Still, Ban Yue and Ludville’s trip to the main building’s library was not entirely fruitless.

  Along the way, he found a bulletin board in the hallway which dispyed old posters of the academy’s important events. Among them, Ban Yue saw a schedule of the academy’s daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance activities in the gardens, the fountains, the hallways, the buildings, and the quadrangle – most likely to indicate when these areas would be off limits.

  From this, Ban Yue was able to confirm that the shadow puppets which roamed around the Clodine Becket Academy were indeed mimicking the routine of the living people who previously occupied these campus grounds. Except, while the normal schedule was 9AM to 5PM, these shadow puppets followed a flipped timeline. They would come out at 9PM when the sun had finally gone down and disappear at 5AM before the sun started to rise.

  The calendar they found also had something else.

  That is, every month, right on the space of the 21st day, the picture of a red full moon would always be seen.

  Today was the 20th.

  None of the flyers indicated the exact time the red moon would show up, so Ban Yue could only guess that the timing varied each time.

  When Ban Yue read the book about the history of the Clodine Becket Academy, the Battle of the Red Moon was emphasized greatly as if the appearance of the red moon in the sky had tipped the battle completely to one side, causing the Holy Knights to be at a disadvantage. The Holy Knights and Clodine Becket who was a light mage was known to blessed by the white moon. However, because of the red moon, they were forced to run to the Blessed Hill of Sistyne to secure an advantage.

  Ban Yue had already found it strange before – the fact that the shadow puppets never attacked them when the records clearly stated that they were puppets who instinctively attacked any living beings in the vicinity. Now that he had more information, Ban Yue felt like he finally understood the reason:

  Because the Blessed Hill of Sistyne was surrounded by nature, the senses of the shadow puppets have dulled greatly. It was thanks to this that Ban Yue and Ludville had remained alive until now. However, once the red moon rises tomorrow, their senses will be enhanced greatly, and there would be no safe pce left for Ban Yue and Ludville to hide in.

  Tomorrow, Ban Yue and Ludville might just experience the Battle of the Red Moon firsthand.

  Ban Yue stared at Ludville who was now sleeping soundly on his bed.

  It was already 10PM in the evening.

  There were twenty-six hours left in the countdown.

  He needed to move.

  As soon as this thought crossed Ban Yue’s mind, a blue system window appeared in the air above him.

  [Would you like to use Incognito?]

  Ban Yue didn’t bat an eye and clicked “Yes”.

  As soon as he did, Ludville’s body rose up from the bed and moved over to the edge as if he was possessed. When he opened his eyes, instead of his usual teary and bright green pupils, what was revealed underneath was a pair of sharp electrifying blue eyes that reflected the light streaming from the window. Ludville stared at his fingers as if he was assessing his own faculties.

  A few seconds ter, Ludville spoke in a low calm voice, “…Not bad.”

  Above him, a bright blue system window glowed brightly.

  [Incognito is currently in use. Effect: 00:14:51]

  Ban Yue had discovered the Incognito skill this morning after his conversation with Ludville by the fountain. As soon as Ludville lifted him up in his arms and started to walk towards the main building, the familiar sound of a system window appearing rang in Ban Yue’s ears. When he looked up, he had already received a notification.

  [Hello, NPC Ludville Eckart’s favorability towards you has exceeded 75%. You may now use Incognito on NPC Ludville Eckart. ☆ ]

  [Hello, would you like to use Incognito? ☆ ]

  It seems the skill was highly dependent on the impression he made on Ludville, although Ban Yue had no idea why it increased so drastically within a short period of time.

  There was a reason why Ban Yue held off on using the Incognito the moment he had discovered it.

  For one, the effects of the Incognito skill were not without limits. Each use only sted him 15 minutes, and a cooldown of three hours would have to pass before he could use it again. Moving around the campus grounds aimlessly without prior knowledge of the yout was risky because his consciousness could leave Ludville’s body at a wrong time. They were nearing the finale of the scenario, so Ban Yue couldn’t rule out the possibility of hidden dangers lurking around. Ban Yue wanted to save his skill use in case something unexpected happened.

  Ban Yue walked over to the window and squinted at the shadow puppets roaming around the campus grounds.

  “Have they gotten faster?” He murmured uneasily under his breath.

  They were definitely moving with more ease than he saw them st time. Ban Yue suspected that it must be because the rising of the red moon was approaching.

  Ban Yue summoned his inventory and took out a matchbox and a candle. They were the same items he had found stashed in the dumpster the night before. He took out one matchstick, hit the head towards the matchbox’s side, and carefully lit the wax candle’s wick.

  Truthfully, Ban Yue wanted to wait for Ludville to calm down properly before he used the skill on him. No matter how useful the skill was, Ban Yue only had a fourth of an hour each time, and the rest would be up to Ludville. The skill would also split the damage in half between them every time either of them was hurt. Since it was likely that Ludville would wake up and have to take over during many dangerous situations, Ban Yue thought it was imperative that he informed Ludville about Incognito. However, looking at the situation below, it seems Ban Yue and Ludville no longer had the luxury to wait. This had to be done now, so Ban Yue did it.

  Ban Yue watched the tiny fme on the candle come to life. Below him, he saw the nearby shadow puppets stop in their tracks. Then as if they were moths drawn to a fme, they veered off from the main path and sped towards the wall below Ludville’s window. Ban Yue watched them cw against the wall below in an attempt to climb up and get to the fme and fail.

  “They don’t seem intelligent enough to know how to break doors and climb the stairs…” Ban Yue muttered thoughtfully as if he was a sports coach analyzing the footages of an opposing team’s gamepy.

  Satisfied, Ban Yue let go of the candle nguidly and watched it fall down. As soon as the candle hit the grass, a small fire started to spread. However, before it can grow, the shadow puppets immediately rushed to it and stomped on it aggressively until the fire was completely subdued under their feet.

  Ban Yue thought hard.

  Earlier today, as he explored the campus with Ludville, he noticed scorch marks on the main building’s walls. He had dug into the history of Clodine Becket Academy but didn’t find any details about a fire incident big enough to swallow the entire campus whole. The marks also looked vivid, as if they had occurred only recently.

  Ban Yue had no idea how these fires occurred, but one question kept nagging at him.

  Ban Yue didn’t know the exact point in time that the shadow puppets began to occupy these campus grounds, but based on the dates on the various flyers posted in the bulletin board, Ban Yue could roughly count one hundred years back. Since this pce had been runover by shadow puppets for such a long time, how could this pce have survived such a rge-scale fire?

  With his curiosity as his motivation, Ban Yue took out five matches from the matchbox and hit it against the box. A fire much bigger than the first one lit up in Ban Yue’s hand as if he was holding a torch. Detecting the fire, more shadow puppets rushed to cw at the bottom of the wall. However, this time, Ban Yue paid them no mind. Ban Yue’s eyes were fixed somewhere else.

  “…Shall we test just how far the blessing of the Blessed Hill of Sistyne can go?”

  Ban Yue pulled his arm as if he was throwing a winning pitch and unched the matchsticks in the air.

  They hovered in the wind before they scattered and nded on the grass, setting the rose garden alight in five different pces.

  All around, Ban Yue watched as all the shadow puppets nearby rushed in an attempt to put the fire out. However, since they were non-intelligent beings who solely moved according to their instincts, the group gathered and stomped around each patch of fire one group at a time. Because of this, the fire quickly spread and enveloped a big patch of the garden, burning some of the shadow puppets along with it.

  Ban Yue watched as the shadow puppets who were enveloped in the fire writhed and ran around before falling down and setting another patch of the campus on fire. Some of the shadow puppets stayed away from the fire as if knowing instinctively that a fire this rge was not something they could handle and come out unscathed from.

  Ban Yue was still watching the entire scenario unfold with observant eyes.

  “A small fire attracts; a bigger fire repels…” Ban Yue’s calm blue eyes were tinged by the color of raging fire while he spoke.

  There was a fountain filled with water nearby, but not even a single one of the shadow puppets went over and attempted to put out the fire with water.

  “It’s not them,” Ban Yue concluded.

  It wasn’t the shadow puppets who were putting out the fire.

  The fire Ban Yue had started had already spread to the other side of the main path. It ate away at the grass and the rose bushes, as well as some trees along the way. By the rate at which the fire was spreading, Ban Yue thought it would only take a moment before it finally spread to the dormitory as well as the main building.

  'Did I overdo it?' Ban Yue was beginning to worry.

  Suddenly, Ban Yue felt a light wind touch his face. It was followed by a whistle.

  He realized that the wind was starting to pick up.

  Every second, the wind that seemed to be coming from all directions appeared to grow stronger and converged in one pce. The whistle continued to grow louder and louder. The trees and bushes below started to sway violently, scattering a mixture of thin branches and small leaves in the wind.

  Soon, Ban Yue had to squint and cover his face with his arm to protect his eyes.

  It felt like a whirlwind had suddenly appeared in the middle of Clodine Becket Academy, and Ban Yue was somehow caught in the middle of it. The wind raged through the grounds and tore through the fire, leaving with it nothing but vivid scorch marks. When the wind died down, and Ban Yue could finally see again, what was left before him was a clean yard, as if the fire earlier was just a figment of his own imagination. Below, the shadow puppets who had not been burned by the fire started to walk around again like it was just a normal day on campus.

  Ban Yue couldn’t help but let out a low ugh at the sight. Even though he already suspected it, he was still left in utter disbelief.

  “…The Hill of Sistyne is truly…incredibly blessed,” Ban Yue said with a wry smile. The knuckle of his index finger rose up to the space between his eyebrows and massaged, “What a headache.”

  The scene he had just witnessed made him realize one thing:

  That in this impending battle of endurance, he would have to position himself and Ludville carefully.

  Otherwise, the blessing of Nature might just become their curse.