Ethan wiped his tears and tried to keep calm. He didn't have much time to feel sorry for himself or the corpse below his feet. He had no idea if the sounds of the fight had reached the Academy, yet the lack of a sudden outburst of lights seemed to prove it hadn't. Still, he wasn't willing to take the chance.

  How am I supposed to deal with this?

  Ethan looked down at the corpse and couldn't help but find the sight eerie. If not for the knife standing upright in the man's chest and the blood smeared on his clothes, Ethan could believe the boy was merely sleeping, except that his chest would never rise again, and the blood would never flow.

  Is there a way to make it disappear? Maybe burn it or bury it?

  Ethan could only reject the idea of cremating it. First, he didn't possess the means to create a flame strong enough to incinerate the boy's bones to ash, and even if he did, such a flame would only attract even more attention to this location. Also, a flame of this magnitude in the forest was a recipe for disaster.

  As for burying, while possible, the forest's floor was filled with rocks and tangled roots, making the process extremely laborious. Not only would it take a long time to dig deep enough, but it would also leave the ground disturbed, making it easy to spot even from a distance.

  Besides, with the countless kinds of spirits the Imperium possess, there's no way to tell what means they might employ if they were to search for it. Once they find him missing, they might have some means to search for his body through his personal items, maybe following his scent or some kind of foresight. Either way, the more clues I leave here, the better the chances of me being caught. Trying to tamper with the body too much may be detrimental in the end...

  Ethan felt stuck in an impasse, the weight of it all slowly crushing him. While this was self-defence, Ethan knew what the Imperium did to those who dared to harm the students of the Academy. Maybe his sister could protect him, but would she be willing?

  Ethan didn't think so. This was much too big to be swept under the rug. Surely, this young boy came from a distinguished family. They would do anything in their power to unravel this mystery.

  Calm down and think! There must be something I can do!

  However much he wished to, his thoughts were swimming in all directions, either from his heightened emotional state or from his sudden lack of blood. The more he delayed the inevitable, the grimmer his situation would become. Then, an absurd thought came to him, yet it offered a glimmer of hope.

  What if they found no wound? The blood may remain, but what if they found no cause of death? This may give me some time to evade their pursuit. And, if they somehow link this back to me, I can always play dumb. How could they prove this knife was the murder weapon when there was no cause of death? Still, this is a huge gamble...

  With a slight hope in his eyes, Ethan bent down and wrapped his hand around the knife still held upwards through the boy’s flesh. He tugged on it, ripping it out of the body, then wiped the blood on the inside of his robes before sheathing it back.

  I'll need to get rid of those clothes one way or another. They stand out too much—ripped and caked in blood— but first, let's deal with the main problem.

  Ethan's hand hovered over the lifeless corpse, palm stretched out. While it would have been more efficient for him to make contact with the boy's flesh, he had no intentions of leaving his bloody prints all over the corpse. There was already enough of his blood spilled all around him.

  He closed his eyes and brought the character back to the forefront of his mind. This time again, the symbol appeared in a shower of light, swiftly taking shape. It was even faster than before, trending evermore toward perfection.

  What had previously taken him what seemed like an eternity only took a couple of seconds before the character was fully formed. However, Ethan didn't rush, ensuring that all was as it should be. He couldn't afford for the body to explode as the pebbles had already done twice.

  This better work...

  Ethan took a deep breath, feeling the surrounding mana flood his body, yet it was much slower than he would have liked. He had already expanded more than half of his small amount of mana, half-fusing two small pebbles together, and now he attempted something much more substantial. He didn't know if it would succeed in his current state, yet he couldn't help but try. He didn't have much option at this point in time.

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  Despite the character being fully formed, Ethan remained immobile for over five minutes, waiting for his mana reserves to be sufficiently replenished. Fortunately, it did so automatically, without any input from him, as if mana itself was attracted to his heart, wishing to pool within on its own, yet the process was much too slow for his liking.

  If the absorption rate remains fixed, I really should consider expanding my capacity a priority. Waiting like this opens me up to a counterattack.

  After a wait that seemed like an eternity, Ethan was finally ready to implement his plan. He let the character flow to his arm, then to his palm, alongside all the mana he had acquired. A light was brought forth from his hand, suspended between his palm and the body below.

  It transformed into the familiar character, hovering for a few moments as it became complete, only to fall directly into the open wound where the knife had been plunged.

  Once the light disappeared, Ethan fell backwards, wholly exhausted, yet his eyes were glued to the lifeless corpse. He waited—waited for something to happen, yet the wait felt like torture, much more than the numbness slowly spreading from his extremities.

  Then, from the abyss of this deep cavity formed by the passage of a sharp blade, countless speckles of light began to appear, resembling little stars on a bloodied canvas. They twinkled, creating a radiant heat that propagated upward. Soon, Ethan felt like his hand was held above a fire, prompting him to retract it once the sizzle began too much to bear.

  Surprisingly, the corpse's flesh didn't burn but instead seemed to be mending itself, recreating what once was as it slowly closed the wound, leaving only a puddle of blood that slowly drained onto the forest's ground, dyeing the fallen leaves into a shade of red.

  After a while, the wound was completely gone. The only remaining evidence of foul play was the slit in the form of a knife's edge on the victim's clothes, yet Ethan could do nothing about this. To tamper further would be to tempt fate, and he had already done enough today.

  Just as he was about to rise, seeking to erase his traces, Ethan noticed the small, dim black jewel resting near the boy's head. He paused, unable to rise further as greed enveloped his heart. He knew all too well how much of a boon those dormant spirits would be in his quest to master this new form of magic, yet the guilt of what he had done stopped his hand just a few inches from snatching it away.

  If I were to take it, they'd surely know... I can't... I shouldn't...

  Yet, Ethan's limb defied his judgment. His palm wrapped around the stone and tugged, ripping the earring from the lobe. Then, gripping the jewel with his teeth, Ethan snapped the chain in half before throwing it away in a nearby bush.

  With this, they might believe it was detached during the struggle, though I shouldn’t count on it...

  He wasn't sure if this was for the best, yet he knew this was a chance he couldn't miss. Besides, he was already knee-deep in trouble; what was one thing more? As long as there wasn't someone who could look into the past, Ethan felt he had nothing to fear. Or at least, he deluded himself as such. He could only pray that no such person were to exist.

  With the jewel safely tucked away in his pockets, Ethan quickly erased all the traces he could find in the darkness before slowly backing away from the Academy's perimeter. While he wished for nothing more than to be back in the black tome, where he could rest and recuperate, he knew all too well that this was unrealistic. If he were to stroll within the Academy in his current state, even at this time of the night, he would probably be arrested on the spot.

  He needed a place to wash himself and clean his wounds. Still, after experimenting with the corpse, Ethan felt much more confident he could deal with his wounds, making his current situation much less dire.

  Still, something bugs me... Why would that boy think Beth and I have something going on, enough to threaten this Hayes? We've barely interacted with each other ever since the engagement was dissolved. Even if he had some deep insecurities, the past alone wouldn't push him to order my death. What is going on?

  Ethan carefully made his way toward the small pond he had found some time ago, a tranquil place where he could heal his wounds. He did so while erasing most of his traces, yet merely walking on uneven ground was much more strenuous than he thought possible. Any experienced tracker could easily follow his path. Ethan could only hope he would be long gone before a search party were to catch up to him.

  He finally arrived at the pond and kneeled down to wash his face. From the reflection of the moonlight striking the surface, he could see the fatigue plaguing his visage. He seemed to have aged over ten years instantly, the weight of it all almost crushing him. He couldn't help but chuckle sorrowfully before dipping his hand into the fresh liquid, washing away the dirt and grime staining his face.

  Slowly, he cleaned all his wounds, starting with the worst one on his arm. Even through the tight make-shift bandage, blood continuously seeped, staining it a deep red. If left for much longer, Ethan knew an infection would follow. He had to act fast.

  Once he believed he had regained enough mana, Ethan carefully uncovered the wound, only for his expression to twist with pain. However, this was a good thing. Pain meant the nerves were still intact. The odds seemed to be in his favour.

  Although the wound bled once again, Ethan slowly closed his eyes, picturing the symbol for the fourth time. It came to life in almost an instant, yet the process took all his concentration. If interrupted, it would dissipate into shards of light, sapping the mana he had gathered, making it practically useless in a proper fight.

  Ethan's only redeeming grace had been that his opponent was too young, unable to adequately control his spirit. If it had been a seasoned veteran, Ethan would have lost without a single chance of a counterattack. This reality couldn't help but give him chills, but also hope for the future. He may have a way to circumvent this shortcoming, though this would have to wait.

  After a moment, the character seeped into Ethan's flesh, slowly but surely mending all his wounds, yet the process was brutal. He felt his flesh burn as if it had been set on fire. He also felt an interminable itch, almost driving him crazy.

  This was too much for his weary mind to take. Coupled with the exhaustion of the mana he had accumulated quickly vanishing, Ethan’s mind shut down, falling face first into soft ground by the side of the pond. Yet, the perfected character didn't stop, quickly closing the remainder of his wounds, the flesh reaching perfection again.

  Although defenceless, Ethan was now out of danger, but one more surprising thing happened. When his body hit the ground, the blackened jewel he had put in his pocket shattered and turned to dust, yet the spirit was nowhere to be seen.