Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee



  Ethan didn't want to stay at that point for long, but he wanted to investigate the vestiges of mana. He would look suspicious, though, and some people would even think that he might be trying to erase the vestiges of the spell. So, for now, he left the area.

  Ethan approached the arena again, and then when he confirmed that no one was watching him, he jumped to the ceiling of the building. Only the seats were being protected by the cover of the stadium, so the place was quite large, and Ethan could move around with ease. Once he had a clear view of the area where the teleport happened, Ethan sat down and observed the area.

"Everyone is clearly avoiding that area… Is everyone that good at finding vestiges of magic?" Ethan furrowed his eyebrows. "They either received information about the whole thing beforehand or… the students told each other once the first person found it. I don't know if the kids here have balls or not."

  Ethan watched the area for a while, but he didn't see anything else worth noticing. Maybe he should contact Hannah and know if she learned something… she has been quite busy as of late, so he didn't want to bother her too much. Still, in that situation, it was probably the best option.

"As expected of Ethan, my little brother… you sure are quick to understand things, even though most of your magic skills suck," Hannah called Ethan when he sent her a message. "Unfortunately, it would be better if you didn't try to get involved now… you just returned from another mess, after all. The higher-ups will start to think that you are a troublemaker at this rate."

"You can't blame me for that, considering that he kind of forced us to commute to the same place almost every day, and they can't guarantee anymore that the place is safe," Ethan shrugged.

"Can you at least pretend that you care about following the rules?" Hannah sighed over her own wristwatch. "If you keep saying stuff like that, you will only add more fuel to the fire."

  If Ethan cared about that at all, he would have destroyed the wristwatch a long time ago. Although being monitored was annoying, it wasn't really a problem for him right now… Ethan would rather focus on recovering his strength and living in peace, but the conditions weren't good for either.

"... Your silence speaks volumes about your lack of interest in being nice to some people," Hannah said and then sighed again. "Anyway, a large operation is already prepared to confirm what really happened, and you don't have to worry about anything."

  Hannah didn't give Ethan more details. While she trusted her little brother, she wasn't the one calling the shots when it came to interplanetary missions, she had to follow her orders as well. Still, revealing that much to the others seemed fine, so Ethan passed the message to Ian and Emily.

"I guess they will send a team to another world by using the fissure created by the spell…" Ian said via the Telepathy amulet when everyone went home. "The chances of them succeeding will be high if they teleport around the same time and on the same spot."

"That makes sense, still while their fast response is great… I have the feeling that things won't be easy," Emily said.

"The enemies might be waiting for them, right… It looks like even Hannah doesn't know to which planet those three are headed to, so it is hard to imagine what is waiting for them on the other side," Ethan added. "Anyway, there's not a single thing that we can do without using Teleport on the same spot. We should just wait for the news, be they good or bad…"

"... Actually… no, never mind," Emily said after taking a deep breath.

  One didn't have to be a genius to know that Emily had some kind of idea, but she hesitated for some reason. It was probably too troublesome. That was why Ethan and Ian didn't press her on the subject… there was no point in trying to solve a problem and creating another.

  The next morning, Ethan found those four together again on the plaza of the academy. The atmosphere sure looked depressed among them. Moreover, Emily looked tired, as if she didn't sleep well that night.

"It looks like you all sucked some sour lemons this morning," Ethan said after he approached. 

  They looked at Ethan like he had said some nonsense, but soon they forgot about it. Now that he thought about it, Ethan realized that he didn't interact with Kei, nor did he have anything to say to him.

"The vestiges of the spell disappeared, and new traces showed up. A new team probably went to follow those three students," Ian declared with a serious expression on his face.

  Ethan didn't want to get dragged into Ian's pace. That was why he didn't want to ask why Ian was so interested in the subject… it was probably because Lyla must be worried… not all kids in the school were her students. But she was probably worried sick about them, and that was enough of a reason for Ian.

"You guys don't have to worry about it," Hana said and then smiled. "Things will solve themselves eventually."

"I am not worried. I just want to get rid of future problems that might come to bite me in the ass in the future," Ethan explained. "Anyway, I am not sure if you can reveal that, but did you receive any orders from your leaders?"

"We were just told to cooperate if the necessity arises, nothing else," Hana explained. "I guess it would be suspicious if we received any more messages. In any case, in one way or the other, we owe you all some apologies… we brought this kind of atmosphere, even though this place looked so full of life before."

"Are things that difficult in your home land?" Ethan asked after he crossed his arms.

"In a manner of speaking, yes… remember what I said before about how heroes are divided? One of the main reasons for that is the fact that a lot of us are treated like celebrities," Hana explained. "We receive invitations to become part of some groups like business conglomerates, we start working promoting their business and also receiving high positions in their groups alongside payment as well… while we also receive payment from the governments. Some of us even starred in movies already… being treated like stars in another worlds and back on Earth, you can imagine how much that kind of thing changed the minds of people of our age."

"... People fight hard to obtain those positions. A lot of us even try to create drama to throw mud at the names of other heroes just to get their positions," Kei added.

  That wasn't surprising. Ethan knew that in some Asian countries, it was pretty common to exist things like idols, and a lot of those people were teens. That wasn't a thing in the Western world, at least not that much anymore…

"Thinking about all this is a waste of time," Emily said and then got up. "Let's do something to improve the mood. While we aren't participating in the main operation, there is something that we can do."

"And that would be?" Ethan asked.

"... Follow me, and you will see," Emily declared.

  Everyone began to follow Emily until she stopped in the area where the accident happened. Ethan could tell that she was planning something. Still, he didn't know if it was something smart or not… she barely avoided punishment the last time, and it looked like she wanted to do something big again.

"I will have to control my power to avoid problems. That is why I will have to ask you all to guard me. I can't do anything else aside from focusing on the spell," Emily declared. "Still, you shouldn't move from your spot, and I can't guarantee your safety if you do that."

  Emily looked more serious than usual, so the whole group nodded. Ethan didn't like the idea of following her without knowing what she had in mind. Still, he stayed silent and just waited until Emily began to emit her mana in a ten meters radius. Eventually, a barrier surrounded the group, and then it started to vibrate. Everyone felt their bodies getting heavier and stuff… it didn't feel like it was some sort of gravity spell, but it made their bodies feel like stone. 

  Emily began to sweat cold, and then after ten seconds, the group noticed that the clouds in the sky stopped moving… until they began to move backward.

  The whole group realized instantly that Emily was using time magic. While they had seen some instances of that kind of power being used, they never saw something like a time reversal happening… Ethan had only seen people using Time acceleration. Still, after watching Emily for a short while, Ethan confirmed that she wasn't using a perfect version of time reversal. If that were the case, they would be able to move freely inside the barrier, but that wasn't the case.