Chapter 47: Accident

Chapter 47: Accident Lindy walked quickly to the room where Damian was. When she got there, she saw him lying in the infirmary bed, his body covered in bandages and visibly shaken from the beating he’d taken. "Damian, what the hell happened?" Lindy asked. Damian smiled when he saw she had come to check on him. He motioned for her to speak with the nurse who was in the room. Lindy quickly understood why. "Could we have a moment alone? If anything happens, I’ll call you," Lindy said to the nurse. The nurse nodded and left. As a professor, Lindy had a certain level of authority at the academy, and the nurse didn’t want to risk trouble with her. Once they were alone, Damian whispered, "Can you check if anyone—or anything—is listening to us? This has to be a private conversation." Lindy scanned the room to make sure nothing was there. When they were finally certain they could speak freely, Damian told her what had happened. The whole thing was strange—the recruits showing up out of nowhere to attack him, and the guard pretending not to see. That wasn’t normal. Lindy’s expression shifted dramatically as she listened to the story. This was not something she had expected. "My God..." she said. "I think those recruits were paid to attack you—just like that guard was. The question is, who paid them, and why did they want you like this?" Damian wanted to know that too. As far as he knew, he hadn’t made any enemies inside the academy. Sure, outside of it, Lion Beast was after him—for now—but within the hunter academy, things had been calm. The only one with any sort of grudge against him was Professor Randal, but there was no way a professor would pull something like this. Someone else was behind it. "Maybe those two people I saw talking? The ones who robbed you? It didn’t seem like they saw me, but what if they did?" Damian said. That seemed like the only possibility—or at least the first one that came to mind. Lindy agreed. "Yes, that’s the most likely scenario. We can’t be certain yet, but it’s a starting point for the investigation. Still, I think you need to be more careful now, even here inside the academy—which is supposed to be a safe place..." "You think they’ll try again?" Damian asked. Lindy hesitated. "I honestly don’t know. I believe not, because now the other guards and officers will be watching the students more closely—especially you—to make sure you’re safe while moving around the academy. But whoever did this could try again at another time," Lindy said. "And I think you might not recover in time for that mission I told you about," Lindy said. Damian really wanted to go—and given what had happened inside the academy, it might even be better for him to get out for a while. But Lindy truly believed he wouldn’t be ready in time. She was wrong. Damian’s body was strong, and his Endurance stat was high. "Don’t worry, I’ll recover," Damian said. "In fact, I think getting out of here for a bit might be a good idea." "If you recover, then we’ll go," Lindy said. "I’ll come check on you tomorrow to see how you’re doing. For now, I’m going to talk to your friends and let them know you’re okay." Lindy promised to tell Mitra and Curt about Damian’s condition—since they still weren’t allowed to visit him—and that’s exactly what she did. Damian didn’t mind staying alone there. He was certain no one would try to attack him inside the infirmary. All he needed to do was focus on getting better so he could join Lindy on that mission. He spent the night in the infirmary. Sleeping there wasn’t easy—he was still a bit paranoid after what had happened—but nothing else occurred. Lindy showed up early the next morning to check on him. When she walked in, she found Damian without any bandages around his body. "The nurses took them off this morning," Damian said. "They’re surprised at how quickly I healed." Even Lindy was surprised. Damian was just a recruit, so she hadn’t expected that kind of recovery. "Looks like you’ll be able to come with me on the mission," Lindy said with a smile. "I’ll talk to the people here in the infirmary and see if you can be discharged today." She wanted to leave for the mission that very day. After all, the more time they had, the better—it would give them enough time to get everything done and return before the start of next week. The process took about an hour. Lindy didn’t just have to convince the infirmary staff that Damian was fit to leave—she also had to get approval from the academy’s commanding officer to make sure he was actually allowed to go. It was a long bureaucratic process, but in the end, it worked. Damian was cleared to leave with Lindy for the mission. Both of them were excited about it—especially Damian. He wanted to get out of that place, at least for a while. They got everything ready before leaving. In truth, most of it had already been prepared by Lindy. All Damian had to do was follow her to the place where their plane would depart. To his surprise, that place was inside the academy. "They have a place for planes here?" Damian asked. "I had no idea—I haven’t seen any take off." If a plane had left from there, Damian figured he would have at least seen or heard something. "It’s rare for anyone to leave by plane," Lindy said. "And you’ve only been here a few days, so of course you haven’t seen it. We’ll be taking a private jet to the location of our mission." The mission site was farther than Damian had expected. They would fly to a larger city where the plane could land, and from there, take a car to their destination. All of that would take some time—which was why Lindy wanted to leave early. Damian didn’t bring much with him. Lindy said she would cover all expenses—or rather, the academy would—so he didn’t have anything to worry about. It was great not having anything to worry about. Damian was left speechless when he saw the jet they would be taking. The jet was luxurious—something he had never imagined he would get to use. The pilot and co-pilot were already there, making all the necessary adjustments for takeoff. Everything was going smoothly. Damian and Lindy placed their belongings in the jet’s luggage compartment, then took their seats, waiting for departure. "The weather’s really nice today," Damian said, gazing out the jet’s window. "That’s a good sign." There was little wind and the sky was a brilliant blue. It would make the trip that much more pleasant for them. Lindy sat beside him, pulled out a stack of papers, and handed them to him. "We can go over the details of our mission. This demonic family artifact has been passed down for generations, so we need to understand where it came from and how we can control it," Lindy said. It was a lot to read, and relatively dull, but being on a jet heading away from the academy made it much more bearable. Damian alternated between reading a bit and looking out the window. Takeoff went smoothly. And so did the trip—at least, up to a certain point... The first person to notice something was off was Lindy. She knew the route they were supposed to take, and when she looked out the window, she could see a vast ocean. "That’s odd," Lindy said. "We weren’t supposed to fly over an ocean. Let me check something." She stood up and went to speak with the pilot and co-pilot. After a short while, she returned and sat down beside Damian. "So? What happened?" Damian asked. "According to them, air traffic control requested a detour because of some flying demons causing trouble." The reason for the detour sounded plausible enough. Damian had seen plenty of news reports about demons bringing down aircraft. But Lindy seemed uneasy. "I don’t know why, but I don’t believe them. Their explanation feels strange, and the detour is way too long," she said. Damian looked out the window, and it really did seem strange. They were heading farther out over the ocean, deeper and deeper. If it were just a minor detour, they wouldn’t be going in that direction for this long. Before either of them could do anything, something happened—the plane seemed to lose control! Lindy rushed to the cockpit, and when she got there, both the pilot and co-pilot were gone! They had jumped out with parachutes. She didn’t know how to fly a plane. Lindy frantically searched for two spare parachutes, but there were none. "They did this on purpose!" Lindy shouted. "They took our parachutes! They want us dead!" Damian had to hold on tight because of the turbulence. "So what do we do now?" "Let’s just hope we make it out of this alive..."