The air in the office felt lighter now, the tension of the earlier trial having completely dissipated. Leo had passed, and with it, his entry into Arcadia Academy was secure. Phew.
"You may go," the Headmaster said. "I trust you know your way out?"
Leo blinked. "...not really?"
The fox-eyed headmaster chuckled. "Take the time to get acquainted, haha! Better to get lost today than on orientation."
"O...kay." Leo gave a brief nod to Professor Eury while walking back. "See you around, ma'am."
Professor Eury smiled and sent him a playful salute. "Wait for me at the gate. I will be there soon. Ooh, I know, get acquitted with the locals. You'll probably get your first wand from there."
"Got it."
Leo left the office, the door clicking shut behind him.
Then he heard it.
The wind.
The voices.
Through the thick wooden door, he caught snippets of the conversation inside the Headmaster's Office. The subtle rustling of unseen currents carried their words straight to him.
"—have him keep an eye out. Just in case," Headmaster Aldric was saying.
"I don't know, professor, he didn't seem suspicious."
That was Professor Eury.
"Do not be narrow-minded, my young sea witch," Headmaster Aldric's voice was calm, but firm. "It is not a matter of suspicion. If he was kidnapped by the Cult of Zen once, he may be targeted again."
Leo's body stiffened slightly. So the Headmaster knew of the cult.
"Wait… you believe there are other pockets? My students investigated for months just to find them…"
"You're young, and you stick to the overworld," Headmaster Aldric said. "My sources tell me followers of Hera down in the Underground have been kidnapping men. Originally, it was men of any origin, but now it has become young men. This specific branch you stopped must have been a splinter group. You mentioned the other men were hypnotized and that our young Leo was not, yes?"
"Yes…my personal theory is that it is because he is magically inclined. The homeless were very much not."
"It could be that—or it could be something else. He may possess the attributes to be a sacrifice, for example."
"A-a sacrifice?"
"We can't risk our students in danger. So when I say keep an eye on him, I mean it in the best way possible. Keep an eye out."
Leo clenched his jaw. He had hoped the academy wouldn't dig too deep. Alas, luck was not on his side.
"I-I see… I had Ashen and his friends bring the kidnapped men down to the medical area. I'll see to them."
Leo didn't wait to hear the rest.
With a deep inhale, he vanished. At speeds faster than sound, he traversed through the halls and through a golden bridge. He could feel it. He knew where to go.
The medical bay. That was where the homeless men would be. That was where he had to go to clean up any and all potential suspicion.
As expected, the air the medical bay was cold and sterile, the scent of healing herbs barely masking the underlying scent of metal and old magic. Leo rematerialized in the farthest corner of the room. His body took less than a second to return from a swirling gust of green wind.
The medical bay itself was empty. No nurses, no students; with summer vacation over, only a handful of students and staff remained on campus. The only occupants in the room were the seven homeless men, lying in neatly made beds, their eyes half-lidded in a state of passive compliance.
More than that, now fully in the light, Leo could see just how starved they were. His gaze softened.
The war and its consequences. Even years afterwards, it could be felt. The struggle to gather food had affected even him. There were many weeks where Leo had to starve himself in order to feed his daughter.
God, he missed her.
Leo clapped his hands together once. The moment he did, the homeless men all turned to him almost mechanically, although more similarly like puppets.
Ah, there it was. Recognition.
'Excellent. They still see me as their leader.' The weight of their unwavering obedience was in his mind and theirs. A shared connection that could only not be seen by anyone, even by Leo himself.
He stopped beside the nearest bed, looking down at the wiry man who had been the first to enter the cult's doors. The clouded haze still lingered in their eyes.
Leo clenched his fist. "I order you," he said softly, letting his mana pulse just slightly into the air, "to break free of this spell."
Nothing happened.
"You may go and STOP being controlled."
No flicker. No shift.
"Hera demands it." Silence. Was this even working? "I demand it."
Also nothing.
"All of you—stand on your beds."
Immediately, they did as they were instructed. They stood on their beds.
"Sit back down."
Sit they did. But to break out of the bond…
Leo frowned. 'So it doesn't work like that. I'm permanently bonded to them. Must be a stipulation in the spell.'
He exhaled slowly and thought carefully. The imprinting must have rules. If he couldn't break the control outright, he needed a workaround. Something the magic would accept.
An idea came.
"I order the spell to disappear," Leo began, "for two weeks. Be yourselves. Be free. But ONLY for two weeks."
The men's breathing hitched slightly. Their bodies twitched. This wasn't enough. Continue.
So Leo did. "After two weeks, you will go to Baishi Mall. The café on the second floor, Jade Blossom Café, at exactly noon. There, I will give you further instructions."
Silence.
Then—
"This is acceptable."
The voices overlapped in eerie unison.
A shudder rippled through the room as if the very air was shifting. The faint cloud in their eyes disappeared. Their hands clenched at their blankets, their fingers twitching, their bodies slowly returning to normal.
Leo smiled. It worked.
They wouldn't remember the past few days properly, not all of it. Their minds would fill in gaps, creating logical explanations for their time lost. And in two weeks, they would come back to him.
It was the best he could do.
The door creaked open.
Leo didn't hesitate.
He became wind.
The moment Professor Eury stepped into the room, Leo had already dissolved into a faint green blur that blasted open the window and flew into the outside world. The witch walked in, stretching her arms and surveyed the room with soft blinks. The homeless men looked perfectly fine, just as she had left them.
"Hey, everyone, good to see you're all alright."
Then she shivered.
"Brrr! Cold. Did somebody cast ice magic in here?"
Her gaze flicked to the nearest window. It was wide open, curtains fluttering slightly from the breeze.
She blinked, then smiled, striding over to close it.
"Must've left it open earlier," she mused.
Outside, unnoticed, a faint green trail of wind danced across the sky swiftly went back toward the hamlet.