Chapter 230 230- Ophanim (Part 2)
Taking in the scene around her, Ethia smiled before she began.
"Welcome everyone and good morning. My name is Ethia BloodCurl and I shall be your headmistress for the foreseeable future. On this great day, I"m honored to be standing here in front of you, announcing the start of perhaps the biggest change in human history." She said in clear, precise words.
Kai could see that her speech abilities were amazing purely from the few words she just said. However, Kai is just too occupied with Ethia"s true ident.i.ty to care much about what she says.
"This academy has been the dream of Divinity ever since it was founded. We have been seeking to change the world and Origin has given us that opportunity. I"m glad to say that we were able to successfully lay the foundation for such an ambitious dream in the form of the first-ever Origin Academy in the world."
The students started clapping and cheering when they heard those words. Their a.s.sumptions that this speech was going to be boring and bland were thrown out of the window. Now, everyone was listening curiously.
"We"re all here today to celebrate that beginning. However, the celebration can"t last long as the time to work hard is here. We"re on the steps of something greater so we must be up to the challenge. I, myself, shall work hard to make sure this academy will be the safe haven where you can hone your powers without worrying about anything else."
The more Ethia spoke, the more the students felt excited and absorbed in her words. She was, after all, telling them what they wanted to hear.
What proceeded next was a colorful speech that completely took everyone by surprise but also deeply touched them. Ethia was able to easily become a respectable figure in their eyes with a simple few words spoken. That kind of effect was highly surprising even for someone like Kaya who believed she was also a good speaker.
Eventually, the speech ended and everyone stood up to cheer for Ethia. Even Kai and Aria stood up too since they didn"t want to stand out.
However, that didn"t mean that they also believed what she said completely. Ethia now turned from a normal and nice landlady to an absolutely suspicious individual that Kai needed to seriously investigate.
Kai also needed to leave that apartement, however, since he had just recently moved in, he knew that Ethia would find it odd if they left immediately. So, he had to somehow find a way to leave without making it obvious.
"Tsk, it"s always with the bad luck." He thought to himself with a sigh.
After the speech, the ceremony officially ended and the students were allowed to disperse and go back to their cla.s.ses.
Kai and Aria also went back without doing anything. Neither of them spoke about the matter since they weren"t in a good place for that.
Kai also didn"t try to get in contact with Kaya yet. He was certain that she would ask around for the true ident.i.ty of Ethia and tell him the whole story.
So, even though Kai was still rather worried, he simply spent the rest of the day as usual. The sole change that happened was that they were now in an actual school rather than one of the floors of Divinity.
By the end of the day, Kai was finally able to find some time to meet Kaya with Aria. The two went to her office which was in the same building. Everyone had already left so it was very quiet at the time.
Entering inside, the office was rather s.p.a.cious, cozy, and very organized. Kaya was sitting behind her desk, sipping a hot cup of coffee. When she saw Kai, her eyes lit up.
"Darling, you"re finally here!" Standing up, she approached him and gave him a hug. Kai hugged her back gently before he pulled away.
"Good evening, Aria."
"Good evening."
"We need to talk about that woman." He said as he sat down on a comfy chair with Aria next to him.
"Yeah, I know that. I was also quite shocked when I saw her there. I didn"t even know that she was the landlady of your building. My deepest apologies."
"Don"t worry about it. I didn"t sense any Origin from her either so I never suspected her in the first place." Kai replied.
The fact that Ethia lacked any form of Origin truly made Kai even more confused. Why would she be chosen as the headmistress?
However, Kaya surprisingly shook her head in response.
"No, she most definitely is an Origin User."
"..." Kai was taken aback by her words. "That"s impossible. She can"t be an Origin User."
Kai had made sure to try and sense her aura but he found nothing. Even those who suppress their auras would leave traces behind that Kai always picks up on. However, Ethia didn"t leave any such traces at all.
"That"s what I thought at first as well. But, when I researched who that person was. It made sense to me." She said as she walked behind the desk and pulled out a file before she handed it to Kai.
The latter looked at her confusedly as if he didn"t understand why she didn"t simply reveal her ident.i.ty.
"Just read it."
Kai sighed before he opened the file and started reading the content in it. Seconds pa.s.sed quietly in the office as Aria and Kaya waited for him to finish.
By the time he closed the file, Kai"s expression turned deeply sour as he stared at Kaya again.
"Are you certain of this, Kaya?"
The latter nodded her head with a serious look. "Yes, 100%. That"s why I"m more concerned now."
"This is way worse than I expected. Dammit!" Cursing inwardly, Kai took a deep breath before he started thinking of how to solve this problem.
"Who is she, Kai?" Aria asked.
Her question woke him up from his thoughts. But, instead of answering her question, he grabbed her hand gently and then started moving his index finger on the palm of her hand. Aria was confused at first but she quickly understood what he was trying to do and focused carefully on his finger gestures.
By the time he finished, Aria"s expression changed too.
"Oh no. This is a problem." She murmured in response.
"Most certainly is. But, we can"t really do much now. It was an unexpected turn of events that even I couldn"t antic.i.p.ate." Kaya replied as she sipped her coffee.
"But, what if she already predicted everything? Or, perhaps she was sent by…" Aria replied with a nervous tone. She already thought of the worst-case scenario which would instantly destroy their plan.
"If that man predicted that we"re gonna infiltrate this place then it"s all gone down the drain." Aria thought to herself.
"No, that is impossible." Kai, however, denied that possibility before Aria"s mind could go any further.
"There is no way that could be the case. Unless that man has eyes everywhere, he could"ve not predicted that we"re gonna be here and then deploy someone like her to keep an eye on us. She also didn"t seem to do anything suspicious throughout the whole speech." He determined with ease.
However, that by no means meant that Kai totally believed that his plan was still going to be a smooth sail now that Ethia was present in the equation. He will have to adjust to the situation or even use it to his advantage if he can.
"Hmm, maybe I can do something different. Instead of running away or trying to hide." Thinking about it silently, his thoughts were cut but Kaya"s voice.
"So, what"re we supposed to do?" She asked.
"Let"s stay pa.s.sive for now. Unless she does anything suspicious, it"s still highly likely that she didn"t notice anything suspicious."
"I see. Well, that"s better than rushing to do something urgently." Kaya said with a smile.
After chatting for a while, Kai and Aria finally bid Kaya farewell and left her office, heading home.
"Kai…" Aria spoke.
"We will talk later. Now return to your persona." He said with a hidden mysterious look.
"Ok." Aria nodded her head.
A few minutes later, the two reached their destination where they walked inside using the keys they received. The lounge on the first floor was as empty as ever. Except for one or two people that Kai and Aria coincidentally met when they left their apartement in the morning, this apartement complex was rather empty.
It made Kai slightly suspicious but he didn"t find any reason to try and look into it. Perhaps he simply ended up in a place where people liked to live quietly.
Walking into the elevator, the door was about to close. However, at that moment, out of nowhere, a hand stopped the door from closing which made it open again.
"Fufufu, I"m lucky to reach it in time." Ethia appeared in front of them with her charming smile as she walked inside the elevator.
Slowly, the door of the elevator closed on the trio slowly.