The Magician of Sound

"... That's my plan. Does Teacher have any suggestions?" Kai finally finished his thirty minutes long explanation. In the meantime, not a single word was spoken either from Ria and other girls.

"Suggestion? Nah, I don't want to give you suggestions for this mission because it's just an easy way for you. Instead, I will give you some homework, so you will know what you are missing and search for the answer yourself." She shook her head and answered calmly.

"Alright. This is Teacher's style of teaching anyway." Kai nodded. "There should be one and a half weeks before the mission. Maybe I will stay here for one or two days and work on it after I get back."

"In that case, I will give you the assignment later." Ria nodded, leaned back to the chair and closed her eyes, formulating a few questions and writing it down. 

Suddenly, Kai broke his silence with an unexpected question.

"By the way, Teacher… I almost forgot to ask this, but I need to ask you this. What is SS rank magical beast?" Kai asked. 

Ria opened her mouth in surprise while her face appeared a shocked expression. Her hand slipped out of the table, but she didn't fall because her other hand held onto her chair. 

Michelle and the others had a confused expression before it turned into a shocked one. They couldn't understand why a person like Ria, who had been in control this entire time, suddenly had such an expression.

"SS Rank magical beast?" Michelle had a distorted face while she asked. She never heard such a term before, so this clearly shocked her. If Kai asked such a question, it would mean he already knew such an existence. The problem would be what kind of existence an SS rank magical beast was?

Ayaka and Tasha couldn't help but recall the S rank magical beast they met in Russia, the Snake God. Recalling such a beast made them think of how puny their existences were. And to think there was another existence beyond that snake…

*Gasp-!* Ayaka closed her mouth with her hand while Tasha looked at Kai with the sweat beginning to appear on her forehead. "What do you mean, Kai? The highest should be an S rank magical beast, right?"

"Teacher, can you answer that question? When I asked Sir Nathan, he said to ask you." Kai asked with a grim expression. Seeing her reaction already let him know that she had some knowledge about it. 

"That Nathan? I really should come and beat him up for good." Ria bit her lips while slamming her table. A few seconds later, she suddenly looked up with another shocked expression. "Wait… if you are asking me that question, it would mean you have known about 'That,' right?"

Kai looked around and nodded his head. "Yeah. Teacher is right."

"Haiz. I should have predicted that you will ask that question after the battle in Cuba. I have miscalculated that Nathan would explain it to you and asked the other one to me. With your ears, you should know about ���that' on the battlefield… Wait. Now that I think about it, the report isn't correct. The reason for the battle wasn't numerous magical beasts. Instead, it should be that."

"Why does the teacher ask? Isn't it in the report with your rank?" Kai asked with a confused expression. 

"That old man was playing with his life." She narrowed her eyes and released killing intents. 

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think that old man would send you into a mission like that without my permission? No. He needs to ask my permission first. I agreed with him because of his proposal about his plan and asked him to give me the report later. It seems I can't trust that old man anymore. Fine then." Ria was seriously pissed about it. 

"So… Can Teacher answer my question?" Kai looked at Michelle and the others before turning back to Ria. 

"Two S rank magicians and a Zodiac… They indeed have a rank to access more information. However, I can only tell you about the SS rank magical beast, not that unless you ask me individually. It's only because of my identity you can enjoy that kind of rank after all." She shrugged.

"Yeah. That's fine."

"SS rank magical beast is…" Ria paused for a moment, staring at Kai for a minute.

"Teacher, what is it? The suspense is too long, you know." Kai made a weird expression while his fingers were twitching because he didn't know what she was thinking. 

"I have given you the answer." Ria merely answered with a simple but meaningful line.

Kai fell into silence and looked down, weighing something in his mind. 'She has given me the answer? Is she playing around because Sir Nathan lied on the report? No, Teacher wouldn't direct that anger at me… Then, she must have answered my question, but there is no word that describes it… Wait, word?'

He looked up and stared back as he realized the answer. "Teacher, don't tell me…"

"Oh, you are quick to catch on," Ria smirked proudly.

"What is the answer?" Tasha furrowed her eyebrows while Ayaka crossed her arms. Both of them began thinking about the answer. On the other hand, Michelle gasped before unconsciously muttering, "Kai? The SS rank magical beast is Kai?"

"!!!" Tasha and Ayaka came into a realization as they looked back at Ria to check the answer.

"That's right. I am staring at an SS rank magical beast…" Ria glanced at Ayaka for a few seconds to strengthen her point. "The SS rank magical beast is the Zodiacs, which means Leo, Aries, Pisces, Sagittarius, and Taurus." 

Kai closed his eyes for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh. "I see. Sir Nathan didn't want to talk about it because Teacher would be the best person to answer this question."

"Yeah. Don't worry. Even if the whole world treats you as a magical beast, I will just destroy the world together with the magical beasts." She shrugged. "As long as I am alive, no one in this base will mistreat you. 

"Then, when I pass away, you will be able to fend them off by yourself. Besides, with the medicine, your children won't bring the curse of their parents. Though I can't say anything if the government creates more zodiacs. At the very least, the ones that I care about will be fine." Ria smiled gently, treating Kai like her own child.

"Thank you, Teacher." Kai was moved. 

She wanted to enjoy this kind of mood, but couldn't. Her expression turned serious again as she said, "There is also another kind of SS rank magical beasts out there." 

"Eh? Do you mean someone from the Europe Union Base? There is a zodiac in that place, right?" Kai asked. 

"No. I'm not talking about that." Ria shook her head with a grim expression. "I am talking about the failed experiments."

"Failed experiments?" Kai frowned before releasing his killing intents. This was the exact reason why Kai asked Ria to stop the Zodiac after him.

"It was only after they kicked me out of the project. They tested on a bunch of the people and turned them into half-beast half-human. As I said earlier, it wasn't like the movie. Instead, their appearances were… horrendous. Most of those who survived were locked inside a cell, so they could get more data… but after a certain accident, all the failed experiments managed to escape from that place and scattered around the continent. No one knew about their locations, and the government couldn't do anything." 

"Is it fine to talk about it to us?" Michelle, who knew about the rank and classified information well-enough, asked.

"It's considered the same topic, so don't worry." Ria brushed her anxiety away with a single sentence. "Anyway, the animal genes in their body already dominated their human genes… so the magical beasts treat them as their own and don't attack them at all. If you met them, can you kill them for me? After all, the failure part came from my own experiment."

"It's the government fault, not you. With your experiment, I could live, so I am not blaming you, Teacher." Kai smiled gently. Looking at her ashamed expression made him want to change the topic. He let out a long sigh first before he asked, "That's right. You want to fight me, right? How about we do it now?"

Ria stared at him for a few seconds before smiling. "Yeah. We should. The rest of you may watch our match. I am sure it will be beneficial for you."

Kai took the first step toward the door before Ria passed him and guided them to the battle room.

All of them entered the practice room where Ayaka trained with Ria. This was the battle between a teacher and a student, no one would actually interfere.

Kai glanced at Ria, who already entered the simulation tube, waiting for him inside the stage she had prepared. Michelle and the others stopped not far from Kai before their attention was taken away by the screen above the simulation tube. They saw Ria Ross with her poker face appear in a plain white room, waiting for Kai to arrive. 

Knowing that he had made her wait, Kai quickly entered the simulation tube and entered the white room. The room was quite big, considering it was a 50x50 meters room.

"Are we going to fight here?" Kai asked while looking around the room.

"Yeah." She nodded while stretching her palm toward him before pulling it back again mysteriously. "I have inputted the data of your Vibration Sword, so you can call the swords here."

Kai nodded with a serious expression, closed his eyes, and imagined a pair of swords from earlier. A second later, they appeared right in front of him. He took both of them and swung it a couple of times to check if they were the same swords. 

"How is it? It's the same, right?" Ria asked while inserting her hands on her laboratory white coat's pockets. 

"Yeah. There's no problem." Kai nodded before relaxing every muscle in his hands and pointing his swords against his teacher. He closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening it again. However, his eyes were not the same anymore. The eyes turned into sharp yellow eyes, releasing killing intents. 

"The time limit is thirty minutes. If no one is defeated by that time, it's your win." Ria Ross said and stomped the ground with her right foot. A greenish silver magic circle appeared on the ground before a white sword slowly emerged from within. The sword length was the same as Kai's, but without any decorations, as it was made of magic. "Start!"

As soon as Ria shouted, both of them leaped forward and slashed their swords against each other. 

*Clank!*

The clicking sound of metals was the starting sign of this great battle.

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