Ten minutes had passed since Elicia completely restored my charred face and skeletal hand back to pristine perfection. I leaned casually against the edge of the large window frame, glancing out at the late afternoon sky. Just by tracing the angle of the descending sun cutting through the courtyard trees, I could tell that the dismissal bell would ring any minute now, releasing the entire student body for the day.
As the three girls and I began gathering our things to leave, Elicia's cold, authoritative voice cut through the room, stopping us right in our tracks.
"Wait, all four of you, stay here for a moment. The final bell hasn't rung yet, and we have some time to talk about what happened in that arena." the Principal commanded, her sharp eyes flicking up from her paperwork.
Amelia, Aisha, and Cindy nodded quickly, walking back over to the plush velvet seating area arranged in front of Elicia's grand desk. As we were about to take our seats, the girls instinctively crowded around me, trying to sit as close to my newly healed body as humanly possible.
Seeing the subtle twitch in Elicia's eyebrow, I immediately leaned in and whispered to them in a firm, hushed tone.
"Hey, back up a bit. Don't cling to me too much right now. You know Principal Elicia, she explicitly wants to maintain discipline. She didn't build this academy just for it to turn into a trashy reality dating program."
The three of them instantly flushed a deep crimson, coughing nervously as they quickly adjusted their postures. Amelia sat up perfectly straight, Aisha cleared her throat while smoothing out her ivory uniform, and Cindy folded her hands neatly in her lap, completely stopping their clingy behavior before my sister could lecture them.
I took my seat right beside them, folding my arms with Zenni's classic, lazy nonchalance. The physical damage from the volcano fight was entirely gone, but the mental chessboard was more complicated than ever. With Sticky Sperm framed below, Oksana expecting the Crimson Phantom at the Emerald Spire tonight, and my sister looking at me with a deeply analyzing gaze, this little talk was bound to be interesting.
My heart skipped a violent beat against my ribs, a cold sweat threatening to break through my freshly regenerated skin.
"Well, I didn't watch you fight the fourth-year, but I saw your match with Zero-G. Tell me, Zenni... have you been to Caria City before? That kind of physical strength and tactical brutality is not normal for a fourteen-year-old. I saw you just last week, you were weak, frail, and barely getting by. But right now, you've suddenly gotten immensely stronger, and your control over blood manipulation is far too refined. Tell me the truth. Are you secretly an undercover adventurer from Caria, or not?" Elicia began, her sharp, analytical gaze drilling into me as she leaned back in her chair.
Before I could even formulate a smooth lie, the girls eagerly joined in, nodding along with the Principal.
"Yeah, Zenni! Now that Principal Elicia mentions it, how did you get that strong so fast?" Amelia asked, leaning forward with narrow, suspicious eyes.
"And that pain tolerance... it's almost scary, normal slum kids don't just hold liquid lava without screaming!" Aisha whispered, tilting her head.
A massive red flag blared in my mind. This was getting dangerously close to the truth. Exposing my identity to my older sister was an absolute nightmare scenario. If Elicia discovered my real state, that her little sibling was the mutilated, tongue-less, single-armed S-rank bounty hunter Eirene, the crushing weight of guilt would destroy her.
And worse, if these three girls realized that the handsome, charming Zenni they had been fiercely crushing on and smooching this whole time was actually a girl in disguise... all three of them, including Elicia, would team up and scold me into a literal grave!
I needed a massive, flawless redirection to completely derail this interrogation.
My eyes darted around the room, frantically searching for a distraction, when they locked onto a small, silver-framed photograph sitting right on the corner of Elicia's desk.
It was our old family portrait.
There we were, frozen in a happier time before the tragedy: our mother and father smiling warmly, a younger Elicia looking proud, Elias standing tall, and a completely unblemished, whole version of me, Eirene.
A bittersweet pang struck my chest, but I immediately weaponized it for the ultimate escape. I let out a soft, sudden, and perfectly acted gasp, my eyes widening as I stared intently at the frame, completely ignoring Elicia's question.
"Wait..."
I breathed, my voice dropping into a tone of pure, stunned disbelief. I stood up slightly, pointing a trembling, perfectly healed finger toward the desk.
"Principal Elicia... that picture on your desk. Who... who are they?"
Elicia blinked, completely caught off guard by my sudden shift in demeanor. She glanced down at the silver frame.
"This? It's just a private family photograph."
"No, I mean… The boy standing next to you in that photo... Elias. And the girl, Eirene. I... I knew them. Back in the lower sectors, before the fires. They were... they were my childhood friends."
I rubbed my temples, putting on the performance of a lifetime, acting like a flood of tragic, buried memories from the slums was hitting me all at once.
The entire room went dead silent. Elicia's professional, interrogating posture completely shattered, her eyes widening in absolute shock as her breath hitched in her throat. The girls looked back and forth between us, entirely distracted by the sudden, heavy emotional bombshell I had just dropped on the table.
The entire atmosphere in the room shifted instantly. The sharp, interrogating tension evaporated, replaced by a heavy, suffocating silence as Elicia stared at me, her hands trembling slightly against the edge of her desk.
She slowly picked up the silver frame, her eyes scanning the faded image of our family before locking back onto me with a vulnerability I hadn't seen in years.
"Huh? You... you know Little Ren?"
Elicia whispered, her voice cracking as she used my old childhood nickname, the one only she and Elias used to call me when we were kids.
"This picture... It was taken eight years ago."
The girls leaned closer, looking back and forth between me and the portrait in sheer bewilderment.
"Wait, Zenni, you knew the Principal's family?" Amelia asked, her jaw dropping.
I took a slow, deep breath, putting on a melancholic, wistful smile to maintain the performance.
"Yes, I knew that girl. We used to play tag together in the lower sectors, along with her brother Elias. She was quiet, but she had a fire in her. I... I never forgot them after the fires separated us." I lied smoothly, nodding toward the image of my true, unblemished past self.
Deep down, I let out a massive, monumental sigh of relief. My heart finally stopped hammering against my ribs. The trap had been completely bypassed. My true identity as Eirene Rynd, the mutilated bounty hunter was entirely safe. The girls would keep believing I was a guy, and Elicia wouldn't have to carry the crushing guilt of what had actually happened to her Little Ren.
But I hadn't completely escaped the interrogation yet. Elicia set the photograph down, her sharp eyes softening, but a new spark of intense curiosity flared within them.
"If you grew up alongside them back then… Zenni, have you ever been to Town Allure before?" Elicia murmured, leaning forward, her mind putting together a completely different puzzle.
My eyes widened slightly. Town Allure, the beautiful, sprawling settlement where our family had actually spent our happiest years before everything fell apart.
I nodded slowly, letting a genuine touch of nostalgia bleed into my expression to make the lie flawless.
"Yes, Principal. I know it well. In fact... Town Allure was my hometown before I ended up in the slums. It was an absolutely wonderful place. Peaceful, filled with green fields and kind people. It's where I first learned to survive."
Elicia closed her eyes for a brief moment, a bittersweet, deeply emotional smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Hearing the name of our true hometown from a "slum kid" who claimed to have known her lost siblings completely threw her off the scent of my current S-rank strength. In her mind, my explosive growth and terrifying willpower weren't the results of a shady undercover operation or a dangerous bounty hunter identity, she now assumed I was simply a tragic survivor of the same past that had torn her own family apart, carrying the legacy of the children she thought were dead.
"I see… That explains so much about your spirit, Zenni." Elicia said softly, her voice filled with a profound, newfound respect as she looked at me.
Beside me, Amelia, Aisha, and Cindy were completely captivated by the tragic backstory, their eyes practically sparkling with sympathy and affection for their heroic slum-born genius. The danger had passed, the cover was secure, and the final bell was just about to ring.
"Ugh, Plasma what time is it? A minute felt like an eternity." I muttered to Plasma
"Hey, don't shush me, I'm not a walking alarm clock, treat me as a human being. Anyways, two minutes before the bell rang."
While we waited for the final dismissal bell to shatter the quiet of the administration building, I decided to push the knife just a little deeper into my own heart. I leaned forward, looking intently at the family portrait, and asked Elicia about Eirene's current whereabouts, deliberately forcing myself to talk about myself in the third person.
Elicia let out a soft, weary sigh, resting her chin on her interlaced fingers.
"Well, I left her back in Town Allure to manage our family meat shop. She was always our family appraiser, never an adventurer. In her whole life, she spent almost all her time locked away in her room, reading endless books and trying to master the language of the world. She's a multi-dialect prodigy, sure, but she never had the time or the stamina to train herself to become an actual fighter." she began, her voice tinged with a mix of affection and older-sister arrogance.
A bitter, invisible smile tugged at the corner of my mind. If only you knew, sister. Elicia continued, a faint, slightly mocking smirk playing on her lips,
"In fact, Little Ren only possesses two very basic, very human skills. She has an appraisal skill known as Inspect, and a seemingly useless, bizarre passive skill known as Blood Curse. Its only sole purpose is literally just to drink blood. Disgusting, right?"
Beside me, Amelia and Aisha wrinkled their noses in unison.
"Ew, drinking blood? That is a bit creepy," Amelia murmured.
I just shrugged casually, keeping my face perfectly expressionless. They had absolutely no idea that the useless, disgusting Blood Curse was the very foundation of my terrifying abilities, the hidden trump card that made the Crimson Phantom a nightmare in the underworld.
"Little Ren is currently still in Town Allure, managing our family business all by herself, I promised her that I would return quickly... but I didn't. I got far too busy establishing this academy and dealing with the Grand Council. I haven't returned home for at least two months now. I'm incredibly worried about her, but I know she's still there, quietly running my meat shop."
Elicia said, her tone suddenly dipping into a heavy, guilt-ridden vulnerability. She paused, staring down at the silver frame with a fierce, protective intensity.
"I just hope she hasn't done anything reckless. I hope she didn't become an adventurer, and I hope she's not dumb enough to ever try and join the Hunter Bureau. She is a weak sister. If she ever stepped onto a real battlefield, she would be torn to pieces."
Hearing her call my true identity "weak" and "dumb" while standing right in front of her as a hardened, blood-soaked assassin was the ultimate irony. But beneath the dark amusement, a profound, crushing sense of relief washed over me.
My cover story was flawless. Elicia was completely, 100% convinced that her "Little Ren" was safely tucked away in a quiet countryside town, chopping meat and reading language books. She had absolutely no idea that her "weak sister" had actually had her tongue severed, her eye incinerated, and her arm ripped off while slaughtering the very threats that menaced her academy. The illusion was perfect. Her guilt was managed, and her peace of mind was secure.
"RINGGGGGGG!"
The sharp, loud peal of the dismissal bell suddenly echoed through the hallways, breaking the heavy emotional spell in the room.
I stood up, adjusting the gold medal around my neck and throwing a lazy, easygoing grin at the Principal.
"Well, that's our cue. Don't worry too much, Principal Elicia. If Little Ren is as smart as you say she is, I'm sure she's staying far away from trouble."
"I hope so, Zenni, now go on, get out of my office before these three girls drag you out themselves." Elicia sighed, waving her hand dismissively.
Amelia, Aisha, and Cindy giggled, immediately flanking me as we finally walked out into the corridor. The sun was dipping below the horizon, painting the sky in deep shades of crimson. My school day was officially over, but my night as the Phantom was just beginning. I had to shake the girls, grab my umbrella, and make my way to the Emerald Spire. The drug lord was waiting.