Advent of the Three Calamities
Chapter 209: The Indomitable Will [3]

To Tok—

Atlas knocked on the door that led to Delilah's office.

There was no response, but he didn't mind and simply smiled, holding onto the handle and opening the door.

"Isn't it a bit rude of you?"

"…"

Yet again, Delilah didn't answer as she focused her attention on the paperwork in front of her.

Atlas found the scene a little amusing and found a seat on the chair opposite her desk.

He sat there for a few moments while looking around him. Seeing all the wrappers and papers scattered around, he shook his head.

She was still the same.

"I handed the reward to Julien."

Only when he said those words did Delilah finally show some reaction as her head raised to meet his gaze.

Atlas scratched the side of his face with some amusement.

"I've handed him several other herbs to help him out. He should be able to absorb the bone by tonight. I wonder what sort of skill he will learn."

He wasn't just saying this for the sake of speaking.

He really was curious about the type of skill that he would receive.

It was after all a Dragon-type creature that the bone belonged to.

The apex of the apex.

Julien was lucky to be able to transfuse such bone into his body.

He was a little jealous himself.

Then again, he already had five bones in his body. He could no longer absorb another bone, so the jealousy was merely fleeting.

"How long has it been since you've given him the bone?"

For the first time, Delilah spoke.

Atlas turned to look at her before taking out his pocket watch to check the time.

"It should be several hours ago. He should be done by tonight. If not, by tomorrow."

The process of absorbing a bone was generally quick. It was a little painful, but it also depended on the strength of the will left behind.

There was a little risk associated with this as well.

If the will was more powerful than the user's mental resilience, then it would lead to a lot of problems with many cases of people turning into idiots, and the will taking over their bodies.

It was for that reason that Atlas had been hesitant to give him the bone at first.

That was until he recalled Julien's mental resilience, and no longer felt as worried.

With such a mental score, he didn't have to worry about him falling to the will.

After all, it was impossible to check the power of the will left inside beforehand.

It was for that reason that there was a general rule for absorbing bones in the Terror rank range.

The rule was that they must at least have a mental score that was slightly higher, or near the peak in order to even try.

Otherwise, it would be too dangerous.

"The Four Empire Summit is in five months, so we should get ready to help him once he's done."

"I understand."

Delilah casually nodded her head and closed her eyes. The mana in the air pulsed, and Atlas found himself smiling.

"You say you understand, and yet, you still check for yourself if everything is going smoothly. You su—"

Delilah's eyes flickered open and a rare trace of something flashed across her eyes as she disappeared.

Her actions startled Atlas who took a moment to process what had happened and to spread his mana.

He showed a similar reaction to her shortly after as his figure blurred and he disappeared.

Tak—

The moment he reappeared, he was inside of a fairly decorated apartment.

His foot pressed against the wooden floor as the wooden floor creaked under his step.

"This…"

A rare trace of solemnness spread across his features as his eyes locked onto the figure that sat in the middle of the room.

An opened wooden box rested in front of him, and strange roots entangled his ankles from beneath the ground.

Delilah appeared a few inches away from him, her hand pressed against his head as she had her eyes closed.

After a few seconds, her eyes opened as she turned to look at him with an extremely grave expression.

Atlas could tell at a glance that the situation wasn't good.

"What's the situation?"

"….He's trapped inside of his mind. The will is a lot more powerful than we thought."

Her eye briefly lowered, focusing on the strange black roots that were entangling his ankles.

"There's something inside that is protecting him, but even with that, it's a struggle."

"…

Atlas's expression didn't change much at the news.

He didn't need to ask any questions. He already knew more or less what was happening.

In cases like this, there was a high chance that the person surviving was slim.

It was in fact, more probable that the will would take over. Once that happened, things were certainly going to become troublesome for them.

…..It wasn't as though it was impossible for them to survive, but those who did survive didn't exactly return the same afterward.

The situation…

It was the worst-case scenario.

Atlas pinched the middle of his brows. Soon, he came up with a judgment.

Soon, he came up with a judgment.

"Move his body to the cells and have someone observe him continuously. Continually feed him mana pills so that he doesn't exhaust himself and die from that."

The cells, as the name suggested, were the Academy's prison grounds, reserved for those who attempted to infiltrate the institution.

….It was a cold judgment from him, but it was also the necessary judgment.

If the will were to take over, it would bring a lot of trouble.

It was also for Julien's safety.

Keeping him in the cells would ensure no one disturbed him as he fought against the will.

Despite the grimness of the situation, Atlas didn't seem too worried. The same seemed to be true for Delilah.

Listening to his words, she eventually nodded her head and agreed.

"Alright."

Pressing her hand against Julien's head, the two disappeared from the spot, leaving Atlas standing by himself in the room.

"…."

In the silence that took over the place, Atlas looked around the space before picking up the wooden box from the floor.

"…..who would've thought the situation would turn out like this?"

Perhaps…

He licked his lips but shook his head.

Best not.

Atlas may be a seat, but he was anything but in 'its' eyes.

***

The next day.

The classroom was starting to fill up as the cadets entered from the two sides of the room. Leon, as someone who liked to be punctual, arrived ten minutes ahead of schedule. It was somewhat his norm these days.

'Strange.'

But as he entered the classroom, his expression changed a little.

It had been normal routine for him to knock on Julien's door and head to class with him. At first, it had been because he was his knight, but lately, it was just something he did without having that in mind.

'Habit I guess...'

They did say that if you performed something for sixty-six days, it would eventually become a habit.

I guess he had reached that point.

'He's not here.'

This morning, Julien did not answer his door. It wasn't rare for that to happen since there were times when he would wake up extremely early to train.

By now, everyone knew that he was a training fanatic.

And not just a regular fanatic.

But a batshit crazy one.

'Maybe he still hasn't finished training or had something to do.'

It wouldn't be strange if that happened. He could also be tired from the award ceremony, but he did watch it. He looked somewhat off during the acceptance part.

....Nervous in a sense which was kind of rare.

Since when did that guy even feel nervous?

Despite Leon's confusion, he left it at that and stopped thinking about it. Taking out his books and pencils, he got ready for class.

Today's class was [Modern Application of Magic].

It was a rather popular class.

But at the end of the day, it was still a theoretical class and hence wasn't as popular as some other courses.

As time passed, the noise around the classroom started to pick up as more and more cadets started to enter.

By the time it was the start of the class, everyone was present.

.....Almost everyone.

"Where is he...?"

There was only one person missing.

It was none other than Julien.

He was still missing, and Leon wasn't the only one who had noticed this. Turning around, he could see that quite a few had noticed the same thing.

This wasn't the first time that Julien had skipped class. There were a couple of times when he did, and in those times, it was because he had been injured.

'Did he get injured...?'

Leon was confused but wasn't able to dwell on it too much as the Professor entered the classroom.

"I see that everyone is present."

The Professor wasn't exactly tall, but he wasn't short either. With a well trimmed graying mustache, and well kept hair, he had an approachable aura.

Walking over to the podium, the professor picked up several documents that he prepared to hand out when he stopped.

"Ah, right."

As if he recalled something, he placed the papers down and cleared his throat.

"Before the class starts, there's an announcement that I would like to make."

Everyone's attention focused on him and Leon started to have a bad feeling.

It couldn't be that...

"Your classmate, Julien will not be attending classes for an indefinite amount of time."

The Professor's words were like bolts of lighting for a certain few who looked at him with widened eyes.

Before anyone could say a thing, he continued,

"A situation has occurred, and while I don't know the details, it seems like it will keep him from joining classes for a while. I've been told that he's okay and that you shouldn't worry. So please treat this a light announcement."

It was only after the second part of the announcement that whispers started to spread as the cadets started to talk with one another.

'What happened, do you know?'

'Do you think he got into trouble?'

'....I don't think so, but it's not impossible. Despite how he looks, he is very strict with rules. I don't think he caused any trouble.'

'An injury maybe?'

The noise all reached Leon's ears who listened with a small frown.

"He's okay, and light announcement?"

Leon frowned for a moment before taking a long breath. If that was the case, then there was no need to worry.

Such thoughts didn't last for very long.

Even as months passed, Julien... he never once returned.