Regaining consciousness, I attempted to open my eyes or move any part of my body, but nothing happened despite my desperate attempts.
Forced to stay in a world of pitch darkness as I couldn't open my eyes, various scenarios flashed through my head as I attempted to pass the time.
Did the authorities find me next to the teacher's body and apprehend me? Was I brought to the hospital for my wounds? Where even was I right now?
Honing my ears, I heard what I thought were birds chirping. As I continued to stay in my pitch-black world, a cold breeze enveloped me, causing me to shiver more than usual.
Did I not have clothes on? Was I outside? Why were there birds?
Giving in to my curiosity, I used all my remaining energy to force my eyes open.
Almost immediately, the rays of the bright morning sun appeared in my vision, causing me to close my eyes again due to the brightness.
...I guess I'll have to wait.
As I patiently waited for my energy to recover, I recalled my sudden breakdown yesterday.
What was the reason for it? Was I so just physically exhausted that I collapsed, or did I run out of mana and suffer from mana exhaustion?
But then, how come I didn't feel it until the last second? Until moments before my collapse, I felt physically fine, and I was sure that my mana supply was not empty.
Maybe the adrenaline from the fight had caused me to lose my sense of reason temporarily?
Or was it something completely different?
Realizing I had more than enough energy and could once again move my body, I decided to leave those questions for when I had recovered.
Using my hands to press against the floor to lift myself up, I opened my eyes only to be greeted by the familiar scene of a forest.
Looking around at the surrounding trees, a sense of familiarity emanated from my eyes, causing me to recall that this was near the exact area where the academy's secret entrance was.
Moving my hands to my right shoulder, where my wing used to be, I felt the hard surface of a bandage instead of my shirt.
In fact, my entire back and chest were covered by these bandages, which were painted a light red from all my blood.
Snapping me out of my thoughts, a familiar voice spoke from behind me, causing me to fall back down onto the forest floor.
"Long time no see, Ren."
Turning my head, I saw Ruby dressed in some jeans and a crop top with her long hair tied into a ponytail.
It had been a long time...
But there was something much more important weighing on my mind.
What did she know?
Did she know I had wings? Did she know I was the figure in the cloak?
Turning my head to Ruby, I immediately spoke with a tone of urgency.
"Astrid sent me to he-"
"Oh, I know; the student council president told us that even before attack, so why don't you just shut up about that stuff?"
Astrid told them that Irene was going to get me and the teachers?
So... she thinks I was there because Irene asked me to go?
"That wing you had yesterday was pretty cool, though. Where did you get it from? Is it a store nearby?"
"... yeah."
She was more curious about the wing than how I was able to kill the teacher...?
Standing up, I put on my shirt, which lay beside me, and leaned against a tree while sneaking glances at Ruby to survey her.
Was she purposely playing dumb?
Meeting eyes with Ruby, she flashed me a quick smile before running over to my tree.
"Well, since you're fine, let's explore the festival!"
Grabbing my shirt, Ruby didn't wait for my response as she dragged me behind her while walking out of the forest and towards the looming coliseum.
Just as we were about to leave the forest, I felt a sudden pressure on my shoulder, causing me to wince in pain.
There on my shoulder sat a little black cat, who stared at me for a moment before sitting with no regard for how it was hurting me.
Well... whether it knew it or not, it helped me yesterday.
Exiting the forest, my eyes were immediately overwhelmed as the streets of the academy were filled with thousands of tourists, students, and even teachers.
Clasping my head in pain as the overload of information gave me a headache, Ruby stared at me with a concerned expression before searching her backpack.
After a moment, her hand emerged from her bag with a pair of dark black sunglasses.
"Too bright for you?"
Nodding my head, I graciously accepted the sunglasses and immediately put them on.
With the lens of the sunglasses blocking my eyes, the amount of information I was taking in was much less and more manageable for my brain.
As the two of us continued to walk toward the coliseum, Ruby abruptly stopped in front of one of the booths, staring at a figurine.
Noticing that it was a religious booth due to the church symbols on it, I glanced at the figure, which was a depiction of Saint Elena, an angel...
Dressed in a pure white cloak with long blonde hair, the angel had two beautiful and divine white wings stretching from both her shoulders.
Pointing at the wings, Ruby stifled in a laugh while asking.
"I-is that your si-"
"Not funny."
"I think your brain might still be hurt from the fight because it is quite comedic."
"So... now we're resorting to calling me braindead, really?"
"When you go low, I go lower!"
"When did I go low?"
"Lying is a sin, you know?"
With that Ruby turned away from the booth and continued in the direction of colisuem.
After finding the student section of colisuem, the two of us headed in before quickly finding seats in the second row.
Since today was only the first today, there would be no events with Liams, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be interesting.
Something about watching the future most powerful people in the world struggle in food eating contest made me laugh.
The cat, which was resting in armrest of my seat, snapped me back to reality by jumping back on my shoulder and staring at my side-profile.
Perhaps I just forcing myself to laugh to avoid thinking about Ruby?
As I stared at Ruby, who was belatedly enjoying the match, I was confused on why she kept silent and didn't ask a single question for the entire 2 hours we were at the colisuem.
Why did I lie about my wing? How did I have a wing? How did I kill the teacher? Why did I try to hide my identity?
If I was in her situation, I would have bombarded the other party with questions until I received valid answers... yet Ruby seemed satisfied just sitting next to me.
As the final contest ended for the day, I got up from my seat, following Ruby out of colisuem.
While I did want to leave this stressful situation, she was the one who teleported me out of the dormitory, saving me a lot of trouble by not letting the authorities discover me.
At least, I owed her this much.
What would I even say to them if they found me lying right next to the dead body of the teacher?
While Ruby went to use the restroom, I waited outside the colisuem, checking up on the news about the incident on my smartwatch.
With the government's help, Celestial Academy had managed to keep the news from spreading outside the academy, so there were no articles about it.
However, the academie's public chatroom was crowded as different people were discussing the incident non-stop.
I mean, who wouldn't be curious if they woke up one day just to see the entire royal dormitory destroyed?
So far, the assumption that most people had came up with was that Ruby and the rest of the main cast had been the heroes of the incident and defeated the teacher djinn using the power of teamwork!
They were able to neither confirm nor deny this as no students from the royal dormitory were allowed to speak up about the incident.
While Astrid might believe its me who saved them as she called for me, I could just say I was scared and never came.
A true third-rate-villain!
On the other hand, the rest of main cast probably didn't see my appearance and just believed Ruby had came to save them.
While that sounds good in theory, that could be problematic in the future...
Who would have thought that Ruby and I, a bunch of villains, would be the true heroes of the incident?
Looking up from my smartwatch, I saw Ruby emerging from the bathroom. Walking past me without saying anything, Ruby wore an indifferent expression as she headed in the direction of the dormitory buildings.