Emperor's Reckoning

The three students rushed toward the plain where the battle had ended. Their breaths were immediately taken away when they saw the devastation Selena had inflicted up close. There was a clear line where no trees could be seen. They all gulped down their saliva as they remembered that all it took was one swing downward with the ominous blade in her hand.

"A-Are you okay?" asked Reinhard.

"She is fine," Lyon laughed at his question. He approached Selena before the latter looked up with lips pouting to the side. He smiled and rustled her hair, "It's alright, I will try the soup next time."

Selena smiled from ear to ear before nodding twice in excitement. She put away the ominous blade before hugging him.

Lyon's nose picked up the serene scent from her hair before looking at the three students who were looking at him. "Looks like we ran out of leads."

"Heh, they couldn't even run," Noah muttered. "How can you even run from something like that."

( She is crazy powerful ) thought Rayus as he gulped. ( Crazy and powerful ).

Reinhard looked around before he noticed the caravan then let out a big sigh, "At least the caravan is still here."

"Oh! Where's the horse?" asked Noah before he looked at Lyon.

"Oh... I left it in the forest, hahaha!" Lyon laughed before he told Reinhard, "Come get him."

"What? Why me? I don't even know where you put him?" asked Reinhard.

"C'mon, if you can't even find a horse, how can you find your way to win that graduation or whatever," said Lyon.

"Y-Y... That's not fair," said Reinhard as he ran toward the forest.

"That's not... that doesn't even correlate with each other," muttered Noah as he slumped his shoulder.

"Rayus, go get him," said Lyon.

"Eh?"

"Go get him, Rayus," said Lyon. "It's Reinhard, I know you trust him and I know you trust him enough that he would screw this one up."

Rayus sighed, "Alright."

Lyon watched Rayus rushing into the forest, "and there they go, the sharp and the dull."

"Wait here, let me cook you some," said Selena.

Lyon and Noah had never raised their brows so hard before. The former said with a wry smile and pulled her arm, "No, no, no, it's alright Selena, besides it's time for us to go to Guh City and meet the person we're supposed to meet."

"Y-Yeah, madam, Teacher Lyon is right," said Noah.

"Are you sure? You haven't eaten anything in a day," said Selena as she tilted her head.

"A day in a half," muttered Noah before his eyes snapped open through the killing intent that crashed on him before it went in a flash. He quickly covered his mouth. He knew who it was from. Who else but the new teacher?

Selena turned before her other hand was grabbed by Lyon. She was pulled to his embrace. Her hair was caressed, and she could feel the soft thump of his heart.

"Selena, please, you've done enough," said Lyon while his eyes were daggering at Noah. "Let's eat at Guh City, we can use the bandits' money to pay for our meal. I know it won't be the same as your beloved soup, but we can have that next time. Make sure you make a giant pot next time so that Cecile and the others could have their fill."

---

"Hmm?" Cecile looked up at the ceiling.

"What's wrong?" asked Sophia.

"I don't know, I just feel something, eerie."

"Eh?" Sophia took a step back, "Are you sure?! Should I warn the others?"

"No, it's fine, the feeling is gone," said Cecile before the door in her room slammed open.

Kesya was breathing hard as she looked at Cecile with disbelief, "E-Empress! Did you feel that?!"

"So there is something?!" Sophia exclaimed.

Cecile nodded, "But I think it's just women's intuition."

Kesya's smile was twitching, ( She looked really scary when she goes all rational ).

---

"Cecile can eat the leftover," said Selena as she buried her head in his chest.

"Teacher we found the horse!" shouted Reinhard from the forest.

"You want a reward or something?" asked Lyon.

"We got a reward?" asked Reinhard.

"No, you idiot," said Rayus.

Rayus and Reinhard approached Lyon and the others. Reinhard put down the horse from his shoulder before dusting away his hands.

"So what's next?" asked Rayus.

"We loot what we can," said Lyon as he looked at the mingled corpse all over the plain, "Be fast though, that huge blast is surely inviting prying eyes."

"Are we seriously going to take from the dead?" asked Reinhard.

"Stop your morality," said Lyon. "They're dead and you still breathe, that is all."

"Teacher is right," said Rayus. "At times like this, it's better to see it as their way of atonement."

"I can't agree more," said Noah as he was already one step ahead of the rest of them.

Lyon smirked, "Remember to take as much Second Heaven Token as you can, 'cause we literally have no money."

Reinhard squatted down near the first corpse he saw, "Ugh, I feel like I'm a grave robber."

"Nah, don't think of it that way, we are archeologists, yeah that's the word," Lyon nodded.

Noah leered at Lyon, with his lips twitching. ( Sometimes I wish I have half the shame he has, which is none ).

After some time.

"I'm done over here," said Rayus as he stood up.

"I'm done over here too," said Reinhard.

"Done," said Noah.

All three soon gathered in front of Lyon and Selena. They presented what they found but nothing catch the man's eye.

"We found a few broken spatial rings, so those are naught," shrugged Noah.

"So how many tokens we got?" asked Lyon.

"Counting all of them, it would be about one hundred and fifty thousand tokens in total," said Rayus.

"That's, that's a really good number," said Lyon. "I never thought that it would come up rounded well like that."

"We can buy the VIP card in the auction with this, but we won't be able to buy anything there," said Noah.

"We were never planning to buy anything, remember?" said Rayus.

"Oh, we have changed plans," said Lyon. "We are going to buy something there, but the time is not now, we need to get the entire Burgeon Swan treasury before we can make any purchase."

"You're going to take their treasury?" Reinhard asked, "Their whole treasury?"

"Whatever we can get our hands on," Lyon shrugged, "It's not like they'll be missing about it later."

"But, that's inconceivable," said Noah, "I mean, can we really destroy them? Us five?"

"I don't know about completely destroying them, but we won't lose, that's for sure," said Lyon as he cued the state of the forest with his eyes.

The three students closed their lips. The lady in her embrace was quite a monster despite her beautiful face. She rendered the whole line of trees into broken woods.

"Alright, enough with that, we need to get to Guh City— They must have heard the loud destruction," said Lyon as he and Selena went toward the caravan. "Reinhard, take the wheel."

Noah and Rayus sighed as they left their spot.

"Huh? What? What does he mean by that?" asked Reinhard. "Hey wait for me!"

The group continued their journey and left the corpse unattended on the plain. The caravan traversed through the woods and soon found themselves on the main road.

Meanwhile back in Nemk City.

Refl calmly reached out for a bottle of liquor in the morning before he heard rushed steps coming to his room. He furrowed his brows and put back the liquor inside the shelves under his desk.

"What do you want?" asked Refl before a group of people opened the door that led to the backside of the bar.

"Sir Refl! You have to see this," said one of them.

"What?" asked Refl.

"It's about the loud explosion from before," said one of them, "We think we know the source."

"Oh?" Refl stood up and adjusted his clothing before nodding, "What is it?"

"It's from the forest, sir," said one of them.

Refl immediately frowned, "Are you certain?"

"We can bet our lives, sir," said one of them. "You need to see this."

After a slight pause, Refl said, "Lead the way."

Refl— with his face covered — rode on a horse with a couple of others leading the front. ( Don't tell that you guys met your end already ). He contemplated the outcome of Lyon's well-being following the loud explosion, but all of his thought were erased as his pupils shrunk. He pulled the reign but the neigh of his horse couldn't reach his brain. He got off the horse before taking a couple of steps forward with his lips still parted.

"What could have caused this," said one of the lackeys.

"Such deep crevice," said another.

Refl's eyes twitch as he caught something in his view. He squinted and sharpened his eyes toward the plain far away.

"Heh," Refl smirked before turning around, "Let's leave."

"B-But sir?"

Refle played deaf and rode the horse away in the direction of Nemk City.