Dealing with the Corpse

At the Cuilan Academy, in Fran's home,

Fran was sitting in front of a large fireplace, staring at the corpse inside and calculating the time.

"No, it's been three hours, and I'm using magical flames, how come it still can't be burned away?"

Inside lay Belori's body. Fran thought it wasn't good for the body to stay there, so she set aside a day to deal with it.

But things turned out differently than Fran had expected. In her mind, everything in the furnace would turn to ashes.

But reality slapped Fran in the face. Belori's body wasn't completely burned without any effect; only part of it was reduced to ashes by the flames.

After the flames died down, Fran used her Telekinetic Hand to pull out the still-warm corpse and examine it thoroughly.

After the entire body was burned, all the melted parts were reduced to ashes, but a large amount of flesh was still left behind.

All the flesh and skin below the calves of the lower body have disappeared, leaving only silver bones protruding, and the foot structure still appears to be intact.

The upper body was in a terrible state, with holes all the way from the waist to the shoulders, only a little skin and flesh connecting them, and the condition inside the body could be seen through some large gaps.

After being burned, the corpse was covered in a layer of black ash. Fran used the Light Prayer to illuminate the inside of its body.

The internal organs were gone, and most of the ribs in the chest were gone, but the back of the corpse was still very intact.

Fran used her Telekinetic Hand to wipe away some of the black ash, revealing the exposed spine, which was reflecting a grayish-brown light, clearly indicating that it was no ordinary object.

However, when they reached the head, the flesh and blood around the neck were still intact, and the large hole that Fran had left to remove the supernatural organ from the neck could be seen.

The eye sockets of the corpse were exposed, revealing that they were empty, with only the inside of the skull visible.

Fran examined the spine and found it difficult to remove it completely, so she gave up on the idea of removing the spine.

In her view, this spine should be the result of how Belori cultivated her own spine, rather than having her spine replaced.

Therefore, this spine is not suitable for transplantation, Fran is not currently qualified to possess these organs.

Her current thought is to dispose of the corpse as quickly as possible. Although it has been discovered, she can probably get away with it thanks to her Fourth Order Mage mentor, but that would make an enemy of the Transmutation School.

Fran didn't want to make an enemy of such a School; she'd rather keep the past hidden.

But the furnace can't burn the body now, and Fran's old method of burying the body is absolutely unusable.

It is said that the Transmutation School and the Construct School have reached an agreement to search the entire city. Many First Order Mage have participated in this search because Fran's burial of the body last time made people from both School realize that Belori's body might also be buried underground.

Fran knew about the methods used in the Magic World; last time, even though Richter's body was crushed to pieces, some unknown genius still managed to find it.

This time, they're specifically looking for bodies buried underground. Fran guesses that if the body is really buried underground, they'll probably find it very quickly.

If that's the case, why would Fran bury the body at all? Couldn't she just dump it on the street in the middle of the night? All that effort is to prevent others from finding the body and to minimize the clues the perpetrators might have.

"Then we'll have to resort to that somewhat risky method."

Fran's method wasn't about hiding, but about drawing people's attention elsewhere.

As major users of corpses, the Transmutation School and the Necromancy School School only order corpses for the City of Apprentices, but the apprentices also place orders with many unscrupulous merchants, since corpses are essential for them to learn magic and knowledge.

Not all corpses were ultimately turned into cyborgs or other waste products. Most of the corpses used by these apprentices were so badly damaged that they were almost unrecognizable, with some even having only half of their bones remaining.

These crippled corpses were obviously not going to be reused. In fact, most corpses were like that, since apprentices don't know their own strength when they're handling things, and you can't expect anything good to be given to an apprentice for practice.

As a result, the two School produced a large number of worthless corpses. If this garbage had been allowed to accumulate, both School would probably be stinking by now.

Then you might say, "Why don't we just gather all these bodies together and burn them?"

Both School did gather the corpses together, but they chose a more economical method—burying the corpses outside the city.

They would spend a small sum of money to give to the Mercenary of the City of Apprentices to take the corpses out of the city, and then let them do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn't bring the corpses back.

After being hired multiple times, the Mercenary had long since developed a sophisticated pattern of behavior: burying corpses in designated locations, with a limit on the number of bodies that could be buried in each location over a certain period of time.

If you bury too many corpses in one place, you'll be surprised to find that skeletons start spawning in that area. That's why Mercenary have this behavior pattern to prevent unnecessary accidents.

Fran's plan was to mix Belori's body into the other disposed corpses so that the Mercenary could haul the body away.

Of course, she knew that the Transmutation School was investigating more strictly now, and might even find Belori's body among them.

She would disguise herself as an apprentice of one or two School to deliver the body bag.

If the Mercenary discover this body while burying it, the members of the Transmutation School, upon seeing the gruesome state of the corpse, will certainly be able to clearly see the traces left behind from the harvesting of organs using Transmutation Studies.

This might force the Transmutation School School turn its attention inward, which is better than leaving a corpse in the street for the Transmutation School to search for.

As long as she can run away immediately after handing over the corpse, those Transmutation School will have no way of finding her trace and will turn their attention to their own School.

Just in case, she doesn't plan to go now, but will wait until she is promoted to Formal Mage.

She will soon be able to create a second spell system, and at that time she will directly practice several spells to the mastery level, raising her Mental Power to 3.5, thus meeting the final condition for advancement.

Even if a Formal Mage were to capture her on the spot, she could rely on the strength of Formal Mage to escape, instead of instantly killing the opponent with the Blood of the Furnace, which would immediately expose her identity.

When the time comes, who would imagine that the actions of a Formal Mage were done by an apprentice who didn't even rank in the assessment?