Chapter 15: C15. The Southern Tower
"The lower level's library is in that direction, and to our right is the cafeteria." Palmer explained as we walked by, his bored monotone voice nearly putting me to sleep, "and finally this is the courtyard." He concludes the tour as the sun hit my face the moment I stepped out the door.
"It's bigger than I expected." I whistled, looking around.
"Ah, Lenso!" A voice suddenly called out from a distance and the smell of the turkey-flavor mannequin entered my nose.
I turned my head, and just as I had suspected, there she was running at me.
Stopping at a sudden halt a few inches away from my face.
"Hehe~ Remember me?" She points at herself with a grin.
"…Mannequin," I muttered with a frown.
She blinked, tilting her head, "… It's Sara…"
I blinked, realizing I said my thoughts out loud, "Ah, yeah. Sorry..."
"...Just remember it from now on." She scolded before stepping back and gave a deep bow. "What I actually wanted to say was,"
She took in a deep breath, bending her back parallel to the ground. Her entire body somehow creating a perfect right angle, "I wish to sincerely apologize for the incident this morning. I wish to hold full responsibility for my actions! If your carriage was damaged, I'll do my best to repay the repair fees!"
Silence.
She peeks up to gauge my reaction, but there was none.
Before she could even finish the word 'sincerely', my instincts had told me to leave. Leave before you involve yourself with something you'll one day look back and cringe upon.
"There's some weird people in this place," I mumbled as Palmer followed close behind, to which he simply chuckled.
Suddenly a burst of loud cheers resonated through the air to my right.
Wincing and covering my ears, I turned to see what the commotion was all about.
"Oh, that's the arena. Someone must be fighting inside." Palmer explained, heading towards the direction of the cheers.
"An arena? Inside the academy?" I question as I followed.
"Yeah, to gain real fighting experience. They'd rather you fight monsters in a controlled environment than watch you be slaughtered out in the wild." He explained as he stopped in front of a large crowd a giant pit surrounded by layers of barbed metal mesh and a, what seemed to be, magic protection spell atop it.
"Don't worry about fall in. The spell prevents anything from falling in, or coming out." Palmer assured, walking to the front and looking down. "The only way for the monsters to leave is through that door where the challenger comes in, but it's being protected 24/7 by multiple guards.
"I see," I glanced down and to my surprise, the challenger was someone I was quite familiar with.
"Aligard," I raised my eyebrow.
"Oh, you know of him?" Palmer nodded, "They say he's from a declining Count family. With a degenerate father who has a gambling addiction and running away with their family's assets and an insane mother who's a protestor, it's only a matter of time before his house will fall."
"A protestor?"
"A Holy Temple Protestor. One of those mentally ill individuals who's against the teaching of our goddess." Palmer explained, "I heard she's being held at the Southern Tower."
"The Southern Tower?"
"It…" Palmer raised his head in thought, "It's nicknamed the Prison of the Ghosts. People haven't been talking about it much lately, but from what I last heard. Whenever someone gets thrown in, they never come back out. Only their cries could be heard in the distant night. Like a ghost."
My eyebrow raised once more, "You get thrown into that kind of place for just being a protestor?"
A panicked expression arose from Palmer's face, "Shh! It's considered treason! Blasphemy! Even just disregarding the temple can give a person the death sentence! It's considered lucky that she wasn't beheaded where she stood!"
"Hoh," I whistled, processing the information.
"A-Anyway, just focus back on the arena. I don't want to take about a taboo subject in such a crowded place," Palmer stammered, turned his attention back to the match below.
In the arena, Aligard stood in the center with a long steel sword by his side, the giant gate before him slowly rose up, revealing a small red-looking figure. Its ugly face and horns clearly indicating its species.
"It's a demon!" a hushed whisper echoed around as the students shuddered.
"Oh, it's a Crazed Imp," a familiar voice suddenly said a few inches from my left.
Sure enough, it's that mannequin again.
"Poor fellow," She muttered as she watched Aligard charge at the demon.
With a clean swoop, the blade cut's straight through the imp's stomach, the blood flying everywhere.
A cheer.
[Bloodline: +0.01 Imp]
[Strength: +0.1]
'…huh?' I glanced down at the notifications.
An unexpected find.
"Oh god," I suddenly heard to my right, Palmer's expression becoming extremely pale, "Blood. Too much blood," He panicked, bolting up and out.
"Yeah! He's got another one!" A sudden cheer brought me back to the match as the carcass of another imp laid motionless on the ground.
No notifications.
"Lenso…" I felt a sudden tug on my sleeve as I saw Sara looking nervously at me, "Can we go..?"
"…Why? Is something wrong?" I frowned, looking at her.
"I just… don't feel that good." She replied taking one last look at the dead imp on the ground and turning around to leave.
With my tour guide MIA and nothing else to do, I quickly obliged, taking one last look at Aligard before leaving.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
May_Song
May_Song I require name ideas. I have bad naming sense.
.-.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone