Extra Pages: The Author's Odyssey

"Isabella I saw on the news about what had happened…are you okay?"

"…hm"

Nodding her head slightly, she looked at the four individuals that had entered her room. Aric, Adrian, Lyra, and Emma. Though she didn't show it on her face, seeing that they had come to visit her, Isabella felt a little warmth in her heart.

Interrupting Emma who was all over Isabella, Adrian spoke

"I was extremely surprised when I received the news of what had happened, how did Lucas manage to defeat a D-rank Fallen Human?"

"…eh?"

"Don't tell me you forgot?—Here take a look"

Seeing the confused look on Isabella's face, Emma took her phone out of her pocket. She then proceeded to turn on the holographic function and swiped towards Isabella. Soon a virtual newspaper article appeared before her.

[At 10:22 p.m.. In Nova Academy Forest, the Eclipse Forest, D-rank Fallen human Samuel Ascal attempted to kill more than 12 students. An anonymous tip had alerted the authorities beforehand about the sudden attack, and upon arrival, the corpse of Samuel Ascal was found. The corpse of the Fallen human had multiple stabs of sword wounds all over its body.

Upon investigation, we found that all the nearby cameras had been destroyed by Samuel Ascal but one camera was still functioning well when Authority arrived.

Upon seeing the video recorded by a camera we found out that Two students were fighting against Samuel Ascal. Fortunately, thanks to the courageous efforts of Two aspirants, this disaster was prevented. If not for the heroic feats of these students, Isabella Evergreen and Lucas Darkhart, this day would've turned into a tragic massacre. The motive behind the attack is still unknown…]

Looking through the article, Isabella slowly and carefully read the article from top to bottom. Not skipping a single detail.

Lucas had told her not to say anything but it looked like Luck was not on his side.

Though at that moment her head was dizzy, she remembered the moment when Samuel was killed. The fight was very long and tiring Both parties were taken very damaged but Samuel was the one who took the most damage.

He had lost his right shoulder and one eye, he was very weak at the moment but because he was at D- rank he somehow managed to survive Isabella's strongest spell.

What was even more impressive was the fact that he had done this, exactly when Samuel was weakest at the moment. Almost as if he knew this was going to happen. Had he failed, only death would've been his outcome.

Isabella felt like, Lucas was waiting for that exact moment.

Cold, precise, cunning, many words came into her mind as she tried to describe 'him' the best way she could…

"Hey, hey, Isabella!"

Snapping Isabella out of her thoughts, was Emma's concerned voice.

"…Sorry"

Lowering her head, Isabella apologized. She was so lost in her thoughts that sad ignored everyone who had come into the room.

"It's fine," Emma said to her. Isabella raised her head once more and saw the people around her, her brow furrowed for a moment.

Isabella turned toward Emma and ask

"Where is Evelyn? I didn't see her here."

"Oh, Evelyn, you see-"

"Oh Let me tell you this." Before Emma could finish what she wanted to say Lyra interjected her.

Coming a little close to Isabella, Lyra spoke

"Evelyn has been on infantry since yesterday night," Lyra spoke, there was a small smirk on her face and that smirk turned into glee.

Isabella raised her eyebrow at that.

"Oh? Why would she stay in the infantry? Did something happen to her?"

"Hehe, No nothing happened to her. She's been there to watch over Lucas since yesterday night." Lyra said as she laughed at Evely.

-Pang

Isabella felt a slight pain in her heart, she touched her chest with her hand.

'What the hell was that?'

"Are you okay Isabella did you feel unwell right now?"

Seeing Isabella touching her chest Emma asked worriedly.

"Sorry, just thinking of something," Isabella said to Emma as she came from her thoughts.

"It's fine, you must still be in shock."

Shaking her head, Emma patted Isabella on her shoulder as she gestured for the other guys in the room to leave.

"We'll let you have some rest, call us if you need anything"

Winking at Isabella, Emma quickly brought everyone out of the room

-Clank!

Closing the room's door, silence permeated the room once again leaving a stunning young girl alone in her thoughts.

…

"You think she's okay?"

Standing outside Isabella's room, Emma looked at the four people beside her.

Thinking for a bit Adrian said

"…hmm, honestly I can't tell. I'm not good at comforting others"

"True"

Nodding her head, Emma couldn't help but agree that Adrian becomes awkward when he has to comfort others but that doesn't mean he is a bad guy, in fact in Emma's view he is the one who cares about relationships more than others, any type of relationship.

Seeing everyone's sombre expression, Adrian tried lightening up the mood by changing the topic.

"But hey, I didn't expect Lucas to be strong enough to kill a D-rank Fallen human?"

"Are you an idiot Adrian, in camera recordings it shows that Lucas just landed a killing blow, all the main fight Isabella did."

"But it doesn't change the fact Lucas is the one who kills it. If he had not killed him at that time we would have been funeral of Isabella." Adrian retorted Aric by saying this.

"Yeah you're right, who would've thought he was that strong?

Lyra muttered to herself, the image of Lucas was changing in her mind, and Evelyn told her all about their past relationship. So it's come as a shock to her this Lucas is so different from what she had imagined.

"I guess it's pretty impressive"

Noticing how uninterested Emma was, Lyra pouted and said

"…geez, can you at least look a little bit more interested"

"No chance"

Seeing how uninterested Emma was, Lyra sighed and looked at them.

Aric stood there dumbly since the words he had said to Adrian. His expression was that of pure indifference. He looked to be deep into his world ignoring everyone around him.

"…well I'm gonna head back now"

Seeing that this conversation was going nowhere, Lyra gave up and decided to leave. Following her, Adrian and Emma left leaving Aric standing there by himself.

A couple of minutes after everyone left, clenching his fist extremely hard, veins appeared on Aric forehead. Though he tried extremely hard to suppress his rage, Aric face became incomparably dark.

Right now his mind was torn.

"Why the hell that one small insect won't die"

Aric thought, a weakling like Lucas should have been able to die in that battle but not only did he survive he also killed a Fallen human.

This news came as a shock for him, and even now that a day had passed he still couldn't stop thinking about it.

It doesn't mean how he kills, at the end of the day people want results.

It was a heavy blow to his immense pride. The pride of having grown up thinking that he was the best among the younger generation.

'where did he gain so much courage, what is the source of his power?'

Aric doesn't know what keeps him going forward despite being weak.

Since the start of Nova Academy, Lucas doesn't fear anyone, Aric has seen how Lucas beat Gorge in the dressing room after Inspector Ravi's class.

Lucas knows the rules of NovaAcademy but even so, he best Gorge in front of Everyone.

Everyone thought that Lucas was done for but they were wrong, Lucas did not receive any punishment. Instead Gorge had received the punishment.

Even after that incident, he picked a fight with Tony Stark on Crew opening day.

Tony is nothing in front of Aric but for Lucas who doesn't have a strong background behind him, he is very reckless.

Even after that, Lucas is somehow able to get himself in trouble. Like the 'Artifacts Room' incident and now with Samuel Ascal.

Now everyone knows the deeds of Lucas Daekhart, he can't easily be removed from Nova Academy.

If kicked out of the Academy, many questions will point at Nova Academy.

Lucas also will receive many offers from other academies as well.

Nova Academy doesn't want that to happen, so kicking him out of the academy is now nearly impossible.

'Sigh, Everything is out of control.'

Aric thought as he realised a sigh from his mouth.

The more he stayed at Nova Academy, the more he realized how normal he was.

He had been showered with praise since young. He became arrogant, but he managed to back his arrogance. He was the best.

…was he?

"What am I?"

Staring at the long dark corridor, Aric was lost in his thoughts.

A seed of inferiority slowly started implanting itself inside his mind