Chapter 74 - Bounty (1)

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A few hours later, the excruciatingly long day was finally coming to an end. Within a span of hours, a lot of things had happened. For the first time in the history of the academy, the ranking exams of the academy had been cancelled.

As a result, the Director had to give a reason as to why they were doing so, thus she stepped up to inform everyone about the death of three students at the hands of an unknown beast. As it was to be expected, the backlash of releasing the news was quite huge. 

The death of not one but three students was quite a scandal. Enough for numerous families to start problems there simultaneously. If they were not controlled, things would have inevitably led to a bloodbath. 

However, the director had already prepared some contingencies to quell the rage of the nobles... by blaming it all on the Resistance. Her declaration was backed up by the reports they had received regarding the suspicious activities of the Human Resistance. 

It was no secret that the resistance had been causing them some trouble in recent months. Thus, the director's accusations were believable. 

Also, if it was the work of the resistance, then there wasn't much the weaker noble families could have done against the academy. But The director knew, just blaming it all on the resistance would not solve her problems. 

As a result, she decided to bend the narrative to lead to a cliche path. The ones who had been killed were being hailed as their saviours, who sacrificed their lives to protect the rest of the students.

At that moment, they weren't useless people who died trying to get of Ashton, but warriors who saved the academy and everyone else at the expense of their own lives. 

The director knew the nobles had a hunger for honour and praise. Thus, when she declared that a memorial service would be organised for the student who died because of that heinous terror attack, the nobles decided to cut their losses and accept the medals and other things on behalf of their sons. 

To them, it was an opportunity to use the death of their sons to solidify their position in the society of the nobles. Even though they knew their sons would have died without putting up much fight. After all, who could have been more aware of their ability than their parents?

However, accepting the rewards and stuff, was all just a farce and nothing more. They were still planning to investigate what had happened inside the arena. No matter the cost. But since they couldn't openly go against the academy, they had to be discreet about everything.

Thankfully, they weren't the only ones intrigued by the strangeness of the situation. The Conundrum was going to investigate what happened as well. Most probably because something like this threatened the safety of the kingdom. 

Back to the other important stuff. Since the exam had been cancelled, it was decided to assign the students their ranks based on the points they had scored in the previous round. As it was obvious that some of the nobles would not get a rank they 'deserved', thus they were not pleased with this decision.

But the director had chosen this as her hill to die on. In her words, she wasn't going to risk the safety of the students again, just for some stupid ranking system. As much as everyone else wanted to argue with that, none of them could refute the reasons the director had mentioned. 

What would they do if the creature appeared once again? None of them wanted to die just to get some stupid high rank and rewards.

As a result, the students were assigned ranks based on their ranks in the preliminary exam. Which meant, the top performer from each zone was assigned S rank by default.

Thus, Ashton was made the first-ever 'mutt' to become an S rank student. Much to the dismay of some students and professors alike. Similarly, second and third places were assigned A ranks, and so on. 

Afterwards, the students were immediately escorted to their dorm rooms based on the ranks assigned to them. Well, the thing was, all of the dorms were in the same building but on different floors. 

The ground floor was where the D rankers had their lodging, while the S rankers had their rooms on the top floor. But that wasn't all. The difference between the living quarters was quite obvious.

While the S rankers got a room all to themselves, the A rankers had to share it among two, B rankers had to do it with three, and so on... with the D rankers sharing a room with five people. 

To say that this infuriated nobles would have been an understatement. But there was nothing they could do about it. The next three years of their lives would be spent living like commoners. 

This system seemed harsh but it was made so that it would motivate the low rankers to improve and grasp the top position. In a similar fashion, the S rankers would have to make sure to keep their place safe and secure. 

It was the first time any of them had heard about this possibility to change their rankings. Well, it was because this rule was not in place before. The director had just implemented the new rules stating that just like before there would be an examination at the end of each academic year. 

This exam would be treated as an opportunity for the students to change their rankings based on their capabilities and knowledge. The bottom feeders could suddenly become the rulers of the sky and vice versa. 

As this rule was explained to them, the eyes of the low rankers started shining. They had finally found a ray of hope to get into a ranking that they 'deserved'. 

But there was a strange situation... the nobles, they were targeting Ashton once again. While they were not being openly hostile with him, their eyes were clearly filled with rage and hatred. At least of the ones who were ganging upon him.

Ashton knew their task of killing him within the competition was left unfulfilled. On top of that, some of them believed it was Ashton who had killed Lucas and the others and not some strange night creature. 

All of them had seen Lucas and the other two nobles chasing after him. Thus even if there was a monster, Ashton would have been targetted by the night creature as well. However, there wasn't a single scratch on his body, let alone a deadly wound. 

Still, none of them had any way to prove that Ashton was the culprit. That was unless they were planning to confess that they were the ones who attacked him first. In which case, they would be the ones to land in trouble as Ashton's actions could have been easily framed as 'self-defence'. 

***

Somewhere else...

"That bastard survived!?" Donovan slammed his fist on the ground, sending innumerable cracks throughout the surface, "How is that even possible!?"

"We don't have any idea..." Disha replied.

Although she appeared to be calm, she too was both baffled and scared of what was going to come next. The mistress had already found out about the attack, as well as the fact that Disha lied to her.  Things were not looking good for them, at all. 

The two of them were being accompanied by the knights of all the families who had joined in on the venture to kill Ashton. Under the orders of the Conundrum. 

"That damned night creature ruined everything." Donovan massaged his temple, "We have to do something."

"How about we put a bounty on his head?" Alexander chimed in, "We cannot put a hand on someone from the academy. But if enough money was on the bastard's head, even the professors and the students of the academy might do our dirty work."

Donovan looked at everyone else in the room and it appeared they were in agreement. It was almost a sacred law to not attack a student of the Academy. Anyone who broke the law will have to go through a trial and all that jazz. Depending on the severity of the situation, they might even get executed. 

However, the students of the academy were exempted from this rule unless they ended up killing someone. Still, this law was only bounded by the walls of Contingent. Once outside the city, anything could happen to anyone.

This meant that one of the other students could potentially 'injure' Ashton so badly that they would need to transport him elsewhere, preferably to the capital. 

Once Ashton was out of Continent and the academy, anyone could kill him. But first, someone would have to somehow get Ashton out of the city. After that, he could go and kill the bastard himself. 

"Enough money you say?" Donovan smiled, "How much do you think is enough?"

"Who knows?" Alexander shrugged his shoulder, with a smirk on his face.

"Stop playing.. You know exactly what I meant." Donovan rephrased his question, "How much would it take for your brother to do this job?"

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