Legend | Celeste Academy Series BK #2

LEGEND

SEQUEL TO KNIGHT OF THE SAME SERIES. PLEASE READ THAT FIRST BEFORE GOING HERE.

Prologue

Though previously busy with the case of Bertram in hand, Lady Seraphina had no choice but to come urgently as was requested of her by a message concerning Valeriana's sudden involvement into a troublesome situation. The sender had not stated exactly what kind of difficulty the human girl had been facing, but the tone it held implied she had herself buried in quite a strife.

"Valeriana?" The lady knight was breathless as she burst into the infirmary, one hand seizing the frame of the door and the other clenched around the brass knob. The scene she had expected to come to sight was absent, and instead showed the Headmaster and the Court Leader buried into a deep conversation with one another.

Kylon lightly tipped his head to the side as his eyes swept towards hers. "She already left with the others."

"So she's fine?" She heaved a deep sigh. "Thank goodness."

"I had to coax her into leaving." Lord Aeron said, sighing as he went to retrieve the object he had thrown away a few moments ago. He had just finished explaining to the headmaster his 'discoveries', and now he might've had to repeat from the start. "I do not believe I can answer the questions she has. After all, only she can find the answer to them."

"What in the world do you mean?" She asked in confusion, making her way inside as she swiftly flicked off a drop of sweat from her brow.

"She's not human." Headmaster Kylon spoke.

Seraphina turned to Kylon, thinking she heard him wrong. "What?"

"The necklace has been removed. Valeriana's not human." He repeated, deep in thought himself.

"What do you mean 'the necklace has been removed'?" She gaped at him, finding herself unconsciously magnetized towards him.

"It's as I say." He told her, holding up the broken necklace as proof that he wasn't joking. The expression on the woman's face was nothing short of amusing. "The girl had a little encounter with the former fifth and they apparently got into a fight, inflicting a certain degree of damage to a certain part of the school. In the end, all this happened and we discovered that she wasn't human."

"The necklace of protection? Then, is that the reason why you're here, Lord Aeron?" She turned to look at the man who had a seemingly permanent smile on his face.

"He knew from the start." Kylon sighed.

"What?!" The woman exclaimed with widened eyes.

The eccentric Court Leader, who everyone thought of going senile from his old age, laughed loudly in obvious amusement. "It was fun seeing the look on your faces."

"How?" She asked, eyeing Aeron demandingly. "This matter is no joke, Lord Aeron! What kind of thought did you have running through your head?!"

"I knew. I've had conclusions but no concrete proof."

"I'm asking how!" She made a guttural sound in the back of her throat in frustration.

"I'm currently in the process of knowing." He answered.

"But you just said you knew!"

"I know little. But I still know."

Seraphina frowned at his words. "Are you playing with me? What is it really? Please be clearer."

The Court Leader calmly took a seat on the usual fireside chair he took during his unbidden visits in the academy. "I am not sure." He said. "Even Valeriana's family themselves seem to have not a bit of idea about whatever's going on. I was hoping for sure that letter sent would bring out something . . ."

"Sending the letter was for that reason?" Kylon muttered. "I had wondered why you wanted a formal letter sent to Valeriana's family when you normally wouldn't have bothered for such trivialities. I knew something suspicious was going on. Even I asked myself what was so special about Valeriana in the first place for the Court Leader himself to act out his wishes."

The headmaster was making a lot of sense. Although Seraphina herself wanted to question it before, she dared not, but now was different. "Tell us what you know, Court Leader. What is going on?"

"I have my conclusions." He told them. "And there seems to be only one thing that is reasonable enough."

"What is it?"

"Whatever I am going to say are mere conclusions and nothing more. I hold neither concrete proof nor evidence, so whatever theories you have in mind are welcome and shall be given a thought." The Court Leader paused. "But I demand your secrecy regarding this subject for the mean time."

"You can trust us." Seraphina nodded at Kylon.

"Well, why don't you two sit?" He asked. "This is going to be a very long story, and it would be tiring if you stand there the whole while. And before we start, some tea would be nice."