Silent Academy

Soon, Benjamin left the warehouse where they had been hiding.

Before leaving, he learned some information about the "Silent Academy" from the two young mages.

When the Hori Kingdom was first established, The Church solidified its status and began hunting mages on a massive scale, forcing mage activities underground. The surviving mages gathered together to exchange spells and insights, helping one another evade The Church's pursuit; this was the prototype of the Silent Academy.

Later, as The Church's status grew more secure and surpassed royal authority, they intensified their hunt for mages. To survive, several of the strongest mages at the time founded the Silent Academy, aiming to pass down magic and dreaming of building a brand-new nation that belonged to mages.

The headquarters of the Silent Academy was located in the mountains to the west of the kingdom. The terrain there was complex and sparsely populated, and with the abundance of magical beasts, it was difficult for The Church to send people to search. The mages, relying on their own magic, carved out a home there and sought to develop.

Thus, many years passed. The Church knew of the existence of a mage organization within the kingdom, but they were never able to wipe them out; instead, the mages had even instigated several riots. Meanwhile, threats from abroad consumed most of The Church's energy, allowing the Silent Academy to take root and continue its development.

Upon learning this, Benjamin suddenly thought of the words the older mage had said: "We cannot let those two hinder us!" Perhaps these three had another motive for sneaking into the Royal Capital. Could they be planning another riot?

He asked the two this question, and their response was:

"The teacher said this is confidential and cannot be told to anyone. Even if the teacher himself can't remember, we still can't tell him!"

Benjamin thought for a moment and said, "You've forgotten, haven't you?"

The two nodded honestly at first, then shook their heads with guilty expressions.

"..."

Consequently, Benjamin left without hesitation.

Of course, before leaving, he did not forget to collect some "medical fees" from the pair. They were easy to deceive; Benjamin barely had to say anything before they took out everything they had. However, Benjamin did not take everything. Out of practicality, he only took two items:

A book titled Introduction to Magic and a stone they called a "Water Element Crystal."

As for the other items, they were either useless or things Benjamin had no immediate need for. Besides, considering how foolish the two were and how miserable the older mage must be to have brought them along, he decided to leave them behind.

Benjamin was already quite satisfied with this.

They say good people are rewarded; after enduring these two idiots for so long, he deserved to get something out of it.

Since he was still in the lower district of Havenlight, Benjamin had no time to examine the two items closely. After putting them away, he bid the pair farewell and, following the system's guidance, set off toward the alley where the incident had occurred.

Come to think of it, he seemed to have been making the system guide him the whole time, and the system had even started complaining about being treated like a GPS. However, Benjamin had accumulated quite a bit of experience in this regard and managed to brush the system off with a few words.

Soon, he returned to the "original starting point."

According to the time provided by the system, it had already been forty-five minutes since the Great Wave spell was used. The entire alley looked as if it had just experienced a storm; there were several puddles on the ground, the road was muddy, and the walls on both sides had numerous cracks, as if they had been struck by something.

The scene was shocking enough. One had to know that if Benjamin summoned a water ball and left it alone, it would dissipate on its own in less than a minute. Yet, nearly an hour had passed, and the air here was still damp enough to grow mold, which showed just how powerful this spell was.

However, despite such a battle taking place in the alley, the main road of the outer district, just a few streets away, was still bustling with people, and no one had noticed a thing. So much time had passed, and no one from The Church had arrived to provide support.

On the muddy, water-logged ground, the two knights lay motionless, their survival uncertain.

Benjamin had no time to lament the chaos of the outer district or the incompetence of The Church; he ran over to check their breathing.

They were still alive.

Having confirmed this, Benjamin began to feel puzzled. The physical constitution of a Holy Knight was so formidable, yet they were in such a sorry state after the impact of the Great Wave and still hadn't regained consciousness. Why had he recovered his senses in just over ten minutes and remained completely fine?

Was it just because of the defensive water ball he had released?

No way, was he really that strong? Or had his strength increased without him realizing it?

Before Benjamin could be happy about this for long, he realized the true answer.

He took the cross hanging around his neck, held it up before his eyes, and examined it carefully. He saw that the Holy Light, which had originally emanated faintly from the cross, was now much dimmer than before, causing a sharp pang of heartache.

He hadn't been injured in the Great Wave not because of the protection of the water ball, but because this thing had been triggered automatically.

According to the bishop, it could withstand three magical attacks.

In other words, the cross's single defense combined with the water ball's protection hadn't been enough to fully block the impact of the Great Wave, and he had been knocked unconscious regardless.

If he hadn't had those shields and had been hit directly, wouldn't he have lost his life?

Thinking of this, Benjamin felt a lingering fear and no longer felt that the loss was a waste worth grieving over.

He glanced again at the spot where the brat had fallen. According to his reasoning, facing such a powerful spell while already injured, the little devil couldn't possibly have survived.

However, the place was empty.

Benjamin froze.

What the hell, where was he?

Even if he had been killed by the water, there should at least be a corpse; it was impossible for the body to have vanished—this wasn't fire magic. Could the brat have run away? How was that possible?

He asked the system this question, and the system answered quite bluntly: "I don't know."

...Fine.

If he wasn't dead, then it was his good luck, and Benjamin couldn't be bothered to care. After all, there were still two living people waiting for him to deal with—he couldn't just leave them here and run off on his own.

After thinking it over, Benjamin crouched down beside the Holy Knights and began to shake their shoulders, trying to wake them up.

The backstory he had set for himself was this: Benjamin had only just regained consciousness from a coma and was instinctively trying to wake the others. He didn't know what had happened, as he had been unconscious the entire time.

He had no choice; if The Church found out he had performed surgery on that mage, he would be dead.

He absolutely, positively could not let The Church grow suspicious of him.

"Wake up, are you okay? Wake up!"

After five minutes of persistent effort, Benjamin's arms were starting to ache before the two Holy Knights finally woke up one after another.

"I... how... those fallen ones... what happened?"

"I don't know either." Benjamin's acting remained on point as he said with a look of confusion, "I just saw a giant wave rushing toward me, and then... I don't know what happened after that. When I woke up, there were only the three of us here."

His performance was convincing enough, and the story made sense, so the others did not suspect him.

The knights and Benjamin helped each other stand up. For a moment, none of them spoke; the two knights remained silent, seemingly contemplating the current situation. Seeing this, Benjamin could only feign ignorance and keep his mouth shut as well.

Finally, after a while, the knight dressed as a woman spoke first:

"I didn't expect such powerful fallen ones to be hiding in the Royal Capital. We must report this news to the bishop. Lord Riser, let me take you home first. Please do not tell anyone else about this; we do not wish to cause panic among the nobles of the Royal Capital."