The Stargazer

by Nikostar A

  Carmen continued to speak trying to get some information from Alexander but his lips were completely sealed. In the end, she could only give up and leave quietly. She genuinely wanted to help Alexander; he was a promising student and even had knowledge of a different kind of magic.

  On the other hand, Alexander wore a tired expression. He seemed to have aged considerably. When Carmen left, tears appeared in the corner of his eyes. He did not need to ask for more detail from the headmistress, he already knew what happened.

  His heart was in pain; he knew he had been betrayed. Very slowly, he lay down on the floor and sobbed in silence. He thought everything would go as he had planned but it turned out to be the exact opposite. He had been too hasty and had tried to change things but in the end, everything backfired. The one person he thought he could trust had turned against him.

  Alexander did not move. He stayed on the floor, not bothering about hiding his emotions. It was only after a few minutes that he finally calmed down. He was devastated but he could not remain like this. He could not let others take advantage of him.

  Since the situation was already like this, Alexander quietly made a small hand seal.

  "You have made a huge mistake!"

  Chapter 44: Motive

  At the restaurant's private room, Aila was quietly enjoying her meal with Lyana.

  "Are you sure you've made the right decision?" asked Lyana with a doubtful expression. She gently sliced the piece of steak in front of her before delicately placing it in her mouth.

  "Yes. What else should I have done? I don't have much time to catch up to Amelia. If I don't do anything, she will easily become the new Holy Maiden. If that happens, who knows what will happen to us? I need to increase my strength quickly and this will precisely help me!"

  Aila pointed at the small pile of paper on the table. They were full of drawings of hand seals and what looked like yoga postures. They were precisely the notes that Alexander had written down a few days ago and left in his drawer.

  "Alexander was very nice to me but wasn't all the other guys the same? They all promised me to get their organizations to help me. They are not any worse than Alexander. Besides, he will soon be judged by the academy and will be stripped of all his powers. The force behind him will not be able to trace it back to me or if they do, I can just run back to the Sacred Mountain. Without Alexander, I shall be the only stargazer left."

  Lyana looked at Aila quietly. She could tell that Aila was hiding her real feelings. She was not entirely confident that the made the correct decision. They discussed it several times before and every time, she had been unsure of herself.

  "No matter what, I will always follow you, Aila," declared Lyana to comfort her sister. At that moment, she saw Aila's expression suddenly change. A faint trace of panic appeared on her beautiful face, her eyes also quickly started scanning the room around her.

  "He knows."

  "What? Who knows?" asked Lyana when she saw her sister's peculiar behavior.

  "Alexander. I just heard his voice. I don't know how he did it but he just talked to me. He said: You've made a huge mistake," said Aila with a quiet voice. The feeling of regret and guilt started to swell up.

  She knew she needed power to take over the Sacred Mountain but everything had a price. Since young, she had learned to use men to do her bidding; sex was merely a tool to ensnare new 'workers'.

  She was sent to the Earth Academy to seduce the next generation of the Organizations. In just one year, she already had most of the influential recruits of the organizations dancing in her palm. This year, her task was simply to consolidate their relationship and make them fall truly in love with her.

  However, things did not go as planned. On the first day of the academic year, she met Alexander who displayed an abnormal power. Aila was immediately attracted; his power could be the key to her ascension to the title of Holy Maiden. Instead of slowly growing her influence, if she could obtain that strength and learn about the force behind Alexander, her status would be pushed into prominence.

  She did her best to seduce Alexander but the latter was immune to her charm. It was only two months later that his defenses eventually started to wear down and he finally revealed some information to her. After a few more acts of seduction, Alexander finally shared his secrets and allowed her to become a stargazer. The problem was that he was only sharing the constellations with her one by one. It would take her forever to fully master all the constellations at this rate.

  She could not wait for too long or else, her grasp on the other men would gradually weaken and all the work she did for an entire year would go to waste. She was looking for a way to get all the information from Alexander and finally, she got it. While spending the night with him, Alexander revealed that he had written down all the information about the constellation for her but he would not allow her to have a look right now as she was not ready.

  When she obtained that information, she started her plans. She needed to get rid of Alexander somehow. All the men she seduced would only be temporary pawns. She also needed to get rid of them at some point. It was why she slipped away and went to Marcus' bed, revealing the fact that Alexander used specific sets of movements during each of his fights. She only dropped subtle hints but it was enough for Marcus to pick up on them and share them with the rest of the Flemming Organization.

  Since then, they started to look for ways to frame Alexander. As Aila could easily come and leave Alexander's room, they gave her a huge bag of smuggled herbs to conceal in his room. In exchange, she would secure a few resources for herself and be 'freed' from Alexander. Aila would greatly benefit from this and she immediately accepted.

  Aila's actions all led to this particular situation where Alexander ended up jailed. In just a few hours, he would probably be judged to be guilty and would be stripped of his powers. The threat would be gone but now, Aila's instincts were warning her of potential dangers.

  Part of her was happy about the situation but another part was regretting her actions. Aila enjoyed the sweet moments spent with Alexander; she would have ideally brought him to her side but in the end, it was impossible. She remembered the last few words from her mother before she left the Sacred Mountain, "Aila. Don't fall in love with any man. They are just monsters wearing human skin. You will soon find that they are only interested in your body, not you. Don't be fooled by their sweet words. Look at where I am right now. Your father left me as soon as he was called by the high priestess. She is young and beautiful while I am already starting to age. Remember to not trust them. Instead, use them, step on them and become the strongest."

  Lyana sighed but did not comment. She could only support Aila from behind. She did not agree with Aila's decision but she understood her motives.

  Aila bit her lips and quickly got rid of her negative thoughts. "He is probably being headed to the courtroom as we speak. There is no way he'll be able to do anything. As long as the academy is not completely stupid, they won't allow him to use his stargazer powers."

  Aila slowly calmed down and grabbed the pieces of paper on the table. It was what she had worked so hard for. There were a total of twenty-six pages. She ignored the first two as she already knew Arado and Besmoth.

  Her eyes flashed with interest as she read through the third page. "So this is the constellation that allowed him to use fire? Calypso, the Firecaster?"

  Lyana quietly sat next to her. She was also curious about the training method of the stargazers but since they did not know the procedures to awaken, Lyana was bound to never become a stargazer.

  Under Lyana's thoughtful eyes, Aila started to practice and move according to the diagrams. After five minutes, she had yet to feel any star energy.

  "What is happening? Why is it not working?" asked Aila. She repeated the movements again and again but nothing happened.

  "Is there something wrong?" asked Lyana.

  "I don't know. I am unable to feel any star energy when I do these movements. Maybe I shou
ld try the hand seals instead?" murmured Aila.

  She did as she said but still failed. After a whole hour of practice, Aila's face was no longer calm and serene. Frustration and nervousness were clearly displayed on her face.

  Lyana lowered her head and started biting her nails. With a quiet voice, she doubtfully asked, "Could it be that these are the wrong notes?"

  ***

  "What? Why is he being arrested?" Dr. Meyer stood in front of a very busy Carmen Ashmore with a worried expression.

  "Why do you ask? Why do you need this student?"

  "Miss, you are already aware of the test of the cultivation box. We have received a lot of investments from the Flemming Organization but have yet to succeed in replicating Alexander's phenomenon. We would like him to test the cultivation box again and see if he can do so. The development of the cultivation box depends on this!"

  Carmen let out a sigh, "You should give up on this. Alexander will be brought to the courtroom for trial and looking at how he refused to communicate, he will be sentenced to consuming the End Potion. With his spirit circuits and mana reservoir crippled, he won't be able to help you in your research."

  "Wait what? Explain the situation clearly to me. Isn't it just possession of a few resources? Don't tell me you believe none of the other students are actively sharing their resources? Expulsion is too harsh! At most, he should just be sent to the inner island to power the arrays. Why does he need to consume the End Potion?" asked Dr. Meyer in panic. If Alexander was really expelled, who knows what would happen to his research?

  "In normal circumstances, yes but Alexander is different. First, the Five Oceans Palace are actively asking for us to hand him over. Second, it was proved that he has the ability to use magic without using mana. The UN wants to properly interrogate him. There are already a lot of rumors spreading about Alexander's expulsion. The UN is trying to force the entity behind Alexander to come out and save him. They are pushing him to the edge; at worst, they would get rid of a potential threat. I don't know what will happen to him after his expulsion but I suppose that he would be sent to one of the UN's secret bases for interrogation and we will never hear from him ever again."

  Dr. Meyer shivered. He knew what Carmen was talking about. "I will try to talk to the Flemming Organization. They are the one pushing the situation; they are harming their own project by doing so!"

  ***

  In the cell of the discipline department, Alexander finally started to calm down. He was still lying on the ground but his tears had dried around his reddened eyes. His mind was racing:

  "Why? Why? Aila... Why did you do that?"

  Alexander easily guessed that the culprit behind this situation was Aila. If the instructor in charge of the inspection did not frame him with the bag of herbs, then, there was only Aila left. Nobody could access his room in normal circumstances but Aila was one of the few people he allowed inside.

  He wanted to trust her but it turned out to be a complete mistake. Alexander had been feeling something odd about Aila since she awakened as a stargazer but thought that it was just due to her excitement. He pushed down those feelings and enjoyed his time with Aila. What he did not expect was that before he could even build up a relationship with her, he would be instantly backstabbed by Aila.

  His heart was in pain. He had been ignoring all the signs and strange behavior of Aila but it turned out to be a terrible mistake.

  "I should have known better. The current Aila will never fall in love with anyone. She is only interested in becoming the next Holy Maiden and will do anything for it. I ended up being used as a pawn..."

  He was currently trapped in a cell of the discipline department. Alexander knew very well what was going to happen next. The higher-ups would not take any risks and would definitely expel him. Expulsions were rare at the Earth Academy. Only terrible students would end up expelled. They would be forced to consume a potion called the End Potion that would cripple their magic elements for life. Once consumed, they would return to being normal individuals but that was not the end.

  The End Potion would also severely damage their mana source and would drastically shorten their life span. Being expelled by the academy was no different from death; at most, they would have one or two years left to live.

  However, Alexander knew he would not even have those few months of peace. Since Carmen showed him the videos of him taking the body postures of Arado and the others, he knew the higher-ups had already been informed. They were probably already on their way to get him.

  "Aila..."

  Aila had been the only real winner in this situation; she obtained the power she was looking for and at the same time, got rid of a potential threat. Or so that was what she thought. Alexander ignored his instincts and trusted Aila. He ignored the signs that she was plotting something against him for the most part except for once.

  On the night where he was suffering from his stomach ache, Alexander wrote down all the information about the constellations on pieces of paper. Details of the twenty-six constellations were cleanly recorded but instead of handing them to Aila, Alexander decided to trust his instincts once. He threw the pieces of paper in his Space and wrote down completely bogus information about imaginary constellations.

  He then revealed to Aila that everything about stargazers was written on pieces of paper in his drawer. At the same time, he instructed her that he always needed to be here when she would try a new constellation. If Aila had been completely honest, Alexander would have simply ignored the notes and explained to her the real constellations but as it turned out, Aila did indeed have hidden motives.

  What raised Alexander's suspicions was not Aila's evasive behavior or the way she always directed the conversation on the constellations. Instead, the biggest give away were the sex sessions he had with Aila.

  Alexander had noticed that Aila reduced the mana she plundered from him for a while but right after she became a stargazer, she no longer held back and absorbed as much mana as she could. This slight change in behavior was an obvious red flag for Alexander; if Aila wanted to keep him by her side, why would she try to plunder his life force.

  As a result of all those night actions, Alexander always woke up feeling sore and tired but he never complained. He thought that she was doing so simply because she did not go to other men for a while and needed to fill herself. Fortunately, it turned out that Alexander's decision was correct.

  However, Aila's situation was the least of his worries. At the moment, he needed to find a way to get out of here. He would soon be brought to a courtroom for judgment. The moment he drank the End Potion, everything would be over. It was the one thing he could not allow to happen.

  Alexander bit his lips as he recollected his thoughts. While still lying on the ground, he quietly performed the hand seals of a particular constellation.

  Chapter 45: Judgment

  While jailed, Alexander did not even try to escape. He could use the power of the constellations and break his Aimantite cuffs but it would all be for nothing. It was just wishful thinking to be able to get away using magic.

  Despite the appearance, the security of the island was top-notch. There were cameras almost everywhere in the city and several drones would regularly patrol the area. All buildings were equipped with several mechanized guards designed to get rid of rebellious mages.

  Even if Alexander could use extreme spells, all that was needed was a simple bullet to hit him for him to be completely neutralized. Earth was different from other worlds like Basilec. Here, the greatest threat was the machines. Furthermore, who knows what kind of secret weapons the governments were hiding from the general population. There was a reason why Earthlings were able to easily repel the Xals from Loha while the local population there struggled for decades without any success.

  Alexander could feel the star energy in his body but he did not use it yet. Soon, a pair of guards came in to escort him to the courtroom. They were given strict instructions to minimize any form of c
ommunication with the convict. They wordlessly put on some restraining gloves on Alexander to prevent him from using hand seals and quietly brought him to the courtroom.

  The courtroom was not very far from the cells as they were both located at the discipline department but Alexander walked as slowly as possible. While walking, he was actively using the powers of the constellations and to be successful, he needed time.

  [Nunalee, the Psychic]

  It was one of the most powerful constellations. It allowed the stargazer to temporarily gain an ability similar to telekinesis. Alexander could literally move objects with his mind.

  "D*mn, where did they put the keys? They are supposed to escort me to the courtroom. They should have the keys in their possession!" said Alexander to himself. He scanned the guards' bodies with his mind until he finally stumbled onto a set of keys.

  Using his mind like this was quite straining but fortunately, Alexander practiced the constellation to some extent before. He sneakily pulled out the two relevant keys he needed from the guard's pocket and waited.