An hour had passed, and the afternoon program finally drew to a close. The coliseum slowly emptied out, the ecstatic chants of the freshmen still echoing faintly in the distance.
True to their word, the three beautiful girls refused to leave my side. They formed a tight, protective escort around me as we marched across the grand campus grounds toward the administration building, heading straight for the principal's private office. Amelia was walking right beside me, holding my wide black umbrella tightly over our heads to shield my burned face from the lingering afternoon sun. Aisha and Cindy followed closely behind, their eyes fixed on my heavily bandaged, skeletal left hand with a mixture of awe and lingering anxiety.
The silence of the hallway didn't last long before the cautious, frantic comments started flying.
"Seriously, Zenni, what was wrong with you out there?! Scooping up actual, raw lava with your bare hands just to superheat a blood spray? That was completely insane! You could have permanently destroyed your magical conduits!" Amelia huffed, adjusting her grip on the umbrella handle while shooting me a worried frown.
"She's right, Zenni! That was way too dangerous. When we saw your skin sizzling off, my heart almost stopped! You're a freshman prodigy, you didn't need to resort to something so grotesque just to win an exhibition match!" Aisha chimed in, crossing her arms tightly over her fresh ivory and gold uniform.
Cindy shook her head, a soft, exasperated sigh escaping her lips.
"Using a low-tier element to mimic the temperature of his magma was clever, but the physical cost was terrifying. You need to be more careful with your own body."
Faced with their collective scolding, I just let out a lazy, muffled chuckle beneath my thick facial bandages. I gave them a casual, carefree shrug.
"Oh, come on, ladies, have a little faith, you know your favorite freshman is a total genius. Yellow Volcano had years of mastery over me, so brute force wasn't going to work. That was the only way I could completely shatter his momentum and stop him in his tracks. A little skin is a small price to pay for a gold medal and a flawless reputation, right?" I joked, Zenni's signature street-smart arrogance bleeding through my raspy voice.
"You are unbelievable,"
Amelia muttered, though she pulled the umbrella a little closer to ensure not a single ray of sunlight touched my burns.
I smiled behind the cloth, letting them bicker among themselves as we approached the heavy double doors of the principal's office.
Of course, the genius slum kid explanation was just a beautiful lie for my fan club. The absolute truth was far more sinister. Every single brutal action in that dome had been meticulously calculated. I needed to firmly grab Oksana's attention and force the ruthless drug lord to see me as a master of violence. At the same time, I had to perfectly maintain my innocent civilian cover, ensuring the Council's investigation knights never suspected Zenni of being the legendary Crimson Phantom bounty hunter. By restricting myself to low-level spells, raw physical strength, and sheer, bloody intelligence, I had accomplished both goals perfectly.
We finally reached the grand double doors of the office, the very same doors I had been eavesdropping behind just hours before while Sticky Sperm was being dragged away in chains.
Amelia stepped forward, knocking firmly on the enchanted wood.
"Principal Elicia? It's us. We brought Zenni to get his hand and face treated."
From inside the office, the cold, commanding, yet deeply familiar voice of my older sister rang out.
"Come here."
Amelia carefully pushed the heavy oak doors open, and the three girls ushered me inside. Principal Elicia was sitting behind her grand desk, surrounded by stacks of official academy documents...likely the final transfer paperwork for Sticky Sperm's impending execution.
She looked up, her sharp eyes instantly locking onto my heavily bandaged face and arm. Even though she had been stuck down in the dungeons interrogating my scapegoat and hadn't watched the battle live, the immediate reports from the arena staff had already reached her desk.
"Zenni, the deans are already calling you the most resilient freshman in Sisiphon history. But sacrificing your own arm just to bypass a fourth-year's elemental defense? That was extreme, even for a slum-born prodigy." Elicia said, her voice a mix of professional sternness and a hidden, deeper sibling concern.
"Go big or go home, Principal," I chuckled raspy behind my facial cloth.
Elicia didn't waste time with small talk. She stood up, her regal robes trailing behind her as she stepped over to the velvet couch.
"Sit. Let me see the damage."
I sat down, and Elicia gracefully reached out, her fingers deftly catching the edge of the sterile wrappings on my left hand. As she slowly unwrapped the thick layers of cloth, the gruesome reality of my master plan was exposed to the room. The bandages fell away, revealing the stark, blackened, entirely skinless bone of my fingers and hand, completely charred down to the skeletal structure.
"Oh my god..." Amelia gasped, violently stepping back and covering her mouth.
"That's... that's horrible," Aisha whimpered, turning her face away in pure disgust, her eyes tearing up.
Cindy looked completely frozen, her stomach visibly turning at the sight of her classmate's exposed skeleton. They launched into a flurry of panicked, horrified comments, entirely overwhelmed by the visceral sight.
But Elicia didn't react at all. Not a single muscle in her face twitched. Long before she became the principal, she was a legendary S-rank healer on the frontlines, seeing horrific, mangled battlefield trauma was a casual part of her lifestyle.
Without a trace of hesitation, she gently placed her palm directly onto my blackened, skeletal hand.
She didn't even chant a spell. As the offspring goddess, her connection to divine magic was absolute. A soft, blinding golden light instantly erupted from her palm, radiating a wave of pure, revitalizing warmth. Right before the girls' wide, terrified eyes, the golden mana began to violently accelerate my cellular biology. Blackened ash dissolved into nothingness as raw muscle tissue, intricate webs of blue and red nerves, and pristine, unblemished pale skin rapidly grew, knitted, and wrapped itself back over the bone in a matter of seconds.
The process was completely painless, leaving my hand looking entirely brand new, smoother than it had been before the match.
"Unbelievable..." Cindy whispered, her jaw completely dropped.
"Is... is that the power of a goddess?! It didn't even leave a single scar!" Amelia stammered, staring at my perfectly restored hand, completely appraising Elicia's god-tier healing magic.
"Thank you, Principal Elicia," I said, rotating my fresh wrist and flexing my fingers with a casual smirk, acting like a grateful student while secretly marveling at how perfectly she had restored my physical vessel.
With my arm completely healed and my face next in line for her divine touch, the physical evidence of my brutal duel was vanishing. My cover was intact, the girls were completely awestruck, and my body was rapidly returning to peak condition.
Elicia's eyes narrowed as she reached for the thick white bandages wrapping my face.
"We aren't done yet," she murmured, her tone sharpening as she caught the scent of burnt tissue still lingering under the cloth.
With a steady, clinical pull, she unwrapped the final layers. The girls let out a collective, sharp shriek, stumbling back until their spines hit the heavy bookshelves.
The damage to my face was infinitely worse than my hand. The entire left side was a gruesome nightmare...the cheek was completely melted away, exposing the raw, blackened jawbone and sizzling facial muscles beneath. But the worst part was my left eye. The intense, radioactive heat of Yellow Volcano's fist had completely incinerated the eyeball, leaving nothing but a hollow, charred socket dripping with viscous fluid.
Even Elicia didn't waste a single syllable this time. Recognizing the immediate danger of neurological shock, she slammed her glowing palms directly onto my ruined face.
The blinding golden light of Divine Regeneration flared with double the intensity. The girls watched in absolute, paralyzed horror as the godly mana forced my body to violently reconstruct itself. Strands of muscle grew like vines, weaving over the exposed bone. Fresh, pale skin stretched across my cheek, knitting back together in a flawless line. And then, with a wet, supernatural pop, a brand-new, crystal-clear eyeball materialized out of pure golden light, locking perfectly into the newly formed socket.
Within seconds, the gruesome display came to an absolute conclusion. I blinked my brand-new left eye, completely restored to pristine perfection, without a single scar to show for it.
"Oh my god... I think I'm going to throw up," Amelia whispered, clutching her stomach, while Aisha and Cindy leaned against each other, trembling as they appraised the terrifying, miraculous scope of Elicia's divine magic.
I massaged my jaw, offering the girls a reassuring, lazy grin.
"See? Good as new. Told you she was a goddess."
But internally, beneath the cocky facade of Zenni the slum kid, a cold, dark weight pressed heavily against my chest.
Staring at my perfectly regenerated hands and face, my mind drifted to the grim reality of my true, original body...Eirene Rynd. The body is currently locked away, resting in the shadows of my secret sanctuary. That body was a broken, mangled testament to the brutal life of a high-tier bounty hunter.
Eirene had lost an entire left arm. Lost a left eye. Lost her tongue. Her face was permanently marred by a gruesome Glasgow smile, and her left toes had been completely severed in one of Dominik pruning of the salt cellar.
With Elicia's god-tier divine regeneration standing right in front of me, I knew she had the cosmic power to knit my true body whole again. She could regrow my missing arm, give me back my voice, and erase the horrific scars of my past with a single, effortless touch.
But I couldn't let her. I won't ever let her.
If I brought my true body to this office, if I stripped away the illusion and showed my older sister the shattered, mutilated state of Eirene Rynd, the sheer, crushing guilt would absolutely destroy her. She would realize the horrific price her sibling had paid in the shadows to protect her and secure her seat as Principal. The shock would break her spirit, and the weight of her own perceived failure as a protective sister would consume her.
No. I would rather bear the scars, the missing limbs, and the silent agony of my true form forever than let a single tear of guilt fall from her eyes. Eirene Rynd would stay in the dark, and Zenni would keep smiling in the light.
"You're fully healed, Zenni, but don't make a habit of turning yourself into a skeleton. It's bad for the academy's public relations." Elicia said, snapping me out of my thoughts as she wiped her glowing hands, her voice returning to its calm, authoritative baseline.
"Understood, Principal, come on, ladies. The show's over, and I think we've had enough excitement for one afternoon."