Chapter 81: The Witch
"I was always your most talented student, was I not?"
Percy hummed nonchalantly, and Leonart’s expression turned serious once again as he moved forward while raising his staff and activating the counterspell.
[Eternal Prison: Symphony of Verdant Ice]!
A massive blue magic circle formed around the secondary library, and many teachers shivered as a deep chill seeped straight into their bones! Frost travelled across the air and painted the room in a blue hue, and the teachers moved back slightly as the entire hallway dropped by multiple hundreds of degrees in seconds! The teachers then watched in awe as the deep crimson flames began to freeze over!
Crackle!
It was a shocking sight to all of them! The idea of fire being frozen was completely inconceivable even to mages who were used to the impossible, but Percy simply watched calmly as Leonart completed the spell and all the crimson fire in the room was encased in ice. This was the only way to extinguish Hellfire! During his travels, Percy had watched multiple towns and villages burn to the ground because of how resilient this fire was, and so he had created the Eternal Verdant Prison of Ice as a way to trap the fire and prevent it from spreading any further.
Once you do this, the fire would immediately start to die out, and it would only take a few days for both the ice and fire to vanish!
Once the flames were subdued, Leonart let out a breath of cold air, and he looked at the bodies scattered around the library before he looked at the sole girl sitting in the middle of the room!
"Hildegard!"
Rosaline’s voice echoed through the room once she saw her student, and she quickly moved into the room with a desperate look on her face! Rosaline began to look Hildegard over like a mother hen checking her chick, but Rosa was the only teacher who actually went to check on Hildegard. All the other teachers stood back cautiously, and they watched the young Lamia with suspicious looks on their faces!
Every one of them knew exactly what Hildegard’s affinity was. It was a rare affinity that created the crimson flames that burned for a hundred days and nights. Hildegard was the only recorded mage in the world with the affinity of [Hellfire]! It was impossible for the teachers not to think that she was responsible for what had happened here!
"Hildegard, are you okay? Talk to me. What happened here?"
Rosa put her hand on Hildegard’s back while asking this, but an even louder voice echoed from the crowd of teachers and drew all the attention!
"Is she okay!? You’re asking about her health!? Look around you, professor! Does anything here look okay!?"
A man stepped forward while spreading his arms out towards the frozen library, and he scowled at Rosa! The man wore long black robes that went down to his ankles and black gloves on his hands, and he had a face that reminded Percy of a raven. A long nose and dark hair with large black eyes that seemed to look right through you! This man was named Clement, and he was the professor in charge of Artefact Analysis and Appraisal for the third and fourth year students!
The man pointed a gloved finger at Hildegard and sneered at her angrily!
"That... witch is responsible for this! How dare you ask after her well-being!? Do you not see how many students have died in this library!?"
The other teachers around began to murmur in low voices as they agreed with Clement’s point, and Rosaline stood up with a frown as she faced Clement angrily!
"What are you talking about? I am Hildegard’s student advisor, and I know her better than anyone at this school! She would never do something like this!"
"You’re a rookie that only came here this year! Don’t you dare try to claim that you know anyone! That girl was a disaster waiting to happen from day one! I always said that her kind should never have been allowed in this school! Her blood is tainted by the sins of her father! And now look what it’s caused! She’s killed a dozen innocent students who had no part in this! This failure is ours to bear! Ours!"
Clement’s intensity actually made Rosa take a step back in shock! It was true that Rosaline had only joined the staff this year to teach runes to the first years, but Rosa just couldn’t wrap her mind around what was going on here! Rosa had been appointed as Hildegard’s advisor this year, and she had done multiple one-on-one sessions with the lamia, so Rosa believed that she knew what sort of person Hildegard was! It just didn’t make sense for Hildegard to do something like this!
Clement stepped forward and continued talking angrily!
"What do you think will happen to us now that we’ve allowed so many students to die under our watch? Do you think the Parents’ Association is going to let this slide? We were already walking on thin ice because of the student that died in the main library, and now even more students have died to Hellfire! This is an absolute disaster, and it’s all her fault!"
The murmuring from the teachers grew even worse, and Percy noticed that there was a lot of animosity growing towards this one girl. People were frowning and sneering, and there were words of insult being thrown out in low voices towards Hildegard. But Percy didn’t do anything about the situation, and he simply watched from the back to see how things would play out!
Rosa tightened her hands into fists, and she seemed to gain back some confidence when she heard all the teachers turning on Hildegard, and she spoke angrily.
"Don’t tell me you really think that such a nice girl would do anything to harm these many students! Hildegard is a model student! The best in her grade! Why would she do something like this!?"
"Then why isn’t she saying anything!?"
One of the teachers behind Clement shouted angrily when he noticed that Hildegard had just been sitting quietly all this time, and all the teachers immediately agreed with him as they wondered why Hildegard was so silent! Rosa frowned before she turned around and spoke to Hildegard.
"Hilda, I need you to tell me what happened here. Tell us who caused this."
Clement slashed his arm through the air and spoke angrily!
"Don’t speak to her like she’s some child! She’s a grown woman! Hildegard, speak up and tell us what happened to the students here this instant!"
Hildegard actually flinched when she heard Clement’s hard tone, and she turned her head to the side and frowned before speaking in a very low voice.
"I... I don’t know what happened. The Magic just went out of control... I don’t know..."
"LIES!"
Clement’s eyes flashed with rage as he moved forward with a shout, and Hildegard flinched once again! Rosa quickly moved to protect Hildegard, and she frowned at Clement.
"Screaming at a student is not going to help matters at all. She is obviously in shock from what happened, so we need to give her some time to calm down!"
Clement gritted his teeth and sneered at Rosa!
"You want me to believe the words of a dark mage!? You want me to believe her words over what I see with my own eyes!? Look around you! Look at the dead bodies on the floor, the burned children and erased destinies! Look at their faces and tell me that you want me to believe her words over what is right in front of you!"