Destroyer of Ice and Fire

"Hurry up, let's go to Dragon-Battling Arena, what are you still dumbly staying here for?"

"Why, our school lost already, it's all the same whether I go or don't, why are you getting so excited."

"Are you an idiot, today's the match between Agate Lake Academy and White Stone Academy. Anyway, I already reminded you. Go or don't, it's up to you, I'm going right now myself, otherwise I won't be able to find a seat close to the front."

"Agate Lake Academy's match! Hurry up, let's go!"

Charlotte heard voices like these when she walked along the walls surrounding Divine Shield Academy and neared the entrance. She saw a dozen male students rush anxiously toward the Dragon-Battling Arena without even finishing their food. She couldn't resist shaking her head.

Heroes and beautiful girls had always been the most attractive things.

Agate Lake Academy wasn't only very strong, with powerful freshmen joining year in and year out. The most important thing was, the proportion of girls to boys in Agate Lake Academy was seven to one. The academy emphasized female students, and the majority of teachers were female as well. It emphasized female arcane skills, to make up for the innate gap in strength for the majority of girls.

Team Agate Lake was entirely comprised of girls. The captain Sofia or team member Megan and the others, they all were great famous beauties. On top of that, the more than five thousand girl students of Agate Lake Academy would all go to the venue and cheer for them. In a match like that, your eyes would certainly be filled with girls wherever you rested them, as if all the young women in the entire world came to your sides. That was the reason why every male student in St. Lauren would rush to watch every one of Agate Lake Academy's matches. The crowd gathered there was even bigger than for a clash between two teams of absolute strength.

"Ayrin?"

Charlotte shouted in amazement the moment she walked out of the school gates.

What made her cheeks instantly flush a little was, Ayrin was even holding a bunch of flowers.

"Don't tell me he…" Now Charlotte finally understood why these girls in the same dorm building as her told her with a mysterious air there was someone they all knew looking for her at the entrance, then stayed very vague and didn't tell her who the one looking for her was.

Charlotte suddenly seemed to realize something else. She turned her head around, and indeed saw some girls very familiar with her sneaking behind a mass of shrubs and flowers.

"What should I do? He's younger than me, and we met only twice. Isn't he particularly close with Chris?" Seeing Ayrin coming excitedly her way, Charlotte was somewhat at a loss what to do.

"Is that for me… We're still young…" She didn't know what to say either.

"Charlotte, I came to see Ivan." Ayrin said, watching her, "Can you take me to see him?"

"What! You came to see Ivan, these flowers are for him too?" Charlotte suddenly turned to stone.

"Yeah." Ayrin nodded for a spell. "I wounded him too heavily in the previous match. I simply gave my all in the fight, but I'm still embarrassed when I think about it. I heard teacher Ciaran say that he stayed a few days in the infirmary in our Holy Dawn Academy, and now he's back to your academy and should be alright. Teacher Carter happened to give me today off and told me to rest, so I came here. Can you bring me to see him?"

"You took the time to visit because you wounded him too heavily in the match?" Thinking of her own reaction a moment ago, Charlotte's face burned even hotter. She had the pressing urge to smack Ayrin to the ground in one slap.

Remembering the girls from her dorm still watching behind the bushes in the distance, Charlotte felt she really had no face left.

"Give me the flowers!"

She stretched her hand out and snatched the flowers from Ayrin, loudly saying through clenched teeth at the same time, "Ayrin, thank you, you don't need to bring flowers next time you come to see me."

"But these are for…" Ayrin was struck a little dumb.

"Best not to talk too much if you want to see Ivan!" Charlotte shouted at Ayrin, her face filled with black lines.

"Alright then." Ayrin nodded obediently. He couldn't help thinking, why was Charlotte totally different than usual today, she seemed a lot more fearsome than usual.

After letting the students on duty at the entrance jot down his name, seething all the while, she led Ayrin down on the small path along the perimeter walls she most liked to walk on usually. After walking for a bit, Charlotte thought that Ayrin was really pretty innocent all in all. She was the one who imagined things wrong from the start, and then, after her cheeks flushed red, she had been afraid of losing face in front of her friends secretly watching her. So her gloomy mood started to dissipate, and she asked Ayrin, a little embarrassed, "Why didn't you go watch Agate Lake Academy's match today?"

"I should have enough time after I visit Ivan. I heard Agate Lake Academy is also very strong, and last year they fought with Iron Forest all the way down to one person left on both sides, with the victory only decided after Sofia lost to Ferguillo." Ayrin observed Divine Shield Academy's buildings, saying at the same time, "If you're going too, do you want to go watch together?"

Charlotte stamped her feet in a fit and said, "I'm not going!" But then she immediately felt a little dazed, thinking to herself, what on earth was up with her today? After evading Ayrin's confused stare for a few seconds, she added in a soft tone, "Let's talk about it after you see Ivan."

"Alright!" Ayrin nodded happily.

…

Divine Shield Academy was abnormally quiet, because the vast majority of students already went to Dragon-Battling Arena to watch Agate Lake Academy's match. Walking on the small remote pathway, Ayrin and Charlotte truly seemed like a pair of lovebirds.

Divine Shield Academy also had a very long history, but because those who first established the school all originated from clan Lannister's western territories corps, the atmosphere inside the campus also resembled a very large army camp. Buildings were arranged row after row in a very rigid and orderly manner, and also very compact. There were very clear road signs at the end of every road, and even someone like Ayrin who entered Divine Shield Academy for the time could clearly tell at first glance which building was used for what, which site was used for which training.

"Charlotte, isn't it a shorter way to the infirmary if we go through the great road in the middle? Why do you detour along the walls?"

"Because I like this small path along the walls."

"Why?"

"There are fewer people for one, so I won't be bothered when thinking about something. The other reason is, from what some seniors who left the school said, we'll cherish the memory of these walls after we leave the school, because after we reach the western territories or any other territory, they're all filled with barren plains or forests. Thinking about these perimeter walls would give them some warmth and a feeling of security."

"You're definitely going to the western territories in the future?"

"That's not certain. But everywhere's the same for a battlemaster, everywhere we go is a dangerous place where we need to fight. Ayrin, you came here even after injuring Ivan so heavily, aren't you afraid of being besieged by our Divine Shield Academy's people?"

"How could that be? People who can stake their lives away for the sake of their dreams in a fair match, shouldn't they respect each other. After the match's finished, of course we can still be friends. Just like you and me."

"Then you're a little special. The great clans nominally all share the duty of protecting the kingdom together, but for the sake of reputation and self-interest, many clans and elite arcane masters compete among themselves, or are in open conflict. Many especially powerful people are easily prone to look at powerful opponents as future enemies."

"Is that so. No matter what, I hope we can be friends forever."

They chatted idly, and at the same time came to a place not far away behind Divine Shield Academy's infirmary. Ayrin's words made Charlotte silent for a long while.

Divine Shield Academy's infirmary was a lone stone building four stories high.

A field of sunflowers filled the space behind the stone building, looking extremely neat and tidy. The patch of gold also looked very beautiful.

The entire school was managed like a sealed-off camp, and they usually didn't receive patients from elsewhere the way Holy Dawn Academy did, hence there seemed to be no special protection about the infirmary, and no surrounding wall either.

"Something's off!"

Charlotte's expression changed all of a sudden when she reached the edge of the sunflowers' field. She didn't even explain the reason why to Ayrin that she already accelerating abruptly, passing through the field of sunflowers in a straight line, then skimming at top speed toward the upper stories of the infirmary as if she were wall-running!

"Did something serious happen?"

Ayrin simply had no time to think for too long. Afterimages heavily dragged behind his silhouette in the space of an instant. As soon as he trod a few steps on the wall's surface, he saw Charlotte above him twist her body and push open a pair of tightly-shut windows with a snap, then leap inside the windows on the fourth floor.

Sensing Charlotte's anxiety and impatience, Ayrin gave up the idea of wall-running. Instead, he pounced upward, his hands continuously grabbing the chinks in the stone. Coordinating his hands and feet, he charged into the same windows Charlotte rushed into a moment ago, after a mere few flips.

"Ivan?"

Ayrin saw with his first glance Ivan who he came to visit lying in front of Charlotte, tied in snow-white bandages all over, only half his face exposed, and still deeply asleep from the effect of some drugs.

"Keep watch here, don't move."

Without waiting for Ayrin to speak, Charlotte made an extremely grave hand gesture at him and let him stand beside Ivan's bed. She shifted toward the doorway at the same time, explaining very quickly in a low voice, "Our Divine Shield Academy's infirmary only does some simply therapies and doesn't have the level of your Holy Dawn Academy, it doesn't receive arcane masters who are extremely important for the kingdom either, but our infirmary's still managed very strictly according to the rules of the army. Now should be the time the infirmary opens the windows and airs the rooms. I saw the windows on the first and second floors open, but the windows on the third and fourth floors were still shut. Ivan should be the only somewhat important person on the third or fourth floor…"

"You think someone wants to harm him?" Ayrin immediately understood. "But now's daytime, and we're still inside your Divine Shield Academy."

"I hope it's only a small mishap. I'm going to inspect the situation right now." Hazy clouds flashed across Charlotte's eyes. Her hand lightly fell on the door handle.

"Boom!"

However, a terrifying aura suddenly exploded outside the door just at this time. The entire door, as if made of paper paste, suddenly burst into countless splinters.

"Heavy Ions!"

Charlotte's face turned deathly white in this frozen instant, facing the sick ward door suddenly turned into countless fragments. She only had enough time to use Heavy Ions, cross her arms in front of her, and curl her body forward, protecting her vital spots.

"Pa!"

The next instant, her already extremely heavy body suddenly flew backwards like a ball, heavily crashing against the wall on one side of the windows, embedding itself into the shattered wall.

Ayrin's eyes narrowed quickly. A silhouette obviously wearing Divine Shield Academy's uniform just like Charlotte, but with a silver-white mask and terrifying black flames curling all over his body, appeared in his vision!