370 Retrospect (Part 4)
This noise was coming from the hallway next to the bathroom.
pan-da-n0vel.com Meredith walked with slow steps towards the noise, her keen hearing could understand what they were talking about. But she still didn’t understand what it was about. Even in such an open corridor, the sound of that conversation was not echoing so well, something strange that took the half-fox by surprise.
With furtive steps, she slowly approached the noise, her ears attentively trying to understand what was happening. Her ears were wiggling, as they adjusted to try to understand the conversation.
She was sneaking along the wall, trying not to make noise with the friction of her body in contact with the wall. And as stealthily as possible so as not to attract attention with the sound of her feet. Now at that corner, at the edge of the corridor that went in a full circle to the right, hidden by the wall, she stuck her head out.
What she saw was Max Willford holding a communication sphere. The whole place around him was covered with a kind of purple energy, and a black smoke was surrounding the professor’s body. This black smoke was covering the professor’s feet, flowing from outside the sphere and spreading out into the corridor. The professor’s skin was now a white color, and you could see his veins were black. It was as if the blood in his body was completely black.
It was as if he had simply turned into a walking corpse, although, a corpse would have less whitish skin than the professor’s, and the veins would not be so dark. His own voice had changed, it was now sounding more low-pitched, and his breathing was heavy and breathless.
The crystal in the professor’s hand was made of a kind of red glass, which emitted a ruby light that illuminated the professor’s face. In addition to the smoke that flowed between the fingers of the professor’s hand, there was also a kind of small red crystal floating above the communication sphere.
Meredith’s heart was beating frantically. Realizing this, she took a deep breath, and with as much concentration as she could muster, tried to control her heartbeat. Little by little, the half-fox’s heart was calming down, and she stood there, lurking, trying to understand what was happening.
Inside the crystal it was possible to see what looked like a woman. It was a creature with a female body, breasts covered by a kind of black scale. There was long red hair, which was swaying as if she were floating under the sea. On top of the creature’s head there were frightening black horns, but the most bizarre thing of all was without a doubt the monster’s eyes. Completely black eyes with pupils that glowed red. It was a demon.
Meredith then turned around. Vanishing from the field of vision of the two of them.
‘A demon… They didn’t notice me.
She then hid and with her heart racing again, focused as much as possible on understanding what the two were talking about.
“I successfully managed to transfer the mana from the third guinea pig to the black lily. I am managing to stabilize this upkeep. I believe I will soon be able to start doing the limb transmutation for the chimera.” Said Max, his voice was bizarre, he then gave a disgusting smile. It didn’t look one bit like the way he used to talk to the girls.
“All right, we have a lot of faith in you. I hope you don’t end up being a failure like your predecessor. Do you have any other requests?” Said that creature in a feminine voice.
“I want more genes. I didn’t realize how incredible this is. Please give me some more genes.” He said, now desperate. Raising his voice a little.
The moment he realized that he had spoken too loudly, Meredith heard some footsteps from side to side. As if he was checking that there was no one around.
“Complete your task and we will pay you with whatever you want, but know that if you get it wrong. It will be the end of you.”
The half-fox then walked away, utilizing her stealth skills to the fullest. She took several quick but silent steps. And soon, she was already climbing the stairs of the corridor. Far away from where it all happened.
Soon after, Max Willford returned to his elegant teacher’s posture. Drying his mouth with a cloth, he had salivated like a mad dog. Walking down the corridor, his eyes soon noticed a red hair on the floor.
He knelt down and picked up the red strand. Placing it near his nose, his eyes changed completely, to an aggressive look of fury.
“It has a half-beast aroma.”
He then threw the hair on the ground.
“It’s probably nothing, I was alone.” He said. Walking to the teachers room while scratching his neck.
*
The next few classes were going well. However, as much as Meredith tried to control her heart, she was still worried. Sitting in the middle of class, she couldn’t stop thinking about how Luke would react to this news.
If I warn Luke, he will surely want to face the professor head-on.
Sighing, she began to comb her tail with one of her hands.
‘As long as this war goes on, it will be impossible to have peace.’
After two classes, it was finally break time. A small space to rest one’s head and have afternoon tea. The students were leaving the room, but the half-fox remained seated in her seat, drawing. Gradually the sound of footsteps diminished, until few remained in the room. Meredith then decided to go out to the cafeteria, to eat while she still had time to spare.
In the corridors, she heard rumors that made her even more worried.
“Did you hear that Orion was defeated by a half-wolf this morning?”
“But isn’t he a golden pendant?”
“Yes, he is! But I heard that he was defeated by a novice.”
“Who is this half-wolf?”
“It seems that he is a new assistant of Mr. Zhanid.”