“Pa!”

Saul snapped the diary shut.

“It’s still too chaotic outside. We’ll interrogate Kent after we leave Caugust.”

With that, not waiting for Herman’s eager nodding, Saul’s figure vanished from the platform.

When he opened his eyes again, Morden immediately rushed over.

At that moment, Kent—who was standing opposite—suddenly erupted with countless eyes across his face.

Erupted—not grew.

It was like a cake suddenly swelling in an oven. In the blink of an eye, Kent’s head tripled in size, with countless thumb-length fissures splitting open from his cheeks to his scalp.

From each of those fissures, murky crystalline eyeballs emerged.

These eyeballs had pupils in a variety of colors: amber gold, deep sea blue, blazing red…

At first, the colorful pupils spun around wildly, but soon they all locked onto Saul in unison.

What does it look like—if a head was reduced to nothing but eyeballs?

Either way, Saul couldn’t help but take half a step back. If he weren’t worried about startling the thing, he’d have cast a protective barrier on himself immediately.

“Pa!”

A crisp explosion suddenly sounded beside Saul.

Startled, Saul turned his head to find that Morden’s eyes had just burst—like he had suddenly grown new ones that exploded shortly after.

Saul quickly turned back to Kent. The eyeballs all still stared at him, but before he could react, those eyes shriveled and deflated, vanishing without a trace.

Kent’s body fell stiffly to the ground. With all the eyes gone, his head looked like a honeycomb—deeply disturbing.

“What were those eyes?” Saul murmured. “Morden, you go back.”

Although Morden’s eyes were still bleeding, his body was crafted from a corpse—a semi-active vessel—so surface injuries didn’t matter much.

But the sudden appearance and explosion of eyes… That symptom was identical to many people who had been contaminated.

To avoid the risk of residual pollution, Saul decided to send Morden back into the diary for a thorough cleansing.

Morden dropped to the ground instantly—turning into a corpse on the spot.

Seemingly triggered by Kent’s death, the massive tree that had been chasing after the eerie flower withered abruptly. Its magic dissipated in all directions and soon turned into specks of starlight, vanishing completely.

Earlier, Kent thought he had controlled the tree’s growth from within Saul’s mental realm, believing it would fight Saul on his behalf—but in truth, the tree never received his command. From beginning to end, it had only been chasing enemies outside.

Had Kent not mistakenly believed Saul had held out this long under the tree’s assault… Had he not overestimated Saul’s combat strength… He might not have leapt from the platform in the first place.

He could’ve lasted longer.

Saul looked up. From the hole above, beams of sunlight streamed in, along with a few withered leaves drifting down from the opening.

Then a figure followed, jumping down after them—it was Agu.

When Agu entered and saw Morden and Kent’s corpses lying on the ground, he jumped in fright and rushed to Saul’s side.

“Master, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Though Saul was puzzled. Why was he fine under all those eyes, while Morden had his explode?

“Where did you go just now?”

“An and I were on the rooftop, guarding against the two plants breaking in and interfering with you.”

“The tree growth spell has collapsed. What’s the situation with that flower outside?”

That flower was likely one of Kent’s traps too. With Kent dead, the flower was probably following in the tree’s footsteps.

“At first, the two plants were going at it like crazy. Then, when the tree suddenly vanished, I thought the flower would turn on us. But instead—it got scared for some reason and fled down the outer wall.”

Agu paused for a second, then leaned in to whisper, “An followed that plant into the underground.”

Saul lifted his eyes. “Underground?”

Agu nodded. “I placed a tracking spell on An.”

When the consciousness bodies are close to Saul, he can sense their locations clearly. But at greater distances, or when his attention is elsewhere, that sense fades.

“After the underground sewer incident, I told you all not to enter the underground lightly. Yet An chose to go after the enemy down there on her own… Did you notice anything unusual about her?”

“I did. Ever since you and An came back from the outskirts, she’s been a bit withdrawn.”

Saul immediately recalled the ambush in the countryside. The root network underground had ignored him, targeting An specifically—very abnormal.

It clearly hadn’t been a coincidence.

As Saul was thinking, another group of wizards burst into his room.

“Lord Saul.”

“Your Excellency Saul.”

There were several true wizards, and some high-ranking apprentices.

“My lord, the tree growth spell collapsed suddenly, and we—oh heavens, is that Lord Kent?!”

The wizards gasped and rushed toward Kent’s corpse.

“Don’t go near it!” Saul barked sharply.

“Kent was afflicted with an unknown pollution. Do not approach recklessly!”

The apprentices stopped, but one of the wizard didn’t listen. He lunged to Kent’s body.

Though he avoided touching Kent’s head—mindful of potential pollution—he still began casting detection magic to examine the body.

Perhaps to determine the cause of death.

Another wizard stepped forward, face grim, and spoke respectfully to Saul. “Your Excellency Saul, Lord Kent’s death was sudden. We need to verify the cause of death.”

Saul sneered but didn’t stop them. “So you suspect I killed Kent?”

The wizard quickly denied it. “Not at all. It’s just—Lord Kent was responsible for the cleaners. If we don’t clarify his death, we won’t be able to report to the Dean…”

“AAAAAHHH!!”

A sudden scream interrupted him.

Everyone looked over to see the wizard examining Kent’s body screaming and collapsing.

His eyes exploded—“pa!”

But he was worse off than Morden. After his eyes burst, the top half of his skull became a bloody mess.

A Third Rank apprentice, seemingly close to the injured wizard, instinctively cast a healing spell.

A soft light bathed the wizard’s face, and at last his cries of pain ceased.

But as the light faded, the others all gasped.

The wizard’s face… had grown over a dozen eyes!

It was as if, when healing the wound, his muscle memory expected that his face was supposed to have that many eyes!

The apprentice who cast the healing spell was so startled he stumbled back three steps, as if afraid his own face would start growing eyes too.

Saul sighed in apparent resignation. “The pollution Kent suffered was terrifying—and contagious. One of my own was killed. That’s why I told you not to approach.”

The wizards across from Saul now looked a bit embarrassed. They had insisted on checking Kent’s body—partly out of suspicion toward Saul.

Suddenly, the entire room shook violently. Bottles and jars on the shelves shattered across the floor.

“An earthquake?” One wizard pulled out an instrument and checked its readings. “No… it’s not an earthquake.”

Saul wasn’t sure what was happening either. He immediately expanded his mental field, but found no strange magical fluctuations around them.

Then the room shook again—this time even more violently.

“It’s not an earthquake,” Saul said as he looked out the window toward the distant buildings. “It’s just our building shaking. There’s something underground!”

He and Agu exchanged a glance.

“Underground!”

(End of Chapter)

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