Rise of the Crusader

47 Confirmed Dead

The two figures who had just appeared in front of the skyscraper were none other than the veiled woman who assigned them the mission, and a tall man with orange spiky hair.

As the students saw the two of them, especially the tall spiky haired man, they glanced at Raphael and then back at the man.

“The fact that you’re standing in front of the research and support division means that something happened in the Bass mansion. And also, it was twenty-one students who were sent out, how come there are only nineteen here?!” Suddenly, the woman’s voice rang out.

The students, however, said nothing, as responding to the woman would do more harm than good to them. They all chose to remain quiet and continued to stare at the skyscraper with a rather hopeful look on their faces.

As for Raphael, he had his eyes fixed on the tall, spiky-haired man in front of him. Even though they had never met, and Raphael was very certain that this was the first time he was encountering this man, he could sense a tinge of killing intent coming from the man.

“Do I know you?!” After a few seconds, and Raphael could bear it anymore, his voice rang out, and it wasn’t in a friendly tone.

The students shifted their gazes away from the skyscraper and had eyes fixed on Raphael and the tall man. The expression which they had on their faces was as though they had been expecting a situation like this to occur, and now that it did, they weren’t surprised.

“Raphael, that is...” Before Aiden could complete his words, the tall spiky haired man walked in front of Raphael, stretched his hand forward, and then said, “I’m Vincent... Vincent Walker, the elder brother of Richard and Adrian.”

There was a smile on Vincent’s face as he uttered those words. It was like he didn’t have any grudge against Raphael.

.....

Raphael, however, stared at Vincent, “It’s nice meeting you, Vincent,” Raphael responded, as he shook Vincent’s hand.

“I have heard a lot of things about you Raphael, in a matter of weeks after you came to the academy you killed some certain people, and despite all you’ve done, three among the leading group in the academy consider you as a talent worth nurturing.”

The atmosphere became cold after Vince uttered those words and even though he had a smile on his face, the students could as well tell that that wasn’t a decent smile he had on.

Meanwhile, Raphael’s eyebrows furrowed when he heard Vincent, he seized Vincent from head to toe and then said, “It’s the law of the jungle!! And I might as well repay evil with evil,” Raphael stated.

Raphael might not have spoken the word directly, but everyone understood what he meant by ‘Repay evil with evil’ and it brought a stupefied expression to each one of the faces.

“Raph... Raphael,” Aiden who was standing close to Raphael pulled his cloth slightly as if telling him to stop talking, but he was instead greeted by a smirk appearing on Raphael.

As Aiden saw how Raphael had responded, he stared at Bane, and the both of them couldn’t help but gulp.

The members of the student’s council were not to be thrived with. Even teachers would choose to avoid them if necessary, and Vincent being able to become one of a member of the student’s council was more than enough to address what sort of figure Vincent was in the academy.

Apart from seniors and a couple of other groups on the campus, there were hardly any other students who would speak to Vincent in such a brazen manner, and especially not a year-1 student.

“Repay evil with evil,” Vincent repeated the word that Raphael spoke to him, and suddenly an amused smile appeared on him. “So, you consider killing my brothers repaying evil with evil” Vincent spoke in a cold voice.

And in response, Raphael kept a straight face, and then said, “Who am I not to... I see no reason why someone who doesn’t appreciate the beauty of life should be alive!”

If the atmosphere was already intense, then when Raphael uttered those words, the pressure certainly increased.

Vincent had been able to control his emotion all this while with a smile on his face, but the moment he heard Raphael, and saw that expression full of mockery he had on him, Vincent’s eyes twitched.

With his hand clenched into a tight fist, Vincent glared at Raphael furiously, almost as though at any point, he was going to attack Raphael. However, after a few seconds, Vincent loosened his grip and a smile appeared on his face once again.

“I don’t know if I should see this as a wise thing to say or a foolish thing,” Vincent said, “And also are you certain you have the strength to back up the words you had just said... Because, I’m really not someone you want to get in bad books with, at least not again.”

Raphael, however, sneered when he heard Vincent, “You flatter yourself!!! I already consider you to be a pain in the ass, and truthfully, if it was left to me, you wouldn’t even be alive, so it should be you who shouldn’t get in my bad books.” Raphael responded.

From the moment Raphael and Vincent met, Vincent had already shown his discontent for Raphael with the killing intent, and so Raphael saw no reason to associate with him.

“Oh, oh... This is really bad!! Really, really bad!” Aiden mumbled in a low voice.

It wasn’t even up to a second after Raphael spoke, and dark particles began to emerge behind Vincent. Vincent’s lips curved into a demonic grin, and as he took a step forward, his body began to exclude a frightening amount of killing intent.

Vincent’s killing intent was locked on Raphael completely, and barely sensing a whiff of it had the other students staggering several steps backward.

However, as the students were pushed backward, one figure walked to the front and stood right beside Raphael. The figure was a woman with long wavy white hair, it was none other than Aliyah.

Staring at Aliyah, Raphael’s had a neutral expression on his face, though he was a little surprised by her, he still chose to act indifferent about it.

As Vincent was about to take another step closer to Raphael, Raphael suddenly spoke, “If you take one more move, I will assume that you also don’t value life. I will ask, was being alive... Not good enough?!” Raphael said in a dark and low voice.

Vincent raised an eyebrow, and he couldn’t help but be startled by Raphael. It wasn’t Raphael’s words that made him stunned, but instead, it was that look that Raphael had on his face.

To Vincent, those pair of blue eyes were unfathomably empty, devoid of all compassion, no humanity... No one should have eyes like that, no one!

It wasn’t only Vincent who felt that voice that was detached from all emotion and saw those eyes that seemed inhumane. Aliyah who was standing beside Raphael also saw him, however, she only glanced at him for a few seconds, and then kept a straight face.

“Ah-Ahem!”

The uneasiness in the surrounding was broken when that petite woman from earlier appeared in front of them. Followed by the woman appearing, was also Savannah coming out of the skyscraper with tears gushing out of her eyes.

Even though the woman hadn’t said anything, yet the students already had a bad premonition about it, and as they stared at the petite woman, an expression full of worry could be seen evidently on their faces.

“We tried our possible best,” The woman paused, “But, I’m afraid we weren’t able to save her... Her soul had already left her body completely by the time you arrived here, there was nothing we could do to save her.” The woman said.

“Your friend is dead!”

As the students heard the woman, a couple of them stumbled to the ground. While some were genuinely sad about Alice’s death, the others were worried about what her death inferred to them.

“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on!!!!!” The woman from the student council exclaimed.

There was, however, no response from the students, and the frown on the woman’s face deepened. “I will learn about it myself then!!” With that said, and the woman raised her hand slightly, and she began to click on her wristwatch.

A few seconds after the woman’s action, and a holographic screen appeared in front of everyone. As the woman waved her hand, the screen began displaying all sorts of images that happened in the Bass mansion.

And after a brief moment, she seemed to have arrived at the one she wanted, and as she tapped the wristwatch, what occurred in the mansion was being shown on the screen.

“The academy planted a camera on us... But how!!”

“What the hell!!!”

As the students watched the battle between Clayton, Mason, and Alice, they couldn’t help but wonder where they were the whole time. Perhaps if Mason had been in his titan form, then they might have figured it out, but he wasn’t.

The screen continued to display the battle between the three of them, and after a few minutes to get to the place whereby, Clayton had defeated Mason, and then struck a blow at Alice.

“You’re all piece of shit!!!! We gave you one single task to do, and you couldn’t... In fact, one of your mates died because of your foolishness!” Once Alice had dropped to the ground in the screen, a loud voice rang out.

The woman kept on spewing on words to the students and after a minute, she paused. “Prepare to hear from the disciplinary, and execution committee very soon because, if you can’t take care of a petty Bass family, I don’t know what to expect from you in the future.”

With that said, and the woman disappeared from the surrounding.

“I will keep in touch with you, Raphael!” Vincent said before he then disappeared.

The other students glanced at one another for a few minutes before then heaving a deep breath, and moving forward. Some went towards Savannah, while others simply left.

As for Raphael, he placed his hands on his chin, “So the F still stands!” Raphael mumbled in a low voice.

“Hahaha!” Aliyah, who was still beside Raphael, chuckled when she heard him. Aliyah shook her head and then left.

“Come on, Raphael, let’s go.”