The Messenger of Death

After they were done questioning Alex, Tsukishima and his colleagues left the investigation room, and then a guard came to take Alex away.

He was carried back to the cell that he was placed in earlier, where his teammates were waiting for him. The closer Alex got to the cell, he could hear his teammates arguing, and they were still talking about the beast that his bloodline originates from. Alex shook his head at them.

"Wait I hear footsteps, 2 of them," Adrian said, making his teammates keep quiet. They couldn't hear what Adrian was hearing. Even when his cultivation had been sealed, Adrian was still sensitive to sounds.

Soon, the silhouettes of Alex and the guard could be seen, and not long after, they could discern who it was that coming closer to them.

"Alex, it's – oh shit, what the hell happened to your face, did you walk around with your eyes closed?" Drake exclaimed when he finally saw Alex's face.

"Damn! How did you figure that out so quickly?" Alex asked sarcastically.

"Really?" Drake asked, not noticing the sarcasm in Alex's tone.

-Smack!

"No, you fool!" Katherine smacked the back of Drake's head whilst she was speaking.

"Ouch!! It was only a question!!" Drake retorted as he held the back of his head.

"Alex, what happened?" Adrian questioned.

"Oh nothing much, I smashed my face on an iron table while trying to kill a mosquito," Alex said with a wicked smile on his face.

To Alex, that's what a Vincent was, a mosquito, one that needed to be killed by him.

Emma removed a blue napkin from her breast pocket, one that had the same color as her uniform, and said. "Here, let me help clean the blood on your face." She offered, and without waiting for Alex to give an answer she began cleaning his face.

"Emma!!" Katherine shouted.

"What?" Emma answered, shocked by the tone Katherine used to call her name.

"I should be the one doing that for him!" She said.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't think that far," Emma apologized.

Alex grabbed the napkin out of Emma's hands and finished what she started.

-Crack!!

Alex fixed his nose. He wrinkled it until the pain coming from his nose became numb…

A while later, a guard came back and opened the cell. "You kids are free to go. A verdict has been reached and your punishment has been decided."

"Finally, um, Mr. Guard can you tell us what our punishment is?" Drake asked nervously.

"You guys should thank you lucky stars because the punishment that the academy decided to give you kids isn't much. You have been banned from taking any missions for three months, and 20,000 merit points have been deducted from your team as a whole.

Now I heard that you guys just came from a very rewarding mission and the merit points from the mission are quite something. With that added to your total merit points, what was deducted wouldn't mean much. And also, any request to leave the academy within these 3 months that you have been banned from taking missions will be rejected." The guard finished.

"What!? My grandpa's birthday is coming up in a few months. At this rate, I wouldn't be able to leave the academy in time to attend his birthday celebration. He's turning 100 by the end of the year." Drake complained.

"Sorry kid, this is the academy's decision. You have to deal with it on your own. Now leave my cell and head back to your dormitories." The guard dismissed them.

The imprisoned Seraphim team had been freed and they were now on their way back to the guest inn. This has become a habit that they couldn't dismiss, gathering in Alex's suite.

On their way there, Alex kept on pondering about the Midas petal, he was eager to start looking for it, but for now, he needed to rest first. He also decided to kill Vincent while searching for the Midas petal.

Soon the familiar doors of the guest inn graced his sight. Somehow the sight of this place calms his heart, weirdly, he thought of the inn as his home.

Upon stepping into the guest inn, Alex noticed a pair of eyes staring at him. It was Xiao En, the receptionist. Alex chose to ignore her, thinking that she would stop looking at him.

"Alexander!?" Xiao En called out, however, Alex continued like he didn't hear her calling him.

"Umm, Alex, the receptionist was calling for you," Drake whispered near Alex's ear.

"Don't you think that I know?"

"Oh, I thought that your ears were still banged up," Drake said in his defense.

"Alexander, I need to talk to you." Xiao En stated but Alex still ignored her.

['AH! What does this woman want?'] Alex thought in annoyance.

"I want to know how a weakling like you was able to get his hand on a Midas petal without being a seed carrier!" Xiao En revealed the content of her mind since Alex was being stubborn about paying attention to her.

This froze Alex on the spot, his mind began racing. ['How does she know that I was able to get a Midas petal without being seed carrier?'] He thought.

"What is a Midas petal?" Drake asked.

"I don't know." Alex lied through his teeth as he turned to glare at Xiao En.

Silence filled the hall after Drake's question had been answered. Not only Drake was curious, but the rest of the team were also equally curious about this; except for Gustavo. He too froze in place when he heard what Xiao En mentioned. His eyes were glued to the back of Alex.

'That's not possible, right? I mean I know that Alex is a one-of-a-kind talent, but compared to those guys from the celestial plain realm he is nothing much.

Without the Midas seed no one can get a petal, not even cultivators that have reached the Emperor Cultivation realm could achieve this feat. Does this woman actually know what a Midas petal is or does she have some kind of misconception about it?' Gustavo wondered as he relaxed, doubting Xiao En's knowledge.

"I don't know what you are talking about Xiao En, but I would like to find out. Why don't you guys head up, I'll come to join you guys after I'm done listening to the explanation that she has for me." Alex urged.

Understanding that something was up, his teammates didn't waste another second in the hall as they made their way to the suite.

"So tell me how you got your hands on one, I don't think you are strong enough to get one." Xiao En insisted.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Alex still played it by the ear.

"Oh really? Do you want to tell me that you don't have a petal in this storage ring of yours or laying somewhere around the school?" Xiao En sounded frustrated as she spoke.

['How does she know that?'] Alex's brows twitched for a second there. ['Is it possible that she knows that a petal is within the school at the moment?'] Alex's thought made him frantic.

['No that can't be unless she has something similar to the skin crawler that can sense unique and pure energy, if not then it should be impossible for her to know.'] Lex stated.

['She might have a treasure that enables her to achieve this feat.'] Xander interjected.

['But even if she can track a petal without being a seed carrier, even if she finds one, it doesn't mean that Mr. Guardian will let her take it right?'] Alex thought.

['That wouldn't mean anything if Mr. Guardian take an interest in her too.'] Al chipped in.

Truthfully, Al was tired of this beef that he had been having with Alex. It has made him docile and unable to contribute much. The more he spoke, the more he felt his pride go down the drain. The only reason this started was because of the childish outburst he displayed on the day Alex figure out a fundamental nature of lightning.

Al has been wanting to apologize for a while, but he didn't know how to do so. But at the moment, he couldn't keep his thoughts to himself.

What Al said made Alex's heart beat faster, he was beginning to feel nervous. Alex was almost certain that he wouldn't be able to defeat Xiao En in battle even if he fought hand in hand with Milo. He doesn't know her cultivation realm, but he could instinctively tell now that he has gotten stronger that Xiao En wasn't to be messed with.

"Please, calm yourself young master Alex." The gentle voice of the steward reached Alex's ears and snapped Alex out of his thoughts.

Seeing the calm, the friendly and yet scary face of the steward did nothing to help Alex calm down. ['If the steward is included in the equation then we are fucked, we wouldn't be able to get our hands on the petal. We would stand no chance against them unless I use my innate bloodline.']

['Calm down rabbit! You are jumping to conclusions, nothing is certain yet. What you did were careful speculations.'] Al's voice surprisingly soothed Alex.

Alex took a deep breath in and released it a few seconds later.

['Good, now ask Xiao En how she found out about us having a petal.'] Al advised…