The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

It took most of the students a while to recover from the apparent shock of being abandoned by the blue robed guardians. Many of them had thought they were going to die.

They could not be blamed, of course, even trained adults would get scared in the face of what they perceived is 'certain death'.

Evelyn would have been no exception to the shock if Cecilia hadn't warned her in advance.

After they finally realized they were safe and sound, their reactions to the event varied greatly. Some directly collapsed on their seats with relief, while some rushed away to the bathroom. Aeron, along with most of his newfound friends, had been a part of the second group.

Cecilia didn't even pay attention to their existence, but Evelyn wondered just what Aeron was going to do in the toilets given the way their bodies functioned. He was not a human, after all. Was he going to pretend to be one?

As for the rest of them, Evelyn didn't really know whether they needed to change their undergarments or felt the need to throw up. But she did feel some schadenfreude in knowing that Rufus and his buddies will be very 'busy' now.

In most other compartments, the prefects were busy consoling and comforting the students, and were bestowing 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' on these poor fledglings.

But in compartment thirteen, the overly biased prefect Cecilia was completely ignoring them, and focusing solely on Evelyn. If the commoner children had been more courageous, they would have drowned her in curses and spit.

Of course, even if she was in the 'wrong', Evelyn wouldn't be the one to set Cecilia on the right path. She already had too much on her plate to worry about others, after all. If she didn't, she would stay far away from the giant centipede instead of probing for its details.

The country was already at war, though it hadn't reached the peak state of conflict yet, and Bree's condition couldn't wait either.

Moreover, both of these perilous situations compounded each other. Evelyn was sure that Bree had planned to take the Knox family out of the danger zone when the war broke out, and the longer she remained in this puppy like state, the stronger the possibility that it would be too late.

Who knows what kind of contingencies she had set up, and who knows how many of them had failed in her absence?

Since this was something that involved the entire Knox family, herself, the Gilmore sisters and even Bree... how could Evelyn not risk her life for even the slightest chance of salvaging the situation?

Of course, she wasn't going to rush in blindly. She had also done a fair bit of research based on Bree's status. Even though her capabilities were limited, she could at least find out what kind of beasts the Qilin and Raijuu were.

Although there was no way to know if her findings were actually true, they were all she had to go on now. And the appearance of this 'Thousand Eyed God' had given her a glimmer of hope, so how could she not grasp it firmly?

If she could get her hands on a single body part from that thing, no matter how tiny, she could use it to stimulate Bree's lineage. Of course, she would have to take some precautions before doing that.

"Cecilia, I'm a bit curious about something. Since 'Spirit Beasts' are quite similar to us in the sense that they don't really need to eat or drink, why does this one feel compelled to do so?"

Cecilia had clearly done her due research on the 'Thousand Eyed God', and she seemed all too happy to show off her 'profound wisdom' to Evelyn.

"For the same reason that you're not sitting at home sleeping all day. Just like us, it wants to grow stronger, faster. And only by rapidly consuming strong beasts that attack the expedition can the 'Thousand Eyed God' feel a semblance of growth, although I'm sure that's not much either."

The rate at which a spirit beast absorbed energy from the surroundings remained the same from its birth. So the stronger it grew, the slower its growth would become as the energy required for each level became more and more.

Just a glimpse at Bree's level and the experience required to level up had given her this much insight. Maybe at that level, even the yellow missions she had been so ecstatic to complete would only be a drop in the bucket.

Evelyn pretended to look doubtful, although her true thoughts were focused on probing out as much as she could out of Cecilia without arousing her suspicion.

After all, if she knew that the younger girl was 'coveting' the strongest spirit beast on the continent, she might just throw up a thousand liters of blood and die from shock.

"Hm… isn't it quite dangerous, though? If that beast is completely beyond anyone's control, it could go on a rampage at any time, and we'll be completely helpless if it decides to slaughter us, right?"

Cecilia nodded, still oblivious to Evelyn's true thoughts as she freely handed out information on Evelyn's absurd 'target'.

"That would be true, but I've been told that the 'Thousand Eyed God' has been around for a long time, and it has suffered many times at the hands of the previous academy heads, thousands of years ago. Although there is currently no one in the academy that is strong enough to kill it if it goes on a rampage, that beast doesn't know that—mph!"

The ash blonde blinked at Evelyn, who had closed her mouth shut with her palm.

"Uh, are you sure you should be saying that?"

Cecilia rolled her eyes, and Evelyn removed her palm when she saw that her friend hadn't just slipped up.

"Do you think I'm dumb? I wouldn't say it if it could hear us, whether or not it understands human tongue, how would we know for sure?"

The pink haired girl nodded. "That's right. But you should still be careful not to say things that don't need to be said, around people whom you don't want them to be known the most. It's a recipe for disaster, whether or not you're sure they can't hear you."

Cecilia blinked as she realized her mistake.

'That's true I guess, although the beast can't hear us, someone else can. And these newbies probably don't know the difference between heaven and earth. Who's to say they won't blabber about it in the beast's hearing range? Good thing we were whispering and the students were distracted, or it might have been bad!'

The ash blonde girl looked a little embarrassed, but she didn't want to admit her mistake even if she made a mental note to not do it again in the future.

"Anyway, don't worry. This artifact is quite extraordinary, and the headmaster has only allowed the beast to control the entry of the students, nothing else. It cannot hear us. In fact, it cannot even pull us out of the artifact if it wanted to. Not without destroying it, at least."

The pink haired girl nodded. "So… do you know anything else about it?"

Cecilia scratched her head in embarrassment. She had wanted to impress her friend with her knowledge, but it looks like Evelyn's thirst for knowledge was a bit too great for her to handle.

"Ugh, i-it's not that I don't know, it's just… It'll be better if we read about it together in the library, you know! That's the best way to learn."

Evelyn smiled. "Alright, I'll depend on you to help me out then."

The ash blonde sighed. "Hah, you're really into this centipede thing. You know, although it's strong, it's ugly. Not to mention it hasn't managed to morph into a humanoid form even after thousands of years, there's little doubt that it's one of the dumbest among the spirit beasts. There's nothing to like about it!"

Just what kind of tangent was that? She really shouldn't have answered all those 'what do you like' questions Cecilia kept asking earlier!

'This girl… When I said I don't like boys, she thinks I'm into girls. And when I deny that too, she thinks I'm into giant centipedes?! What the actual fu—'