NOVPUBCaptain Silvermane led Uriel and the still terrorized Emma to his office in complete silence.Uriel thought about resisting for a while, but given the soldier’s keen senses and the fact that he remembered him it would mean he would certainly get kicked out of college.
Silvermane’s office was as neat as his appearance now that he was wearing the uniform again. It would be impossible for anyone to guess there was a mass of hair hiding beneath the tidy uniform, but as disgusted as Uriel was about that he knew that making fun or discriminating someone for their physical trait was a taboo no one dared to cross. Not even Mark who was a bully through and through.
"Why?" Silvermane asked looking at Uriel directly in the eye.
"You’re not in this for the reward, you just want to prevent the murders. Am I correct?"
"Why does it matter!?" Silvermane let out.
"Because I’m here to gather evidence to prove that there are cryptids inside the city and killing that cryptid would be shooting myself on the foot. I need it alive as evidence. But don’t worry, if you come as a witness the Cryptid Hunting agency will most definitely place a bounty on the werewolf’s head."
"That would be pointless, they wouldn’t believe either of us and even if they came and tried to capture that thing, it would simply run away. You saw it yourself, it’s got human level intelligence or maybe even higher."
’No, it’s smart, but you just think that because you’re kind of an airhead.’ Uriel thought to himself.
Silvermane remained silent for a couple minutes which would have been awkward in normal circumstances, but everyone needed some time to unwind after the adrenalinic encounter with the mysterious cryptid.
"The fact that you want to prove there are cryptids inside our walls means that you already know it. I won’t ask you how do you know about that, I’m sure there’s a story behind that similar to that of all the people trying to do the same, but let me tell you something. There’s people in high positions within this city trying to prevent the truth from coming out and they are willing to do anything."
Uriel’s first instinct was to ask why would they do it, but he noticed Silvermane’s secretive way of speech and realized that if he was in the know, it meant he also had a particular story that linked him to the presence of cryptids within city walls.
"Then what do you propose?"
"Nothing, it’s not my place to tell you what to do unless you’re taking laps on my class, but if you want to know more you should probably join the rangers and meet their leader."
"I’m currently a pupil of Miss Charlie, though I’m still unclear as to what specialization to pursue." 𝓷ℴ𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝒸𝓸𝓶
"Just so you know, rangers are considered the bottom of the specializations. Since they’re adept at fighting at a distance using weapons instead of traits, it’s the perfect specialization for people without a strong trait.
Medics are kind of snobby, engineers live in their own world and are usually quite wealthy because of their gadgets and inventions and combatants are creepy, you’ll hear those things a lot, but everyone agrees that rangers are the lowest and the weakest."
"I never heard anything of the sorts." Uriel replied, though his words made sense. Contrary to the other professors, Miss Charlie didn’t teach much to him in terms of theory and it was more of practical lesson. He could also tell that she wasn’t particularly strong or anything and she relied too much on her weapon. Continue your saga on freewebnovel
"That’s because they’re also the most important specialization. They are pathfinders when you’re lost, they’re rescue teams when you’re in danger, they keep the peace inside the city, man the walls and perform regular cullings of the cryptid population in the wilderness. But that’s not all, their leader is one of us, he knows that the wall isn’t doing its job well enough."
Captain Silvermane turned his chair around to gaze through the window and fell silent. It was like telling Uriel that the conversation was over and he was dismissed. He grabbed the traumatized Emma like luggage and exited the office.
"Where’s your dorm? I’ll drop you off" Uriel asked the shivering girl as soon as they were outside.
"Please don’t leave me alone." She looked at him with pleading eyes.
"What do you want me to do? Take you to my dorms?"
"Yes!" She replied instantly.
"That’s impossible, even if I wanted to, it’s against the rules to bring girls over."
"What? You’re telling me you never brought any girl to your dorm?" Emma looked at Uriel like he was a strange creature.
"Of course not, I can’t... I couldn’t afford to get kicked out of the dorms."
"Please, just this once."
"Listen, I know I said you were my sister, but you’re not actually my sister and sleeping with you would make me uncomfortable."
"Who said anything about sleeping together!? I’ll take the bed and you sleep on the floor."
"You do know that the male dormitory is filled with dudes, right?"
"I don’t care! I prefer that to being afraid that the werewolf will come to get his revenge on me."
"Sam also sleeps in the same room."
"Ewww! I’ll take my chances with the werewolf. Take me to the female dorms."
With that, Uriel accompanied Emma to her place but before parting, he asked her to give him the photograph she took of the cryptid to study it on his way back to his dorm.
The picture wasn’t that blurry as the one she took from the changeling but because of the distance and perspective, Uriel had to buy a magnifying glass from his trait to analyze the cryptid.
"Luna will love this picture." He said as he looked at the protruding fangs, the silvery fur and the pronounced chest of the werewolf. The creature looked graceful instead of beastly and there was a shimmer of sentientness in its eyes, which bewitched Uriel for a couple of seconds until a sudden realization hit him.
His mouth gaped and he froze as he stared at the werewolf for what seemed like an eternity. Then, he tore the picture into shreds and burned it in the middle of the night to hide the secret he unwittingly unveiled.
