Never mind a good number of the deaths were caused by social mediobsessed students too busily filming or photographing instead of escaping to safety…

"You sure you're okay?" Dad asked me before I departed my room. I nodded, watching as his image flickered in the holographic screen of my smartphone. Then the picture resolved and I saw the worry on his face. "You should return home."

"I will be, shortly," I a.s.sured him. After the catastrophe, my exchange session was cancelled and I was slated to return to Jing Tian City. "But there are a few things I have to do before I return home."

"Huh? What?" Dad demanded, his brow furrowed. Then he widened his eyes. "Don't tell me you plan on taking revenge?!"

I actually burst out laughing at that. Pus.h.i.+ng my gla.s.ses up, I shook my head.

"Dad, you know what kind of person I am. Do I look like the type to seek revenge? I'm not that petty."

"Oh, G.o.d…please don't let the readers hear you say that. They will be complaining in the comments that you are spineless, a coward, or a pushover."

"Those readers are idiots. They should use their brains – what exactly am I supposed to do against an entire vampire clan? Do they not know that I am totally no match for the adult vampires? Hunting down Fan Le Lao or Xu Wu Cheng is one thing, but what am I supposed to do against the veteran vampires? If Headmistess Taylor hadn't rescued me, I would have been crushed by one of them. And then there's still that You Shou bloke…even if I somehow defeat all the young elite vampires, I lack the strength to fight the adults."

"Good. It seems that you��ve thought through this clearly." Dad looked relieved. Then he frowned. "So what do you intend to do?"

"I need to pay a friend a visit," I replied. "And before that, I'm scheduled to meet another couple of friends. Since this is likely the last time I see them, I should say a proper farewell."

"Ah, okay. That makes sense." Dad nodded. "I won't disturb you then. Head on to your appointment!"

"Thanks."

I switched off the video call and left the house. Adrian and Melina were still asleep, so neither of them could stop me. I headed in the direction of school, but I didn't intend to go there. As I said, Saint Teresa Academy was closed after yesterday's disaster, so students were supposed to stay at home.

However, we were still allowed to meet up. I stopped by a café, recognizing it as Chao Café – the same one that Nan Gong Zhao Yan asked me to wait for her in what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Richard! Over here!"

"Oh, okay." I proceeded toward the source of the voice. Rossetti Picket was waving excitedly at me, and I saw that she already had a cup of tea and a plate of half-eaten strawberry short cake in front of her. Yeah, the d.a.m.ned cake was pretty popular. Didn't Zhao Yan buy that for her family? "You're early. Sorry, I hope you didn't wait too long."

"No, no. You're on time. In fact, Kufa hasn't arrived yet."

Rossetti sulked, playing with her fork as she stabbed the cake. With a huff, she shoved a piece of the cake into her mouth before sipping the tea.

Then she glanced at me, looking embarra.s.sed. Conjuring a holographic menu, she spun the glowing window toward me.

"Um, don't be shy! Order some cake for yourself! Do you want some coffee too?"

"Maybe. Do they have nothing but cakes here?" I asked, scrolling through the menu. Chao Café was known for its cakes, and to be honest, I preferred cakes over bread because of my sweet tooth, but that didn't stop me from raising an eyebrow when I saw the limited selection. Chocolate cakes, strawberry cakes, fruit cakes, hotcakes, pancakes…

I wasn't a picky eater, so I was fine with cakes. But I wanted something more substantial, something more filling. Cakes, while full of sugar, were surprisingly light on the stomach. If I had cake this early in the morning, I was going to get hungry really quickly.

However, the moment I caught sight of something, I immediately ordered it.

"Eh? Mango cake?" Rossetti giggled when she saw my order. "Oh, right. I remember that your favorite fruit is mango."

"How do you know that?" I narrowed my eyes. "I don't recall ever mentioning that to you."

"You're always drinking mango juice or ordering mango ice cream in the cafeteria," Rossetti reminded me. Oh, right. We had lunch together occasionally. She must have noticed my preferences. As for me, I recalled that Rossetti usually drank strawberry milk.

"Sorry for being late." Kufa showed up. He sighed as he took a seat beside me. "I overslept a bit."

"Not at all," Rossetti a.s.sured him. "You're right on time. Do you want cake? Coffee?"

"Yes to the coffee." Kufa conjured the holographic menu and grimaced when he saw the selection. "Do they have nothing but cake here?"

That was the exact same question I asked earlier.

"This is Chao Café," Rossetti replied, as if that explained everything. Kufa rolled his eyes, but he settled for pancakes and honey maple syrup. His eyes bulged when he saw a waitress bringing my mango cake to me.

"I didn't know you like cake."

"Because it's mango," Rossetti explained with a laugh. Kufa stared at her blankly, as if to ask, so what?

Yeah, well…I guess some people were more observant than others.

"Anyway, you wanted to meet us?" I asked Rossetti. "What's up?"

Rossetti pouted. "Can't I just hang out with you guys? Especially after going through such a terrifying attack last night? It's not like everything has to be about serious business."

She then lowered her head.

"…Miura's funeral. Are you both attending as well?"

"Yeah. I'm staying in Flandor City for a while, but I should be able to attend the ma.s.s funerals before I return to Jing Tian City."

"I'm definitely in." Kufa nodded, and then he glanced at me. "So you're returning to Jing Tian City, huh?"

"Yeah." I rubbed absently at my cheek. "After what happened last night, Jing Tian Academy is not taking any chances. They cancelled the exchange and instructed me to return."

"We'll be…very lonely when you leave." Rossetti fidgeted an iittle. She sighed heavily. "Sometimes, I forget that you're from another school. It's like…you've been with us forever, you know? About half a year now, maybe?"

"Around there," I agreed. "I'm supposed to be here for another two months, but…things happen."

"And now it��s over. You're going back." Rossetti stared at her now empty plate. "We lost Miura, and then you're leaving."

"Hey, it's not as if we won't see Richard again," Kufa pointed out. "Jing Tian City isn't far from here. We can always pay him a visit."

"I still have to return from time to time to check on the progress of Adrian and Melina," I added. "Technically I'm still their personal tutor. I'm supposed to continue teaching. Oh, well. I'm sure Duke Franklin will figure something out."

"Yeah." Kufa stirred his coffee, looking restless. "You know…there are rumors that they might just close down Saint Teresa Academy for a year. After so many students died…and the amount of staff we lost, they say it might be easier to send the students elsewhere. To other schools, to finish the school year. It will be hard for students to return here."

I knew what he meant. With magic and modern technology, it would be easy to repair the school in no time at all, but even if the physical damage was repaired in a day or two, the psychological scars remained. Students would be traumatized to return to the site of such ma.s.sacres. Specters literally haunted the shadowy corridors, and no matter how they cleaned the blood out of the buildings, that deathly aura continued to linger.

Saint Teresa Academy was now a ghost school.

Perhaps they were right to send the students elsewhere. In such an environment, how were they going to train and learn?

I shook my head and smiled. What utter bulls.h.i.+t. After the monsters invaded Jing Tian City, didn't we return to it and resume our daily lives, as if everything was normal, despite the deaths and damage caused there? The students of Jing Tian Academy returned to the school without caring about the slaughter that took place there. Furthermore, we were trained in combat and magic precisely to exterminate monsters and rogue mages – such as the vampire clan. We should harden our hearts and used this experience to learn the horror they could wreak, and better prepare ourselves for future attacks and atrocities.

Running away was cowardly. Not to mention, it would defeat the whole point of learning how to fight. How could a school that prided itself on training paladins, combate mages and so many different cla.s.ses of warriors shut down just because of a single battle? Wasn't that sort of thing precisely what they trained for?

The amateurish stunts and major failures of the idiots of Guang Zhi Yi Sect aside, of course. I honestly didn't know what the Hunter a.s.sociation taught Yi Shen and Kai Lin. Or perhaps those two didn't learn anything properly.

"Then where will we go?" Rossetti, unaware of my thoughts, asked nervously. Kufa glanced back at her and offered a rea.s.suring smile.

"Honestly, it won't happen. At least I don't think it will."

"It didn't happen in Jing Tian Academy," I said. Both Kufa and Rossetti turned to stare at me. I shrugged. "Surely you heard about the demonic invasion almost a year ago?"

"I thought that was Bo City."

"Dude…" I glared at Kufa, who looked sheepish. "Are you mistaking me for some versatile mage or Bu Fan?"

"Sorry…bad joke." Kufa then turned serious. "But yes, that was indeed a major tragedy. Jing Tian City stood back up again almost immediately. I'm confident that Saint Teresa Academy possesses the same sort of strength."

"We were trained for these kind of situations," Rossetti agreed. "We'll be shaming ourselves now if we run away and hide from the disaster."

She then slammed her fist on the table, causing our cups of tea and coffee to tremble. She carried a suitably chastened expression when the waitress turned to glare at her, and lowered her voice.

"We will come back stronger! And seek revenge on the vampire clan! That Crimson Blood whatever clan! We'll hunt them down and exterminate them!"

"Easier said than done," I muttered under my breath. "We were all campaigning to wipe out the Dark Church after the disaster in Bo…ahem, Jing Tian City, and looked how that turned out. Vengeance is great and all, and of course people want justice, but reality isn't always kind enough to give us what we want."

"I know," Rossetti admitted. She lowered her head and clasped her hands. I suddenly felt bad when I saw her forlorn expression. Perhaps I should have been more tactful and encouraging. After all, I understood how she felt. This wasn't the first time I had been through such a calamity.

"I'm sure the authorities will figure it out. The Federation military as well as the elite mercenary units are searching for the Dark Church and rooting them out even as we speak. It may take years, perhaps decades, but they will surely destroy the Dark Church. The same goes for this vampire clan. The moment an elite mercenary unit is sent after them, along with regiments of mage soldiers, the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan is doomed."

"Yeah, that's right," Kufa agreed wholeheartedly. "I have it on good authority that the Hunter a.s.sociation is mobilizing almost their entire force and dedicating them to annihilating the Crimson Blood Demonic Night Clan. After Headmistress Taylor slew their king, Fan Fu Qing, they should be in a mess now. This is the best time to strike, before they can recover from their own losses."

"That's great, but…" Rossetti swallowed. "If they are too slow, we'll never be able to destroy them. They will hide somewhere, rebuild and come back stronger. You know how this works. Bureaucratic red tape, delays…by the time the Hunter a.s.sciation moves out, the vampire clan will be long gone."

Kufa and I exchanged a glance, but said nothing. Not caring, Rossetti continued.

"We have to take matters into our own hands. In fact, that's the real reason why I called you guys here today."

"Huh? What do you mean?" I gaped at her. Meanwhile, Kufa rose to his feet, almost slamming his hands on the table, causing the cups to shake again. He ignored the glare the waitress sent him and focused on the red-haired girl opposite us.

"You can't mean…"

Rossetti stared back determinedly.

"We should pursue the vampire clan ourselves and destroy them."

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