As Sophia and Axel left the Beast Forest, they left Prince Lucien nearly half-dead, open in the ground, without a care for whether a wild beast or monster would eat him. But unknown to the two of them, there was an individual who was seeing this from high in the sky, a powerful, regal-looking man with brown hair, a short brown beard, and brown eyes. It was the principal Alric Stragoy himself.

He watched on in amusement the shenanigans of the children. It was surprising to see that Axel had such close relations with the valkyrie. And how the valkyrie was even willing to go so far for him, to the point of beating up the prince into a half-dead state. And here everyone thought that Sophia Evercrest was close to Lucien and Lumina Suncrest.

"Hmm, that doesn't appear to be so at all," the principal mused.

"But it's pretty strange, why is Sophia Evercrest so close to Axel. Caring about him so deeply? No, it almost seems to be borderline infatuation over the boy. He also looks quite crazy over her. Did she seduce him using her charms? It's possible, but it doesn't seem like that entirely. There must be some more drama going on between them." The principal, floating 50 meters high in the sky, thought over the situation in his mind, but didn't care too much about the children's drama.

But there was one thing concerning. The royal family of Suncrest has always exerted extreme control over the Valkyries. As far as he knew, every single Valkyrie over the last 3000-5000 years had always married the next crowning king. At the same time, some did naturally form relationships and loved each other. But in some cases, or maybe in most cases, it was something forced. History might as well be a lie.

It seems he would have to warn the boy to be careful of this matter. Otherwise, if the king or any member of the royal family finds out about this, they would likely try to kill Axel Nomrad secretly, given that he had just revealed his runic eyes. This guarantees that Damien Nomrad is dead. So, there is no one to protect him. If it were just about the runic eyes, they would have tried to control him and maybe halt his progress to the higher levels.

But they won't compromise when it comes to the valkyrie. Though nothing is known about how the summoning spell operates, it must have an immense cost to bring a being with such potential into this world. Not to mention that the very reason the Suncrest Great Kingdom is the strongest all comes back to the existence of the valkyrie. Not only is she destined to become the strongest human without a doubt. She will also pass down her immense potential to her children, the children she will have with the next king.

Yes, the very reason the Suncrest kings are the strongest individuals of humanity is because they have the blood of the valkyrie running through their veins, which makes them noticeably stronger than others within the same phase of power. With a sigh, he stopped all these thoughts. The main reason he was here in the first place was to investigate the death of those 20 students. Thankfully, none of the children fighting below seems to be involved.

Since they each were overwhelmingly strong, they naturally had the power to do such a thing. But they would not have been able to erase the traces of it so thoroughly, even with him searching with his main body. The traces he could find suggest that it was a work by something of the other races. Particularly 'them'.

But it doesn't make sense; they have never once turned their attention towards humanity. Was it a stray? A rogue individual? He didn't know. But it was concerning to say the least. Since more students have started to disappear, the situation has become increasingly concerning. For now, he was able to keep it under wraps. But he didn't know how long it would last until the students found out about it. And it wasn't only the students who were venturing into the beast forest who were disappearing.

Instead, students who were sleeping within their apartments in the dead of the night had disappeared without even a single clue. Something extremely wrong was happening right under his nose; he, who was a peak 5th phase powerhouse, was unable to understand or capture who or whatever was doing this, even after searching the entire academy and the Beast Forest. He could find nothing.

And this generation had the finest batch of students within the past 100 years, even without considering the few exceptional ones. It's just that those few ones shine much brighter than many other students who would have been considered great talents in regular times, but now seem average compared to them. So, he couldn't let anything happen to the students of this batch. Were the great kingdoms or any minor kingdom scheming for something? Or was it the work of the different races he didn't know?

But he was iron-willed to stop this at all costs. He wouldn't let such bright stars of humanity who could bring real change in the next generation fade away like this. With a sigh, he recreated a few clones of himself through a complex and rare magic of his own creation and research, as well as his achievements in the 2nd trial, after which he had become a 5th-phase Seeker. He had combined his clones to be at his full strength to make sure that he didn't miss a single thing when searching the entire academy.

But now, since he did not find out anything, he would have to deploy multiple clones to various parts of the academy to maintain constant surveillance personally. No more disappearances must occur. Otherwise, it would tarnish his reputation as the principal of the academy, which he has operated with flawless precision for over 60 years.

But alas, despite the principal's attempts to place all six of his clones on six of the critical points within the academy to prevent the disappearance of the students, the plan ultimately failed. It continued to happen, and it wasn't like the principal only placed his clones throughout the academy's main points; even all the other professors using their own methods remained alert, all the staff members and every 2nd phase Seeker and above belonging to the academy have been on alert even since the death of the 20 students all belonging to the pro noble faction.

The principal's inability to obtain any information from Ken Dusker was another blow to the academy, as it suggested that something terrible was happening right under their noses. Alric had already begun to suspect a traitor or multiple traitors among them, even though he himself had been keeping an eye on them. Specifically, the suspicious ones, but there was no weird activity from their part. As for the ones the Principal trusted, there was no need to question anything about them, nor was there any suspicious activity from any of them.

And it was precisely the fact that despite the whole of the academy being under the surveillance of the principal and other powerful Seekers, there was not a single clue on how the students continued to disappear. Alric investigated it further and found a specific pattern in it. Most of the students who were disappearing were actually from the six minor kingdoms. The first 20 who were killed were from the three great kingdoms. But those who 'disappeared' into thin air, 80% of them were from the minor kingdoms. And it was mostly important individuals from the minor kingdoms who were gradually vanishing into thin air.

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