Academy, Principal's Office
"What do you mean you can't find them!? You are all so useless!!"
Raji threw her smartphone at the floor in anger; her aura made all of the staff members in the building feel nervous.
But Raji wasn't in the mood to care about all that.
She paced back and forth in the office with an annoyed look on her face.
A week ago, she was informed that Fade and Kira had gone missing after they entered an A- rank dungeon out of their own violation.
Raji also detected Kira and Fade entering an A-rank dungeon with her mana detection ability, but she didn't stop them, as they were saying that they would retreat once they encountered danger.
SS-rankers can detect you with mana and can hear what you are talking about too... A mere distance of a thousand kilometers means nothing to them.
But even they can't detect things that are happening in an entirely different space.
Once Fade and Kira entered the dungeon, their connection to the outside world was cut off, and even an SS-ranker couldn't detect what was happening inside.
So, Raji just sent a few of her subordinates to keep an eye on them and rescue them if something bad happened.
But by the time her subordinates went there, Fade and Kira had disappeared into thin air. Raji even personally went into that dungeon, but she wasn't able to detect them.
Then she commissioned a famous detective agency to find their whereabouts, but there were no results.
A week has passed since the two of them went missing, and there is still no news about them. Although Raji personally doesn't like Fade, she is the principal of the academy, and she has the duty to keep all the students safe under her watch.
She can't let personal feelings get in the way of her work; she has to find where Fade and Kira have disappeared.
'Ugh... Did they use some kind of teleportation artifact? But how do they have such a powerful teleportation artifact in the first place?...'
To be able to teleport out of the detection range of an SS ranker, you would need an SS-rank teleportation artifact at the very least, and such artifacts are extremely rare. It's very weird that Fade and Kira had such a rare artifact in their hands.
'Something doesn't add up... Even if they had an artifact like that, where would they go? Aside from the human empire, they will have difficulty settling down in other places...'
Raji had already sent Fade and Kira's details to the alliance, and by now, their pictures have reached all corners of the world.
Once someone spots them, Raji will get information about their location immediately.
But even after all that effort, there is still no news.
It's as if Fade and Kira have disappeared from the face of Earth.
At that moment, a thought came to Raji's mind:
'Don't tell me they went to the demon continent...'
The Demon continent is one of the few places in the world that doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the World Alliance.
If Fade and Kira really went there, it would be impossible to find them even with the help of the world alliance.
'Could it be that they were kidnapped by a demon?'
Thinking about these possibilities, Raji's face turned solemn.
Even she is afraid to venture to the Demon continent alone, as she knows she won't have a chance against the Demon King.
If Fade and Kira have indeed ventured there, only Ashtel himself can save them.
Only Ashtel dares to barge into the demon continent without any worries, but the problem is that Ashtel is in seclusion right now.
Jin and Raji lack the capability to invade the Demon continent, and Neo is unlikely to venture there due to his ongoing issues with the Demon King.
If Neo goes there, then things will escalate for the worse.
Raji couldn't help but feel that there was something weird about this whole scenario.
Unless a demon has located the coordinates of a dungeon beforehand, they can't possibly teleport inside it directly.
And to find the accurate coordinates of a dungeon, that demon will have to come to the human empire and measure them from the outside first.
Which means Raji and other SS rankers would have detected it if the demons had come to the empire.
'The only way for them to find out the coordinates of a dungeon without personally visiting the dungeon is if there is some spy hidden in the human empire that is informing the demons about it all...'
Indeed! Kira was the one who had been giving the coordinates of the dungeons to Alverto all along.
She gave the coordinates for the 'Lava Lake' dungeon; only then was Alverto's clone able to come to that dungeon during the first-year final exams.
Kira was the one who gave the coordinates of various dungeons to Alverto; that's why a lot of demons were able to come to the human realm without being noticed by the SS-rankers.
...
Thinking this far, Raji couldn't help but frown.
'If there is someone who's leaking the coordinates of the dungeons of the human empire to the demons, then I need to take quick action against it...'
Raji left the office and immediately used the portal to teleport to the Aldif Mansion.
The moment she arrived at the Aldif Mansion, Neo noticed her presence.
He has returned to the capital city as Ashtel and Jin are both in seclusion right now, so his real body is at the Aldif Mansion right now.
He immediately came out to meet Raji with a complicated look on his face.
"Er, Ms. Raji, what has brought you here to my humble abode today..."
Raji didn't bother explaining anything; she grabbed his arm, opened a portal, and dragged him with her in an instant.
She didn't even give Neo the time to talk, which took him directly to the abandoned factory where the A-rank dungeon was located.
"Fade and Kira, these two students have disappeared; you know them both well, so I don't need to say how serious the matter is... I suspect it's the work of demons..."
After a brief moment of confusion, Neo spoke,
"Er... so what am I supposed to do about that-"
Raji glared at him and said,
"What do you mean, 'What am I supposed to do?', you favor those two kids, no? Go to the
demon continent and find them!"
Neo couldn't help but say, with a complicated look on his face,
"What do you mean, 'go to the demon continent!', do you think I am Ashtel Rex or something
that I will just go there, take a nice walk, and ask the demon king to return Fade and Kira..."
"And the Demon King will smile happily and return them to me!?"
Neo shook his head and said,
"Do you even know how many racial slurs I threw at his face when I was taunting him during
that mission where we killed the demon general Azazel!?"
"If I go there, that guy will definitely think that I am up to something again, and this time he
will definitely retaliate fiercely!"
Hearing Neo's words, Raji couldn't help but shake her head in annoyance.
"Tch! You are so f*cking useless! UGH! Why did I ever fall for a useless sh*t like you!"
Raji stomped her feet in annoyance and flew away in an instant, leaving the bewildered Neo
on his own.
Neo shook his head and ordered his summoned beast to do a thorough search of the whole human empire and look for Fade and Kira.
He can't go to the demon continent, but he can at least put up a show that he is also trying to
find Fade and Kira.
'Tch! Those two kids are useless! The only reason I was favoring them was because I wanted them to bring some sense in Liam's mind...'
Neo supported Fade because he thought that Liam would feel jealous as he was taking Kira from him, and Neo knew that Liam liked Kira.
But this plan flopped, and Liam started to focus more on his summoned beasts, which were the main things that Neo wanted to avoid.
The only reason he was in favor of Kira was because he wanted her to make Liam distant from his summoned beasts so that Liam wouldn't suffer when his summoned beasts left.
But everything has gone haywire now.
Not only Liam has become obsessed with his summoned beasts, but even Kira and Fade have
gone missing.
'I swear, if I find them two, I will beat the sh*t out of them!'
Neo was helping Fade and Kira because of his own motives; he has always thought of Fade and
Kira as pawns that can be discarded whenever the need arose.
'Tch! Forget it; I will have to figure out some other way to convince Liam...'
Neo shook his head and opened the portal to go back.
He didn't care one bit about what happened to Fade and Kira, as they were just disposable
pawns to him; there was no need to expend energy to find them.
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
It seems Fade and Kira really got themselves into a difficult situation; none will come to
rescue them now...
Question of the day.
Do you also think that Neo is the most useless SS ranker?
(Tell me in the comments.)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story.
Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.