As the guest of honor and the center of attention, Ludkin came to invite Annan.
"No, I really have to go back and feed the dog."
Sienna took Su Ni and the other girls along with their classmates, leaving Annan at a much quieter banquet.
"Who do you think it was?" Alice asked him.
"I don't know, but probably a man," Annan said.
Alice fell silent for a few seconds, accepting that as their working assumption, then looked toward the Siltovis Academy students approaching them.
"You think it was them?"
"It wasn't us," Gordon said earnestly.
Everyone at Siltovis Magic Academy knew they had lost to a monster with an Elemental Legion. They couldn't muster the desire to make trouble for him.
"That's a shame."
Alice and Gordon both turned to look at him.
"I mean, open hostility is better than a plot hidden in the shadows."
"We'll keep an eye out for you."
The people from Siltovis Magic Academy left soon after. As the reception hall emptied, the Dean and Vice Dean departed too. Annan boarded the carriage the Dean had left for him, said goodbye to Alice, and returned to the Mansion.
This was Annan's first time out at night in Siltovis. The Street was deserted. Only a few hurried passersby and the lights shining from houses into the night sky showed that this was no dead city. The Guards he encountered now and then saw the Saurz Academy crest and tacitly said nothing.
Remembering the curfew, weak and helpless Annan grew uneasy. He feared that terrifying beings who coveted him—the Vampire Queen, Succubi, female Ratfolk—might leap out at any moment. But he made it back to the Mansion without meeting a single one.
The carriage stopped outside the Mansion. Annan handed the reins to an approaching attendant