Magus Supremacy

Chapter 897: Painful Memory (1)

Chapter 897

"Wait, wait, wait! You are a what now?!" Amir blurted out in shock, his voice echoing through the clearing.

Two hours had passed with Grey meticulously explaining every harrowing detail of his journey—from the moment he returned home to find a member of the Otherworlders in his house, the tragic event that claimed his mother’s life, his violent teleportation to another realm, and the subsequent loss of his memories.

He recounted every trial he had faced up until his ascension as the new head of a faction in the world of warriors, and his eventual return to his own world.

He spared no details in his narration, and Amir was clearly having a difficult time processing the sheer magnitude of everything he heard.

Because they were unable to find a suitable place to sit and discuss their situation, they had remained standing in the same position, the surrounding fires from the burning corpses finally dying out into smoldering embers.

Throughout the lengthy explanation, Amir had been unable to interrupt.

His eyes kept widening and shrinking back down in disbelief, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled to grasp the gravity of the tale.

Grey’s journey had been an immense rollercoaster of reality-shattering events.

Concepts and powers Amir never knew existed were being laid bare in front of him.

Though the young mage chose to remain silent about some of his newly awakened affinities for the time being, he kept those secrets tucked away.

Now that the story was finished, Amir was vigorously scratching his head, trying to digest the massive influx of information.

"This is all too crazy. Now I know why I could sense such a different type of aura and energy radiating from you.

You have definitely become more different than before. And you have truly been through a lot. I can’t even begin to imagine the weight of it."

Grey let out a bitter chuckle as he looked up at the darkening sky, his expression weary.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

He blinked once, his focus returning to the present as he looked back at Amir with furrowed brows.

"How did you even know about the elves? And what are you doing here to begin with?"

Amir looked at him for several long seconds, staring deep into the eyes of the mage.

The intensity of the gaze made it seem like he was being doubtful or perhaps searching for a hidden truth.

"Are you thinking that I’m actually with the Otherworlders?"

Grey shifted his stance slightly, his body language guarded.

"Tell me about it. You happen to be here on the very day they were attacked. People I thought I could trust have turned out to be part of that organisation. Mages, warriors, and so on... what if the vice principal of one of the four prestigious magical academies is part of it too?"

Grey lifted a finger and began tapping his cheek thoughtfully.

"... Besides, nobody should have known exactly where I lived except the academy, so how did the Otherworlders find my house in the first place? It means that a high-ranking official from the academy is working directly with them."

Amir blinked for a few seconds in pure disbelief.

He couldn’t imagine that the mage was genuinely doubting his loyalty at this moment.

Though it wasn’t a far-fetched theory considering what Grey had endured, it was still somewhat... hurtful?

Especially after everything they had been through together in the past.

"Point of correction, I’m no longer the vice principal of Lunaria Academy, but the Principal."

Grey paused mid-tap of his cheek, a confused and startled look appearing on his face.

"Huh?"

Amir nodded solemnly.

"And I strongly suspect the high-ranking official that was working with the Otherworlders was the ex-principal of the academy... Lucien."

"Huhhhhh?!" Grey shouted in even more confusion, his mind racing to keep up.

Amir just sighed, his gaze drifting toward the charred remains of the fallen attackers.

"There’s a lot that happened in our world during your absence."

...

Without wasting any more time, Grey gestured with his hand and conjured two sturdy earth chairs that rose from the ground to face one another.

The duo sat on their respective earthen seats, staring into the flickering remains of the funeral pyres.

Even after two hours, the heat radiating from the site remained intense, a shimmering testament to the violence that had transpired.

"When the academy resumed after its break, your seat remained empty. We didn’t see you. A week passed, then two, and still, there was no sign of you.

We initially assumed you simply required more time with your family, but by the third week, the concern became impossible to ignore—especially for your friends."

At the mention of his squad, Grey’s heart skipped a beat, a sharp pang of longing and guilt surfacing before he forced his breathing to steady.

"... They eventually requested my permission to visit your hometown, Kiten. Since they had traveled there previously, they reached it without much trouble.

Only then did they learn from the townspeople that you had been caught in an attack—one that supposedly claimed both your life and your mother’s."

Amir paused, noticing Grey’s knuckles turn white as his hands clenched into trembling, furious fists.

The Captain exhaled a tired sigh before continuing:

"They returned to the academy utterly devastated. For a long time, they were unable to accept missions or even function. They were broken, shattered; the light had gone out of them. It was painfully clear just how much you meant to that group.

But fortunately, Scarlett eventually managed to pull them back from the brink.

She gave them a scathing rant—a speech about how Grey wouldn’t have wanted to see them idling while the world suffered. She knocked some sense into their heads, finally galvanizing the squad to take up missions again. But,"

Amir heaved a heavy, weary sigh that seemed to carry the weight of the last year.

"They began overextending themselves. They were barely taking breaks, jumping from one dangerous mission to the next. It was obvious that this relentless pace was their only way of coping with your ’death.’ Even though she held the squad together, Scarlett was still struggling.

She was smiling on the outside, but she was bleeding on the inside.

And let’s not forget Kael. He put on a brave face while quietly traveling from town to town, city to city, searching for any trace of you, refusing to believe you were truly gone."

’Well, I was in another world...’ Grey thought bitterly, the irony of his survival weighing on him.

"Many months passed. A year and seven months went by until they all graduated with high honors. As of two weeks ago, they officially joined Lunaria’s Special Ops."

"Sounds like they are doing well for themselves, despite everything. But," Grey shifted his gaze, his eyes narrowing,

"how did you end up as the new Principal of the academy?"

"That?" Amir chuckled, though the sound was devoid of humor as he clenched his jaw.

"Two months before your squad was set to graduate, disaster struck. It was as if our enemies had been waiting for the perfect moment—I don’t know what specific signal they were watching for, but the time became ripe. The Otherworlders attacked with a vengeful, coordinated force.

The Clover Kingdom was effectively wiped out. The Velzoria Kingdom took an immense hit that shook the very foundations of our society.

We lost the other three magical academies entirely. Captains, Principals, and dozens of veteran squads were slaughtered in the opening waves."

Grey’s eyes widened in sheer horror at the Captain’s words.

The world he had fought so hard to return to was no longer the one he had left.