CHAPTER 45: A NEW MISSION WITH LINDY

The way she asked was strange—serious enough to make Damian hesitate.

"Should I tell her or not?" he thought.

Lindy’s expression didn’t waver. She really wanted to know.

Torn between trusting her or keeping quiet, Damian decided to tell her.

"I saw," he whispered, stepping closer, "two hooded figures talking outside, near the big tree next to this building. One of them gave the other a wooden box."

That was all he knew. He hadn’t been able to hear a single word they’d said.

Lindy’s eyes widened. "This isn’t good," she said, moving to a chair and sitting down. "That wooden box you saw... was mine."

Damian’s jaw tightened. "What? Are you sure? Does that mean those figures came into this room and stole it while I was here?"

"No," Lindy said. "The box went missing a few days ago. I thought I’d just misplaced it. But then, a few more things disappeared recently—and that’s when I realized something was going on."

Someone had been stealing from Lindy. She was determined to find out who.

She started questioning Damian in detail—what the figures were wearing, how tall they were, the exact time he’d seen them—every little detail he could remember.

After telling her everything he knew, Damian asked what exactly had been inside that wooden box.

That’s when she dodged the question. "I can’t tell you that—it’s confidential," she said. "If you see or hear anything strange again, tell me. Alright?"

"I will."

Lindy smiled faintly. "Thank you. You’re the best assistant I could ask for. Now, how was your day yesterday? Everything went fine without me here?"

"I read some books," Damian replied, taking a few from the shelf and showing them to her. "They’re interesting—and pretty complex, too."

"Of course they are. None of these books are meant for new recruits. You’re lucky to have the chance to read them."

"And where did you go, Teacher Lindy?" Damian asked.

It was unusual for teachers to leave the academy, and his curiosity got the better of him.

"I wanted to keep it a secret... but since you asked," she said, letting the suspense build, "we have a mission to work on together soon. A demonic artifact—and a demon hunt."

"Really?"

Damian’s eyes lit up. He hadn’t expected to leave the academy so soon, yet Lindy had just dropped the kind of news he could barely believe.

The only times he was allowed outside were on weekends, which he usually spent at the café for his mediator meetings. That didn’t leave much room for demon hunting—especially with the Lion Beast still looking for him.

Lindy nodded. "Really. We’re leaving in two days, and we might be gone through the weekend."

"Where exactly are we going?"

"Somewhat far," Lindy replied. "We’ll have to take a plane."

"I’m really excited for it," Damian said. "Staying in the academy gets boring sometimes."

Lindy grabbed a stack of documents and tossed them onto the table. With a playful smile, she said, "If you’re bored, let’s translate this scripture together. Grab a few pages."

That wasn’t exactly what Damian had in mind to cure his boredom, but it was still better than running into Randal—who hated him. Besides, he only needed to pretend he was trying to translate it. He already knew the entire content of that scripture.

They each settled into different spots around the room, and soon silence filled the air. Lindy dove into the work with focused determination, while Damian went through the motions.

The morning crawled by—at least for Damian. For Lindy, the hours might have flown, as she worked hard to decipher and piece together the meaning of the demon scripture.

When noon came, Damian decided to have a little fun. He walked over to her desk with a sheet of paper in hand.

"I translated a phrase," he said.

It wasn’t much, just a few words, but enough to be impressive for only a morning’s work—especially given the challenge. Almost no humans could read demon language; learning it was notoriously difficult.

"Wow," Lindy said, eyes widening. "A whole phrase already? That’s incredible. But I’ll check it myself this afternoon, just to be sure."

Damian didn’t mind. Trust wasn’t built overnight. If he kept showing results, eventually Lindy would stop double-checking and start believing in his abilities.

"That was nothing," Damian said. "You can bet I’ll impress you even more."

"I’m looking forward to it," Lindy replied. "I chose you as my assistant because I believe in your skills—so prove me right. Now go, before it’s too late."

Damian waved goodbye to her and left. He had to make sure he’d get to his afternoon classes on time.

On his way back, he greeted the guards, who were now more used to seeing him around. Little by little, they were all becoming good friends with Damian.

Of course, he still had a certain level of suspicion. After all, those two mysterious people talking at night could have been guards. Which meant the two traitors might be guards or officers. That thought made Damian wary of most people at the academy.

"Funny to doubt them when I’m here as a spy myself," Damian thought, letting out a small chuckle.

Anyway, he headed straight to the lunch hall. A mix of new and veteran recruits were there. Some stared at Damian with less-than-friendly faces.

They were jealous he’d landed a spot as an assistant. After all, very few people ever got that position. The academy usually had no more than five assistants at a time—so Damian was one of the chosen five.

He went to his usual table, where Mitra and Curt, his good friends, were waiting for him.

As soon as they saw him, both smiled and waved for him to come over.

"What’s with the excitement?" Damian asked.

Mitra was the first to explain why she was so excited.

"Well, besides the good grades I’ve been getting in my classes, I also got an extra assignment from my teacher. Next week, we’re going to some ancient ruins," Mitra said.

Damian was surprised. "Oh? Isn’t that the teacher you told me also studies demons?"

"Yes, that’s her. In a few months, she’s going to spend some time on a completely isolated continent with barely any people," Mitra said. After a few seconds, she added, "I think I already told you that. I’m losing my mind."

Then it was Curt’s turn to share his reason for being excited. In his case, it was simply because of his good grades and solid progress with his breathing techniques. He was even starting to learn his first spells, which was great.

They wanted to know more about Damian’s morning—after all, out of the three, he was the only one working as an assistant to one of the academy’s many teachers.

Damian explained what he could, leaving out his conversation with Lindy about the two mysterious people he’d seen, the ones who had robbed her. That was her personal matter, and he didn’t want to spread it around.

But of course, he mentioned that he’d be going with Lindy to see a demonic artifact—and that he might even hunt a demon with her.

That got his friends excited. Curt, however, seemed a bit down and said, "You two get all the cool extra assignments, and I haven’t gotten any yet."

Damian and Mitra tried to cheer him up, telling him he’d find something soon too. Their words worked—Curt smiled again, happy that his friends were getting opportunities.

In the afternoon, the three of them had a class together, as usual. This time, it was about magical plants and their properties.

With mana on Earth, in addition to the appearance of demons and humans with extraordinary abilities, there were also plants altered by mana.

These plants could be used to create potions and other powerful things—things that could heal, or harm. Many hunters devoted their lives to this field, earning the title of alchemist.

The professor teaching the class was a very old-looking man, so old he seemed like he could drop dead at any moment. But that was only appearance—he could speak and move normally, as if he were in his forties.

Mitra, ever curious, whispered in Damian’s ear, "This professor has the title of master alchemist. He looks really old, right? That’s because he is! Thanks to the medicinal plants and potions he created, he’s been able to live much longer. According to rumors, he’s around six hundred years old."

"Six hundred years?" Damian was shocked to hear that.

Thanks to mana, hunters lived longer—some of the stronger ones much longer. On average, a decent hunter might live around 250 to 300 years.

But six hundred years old, still teaching, and looking that lively? That was impressive. Damian knew that if this professor wanted to, he could alter his appearance to look younger—he just didn’t want to.

The professor looked at the students and said, "stay quiet now, or I’ll kick you out and get your grades down."

All the recruits shut up, including Damian and Mitra.