novelraw Chapter 223: The Hunt’s Next Phase
Chapter 223: The Hunt’s Next Phase
***
The roar of the Colosseum was still shaking the sky when the floating platform began to descend.
Far below, thousands were still chanting the same word over and over again.
"STRANGER!"
"STRANGER!"
"STRANGER!"
Ignotus stood on the stone platform with his white hair fluttering in the wind, the red streaks on his face already fading. He looked calm now. Too calm for someone who had just stabbed his own sister in front of the entire Academy.
The healers had already carried Rosa away.
But the crowd didn’t care.
To them, this had been the greatest match they had ever seen.
And the man who stood there now had just declared war on the world.
Far above the arena, hidden deep within the shadow of the Colosseum’s arches...
Someone familiar watched.
It was Letum.
He leaned against a stone pillar, half his face swallowed by darkness.
His eyes were locked on Ignotus, his fingers digging so deeply into the stone railing that cracks had already begun to spread across it.
Dust fell from the fractured marble, yet he didn’t even notice.
His entire focus was on the one descending from the sky.
That white hair.
That irritatingly calm face.
That bastard smile.
Letum’s jaw tightened.
He had been so certain.
So very certain.
In the dungeon, everything had been perfect.
The headmaster had been lured away.
The trap had been sealed.
And a Greater Demon had personally descended to erase the Heretic from existence.
There should have been no escape, none at all. Even a Bannerete would have struggled to survive that.
And yet...
Ignotus had walked out alive and victorious.
Letum slowly exhaled through his nose.
A thin line of smoke curled from his lips.
"...unbelievable."
Down below, the platform finally touched the arena floor.
Ignotus stepped off casually, tossing the amplification crystal to the ground.
The crowd immediately erupted again.
"STRANGER!"
"STRANGER!"
"STRANGER!"
The noise was so loud that the arena itself seemed to tremble.
But it wasn’t cheers alone anymore; there were murmurs now.
Whispers of both fear and confusion.
Because the last thing Ignotus had done before stepping down was tell the entire Academy that Demons were coming.
High above the arena floor, Lothar was still floating in the air.
And he looked like a man whose entire life had just fallen apart.
He materialized another amplification crystal with shaking hands.
"A—Ahem!"
His voice boomed across the arena again, though the confidence from earlier was completely gone.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Students! Honored guests!"
He laughed nervously.
"Ahahaha... what an incredible finale, yes?! Truly the greatest tournament in Academy history!"
The crowd slowly began to quiet down.
Everyone was looking up now.
Lothar wiped sweat from his forehead again.
"As for... uh... certain statements made just now—"
He coughed.
"—they have absolutely nothing to do with the Academy!"
A new wave of murmurs spread through the audience, making Lothar rush his words.
"Yes! Yes! Student Ignotus was speaking entirely on his own behalf! These were his personal opinions!"
He forced a smile.
"A rogue student, you might say!"
And let another awkward laugh.
John, floating beside him, didn’t display the same nervousness.
Instead, he seemed the most relaxed, revealing an amused smile.
His eyes darted from person to person, scanning the stands and their reactions.
Several nobles were already whispering furiously to each other. Others looked pale, while some looked angry, but the worst reactions came from the Houses.
Because they understood exactly what had just happened.
Ignotus’s supposed speech had set a trap.
A trap for Death and their elk.
It was a trap they had to willingly walk into.
And Letum, who watched the white-haired man walking across the arena, knew that very well.
His screaming rage was begging him to jump down into the arena and rip Ignotus apart with his bare hands.
It would be easy, so very easy. One leap and one strike were enough. In Ignotus’s weakened state, the Heretic would die before anyone even understood what happened.
So Letum’s muscles tensed and his body leaned forward slightly.
For a brief moment, he truly considered it only... to stop.
"No."
He exhaled slowly, forcing the urge to fade.
Letum also understood something very important.
Killing Ignotus right now would be the worst move possible.
That clever bastard had already prepared for it.
A hero, a rebel, a madman.
Different people saw different things, but Letum saw the truth.
Ignotus was an incredible schemer.
"A shrewd bastard."
The word slipped quietly from his lips.
Because, indeed, Ignotus had used the perfect moment to speak.
He had survived the dungeon and fully stepped into the spotlight.
The consequences of that survival were only beginning. The entire Academy was watching; the Houses were present, the nobles, the professors, simply everyone, and he had said it before them all.
"The Demons are coming."
Now, if the Great Houses tried to assassinate him...
If Ignotus suddenly died in some unfortunate accident...
If a mysterious blade found its way into his back...
People would remember today’s speech.
They would remember his warning, and they would start asking questions.
The assassination would look like confirmation of his words. Proof that the Houses were hiding something. Proof that Ignotus had been telling the truth. And suddenly the story wouldn’t be:
"A Heretic was eliminated."
It would become:
"They silenced him."
Letum clicked his tongue.
It was a solid move, a very solid move.
Ignotus had used the arena like a stage and used the crowd like witnesses.
But then Letum chuckled, knowing the end of this all.
"Unfortunately for you..."
He looked down at the thousands of cheering bastards and the terrified commoners.
"...people are stupid."
His smile widened slightly.
One could never, ever underestimate just how truly dumb the average person was.
Experience had taught Letum something very important about the world.
Fear turned into boredom remarkably fast.
The news of today would be the gossip of tomorrow and a forgotten myth by next week.
Truth didn’t matter, not for long, at least. People forgot, twisted stories, and replaced facts with rumors. Give it a few weeks, a few months at most, and today’s speech would become something else entirely.
It’d be a conspiracy at worst or a joke at best; either way, the Houses would simply twist the narrative themselves.
They had centuries of experience in gaslighting the public.
Countless ways could solve this. Perhaps Ignotus was lying; maybe he was insane, wanting to spread unnecessary panic. Or better yet... they could blame someone else entirely.
Frame another faction, creating a fake enemy.
Honestly, the possibilities were endless; they just needed time.
Letum slowly straightened from the railing, the cracks in the stone beneath his fingers spreading like spiderwebs.
All Ignotus did was buy himself time and protection, using the public as a shield.
But again, that ’shield’ would not last forever, because the truth was very simple.
The Great Houses did not forgive, and they did not forget.
Letum turned away from the arena.
"The hunt isn’t over."
Indeed, it wasn’t.
The hunt had simply entered its next phase.
And if anything, the target had just gotten much, much bigger.