Chapter 266 Investigation, Arkhen's Bomb

[Strange. Sasha seems to be very far away. Outside of this Empire's territory].

'Eh? That is indeed strange. How far is she?'

While Arkehn was talking with Velshi, Meya and Sierra curiously walked towards a nearby table to watch alchemy performed by a girl with long yellow hair in a drill hairstyle.

Soon, a man entered the club, and students of the academy quickly recognized him.

"Senior Cedar! What brings you here?"

"I am here to look for Sasha. She wanted some ingredients, but then suddenly disappeared," Cedar said with a rueful smile.

Hearing him, Sierra and Meya quickly looked at him.

Arkhen also raised his eyebrows and turned his head towards him. Looking at that handsome face, of course, not as handsome as his, Arkhen's guts told him that this guy was disgusting.

Of course, the base reason was that this guy had one of the brightest red dots he had seen after arriving at this academy.

"Senior Cedar. Senior Sasha hasn't entered the club since she left two hours ago."

"That's unfortunate," Cedar said with a wry smile.

Arkhen walked towards Cedar. Seeing Arkhen coming towards him, Cedar kept his smile.

"Give me the ingredients," Arkhen said.

"What?" Cedar raised his eyebrows.

"Sasha wanted ingredients and she asked from you, right? Give those ingredients to me because she was going to give them to me," Arkhen said with a smile.

"Oh, haha. Nope. I don't have the ingredients. I tried to contact her to tell her that, but it didn't connect. As such, I came here to tell her. Alas, I wonder where she went?"

Suddenly, someone rushed into the club in a hurry. It was the pink-haired girl who recruited Arkhen into the club when he entered the academy.

"Senior Sasha is missing! Her family also can't contact her. Everyone who was last seen with her is to quickly stay here in the club. The investigation will proceed in a minute."

'Tsk, they reacted faster than expected,' Cedar thought as he slightly narrowed his eyes. 'Well, I won't be able to capture more girls, though there were indeed some suitable targets here.'

Cedar's gaze glanced at Meya and Sierra. The so-called targets in his mind.

Not even a minute passed as two middle-aged men wearing some royal navy blue leather clothing with stars on their shoulders appeared.

One of them pointed some kind of gun at the people present in the club hall. The gun had a single slim pipe and a glass surrounding that slim pipe.

The gun released some kind of aura and scanned everyone present before one of the middle-aged men pointed at Arkhen and Cedar.

"You two, you will have to come with us for some investigation. For clarification, this gun is inputted with Sasha's life aura, and it tells us who was near her or talked to her in the past three hours."

'You two, be careful. I'll be back soon,' Arkhen said to Sierra and Meya through telepathy before nodding at the knights.

"I am worried for her as well. I will do my utmost to aid in the investigation," Cedar said with a solemn expression and nodded.



Arkhen and Cedar were taken to a hall where there were also two more people. One of them was that staff member from the Ingredient room no. 3 and another was a girl with brown hair and a short ponytail hairstyle.

They asked everyone about when they met Sasha and where she was going after meeting them.

"I-I really don't remember meeting Sasha," Lina said while sweating. "Truly. I don't know how that gun detected aura on me."

"It's strange that you don't remember that. But you are safe since we got testimony from other staff members and the manager of Alchemy Hall that you were in your room all the time."

"Cedar, when and where did you meet Sasha?"

"I met her near the Alchemy Hall. She asked me for some ingredients, so I went to my club to see if I had any," Cedar said.

"You are Arkhen, right? It seems that you are not from the academy. Mind telling us about yourself a bit?" one of the middle-aged men asked.

"I am from Cherry Blossom Mountain sect," Arkhen said with a carefree smile. "Here to tour this empire and participate in the alchemy competition. Sasha was with me for the past two days, and she went to procure ingredients for me as well."

"Hmm? Were you her partner in the competition?" one of the middle-aged men asked as he magnified one of the holograms out of his palm. "But Sasha had yet to register her partner's name."

"Partner? I don't know anything about that," Arkhen said with a wry smile. Heck! He didn't even know the competition required partners. Maybe one of the rounds required that?

"In the 3rd round, if you manage to reach there, you have to participate with your partner. If both of you reach the 3rd round and win, you can proceed ahead. But if one of you lost before the 3rd round, you can still help your partner pass the 3rd round," Cedar explained to Arkhen with a smile.

"Ah, so that's how it is. Nah, Sasha didn't tell me anything about partnering," Arkhen shook his head. But he felt she was planning to make him her partner, depending on his practice.

After all, Arkhen was improving so fast that it was mind-boggling. All those who intend to win had the ability to craft class-10 potions and pills. If Arkhen managed to craft class-10 potions and pills, Sasha was indeed planning to register him as her partner.

"Anyway, don't you know some kind of mystical item that can find out Sasha's location?" Arkhen asked curiously.

"We have. But such things are easily blocked. We know Sashas's vital status is still good. But we can't find her," said one of the middle-aged men with short dark silver hair, dark brown skin tone, and elf ears. He furrowed his brows in worry and sighed. 'Niece, where are you?'

He was Sasha's uncle!

​ "D-Do you know about the recent kidnapping of girls in the capital? Could this be related to that?" the girl with a brown shot ponytail said.

"That case is also a mystery. We are trying to investigate that."

Arkhen yawned as he was feeling sleepy. Two days of continuous crafting with focus and then he also did that intense challenge.

"This is unpleasant. Alright, I'll tell you her location. Quickly find her," Arkhen said after yawning. Naturally, he expected some intense reaction to these words but stayed cool and calm.

The room became tense after Arkhen spoke as both middle-aged men trapped Arkhen into a box-shaped barrier and pointed their weapons at him. A Sword and an Axe.

"Why did you kidnap her?! Are you also the one behind other kidnappings? What is your goal?!"

"Chill, Cool, Relax…" Arkhen raised his hands with a nonchalant smile. "It's pretty easily provable with various places I went to and the bills I got that I didn't meet Sasha after she left the club. Now, I am telling you I know her location because I have a skill that can find her location. Naturally, I won't tell you in detail about that."

"Please tell us," Sasha's uncle said with a solemn expression.

'What the fuck is this guy? Surely he is bluffing, right?' Cedar thought. 'Anyway, I will have to quickly tell them to change location and kill them or proceed with their experiment as soon as possible.'