Chapter 54: Byron, the One Who Loves Keeping Accounts

Jenna was startled, quickly retracting her hands to her chest.

Two names swirled in her mind.

"It was Keli, she told me. She told me to come find you at three o'clock." She blurted out one of them.

"Before Keli, who else mentioned me?"

"D-Duke also said something..." Jenna’s voice grew softer.

Duke?

Saul raised an eyebrow—he hadn’t expected Duke to get involved as well.

As for how deep Duke's involvement went, that remained to be seen.

"Didn't you say a second-level apprentice warned you?" Saul impatiently pressed.

This time, Jenna truly hesitated.

Senior Sid had helped her but had also warned her not to mention him to anyone, or it would bring him serious trouble.

Jenna was deeply grateful to him—he had, after all, saved her life. She didn’t want to cause him any problems.

"You're begging for your life, and you're still playing mysterious?" Saul sneered, deciding to let Jenna stew for a bit longer.

He took a step back, as if about to shut the door.

"Wait, I’ll tell you!" Seeing this, Jenna panicked. She moved forward on her hands and knees. "It was—"

"Smack!"

A crisp, watermelon-splitting sound rang out.

Jenna’s head exploded right in front of Saul.

Something splattered towards him.

Saul had no time to react; he could only shut his eyes, lift his arm, and lean back slightly.

A moment later, Saul lowered his left hand. Blood spattered his sleeve.

He looked at the girl in the red dress lying on the ground. Strangely, he wasn’t all that surprised.

"Doze, Rocky, and so many others joined the Mutual Aid Society, yet only you were warned about the parasite. Unfortunately, there are very few good people in this tower. The one who warned you clearly wasn't one of them."

The burly man curled up at the corridor entrance didn’t react at all, as motionless as a corpse.

The second door next to them cracked open slightly—Hayden's face flickered behind it. The moment he saw Jenna’s corpse, he shut the door immediately.

And the next moment, someone emerged from the dimly lit hallway.

Byron glanced at Jenna's body indifferently before turning his gaze to Saul. "Hmm?"

The corpse on the ground was ignored, yet the living man standing in the hallway was thoroughly examined with a spell.

"Hmm." Byron took a step back and shook his head, indicating that Saul had no issues.

Saul removed his coat and wiped the blood and flesh splattered on his face and arms.

Looking up, he saw Byron pulling a small notebook from his mouth and taking out a pen to make a mark in it.

That notebook recorded the credits Byron owed Saul. Every time Byron did something for him, he would automatically deduct the owed credits.

This was one of the things Saul greatly appreciated about Byron.

A person who could clearly distinguish favors and grudges and uphold equivalent exchanges was rare indeed.

Saul frowned at the crimson dress, now even redder with blood.

"Hmm?"

Saul shook his head slightly. "I don’t feel guilty."

He had always thought he was the unluckiest one, constantly teetering on the edge of death since entering the tower.

But now, he realized—there were plenty of people even more unfortunate than him. Others weren’t living in a carefree world either.

At the very least, Saul had his death premonitions. But Jenna probably never understood what was happening to her, even in the last moment of her life.

She thought she had seen the light of dawn, only to fall straight into the abyss.

Byron remained indifferent—he had witnessed too many deaths.

Looking at the girl’s corpse, the only thought in his mind was: Another fool challenging the tower master's rules?

"Hmm?"

Byron suddenly noticed something as he swept his gaze over Jenna’s body. He stepped forward and crouched to inspect it.

After a moment, he abruptly stepped back and tossed a black mist from his hand. The mist slithered like a giant python, completely enveloping Jenna.

Her body swelled high within the black mist, emitting a harsh sizzling sound.

Some thin, thread-like things began attacking the mist from within.

The black mist kept bulging as if it might burst at any moment.

But in the end, the mist won.

Its shape stabilized, still tightly encasing the girl inside.

With a wave of Byron’s hand, the mist dissipated as if it had evaporated into thin air.

Jenna’s body reappeared before them.

The sight made Saul involuntarily step back, instantly discarding the coat in his hands.

Jenna’s body was covered in countless bloody holes, riddled like a beehive—there wasn’t a single patch of intact skin left.

Her blood seemed to have been devoured by something, leaving barely any traces on the ground. The once-bright red dress was now tattered and ragged.

"What was that?"

"Scratch, scratch—"

Byron didn’t immediately answer. The sound of pen on paper came from his side.

Saul turned to look—Byron had pulled out his notebook again, deducting more credits.

After writing, Byron reluctantly jabbed himself with his own knife.

"Runaway parasites—the Mutual Aid Society uses them to control newcomers. Normally, they don’t attack their hosts. For it to end up like this, someone must have tampered with it."

Byron grabbed a corner of the red dress, dragging the corpse toward the morgue, shoving it into a large storage box beneath the worktable.

"There are still some things on her—curses, maybe, or some kind of marking spell. Don’t touch her."

He glanced at Saul’s left hand, which was hidden in his sleeve, and added:

"Left hand is fine. Right hand is not."

But Saul had no intention of examining the parasite.

He wanted nothing to do with the Mutual Aid Society’s creations.

And the one who had tampered with Jenna was most likely the secretly murderous Sid—Saul wasn’t about to let curiosity put him in danger.

Besides parasites, what else was on Jenna?

"Senior," Saul spread his hands, "if I had been the one to examine the corpse earlier, would the parasites have attacked me?"

"Yes. They're extremely aggressive."

The parasite’s attack could have been dangerous.

Even if Byron hadn’t shown up, Saul would have had the diary’s warning and wouldn’t have been caught off guard.

So, was this all Sid had planned by sending Jenna to him?

"In that case, Senior, could you carefully check if there are any other similar curses or harmless-looking marks on me?" Saul grinned. "Deduct as many credits as you like."

Byron trembled.

He narrowed his eyes and slowly rolled up both sleeves.

---

Jenna had been missing for three days.

Rocky had searched everywhere they had been before, but there was no sign of her.

During these days, Saul still hadn’t attended class. Rocky wanted to question him but had no chance.

That day, Duke had only given Jenna Saul’s location—when Rocky had tried to listen in, Duke had thrown him out.

And that was his dorm!

With no other options, the anxious Rocky dragged Doze along to find Duke.

"Duke, Jenna’s been missing for three days!"

"Oh." Duke looked indifferent.

Rocky was furious. "How can you not be worried at all?"

Duke chuckled and spread his hands. "Jenna clearly had some trouble when she went looking for Saul. Maybe she's dealing with it. Why are you panicking?"

"What kind of trouble takes three days to solve?"

Duke continued copying notes—library books were expensive, and every apprentice raced to transcribe them to minimize rental costs.

He spoke while writing. "I don’t know. I asked, she wouldn’t tell me. Did she tell you?"

Of course not.

Otherwise, Rocky wouldn’t be searching blindly.

"Then can you tell me where Saul is? I want to find him."

Duke finally put down his pen and scoffed. "That place is no good. If you have no business there, don’t go."

Annoyed by the interruptions, Duke sighed and raised two fingers.

"Two magic crystals."

Next Chapter

Table of Content