Volume 1 Chapter 23 – Continuing with Daily Activities
Less than half a minute after the explosion, the patrolling guards all gathered together. Some of them ran into the scene of the explosion to investigate while others locked down the area and increased the security there. Not long after that, the medical staff arrived.
The four Mechanical Engineering students, who were victims of the attack were hastily carried out in stretchers. They were immediately transported from their dormitories to the hospital for resuscitation.
Due the the large impact of the explosion, several dormitories nearby, including Edward’s, felt the shockwave. Related personnel also went to the different affected areas.
“Bro, are you really okay? There’s so much blood.” Ouyang Xue was very worried after seeing a large area of her brother’s uniform stained with red. Luckily, his injuries were not serious; it only looked daunting.
“I’m alright, I…… AHHHH——!” Before finishing the words he spoke while acting cool, the sharp pain of the removal of a shard made Ouyang Tao scream out loud.
Under the protection of his brother, Ouyang Xue was not injured. Although the shards on Ouyang Tao’s back and arm needed medical attention, his injuries were not too serious either.
Despite the pain, experienced medical personnel quickly removed the shards and used recovery magic to heal the wound.
Soon, under the aid of two medical personnel, Edward slowly walked down from his room that was in the second level. Although this was simply an accident, Edward still looked extremely apologetic: “My apologies. No one expected such a thing to happen. Please pardon me for not being able to serve the two of you anymore today, *Cough cough*……”
There was no way they could carry on their discussion and dinner after such a thing happened, so Ouyang Tao and his sister bade their farewells and left.
“Bro, are you really alright?”
“Don’t worry, the medical personnel are all very powerful. Look, I’m perfectly alright.” However, two consecutive days of such incidents made Ouyang Tao worry about his sister’s safety: “Ah Xue, let me send you back to your dormitory first.”
“No, I’m scared.” Ouyang Xue tightly hugged onto her brother’s arm: “There are attacks everywhere. It’s really scary……”
Ouyang Xue was obviously very scared.
Come to think of it, from the interrogation in the morning to tonight’s attack, Ouyang Xue suffered through a continuous number of shocks. Furthermore, she wasn’t like Ouyang Tao who had elite guards by his side for protection. It was no wonder a young girl like her would be worried about her own safety.
Since my place is huge, it shouldn’t be a problem to let my sister stay for two days. So Ouyang Tao nodded his head: “Okay okay, you can stay at my place tonight.”
“Mn, my brother’s the best!”
Ouyang Tao felt that this bad situation should pa.s.s by very quickly. Furthermore, he didn’t feel that this situation was directly related to him.
The next morning, Ouyang Tao sent his sister to cla.s.s before continuing on to the library. He had also brought along his electrical weapon and his tools with him with the intention of going to go the weapon testing area after he had finished reading in the morning.
Zhao Yuehan was still quietly sitting alone at the reception counter reading her book. The unfinished book that Ouyang Tao was reading yesterday was still left untouched at its original position. Today however, Ouyang Tao wanted to check on some things that had been bothering him, he placed his items in the locker before proceeding to the counter.
“Is anything the matter?” Zhao Yuehan’s daily conversation starter was always the same.
“About that…… I wish to check on a specific person’s work, can you help me with that?”
Zhao Yuehan replied without hesitation: “Name.”
Since it seemed plausible thus Ouyang Tao blurted out the name: “Edward Ryan.”
Zhao Yuehan remained silent for a while before saying: “There are a total of sixty five works and a hundred and four books under that author. They are spread across many fields. Do you want all of them or just some specific works?”
Her voice was monotonous and she spoke as if she was the operating system of a machine but Ouyang Tao thought that this should be a question that asked him to choose: “Works from Mechanical Engineering and Elements.”
“2nd floor, section F and section D, a total of thirty books. The will ‘o’ wisp has already pointed out its location.”
“Thanks.”
From yesterday’s conversation with Edward, Ouyang Tao could feel that Edward’s education standard was really high. Also, hearing his sister mention about Edward’s famous works, made him want to see it in person.
Ouyang Tao casually picked a book about improving current methods to manufacture weapons and machines and browsed it, when something in the book immediately caught his eye.
Edward was definitely not just a daydreamer but was actually an a.n.a.lyst with a large imagination. He was also willing to share all his precious ideas.
But regrettably…… No one really cared about all of these because Edward’s suggestions were too irrelevant to the times; they were either too conservative or too advanced. Only highbrow intellectuals could possibly understand them.
“Ahhh, it really is such a waste……”Ouyang Tao was genuinely sad for Edward. He took all of Edward’s Elements and Mechanical Engineering books off the shelf and brought it with him to the counter at the first level.
“Sorry, these….. Can I put them here to browse through slowly?”
Zhao Yuehan raised her head and looked at the books then at Ouyang Tao before rigidly nodding: “Sure.”
“Sorry for troubling you”
“No problem.” Zhao Yuehan continued to read her book.
Unsure whether it was his misconception or not, Ouyang Tao felt that Zhao Yuehan’s att.i.tude seemed to have softened a bit as compared to when he first came to the library.
Once noon came, Ouyang Tao just had to place the unfinished book to one side and Zhao Yuehan would make the spirits place the books and the stationery at the writing counter back to their original position.
“I’ll take my leave today Senior, I’ll come again tomorrow.”
“Mn, bye.”
Afterwards, Ouyang Tao headed to the exit. And just like yesterday, when he was about to leave the hall, he heard Zhao Yuehan’s voice: “Be careful.”
Ouyang Tao stopped walking —— after Zhao Yuehan’s reminder yesterday, he and his sister met with an attack yet again at night.
And today, Zhao Yuehan gave a similar reminder again.
Could this be a coincidence?
At the very least, Ouyang Tao didn’t dare to treat it like the pa.s.sing wind anymore.
Afternoon. Inside Augustus Academy’s fourth light weapon testing ground.
“UWAAAAA —— !” An explosion soon followed and a strong bright light shone straight at Ouyang Tao. Despite wearing protective eyewear and a safety helmet, Ouyang Tao was shocked until he fell to the ground.
This was not an attack but a mere experimental failure……
The weapon testing ground used the inside of a sealed car in order to prevent an experimental failure from causing harm to the tester. However, the visual and hearing impact still gave Ouyang Tao a shock.
After a while, he finally composed himself and slowly stood up.
It seemed like the seniors’ choices were not without reason. Despite Ouyang Tao’s technique obtaining a high completion level, with the usage of eighty percent purity magic stones, his weapon had already exploded due to overload in less than half a minute of testing.
“Sigh……” Ouyang Tao sighed as he looked at the broken pieces inside the experiment area. He would’ve prepared a few backups if he knew this would happen.
Ouyang Tao took his experiment data, carried his weapon, and started his journey back.
Since it was still early, Ouyang Tao wondered whether he should return to his dormitory or go to back to the library to read some more.
But he quickly realised that there was something even more important.
“Mn, lower your hand a bit more. The lesser the movement the better.”
“Like this?”
“Lower them some more. Place them just below your chest. That’s right. Then slowly open your hands.”
“Umm, it seems like my magic concentration actually went up compared to before. So body movement would actually affect how the magic is formed.”
“The main purpose of doing this is to conserve your magic. However, many do not care about this.”
From a distance, Edward was guiding Ouyang Xue’s magic while holding her hands.
That’s right, they were holding hands!
Edward stood behind Ouyang Xue and held her thin wrist as he guided the movement of her hands. It felt like Edward was hugging Ouyang Xue from behind.
After hearing the whispers of his sister last night, Ouyang Tao felt a bit uncomfortable.
Should I interrupt them just like yesterday? Ouyang Tao hesitated slightly before deciding not to interrupt them and quickly left.