This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

Joel’s eyes held a wistful longing for life as he gazed distantly at the figures speeding toward him. His right hand lifted slightly, intending to call for help, but eventually, it fell back weakly, and his gaze darkened.

"Uh..." Rafael’s body convulsed, and his expression twisted grotesquely.

Inside his body, dense special patterns formed, constituting chains of order that protected him but also brought him intense pain...

The rules from the Dream World began to clash with Rafael’s unique inner rules. Although the Dream Rules were stronger, they couldn’t instantly eradicate Rafael due to the defense of the chains. Meanwhile, Rafael took this opportunity to pull out a small sculpture from his storage space.

The sculpture depicted a bizarre creature with nine heads and a hundred arms. However, three of its heads already had their eyes shut, and these three appeared damaged, bearing various marks of harm.

Click, click, click...

The next moment, the fourth head on the sculpture slowly began to close its eyes, and as the eyes shut, the rule power from the Dream World started to transfer to this head on the sculpture.

Crack—

It seemed the sculpture reached its limit as the fourth head of the creature began to disintegrate from within, eventually turning into a pile of rubble.

Click, click, click...

The remaining rule power, under the pull of the sculpture, continued to transfer to the fifth head, allowing the sculpture to bear the terrifying backlash of the rules for Rafael.

Even though the sculpture bore the backlash, some of the pain could only be borne by Rafael himself.

"Ahhhh..." Amidst the blur, a somewhat slender phantom appeared, its expression distorted, and its veins bulging massively, looking as though they might burst at any moment in a terrifying and gruesome manner.

Crack—

At that moment, the fifth head of the sculpture also completely exploded, and with the remaining trickle of rule power, Rafael hesitated to sacrifice another head and instead chose to cleanse them from his body using an item resembling a scarecrow.

"Rafael!" At this time, the several knights arrived at the scene, their expressions uncertain as they looked at Joel, who had a dagger stuck in his back, and then at the pale-faced Rafael, momentarily confused about what had transpired.

"You... did you just kill Joel? And where are Captain Fogen and the others?"

One knight, whose eyes shone sharply—he had the best vision among them—saw some images from afar. Though not very clear, there were only Rafael and Joel present, so he concluded the situation wasn’t hard to deduce.

The other knights, although they didn’t see as clearly, after hearing their comrade’s question and piecing together the blurry images they had seen, also formed some guesses in their minds and looked at Rafael with unfriendly eyes.

After all, they and the small task force responsible for reconnaissance were brothers within the knights’ order, though they weren’t as close as comrades within the same squad. However, they had trained together and fought together, sharing a deep bond.

Facing Rafael, who might be a murderous beast, these knights showed a hint of murderous intent in their eyes. If it weren’t for the fact that Rafael had the blood of the Trujillo family in him, they probably wouldn’t have given Rafael a chance to explain and would have seized the opportunity to deal with him on the spot.

"They... they were contaminated by the Demonic Qi..." Rafael’s voice trembled slightly, and, coupled with his pale face, it made the knights exchange glances, slightly retracting their weapons.

"What about big brother Fogen? He was just a bit short of being rated as an ’a’ Awakener, and his awakened talent is ’Solid Armor,’ which is great for preservation of life. Even if he was contaminated, he should have been able to return and wait for our rescue, right?"

One knight frowning deeply, a clear anger in his expression.

He had been led by Fogen when he joined the knights, and although he no longer was in Fogen’s command, the two shared a bond close to that of a teacher and a student. He looked at Rafael doubtfully, his right hand firmly gripping his battle sword, seeming ready to strike if Rafael dared to lie.

A cold gleam flashed in Rafael’s eyes, but the next moment, a trace of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. His already somewhat pale face turned even paler, and his body swayed before he collapsed to the ground.

"Captain?"

The knights looked toward their squad leader.

"First, take him into custody, bring him back. Also, bring back the body for the military doctors to examine," the squad leader coldly glanced at Rafael unconscious on the ground, but eventually clenched his teeth and issued the order.

"Damn it!" The knight who had a deep bond with Fogen angrily dismounted and kicked Rafael in frustration.

The other knights remained silent, tacitly covering up the incident.

"Captain, we followed the traces of the previous scouting team and found the remains of Fogen and his men. This method is suspected to be the Menter family’s ’flame manipulation’ talent, and it might also come from the ’flame lineage’ within the demon race. Additionally, the military medic Zenani indeed detected an extremely faint demonic aura from Joel,"

Hercules listened silently to the subordinate’s report, his expression calm.

Zenani? He knew that woman, even clearly remembered her suspected player identity, and she was also one of Rafael’s most frequently visited friends...

"He still has some tricks," Hercules commented.

"If it is the demon race, then the demonic power that Fogen and his men encountered previously might be of S-level, otherwise with Fogen’s strength, it wouldn’t have been possible for them to be killed by the demons without much resistance."

Quint, responsible for reporting the details of the incident, didn’t know that the person Hercules was talking about was Rafael. At this moment, he looked seriously at Hercules, "And a demon nest capable of breeding S-level demons must be at least a large one, possibly even the legendary super-large demon nest..."

"I’m well aware of this matter, but let’s talk about Rafael first," Hercules tapped his fingers on the table.

Quint opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say for a moment.

After all, he was aware of the quite close relationship between Rafael and his own superior, Roland...

"Rafael is under some suspicion. If we were to handle this in the usual manner, he might need to undergo a period of investigation. But since we are currently in a state of mobilization, which is an emergency situation, according to the regulations, the discretionary power lies with you, Captain, you just need to register it after returning."

Quint kicked the ball back to Hercules.

"My call?" Hercules’s eyes slightly lifted, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

He naturally knew how "innocent" Rafael was, but now was not a good time to completely turn against him.

"Let’s do this, first... mark a major demerit, then, let Rafael come to me, I’ll personally ask him some questions. If it’s really like he described, that demons appeared, I will personally explain to the family head. I will make sure that a good person isn’t wronged, and also ensure that no villain escapes punishment!"

Hercules’s voice was resounding, but to Quint, it still somewhat seemed biased towards Rafael, as marking a major demerit sounded good but lacked substantial punishment.

"Yes, Captain!" However, in the end, he didn’t say much and saluted Hercules before quickly leaving.

Before long, Rafael was brought in.

"Sister Roland..." Rafael lowered his head, looking guilty.

"You all go out first," Hercules waved his hand lightly, signaling the knights nearby to leave, then he walked up to Rafael, gazing at the "Dream Lord," his eyes hinted at probing.

"Tell me, what exactly happened?"

Watching Roland, who seemed ordinary at the moment, Rafael breathed a sigh of relief. The first thing he did after loosening the chains that bound him was to grasp Roland’s hand, then he gently exhaled.

"Ah... Sister Roland, listen to my explanation, this matter isn’t..." Rafael cautiously explained while gauging Hercules’ disposition. Seeing Hercules’s overly calm expression, he grew somewhat flustered.

"Fogen was my old subordinate; he was steady and reliable," Hercules silently withdrew his hand, crossed his arms, and subtly rejected Rafael’s physical contact this way.

"That... Sister Roland, primarily, I had some personal grievances with him..." Rafael stammered. In front of Roland, he dared not admit to having a casual relationship with another girl, which also led to that young girl’s death.

After all, his image in front of Roland was that of the "innocent younger brother." If Roland knew he had been so reckless, he might have drawn his knight sword and killed him right then.

But if he didn’t clear up this matter, he couldn’t explain his reasons for wanting to kill Fogen. Under such circumstances, it was difficult for him to convince Roland to stand by his side and help cover up the truth.

"No choice..." Rafael felt extremely helpless, he gritted his teeth, and in the tent now occupied only by him and Hercules, he suddenly produced a special stone from his pocket.

The surface of the stone was pitted, and from these holes, a peculiar miasma was emanating.

"You..." Hercules felt a dizzy spell coming on, his spiritual power becoming somewhat confused under the influence of the miasma.

But soon, a hologram made of data streams shielded Hercules’ core consciousness, restoring his lucidity, though it continued to maintain a state of being "hypnotized."

Meanwhile, Rafael, unaware, was still recounting his "story."

"Sister Roland, the thing is..."