It was pitch dark in the early hours in the evening and most of the people were now in their homes. It was super cold in Vacanta after another set of heavy snow fell into the continent. Everyone decided to stay in their homes until the next morning.

  A sound of footsteps was heard in the forest. A young man dressed up in a black and light green tunic was running in the dark and freezing forest. His giant palm was covering a deep stabbed wound that was dripping with blood. His skin was pale like the snow due to losing so much blood and he was reaching a fever that was making his entire body sweat. His medium long curly blonde hair was soaking wet from all the sweat.

  His light tearing blue eyes were only focused on one specific building that he could see right now. He tried his best to run faster but he didn’t want to make the wound worse as he was losing so much blood.

  Everyone in the palace was sleeping peacefully. All the lights were turned off except outside for the knights to see things properly. Two knights were standing by the main entrance of the premises. They were wearing the thickest coats to keep themselves warm. Since they hadn’t experienced snow before, they didn’t know what to do or how to handle harsh freezing weather like this.

  The injured man managed to make it through the entrance of the forest. His body leaned against a branch to catch his breath and to ease the pain of the wound. He needed to remain awake just for a few minutes to tell something to the emperor. The man continued walking in extreme pain and was also groaning at the same.

  The knights by the gates could hear the sounds of footsteps coming in their direction. One knight immediately turned around then his eyes widened to see an injured man.

  “Go and wake up the emperor!”, the knight instructed his companion.

  She acknowledged and ran immediately to the building. The other knight opened one gate for the man and immediately grabbed the man. Without hesitation, the knight took the man to the palace.

  The knight knocked roughly on the door to wake up the emperor. “Coming!”, Ashok groaned.

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  The door opened fully and Ashok appeared. “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s an injured man in the palace.”, she said.

  Ashok’s eyes widened a little bit in shock. “Show me.”

  Ashok and the knight ran together to see the injured man.

  The knight was in the main entrance hall with the injured man and with Lithanya. Another knight called Lithanya in case Ashok didn’t make it on time. But the man had a few minutes before he could leave this world.

  Ashok came out from the other passage and ran straight to the injured man. He squatted down next to the man and looked at him with full concern.

  “What happened to him?”

  Before the knights and Lithanya could answer, the man grabbed Ashok’s hand to get his full attention. “I…need…to…tell you something…important. Emperor Huang…is…planning on something…terrible in the academy. And he must be stopped before everything gets worse. All the students and senior investigators need to be saved before…”

  The man’s body became stiff and still. His eyes also became still in front of Ashok. Ashok felt the man’s pulse by his neck and the man was now dead. Everyone looked at the ground with full sadness. Ashok closed the man’s eyes with his palm.

  “Let’s bury him in the graveyard.”, Ashok instructed.

  Everyone listened and the male knight took the body with him. While Ashok, Lithanya and the other knight went to get the spades.

  Ashok, Lithanya and the two knights had put the body into the ground in the dark graveyard. There were hundreds of grave stones in this graveyard. Lithanya and the male knight came back with a big bouquet of flowers to put by the grave. They placed the flowers on the grave that had no name on the grave stone. Lithanya got up and stood next to her father with some sadness in her heart.

  “I’ll go to the academy.”, she made her decision.

  The three of them looked at her. “Are you sure about this?”, Ashok asked.

  She looked at her father. “Yes but as an undercover student. I want to find out what’s happening in the academy and we can also save those people in that academy.”

  Ashok was having doubts about this. “But going undercover is very dangerous. I don’t want you to get caught and be placed as a hostage forever in Nymphaedra.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Some knights can accompany me too but as undercovers as well.”, she answered.

  Ashok was still having doubts. “So, what’s your plan?”

  “To recuse everyone in that academy and steal their plans about this new rule they have created before we can bring them down.”, she hissed.