Meanwhile, back inside the barrier…
A small panic ensued in the cafeteria upon a massive tree erupting straight from the floor and piercing the ceiling in less than a heartbeat. Basically, no one except the culprit behind knew what the reason was, and most assumed it had something to do with the first deofolized human…
"Dad…?"
Chloe tensed up, clenching her hands around the crate with healing crystals, and muttered anxiously while scuttling towards the unassuming kitchen-hand boy.
"...haaaa… Everybody, calm down."
The boy glanced at the woman and sighed before raising his hand and declaring.
That alone wouldn't have any effect, but what accompanied his words was a transformation.
The child-like form shone with green light and sprouted into a towering figure, mostly humanoid but with distinct beastly features.
Such as impressive antlers scraping against the cracked ceiling…
Because those beastly parts were those of a deer.
"I'm Leshi. The Great Fae of Nature… also known as the Guardian of the Royal Academy. With me here, everything will be…"
"WHERE IS IT!? EH?! WHAT THE HEL ARE YOU!?"
The fae introduced himself, only to get interrupted by a black-haired girl who burst into the cafeteria with a bluish-white sword in hand and immediately pointed it at him after missing everything.
"Hmm? You're the one that the carnivore always worries about, aren't you? I thought that you wanted to hide your true form, especially in case of this kind of situation…"
"?!"
Leshi tilted his head, slouching a bit so that his antlers wouldn't scrape the ceiling anymore, and shocked the girl with just a few words.
"...wait, carnivore…? Then… are you Rotsard's friend…? That kid…?"
"Hey, watch it. He might get annoyed that you called an old fae like me his friend, you know?"
Blanid, because who else was that supposed to be, mumbled awkwardly, already lowering her weapon, causing the Great Fae of Nature to snicker.
"Then.. no, wait! The deofolized human, the one with the metal one with spikes! Was it here?"
"Yes. It was…"
The girl shook her head and gasped, looking around cautiously, which made Leshi nod before pointing at the very obvious tree with his chin.
"I sent it outside the barrier and fully activated it. It won't come back."
Leshi added with a shrug, about to turn away from the petite girl.
"You did WHAT?! But what about things OUTSIDE the Royal Academy!? Shouldn't you keep the doefolized human inside and deal with it!?"
"..."
Blanid flinched, actually baffled, and gasped, causing the fae to freeze up before slowly turning back towards her.
"I am the guardian of the Royal Academy, not a guardian of the world outside of it."
"!"
Leshi pointed out and shrugged his shoulders, leaving Blanid wide-eyed.
"...I… I can't believe it…! Rotsard was right about your kind!"
Blanid stumbled back, as if fae's declaration physically hit her, and mumbled in disbelief.
"Watch your mouth! The ones I'm protecting are the stu-!"
*STAB* *STAB* *STAB*
Leshi scoffed angrily, reaching to the side as if to show off the people gathered in the cafeteria, when three blades pierced through his torso, stopping him halfway through!
Enveloped in murky-gray aura, those were most definitively sword blades, not spikes, which meant….
"DAD!"
*thump*
"Stay back!"
Nurse Chloe called out in horror, but the fae that dropped on his knees, shooed her away while gritting his teeth, as bloody foam showed up in the corners of his mouth.
"You….?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
Blanid, initially baffled, quickly stepped to the side to reveal the culprit and roared in fury at the sight.
It wasn't one person, but three.
Three of the students who came to the cafeteria to shelter from the danger.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SENIORS!?
All three were pupils of the same advanced swordsmanship teacher as her, which disturbed her even more.
Although they were involved in bullying her, their current action could not be justified by any normal logic.
But… normal logic couldn't be used on either of them anymore.
All three were already deeply corrupted by gedwyld, their veins bulging with whatever dark substance that replaced their blood and caused them to appear as a black web on their skin.
"Ghh…!"
*WHAAAM*
Leshi wheezed through his teeth, spraying out blood, and swatted the three away with one hand!
But their swords were still firmly embedded in him.
"When… did they even..?"
The fae scoffed furiously, supporting himself with the other hand.
"Dad…! Those bladees, why aren't they coming out!?"
"DON'T! Don't you even dare!"
Nurse Chloe rushed over to her adoptive father, checking on his wounds and muttering in disbelief before attempting to remove the foreign objects, but only got admonished for that.
Despite the swords not being in contact with their wielders, their viscous gray aura did not disappear…
What was worse was that Leshi could feel it sipping into his flesh and spreading through his body.
Extracting them was the most obvious choice.
In the first place, they should come out on their own, thanks to Leshi's disposition as Great Fae. Chloe's confusion about that not happening was very much correct.
…but taking them out involved coming in contact with the gray aura reeking of gedywld corruption…
Not to mention, there was no time to try to figure out a proper solution.
"Oww… That fucking hurt you know?"
One of the three that stabbed Leshi in the back crawled back up and groaned, doing quite fine considering his two friends turned into little more than dismembered splatters on the wall.