novelraw Chapter 586: Leaving Shutes University
Chapter 586: Leaving Shutes University
"His badge," Anna offered, holding out the relic left behind by the old demon hunter.
The badge of the Spirit Hunters Association was different from the three-eyed crow emblem of the Investigators or the single eye of the Night's Watch. Unlike their simplified symbols, the hunter's badge resembled an ancient family crest—intricate, archaic, and complex.
On the silver-gray, circular badge, delicate, web-like lines interlaced around the edges, converging at the center to form the outline of an eye.
An eye was the central element for all three organizations' emblems, and the obsidian it was made from signified the owner's rank: demon hunter.
A line of tiny letters was engraved along the edge of the badge, barely discernible in the dim light—perhaps the old hunter's family name.
A loud belch echoed from beneath the bed.
"They're all over the city..." Anna's attention was drawn away by the sound. "But strangely, they don't attack living creatures."
"These cleaners are a part of Paradise," Lu Li replied.
His offerings served not only to dispose of the bodies but also as an experiment—to see if he could "befriend" this Paradise.
Indeed, the attitude of the desiccated claws had changed, just like the single severed claw that appeared at every feeding, as if it were following Lu Li.But as Anna had rightly pointed out, there were too many cleaners all over the city. Even if Lu Li's offerings were effective, they only pleased the claws within Shutes University.
While they waited, Lu Li asked about the dean, but Anna hadn't seen him either—his office was always empty. Yet things appeared and disappeared on their own, like the exam papers.
It was as if an invisible figure was sitting at the desk, conducting its business.
The results of the test arrived sooner than expected and in an unusual way: a whisper in his mind.
The whisper informed Lu Li that he had passed the test and could leave the university, then it fell silent.
"We're leaving," Lu Li said.
He and Anna headed for Gavril York's office. The professor was indeed hiding there, and he was relieved to learn that the young instructor was an assistant who had followed Lu Li. Familiar faces brought a sense of security.
Gavril York's relief quickly turned to anxiety. He reported that the other four hadn't passed the test. They had all chosen the role of an evil spirit in their answers, which was clearly wrong.
Still, they would know the correct answer for the next test.
As would the creatures.
"You're leaving already?" Hearing Lu Li's intention to depart, Gavril York grew worried again. "But how will your assistant leave?"
"By resigning," Anna answered.
A simple solution, yet one easily overlooked.
"I can go with you!" Gavril York hastily proposed. "I mean, I can resign too and go outside..."
"Yes," Lu Li's curt reply cut him off.
Grateful, Gavril York offered to write the resignation letters for himself and Anna, then followed Lu Li to the dean's office.
Lu Li and Gavril York remained in the corridor while Anna entered the office. Walking silently over the burgundy carpet, she placed both letters on the desk and left.
Click.
The moment the door closed, a whisper echoed in the minds of both Anna and Gavril York: the dean had approved their resignations.
Anna suppressed the urge to peek back into the office and left the corridor with Lu Li.
By the fountain in the garden, Gavril York's tense posture finally relaxed, and he let out a visible sigh of relief.
He had been expecting obstacles—creatures pursuing them, for instance.
But problems did arise. Gavril York's nervousness had attracted the attention of two creatures.
Lu Li and Anna exchanged a glance, then grabbed the bewildered Gavril York and pulled him around the corner of the building. The creatures followed, disappearing from view as well.
A moment later, strange chewing sounds hung in the air. Then Lu Li and Anna reappeared, followed by a terrified Gavril York, who was nearly mute with fear.
Before leaving Shutes University, Lu Li told Gavril York to summon the other four and inform them of his departure.
They grew anxious, just as Gavril York had. Lu Li calmed them down, advising them to look for a window with a crow drawn on it, before leaving the university with Anna.
Something unexpected happened—Lu Li discovered another person, one who was absent from the inverted city overhead. The man watched them with suspicion and apprehension, but he couldn't understand why seven creatures would bother deceiving him.
It seemed that all the survivors in the university had been gathered. The task of convincing the distrustful newcomer was left to the others, while Lu Li departed with Anna and Gavril York.
...
Gray, damp streets flickered with the silhouettes of passersby.
The dim light of the streetlamps barely pierced their glass covers, scattering across the pavement like faint, tiny stars.
Now free, they were no longer bound by the constraints of their roles and could move through Paradise as they pleased.
Gavril York trailed behind Lu Li and Anna, trying his best to look "normal," just like the two of them.
The assistant clung to Lu Li's arm with the intimacy of a lover. If they drew any suspicion at all, it was merely to raise the question, "Can creatures have feelings for other creatures?"—and nothing more.
After walking a few blocks, they saw a crow emblem drawn in charcoal on a second-floor window.
A sleepy clerk behind the counter didn't notice them enter. At the door on the second floor, they heard faint breathing.
Someone was inside.
Creek...
The door opened. A tense, middle-aged man rose from a chair to face them. Upon seeing Lu Li, he visibly relaxed.
"Gemini Reid, exorcist," he introduced himself in a whisper once the door was closed. "Are you the other survivors Mr. Lu Li found?"
"Uh, yes, I'm Gavril York, a history professor at Shutes University..."
Gavril York and Anna spoke at the same time. "I'm his wife."
Lu Li turned his head slightly. Anna casually tightened her grip on his arm, her eyes narrowing even more. "But we haven't had the wedding yet."
"I knew it. Mr. Lu Li, you risked coming to the royal city for your beloved," Gemini Reid said with a friendly air, though Lu Li hadn't told him anything about Anna. As a man of the world, he knew how to fit in.
And Lu Li couldn't correct him—both because of his aversion to conversation and because he really had come to the royal city for Anna.
Lu Li didn't look at Anna, but he could clearly feel the love radiating from her, a warmth that could melt him.