Liam was certain that the students in front of him were all idiots, including the silver-spoon Olivia.
He expected a little bit more from all of them, just to be looked at in the same way as before. It was almost as if it didn't make a difference to them whether he was just a mysterious savior or an infiltrator from another Realm! That was plain stupid, and Liam couldn't trust what he saw.
"What does it matter whether you are a Demon or something like that? You helped us when we desperately needed it and you didn't abandon us when we were stupid enough to stand around like stone statues rather than fighting with all our might!" Kian responded after his lengthy explanation of how he did not see any faults with Liam's reasoning to reveal his identity only now.
Liam's lips parted for a second just to close once again. He was baffled at the response he received from the ducklings that were following him all this time.
Only when he finished sorting his thoughts to a certain extent did Liam open his mouth once again, "First of all, I'm not a Demon! I'm half human and half Devil…and second…just do whatever you want. If you die, it's not my fault, remember that!"
Even after he tried his utmost to push the students away, nothing seemed to work out. That was frustrating in one way but also confusing in a certain sense. From his perspective, the students were better off further away from him. They shouldn't be close to him if they wanted to survive a little longer.
However, it was almost as if they had glued themselves to him and would follow him through the Nine Realms if they could. The determination in their eyes told Liam that they would follow him, now with even more conviction than before!
'Did they really just accept that I'm their enemy? And they still want to follow me, even more than before at that?' Liam thought, not able to comprehend the logic there. 'Well, it's not like I initiated the Arcane Apocalypse or that I want to be in Haltan, in the first place…but…well whatever…'
Liam felt a bad headache creeping up and he chose to change the topic. It was not exactly helpful to keep questioning what was going on right now since nobody could understand how he was currently feeling, including himself. He was not sure what he was feeling right now or how he was supposed to feel either.
Should he be relieved that someone didn't push him away for being a Halfling, or was he supposed to be even more vigilant of the natives around him? Would he subconsciously lower his guard around the students just because they didn't seem to be more afraid of him now that he revealed his identity, or would he subconsciously be even more wary of their gazes?
It was weird that they thought he was handsome, and that he looked cool rather than frightening, or that he was not a disgusting existence since he was the breed of a Devil and a Human. This new feeling that emerged from the depths of his subconsciousness was certainly not bad, but Liam didn't like new feelings since their influence was the least predictable.
"Let's put aside all this chaos and pay more attention to the current situation," Olivia interrupted all of a sudden. She was still a little bit baffled that nobody but her could immediately tell that Liam was way too familiar with the Arcane System, Soultraits, fighting, and the detailed information he had since the Arcane Apocalypse started. Not many were supposed to have it, however, it was even more obvious to her that Liam was overwhelmed with the reaction he received from them.
Even if she couldn't fathom how his life must have been, Olivia had often read about Devils and Humans in novels, animes and other means of entertainment. If the reality was similar to the things she knew from those shows and novels, Devils and Humans were supposed to hate each other to the core. Liam's reaction was more than enough to show that he had never actually been accepted for who he was, which meant that he had planned to use his revelation to push them away.
Olivia didn't like the way Liam was handling the current situation, thus she chose to take over as long as she was given the opportunity.
"You wanted to search for more survivors and move them all to the gymnasium, right?" She asked Liam who nodded his head in response.
He was still a little bit flabbergasted but Olivia's nonchalant attitude allowed him to pull himself together much faster than he would have been able to without her.
"As everyone can tell by now, I don't know anything about this place. Is this some sort of an Academic City, or did I just accidentally run into this treasure trove?" Liam asked, which caused Olivia and the others to tilt their head.
"Treasure Trove?" Rex asked, wondering if Liam had somehow miscommunicated what he actually wanted to convey.
"Ignore that…how many students are usually in the library, and the different University buildings? Are there any other places where many people could safely hide from the rats, Meheks, and other monsters?" Liam asked while knowing sure damn well that he sounded like an amateurish idiot who had recently become a hunter.
His mind was in a weird state where he couldn't gather a straight thought, yet, be able to understand that he ended up blabbering something that made sense and at the same time sounded weirdly stupid.
"We have the biggest library in the entire valley. In fact, the entire city is considered a gold mine of information and knowledge for students. As for the hospital, it is also pretty close and you should find more survivors inside there. After all, there are only a few hundred students in the library all the time while there are thousands of people in the hospital every single day," Kian explained shortly without minding Liam's current behavior.
The way Liam behaved right now made him feel much closer to the students than before. He was more humane rather than a killer machine without emotions.
"Hm…alright then," Liam nodded his head which caused Kian and the others to look at him with expectations.
"Where are we going?" Kian asked while turning his entire body in the direction of the hospital, just for Liam to start smiling lightly.
"The library, of course!"
While Liam and the small group of students paved their way through the desolate streets of the university campus that was adjacent to the gymnasium, a few students were lost in thought.
The countless raindrops that poured down onto the ground were akin to the numerous thoughts and questions that flashed through their minds only to disperse all over the ground, unanswered.
"I thought we would go to the hospital since we will be able to find more people there…" He mumbled to Rex, who looked back at his friend with a wry smile.
"Don't look at me like that…I'm the stupid one here…" Rex tried to joke, but he ended up making a fool of himself.
"The answer is pretty simple," Another student appeared next to Rex and Kian at this moment. He was slim, wore thick glasses and he had a hard time properly wielding the steel spear that felt like a heavy iron hammer in his hands.
Rex and Kian didn't really like this classmate, Ludwig, because he was full of himself. Ludwig was intelligent and he had great prospects to be accepted in the country's most privileged university. There were even rumors about him receiving scholarship offers from various companies who wanted to fund him during his time as a student. However, he ended up rejecting all of the ludicrous offers because he earned more than enough money from stock trading, which fueled his arrogance only further.
Nonetheless, Rex and Kian didn't say anything. They remained silent and waited for Ludwig to say something.
"The hospital is, obviously, a place where patients are treated. Most are ill, old or crippled, including some who are missing a limb or two, or hit their heads hard when they were still young. Only a few will be able to fend for themselves in the hospital, which means that even if Liam finds some survivors now that almost 24 hours passed, they won't be of any use.
No matter how powerful Liam is, or what kind of tricks he has up his sleeve as a half Devil, he won't be able to kill thousands of monsters all alone while taking care of helpless, desperate, and shocked survivors. The heavy downpour could become an advantage since it will be difficult for monsters to smell any scent in the open but it won't even be possible to rush through the entire hospital before Liam, and even more so all of us, would end up as lifeless bodies lying in a puddle of our own blood!"
Ludwig made it quite obvious that he didn't think highly of Rex and Kian's intelligence. The two boys squinted their eyes but they nodded their heads after a while.
"I guess the library is a better place then. There are only two big floors and a rooftop. I know a few idiots who were recently giving studying a try, they'll definitely fight with their life on the line, no matter what," Kian mumbled after a few seconds of silence.
He knew that his older cousin and a few of his friends chose to sell their gaming consoles to spend more time studying after they finished their daily training schedule. Their grades had taken a hit since they were trained and played too much.
Kian quickly followed Liam with faintly gleaming eyes. He was confident that Liam knew very well what he was doing, and was not going to change his plan even if they had some suggestion, yet he had asked for their opinion since he was a little bit stupefied about their reaction when he unmasked himself.
Unfortunately, Kian was thinking too highly of Liam.
Liam's mind was flooded with sudden doubts since he had received an unexpected reaction from the natives. He was also not sure where he was going or what would actually await him. There hadn't been a map of the city in the gymnasium and he couldn't really ask anyone about everything he had wanted to know until now.
It had been more important to hide his identity, after all!
While they were on their way to the library, they didn't encounter a lot of monsters. They evaded the most crowded areas and created a rather secure way to the impressive structure of the library.
Liam had expected a lot when he heard about the library but it was a great looker, for sure. The library was of rectangular shape and adorned with large glass windows that let in plenty of light, usually. Right now it was raining cats and dogs, and it was already a wonder that they could see everything in their surrounding area quite clearly.
The exterior of the library was made of brick and stone. There were also several wooden pillars that supported the entire structure.
As Liam and the students approached the library's entrance they found shards of broken glass as far as they could see.
"...blood," A quiet voice said all of a sudden, and it was no sooner that everyone's head turned to the right where they saw some broken large glass windows and the blood of monsters sticking to the jagged corners of the broken glass that had been left behind as they had stormed inside the library.
Liam ignored the blood. He rather focused on the situation around him, where a handful of corpses were unveiled to him.
As he stepped through the wide-open, arced entrance gate of the library, he and the others were greeted by those corpses.
The walls of the library were lined with shelves upon shelves of books, followed up by comfortable reading nooks scattered throughout the space. Most corpses on the first floor were near those nooks, which allowed everyone to accurately guess what had happened there.
The students behind Liam suppressed their screams and tried to hide their shock at the sight of the mangled, mutilated, and half-eaten corpses.
"Isn't it too quiet?" Olivia asked once they had passed halfway through the library's first floor. Liam nodded his head and prepared himself to fight monsters that would jump at him from his blind spots.
However, nothing like that happened, which turned the quiet and studious atmosphere in the library into something even more fearsome.
'Is everyone dead?'
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