I found myself watching him more closely.
Ezekiel Zahara was a miserable young man.
I thought it was only a matter of time before he broke down and confronted his emotions.
I was mistaken.
Once again, he shattered my assumptions about him.
He had defeated a 1st-ranked Magical Swordswoman on the first-year Magical Swordsman Path rankings, albeit at a significant cost to his body.
Still, I found it hard to believe how he had won.
I doubted he had sexually assaulted her, as they had been claimed, because even I knew by this point that many within the Zahara Clan wanted him dead.
I believed that the Ivory girl was a pawn in this plan.
I have seen too much of the academy's inner politics to think otherwise.
This time, after the duel, he returned to the clinic...
He slept with a smile on his face.
There were no nightmares.
He awakened with the bright smile he always wore, but this time, it was with a subtle, more genuine excitement.
I didn't bring it to his attention.
If he had no idea about it then or now, it would only lead to an uncomfortable conversation, which would spiral into therapy.
While he explained how he had been framed, he spoke confidently as though he was simply dealing with some minor issues.
His demeanour was like that of a wounded lion waiting to strike again and regain his pride.
I knew he was hiding something.
I knew he possessed secrets that allowed him to stare down enemies most students wouldn't survive encountering.
But it wasn't my business to know.
I was glad I didn't need to express my pity this time around.
Because he didn't need it.
Since our meeting, Ezekiel Zahara has defied every expectation I had.
And somehow...
I was looking forward to seeing what he does next.
...
I observed as Nurse Cynthia exited the room.
I pondered.
I never knew she had noticed my nightmares - it was something that I always thought I had hidden quite well.
Logically, it made sense that I had nightmares.
She would have likely paid more attention to me if I hadn't.
So, there was no reason to dwell on the matter.
I summoned my system and checked the quest menu.
[ ◆I want to smash her face.
Quest Completed: You've been falsely accused of sexual assault and challenged to a duel by Ivory.
Reward: +4% Increase in rank (Magical Swordsman Path). +4% Aura minor awakening. ]
[ Claim rewards. ]
I looked at the new tab that had appeared below it and clicked on it.
Suddenly, a series of notifications flooded my vision.
[ System Notification. ]
[ You have obtained a +4% Increase in rank (Magical Swordsman Path) ]
[ You have obtained +4% Aura minor awakening. ]
I felt a rush of mana flowing through my Spirit Veins, enriching every part of my body.
My aura flared within me. I could sense the quantitative and qualitative difference between my previous aura and my current one.
It took me several weeks to experience such a substantial increase in strength, and that was when I focused on improving one thing at a time.
Now, I have achieved both in under one and a half weeks.
I summoned my status.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Name: Ezekiel Zahara ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Age: 19 ]
◆ Talent: Cybernetic Evolution (Semi-sealed)
┗ Path Traits: Beast Cybernetic Enhancement, Fusion Synchronisation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◇ Primary Path: Beastmaster Path
┗ Path Traits: Beast Affinity, Beastmaster's Contract.
┗ Rank: First Rank (0%)
◇ Secondary Path: Magical Swordsman Path
┗ Path Traits: Blade Synchronisation.
┗ Rank: First Rank (70%)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Attributes:
┗ Fire: High-Tier
┗ Earth: Mid-Tier
┗ Metal: Supreme-Tier
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Skills:
┗ Overclocked Mode - Active
┗ Aura Mastery: Apprentice (13%)
┗ Weapon Mastery - Sword: Apprentice(35%)
◆ Sacred Arts:
┗ Mountain Snow Dragon Art - Sky Grade - Beginner (20%)
◆ Spells:
┗ Fire Spark - Basic Spell (30%)
┗ Wind Rush - Basic Spell (66%)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Tamed Beast:
┗ Swift-Horned Panther → [Cybernetic Swift-Horned Panther Form]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
There were no changes other than the increase I had just received.
I glanced through the status before swiftly putting it away.
I closed my eyes briefly to calm my emotions.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury to celebrate.
I was now the focus of everyone's attention within the academy.
I didn't know how long it would take the official investigation to begin. But I didn't care.
I didn't place my hopes on the Disciplinary Committee helping me uncover this matter.
I could only trust myself to expose the truth.
I would start by investigating Fredric, Ivory and her lackeys, and Sarafina.
They were the only leads that I had at the moment.
The ones that seemed easy to deal with were her lackeys.
I will start with them.
If the information they provided was useless, then I would move on directly to Delilah-in-training.
She must be wary of me now that my strength has been exposed.
Even if she would likely doubt it, believing that I had cheated, she wouldn't confront me directly until she was certain.
She wouldn't risk facing someone who had sent her, a 1st ranked Magical Swordsman on the first-year Magical Swordsman Path rankings, to the hospital for nine days.
How was I so sure?
Despite her disgusting personality, she was clever.
Suddenly, I heard a familiar 'ding.'
I focused on my quest tab, noticing it shone brightly.
It was a new quest.
Curiously, I clicked on it.
[ ◆I am innocent.
Quest: Ivory has broken her word and spread a false accusation of sexual assault against you. Your name, future, and freedom are on the line. Prove your innocence, no matter the cost.
Reward: Unlocked Reputation Log. +6% Aura awakening. +5% in Weapon Mastery: Sword. +5% in Mountain Snow Dragon Art. Obtain a rare magic item: Truthseeker mark. ]
A mini tab appeared below the quest tab.
[ ◆I am innocent.
Progress: 3%
(Status updates as milestones are reached.) ]
I couldn't read the descriptions of the rewards, so I had no idea what they were apart from the obvious ones.
Reputation log? A rare, ranked magic item, Truthseeker mark?
I realised that the more difficult a quest, the more significant the rewards.
Even without the quest, I would have done everything I could to clear my name.