an illusion of mind

after the incident of five first year students encountering a drake in a supposed D rank dungeon, the students started questioning the competence of the adventurer's club, however even more than that rumours of the five students defeating the drake were spread like wild fire, some believed it while others didn't saying that it was just a scheme to improve the reputation of the royal class.

but David knew it was true, he also went to the dungeon dive and more than that, he was the one who found the passed out bodies of the five students, they were his friends, except for one of course, Regina was anything but his friend, he didn't know why but she had a bad relationship with the princess and Suzi, so he just went along with them.

he had found them along with his party, he also found the gigantic body of the drake, cut in two halves, one upper and one lower, it was grotesque to say the least, but it was even more shocking than disgusting, to see a drake in a D rank dungeon was already shocking, but to see 5 first years next to it was even more shocking, it was quite obvious that they had killed it.

he was quick to use the device they were given to alert the senior outside the dungeon, he quickly had gotten a teacher and took the students to the infirmary, after that they had handled the drake's body dismantling it and storing it away, they said they would give the materials to the ones that killed it.

and now he was sitting in class, the atmosphere was tense because two of the students involved in the incident were already discharged from the hospital one being Suzi, the other being Regina who just swayed in her seat like nothing happened.

seeing this some students were sceptical of her involvement in it, they might have thought she was traumatized from the incident or something, but they were wrong, she seemed like nothing even happened to her, and Suzi fell along those lines too, Suzi was just sitting calmly in her seat.

after a while teacher closed his book and waited, then the bell rang and he walked out leaving them behind, mister Alfred had always been one on time, he never wasted a second with them unless it was an important announcement.

after he left David heard a feminine shriek that alerted everyone in class, he turned around alert and he saw a girl standing on the chair pointing down at the ground, "th-there is a rat!" she yelled and David followed her finger to see a small grey mouse on the ground, how did that get there? there isn't supposed to be any rats in here, the academy is well maintained someone must have sneaked it in...

this caused a several other girls to shriek and jump on their seats, Regina got up off her seat and walked over to the rat, she smiled and crouched down next to the mouse and picked it up with her hand, the mouse just stared at her, "how cute~ everyone his name is albert from now on!" she said standing up and announcing to the class.

suddenly a knife flew through the air and stabbed the mouse causing it to fly and get pinned on the classroom wall, Regina's wide smile faded instantly, and she slowly and creepily turned towards the source of the knife, there a male students twirled a few throwing knives in his hand and smirked at Regina.

"what did you do!?" Regina yelled and she turned back to look at the mouse's corpse, "ALBET!!! NOO~~~" she wailed as if a family member of hers had died, she swiftly turned to look at the male student, his name was Gormar Beiroris he had light green hair resembling that of tree leaves and he had sharp pointed ears, he was an elf and he belonged to the Beiroris clan, a famous clan of hunters, he just looked at Regina's reaction stunned that she thought so highly of a rat.

Regina glared back at Gormar, "what the hell is your problem?!" she spat at him.

"w-what? I just killed a rat that was causing trouble! I didn't do anything wrong!" he defended himself.

"he was a mouse! not a rat! and you killed him!" she said wiping a tear out of her eye.

"are you seriously crying!?" he exclaimed as he got up feeling a little bad about what he did.

"yes! yes I am! do you have a problem?! friend killed!" she exclaimed shedding even more tears, Gormar just scratched the back of his head feeling bad about what he did now.

"sorry... I didn't mean to-" he couldn't finish his words as he spotted Regina suddenly get up, she wiped away the rest of her tears and just smiled and starting laughing, Gormar frowned at this.

"hahaha! that was fun!" she said and she put a hand on his shoulder, "it was fun acting with you mister Gormar!" she exclaimed.

"what?"

"I was acting, why would I care about a rat?" she said simply staring at Gormar.

"he was a mouse not a rat!" a voice quipped in from the side, Regina just waved her hand dismissively, "yeah~ whatever~"

"anyways thanks for playing with me! it was fun, but I need to go to the next class." she said as she turned and left the classroom leaving behind a stunned audience, some weren't even surprised, these past few months that the class had been together, Regina had been up to a lot of antics and this was no different than before.

Gormar just stood stunned and he looked towards the body of the rat still pinned on the wall, "...sorry albert..."

David just walked out of the class and made his way to the infirmary to visit his friends, for royal class students they got the best medical treatment there is, all of them had individual rooms to be treated in, but upon request they were all put under the same room.

he knocked on the door and he was told to enter by a voice inside, he walked in and found Arron still in his bed, Adam was also there but on a sofa reading a book, they were all in their patient gowns, Amanda wasn't here because males and females were supposed to be separated.

"hey... how have you guys been?" he asked as he took a seat.

"been good, still recovering." Arron replied as he sat up.

"me too, my leg is almost healed, they brought in healing mages to heal me and my leg is no longer broken, they said I still needed rest so the healing can settle in." Adam said glancing away from his book before turning back to it again.

"well that's good to hear, what about Amanda?" he asked, at this Adam and Arron both turned to him.

"she wasn't in class?" Arron asked.

"no? why would she be?" David asked tilting his head in confusion.

"well, that's because she was discharged a week ago." Adam replied closing his book.

David's eyes widened, "if she's not here, then where could she bed?" he asked a hand on his chin in deep thought.

"that's the problem none of us know..." Adam said, but he looked back up, "but there is someone that might..." Adam said looking at both, they looked back at him expectantly, "we should ask her brother." he spoke simply.

Arron perked up at the suggestion, "yeah~ we could ask her brother maybe he knows where she is!"

"one slight problem..." David trailed off, they bother turned to him frowning a little, "the relationship between the two isn't exactly good..." he finished scratching the back of his head.

"yeah... you're right..." Arron looked down disappointed.

"we're still going to ask him, are you coming?" Adam asked turning to Arron.

"well, I can't exactly get up... haha..." he laughed awkwardly.

"whatever I'll just go with David..." Adam just huffed and turned away as he gestured for David to follow, "let's go."

"alright." David just got up and followed him out of the infirmary.

"so my sister is missing?" the prince said tilting his head to the side, he didn't seem concerned, his hand was on his chin seemingly in deep thought.

"yeah, she's not been coming to class and she was discharged a week ago from the infirmary."

"well that is indeed troublesome, we need to go to her dorm." the prince said simply as he looked back at them.

they got up off their seats and walked out of the prince's dorm, on their way to the female dormitory.

they walked and some female students glanced at them before going back on their business.

it wasn't uncommon for male students to be in the female dormitory, some couples liked to visit each other, and the academy didn't stop them.

they walked through the dormitory but they were kind of lost, "do you not know your sister's dorm room number?" Adam asked Evan who just looked down in embarrassment, "no..."

"I don't know it just kind of seems to me your ignorant to your sisters matters." David said simply from the side calling him out.

"hey! I'm helping you find her right now! how would I be ignorant?!" he said irritated from the accusations, he gritted his teeth.

"guys?" a feminine voice said from behind them and they all turned to see Bella with her black hair down, her black hair was glistening, it was silky smooth and she looked, beautiful...

"what are you guys doing here?" Bella asked her hands on her hips.

"oh! we're here to find Amanda, she hadn't been coming to class lately..." Adam said explaining himself.

"and the prince is also here with you?" Bella asked narrowing her eyes on Evan, he just looked back at her clenching his jaw he was really pissed off of these stares he's getting.

"is it wrong for me to be worried for my sister?" he asked looking down at her.

Bella's expression softened and she just shrugged, "alright, follow me." she said gesturing for them to follow.

"you know Amanda's room number?" David asked.

"I do, we're here." she said arriving at a door, knocked on it three times before waiting.

after a while her expression changed and she frowned, "... that's weird..." she knocked again, and again, repeating the process before the prince had enough and he pushed her aside and tried the door knob.

he didn't expect it to open but the door creaked open and he peaked through to the dark room, it was extremely dark, the curtains were up and he frowned, he turned back to Bella who glared at him, "why'd you open the door without knocking?" she said angrily.

"that doesn't matter, are you sure this is the room? no one is inside." at his words, Bella frowned and she pushed the door open revealing an empty room.

"what is this? it's like no one lived in this room before?" Bella frowned, "but I'm sure this is her room." she said.

"you're right..." Evan said and he pointed at a Teddy bear toy on the bed, "that used to be her favourite toy, I didn't think she would still have it... but that only proves this is her room..." he said putting a hand on his chin, he walked into the dorm and started looking around.

"this is concerning..." an expression of concern and worry flashed on his face before it disappeared.

"she's just gone..." Adam said his face also flashing with concern.

"no that's not just it... it's like she was never here... but the teddy bear toy is evidence that she was here..." he spoke his expression turning even more worried.

"shit... she was kidnapped.... this is the work of a professional..." he spoke and this caused the group to get concerned.

"gods damn it..." David cursed, "what should we do now?" he asked the prince.

"we have to tell the teachers... we can't do anything about this... where do we even begin the investigation?" Evan replied letting out a long sigh shrugging his shoulders.

"we can ask Evelyn... I saw Amanda last with her...." Bella suggested from the side.

"the archduke's daughter? yeah let's go ask her, they used to be childhood friends..." Evan said as he gestured for the others to follow.