cheerfully. “This is Academy property.”

Yuna stared back at her, her eyes wide.

“Oh, yes. I know that you are a police cadet,” Selene said. “But don’t worry, I kept that under wraps.”

“How did you find out?” Yuna asked. The captain had assured her that her identity was a complete secret.

“I have excellent eyes,” she replied vaguely.

Selene went over to the body and crouched down. Then she stared at the dead man with a look of complete concentration. She turned her head slowly, taking in the surroundings.

Gale growled, holding up two fingers. Then he pointed toward the trees, growling again as he did so.

“Nataru, Nataru, Nataru,” Selene said, her voice tinted with sadness. “Why did you join them?”

“So he was with the Shikaku?” Yuna asked. “And he was the one that stole the jewel right?”

“Yes, everything points toward that. Gale, would you please announce that Nataru has died after he attempted to stop the thief. Thank you~,” Selene said.

Gale nodded and started to jog back toward the stadium.

“Make sure you actually speak alright?” she yelled.

“Got it,” he replied, his voice a deep rumble.

Selene turned back to the body and examined it some more.

“Why didn’t you say Nataru was the one that stole it?” Yuna asked.

“Think about for a bit. If I told the whole school that one of their teachers was a traitor and was working against us, how do you think they would react?”

“There would be outrage and possibly panic?”

“No, not that. There will be distrust. We can’t teach students that don’t believe what it is we are telling them,” Selene said. “Your other points are also valid. We don’t want them panicking either.”

“But still, why not just tell them? If you do it like this, then Nataru will never be blamed,” Yuna said.

Selene sighed.

“You’re too young to understand. It doesn’t matter if the general public doesn’t know. All that matters is that the right people know. I know it was Nataru. The LIA now knows it’s Nataru. They are the ones that will be investigating.”

Yuna didn’t respond.

“You’ll understand soon enough,” Selene said. “Anyway, I found all that could be found here.”

“Really? That fast?” Yuna said, shocked. “Then you know what happened to the jewel?”

“Yes, it was stolen? If you mean where the jewel is then I have no idea,” she said. “But I have a fairly good idea of what happened here.”

She stood up and began to slowly walk around the scene.

“There are multiple stab wounds on the body that suggest a small blade, most likely a dagger,” Selene said. “The person that killed Nataru is fairly light but quite strong. It also seems that this person is quite careful. They burned up Nataru’s cloak—you can see the ashes—and wiped away all possible DNA traces. I can see their physical traces but they disappear once you reach that bush over there.”

Selene pointed at a bush in the same direction that Gale had pointed towards previously.

“There is also some residual magic in the air but most of it belongs to Nataru,” she continued. “There isn’t enough of a trace of the other person for me to id. I do know that this person is fire attribute. They are most likely an elf. Must be around rank B for them to take down Nataru. And they most likely ran off with the jewel.”

“You got all of that in a few minutes?”

“My eyes are exceptional,” Selene replied. “If I had time and I didn’t need to work, I would be able to find out who did this. But I can’t exhaust my mana here. Let’s go back now.”

Yuna walked beside her as they headed toward the tournament.

“So what about the jewel?” Yuna asked.

“That’s going to be difficult,” Selene replied. “We’ll try to find it, but we aren’t going to tear up the entire city to do so. If it’s lost, then it’s lost.”

“There is one thing I don’t understand,” Yuna began.

“Hmm?”

“Why did you offer a school treasure as a reward?” she asked. “If it’s so valuable, why would you give it away? Especially an elemental jewel since one would need to be of that affinity in order to use the jewel.”

Selene sighed and shook her head.

“I said the exact same things,” she said. “But I don’t run a dictatorship in the school. The majority of the staff was for the idea and so I let them put it up as the reward. I didn’t expect this to happen though. If I did, I would have vetoed the whole idea.”

Yuna didn’t reply. There wasn’t anything else she wanted to know. And there was nothing she could say to comfort Selene.

“Don’t worry about this too much, this isn’t your problem,” Selene said. “Just enjoy your school life as much as possible.”

Yuna nodded.

“Good. You never know how much of it you’ll get,” she continued. “Trust me. I would know.”