Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 219 Blood Ritual
"Senior Pigeon, may I ask you a question?"

"Oh, junior, I also wanted to ask you a question."

"Is the senior male or female?" "Are you really not bullying me?"

In the backyard of the Baptistery, Ritas held the carrier pigeon by its claws, suspending it upside down in mid-air and observing it closely for a long time, but he couldn't find any clues.

As for the homing pigeons who seemed to have seen slaughtered chickens hanging upside down on railings in the market, they felt that this junior's attitude towards him was very strange.

"I don't really know much about things like male and female. We homing pigeons probably don't distinguish between male and female."

"how is this possible?"

Although not a professional, Ritas does know how to distinguish between male and female pigeons. However, it can only be said that homing pigeons are somewhat unique breeds, so the physical characteristics of male and female pigeons that are common to other pigeons are not present in homing pigeons.

The reason Ritas became curious about the gender of a pigeon was because the homing pigeon had previously wandered into the World Tree Maze.

Aside from extreme cases like the "Hero," star markings only appear on women. Furthermore, the ancient door beneath the academy leading to the World Tree labyrinth can only be opened to those associated with the "Ark Fragments" and those who possess star markings.

Therefore, Ritas became curious whether the carrier pigeon was actually a female pigeon with star markings. If so, its ability to freely transform into "people it had met" would be somewhat explained.

"Since the senior homing pigeons don't have much experience as juniors, they may not be aware of this. It's quite common for senior homing pigeons to be grabbed by the ankles and lifted upside down by juniors."

"How is this even possible!"

Even though Ritas spoke in a serious tone, he couldn't hide such outrageous nonsense.

After marveling at how, despite the brains being roughly the same size, the carrier pigeon was clearly smarter than the goblin, Ritas put him down.

"Senior carrier pigeon, it's said that it's very popular now that seniors shave all their feathers to welcome juniors."

"So how is that possible?!"

The carrier pigeon watched Ritas warily, adopting a posture as if it might run away at any moment.

He felt that his workplace was just too difficult to navigate.

The boss is rarely around, and that black cat among the colleagues always wants to "get a taste of his flavor." Now, the new recruit he just hired is acting strangely.

Life is truly unpredictable!

"By the way, Senior Pigeon, could you tell me more about Captain Wayne? Well, I was invited by the captain to join the company, but I've never met her yet, so I'm a little nervous about her coming to Spring City soon."

Ritas, whose face showed no sign of tension, spoke in a somewhat mechanical voice.

As for shaving the carrier pigeons clean, he gave up on that idea for the time being. After all, even if he did find the hidden "star patterns" or something similar on the carrier pigeons, it would only give him another special research subject, and wouldn't change the current situation in any substantial way.

"Commander Wayne."

When the young leader of the Third Market Development Team was mentioned, Xinge's eyes lit up, and he began to lavish praise on his superior.

"It is precisely because of such outstanding talent that the leader was able to quickly become the number 0014 great sinner in the 'Darkborn'."

"Wait a minute. If I remember correctly, wasn't Captain Wein's previous number 0017? What's going on?"

By filtering out the unnecessary boasts about the carrier pigeons, Ritas accurately captured the part that mattered most to him.

"Oh, don't worry about it too much, junior. It's common for the first thirty digits of the Sinners' Numbers to change."

"Limited to only the first thirty?"

"Hmm, didn't I mention this before? In a subsidiary organization like the company, no matter how much you contribute, you can usually only rise to thirty-first place. There seems to be some special way to advance further, hahaha. I only heard about it from the team leader, so I'm not entirely sure what it's like. However, the team leader's number is always changing. It's not always rising; it sometimes drops. In the past six months, the team leader's highest number was 0008, and the lowest was 0023."

"Such a thing actually happened."

Ritas silently noted down the information about the "Darkborn" that the carrier pigeon had once again unconsciously revealed.

"Junior, don't think too far ahead. Your primary goal right now is to reach double digits! You are the second member of our Third Expeditionary Group to have a Sinner's Number, after the leader. Everyone has high hopes for your future!"

"."

Listening to the carrier pigeon's words, Ritas wondered if the pigeon would faint on the spot if he took out the sin mark engraved with "0010" now.

Ultimately, however, Ritas did not take any risky or meaningless actions simply because of a morbid sense of humor.

"Perfect timing! With the addition of a member like you, who has a unique number, the Third Pioneer Regiment can now be officially assigned tasks independently. You must perform well in your upcoming missions and not let the leader down—"

As the carrier pigeon began to give instructions like a senior, Ritas, after a moment of distraction, finally asked a question.

"Senior Pigeon, what is the exact date the commander will arrive in Spring City?"

"Yes"

"Transform for me! Transform now! Transform for me right now—! Ahhh~"

After talking with the oddballs of the Third Market Development Group, Ritas walked out of the church and saw the Bathing Goddess harassing the white cat in the church courtyard, as well as the white disc being slapped into a spinning top by the white cat's big paw.

Unlike Einfield, who looked tense, the white cat and the bath goddess seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Seeing Ritas approaching, the white cat stopped what it was doing and looked at him.

The two, one human and one cat, locked eyes for a moment before Ritas reached out his hand.

Want to touch yourself? There's really no way.
It was obvious that the white cat didn't like being touched. However, considering that Ritas had not only saved her, but also helped her live a comfortable life now, the white cat closed her eyes, decided to endure it, and stretched her head out a little.

However, after a long time, the white cat did not receive any feedback from its head.

When she opened her eyes, Ritas was simply bending down to pick up the white disc she had been playing with earlier.

At this moment, Ritas, who had lowered his gaze, met the white cat's eyes again.

"?"

Ritas didn't know why the big cat kept staring at him. Although they were different breeds, weren't cats generally supposed to avoid eye contact?

Suddenly, a sense of instinctive resentment welled up inside the white cat, and after a brief moment of thought, it took a series of actions.

She first licked her fur and paws, then rolled on the ground, and finally rubbed her face with her still-wet paws, making a gesture that seemed like she was waving.

Meow! (How is it?)

After all that fuss, the white cat looked up and saw only the back of Ritas, who was already walking away with the disc in his arms.

"Are Mary and the others taking good care of the white cat? Does she have fleas?"

"Catgirls don't get fleas!"

Ritas, who was speaking without thinking, was unaware that the "cat girl" had already remembered his offenses!

After a brief conversation and farewell to Sister Mary, who finally had some free time, Ritas and the Goddess of Bath left the Baptistery.

On their way to their next destination, the two casually chatted about the "Darkborn".

"Is it alright to continue letting the carrier pigeons run rampant? Don't they already know about the World Tree Labyrinth? Although I'm not entirely sure myself, with high-ranking individuals already appearing there, and now this carrier pigeon connection, could it lead to a situation where the Darkin take over the World Tree Labyrinth and threaten the academy connected to it?"

Some of the bath goddesses, who themselves didn't know what tone to use, asked in this way.

Contrary to the traditional understanding of the goddess of bathing, Ritas's "role" is somewhat unusual in every aspect.

Therefore, there was no sign whatsoever of the scenario she imagined: those who, having acquired secrets, would desperately protect them from being leaked, even resorting to murder to silence witnesses.

"If that happens, things might actually become much simpler. After all, from the moment the teacher starts watching, that's already the 'Tree Witch's' territory."

However, if one places too much trust in Livis's power, Livis might sometimes let her down to prove that she is indeed Livis.

However, for Ritas, there is such a powerful deterrent force that it would be foolish to ignore it.

"However, that space isn't devoid of magical particles, is it? Even for Livis..."

"I also hope that the 'Darkin' will gamble their fate on the Tree Witch's inability to cast magic. If Senior Pigeon can truly serve as bait, that would be ideal. If the bait isn't enough, I can add the number ten Sin Seal as well."

Ritas expressed his sincere anticipation.

Although the plan is only in its vague outline due to insufficient information and limited resources, Ritas has been seriously considering how to lure out all the "Darkin" and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

"That mark of sin can also have an attractive effect?"

"Based on my speculation, the allure of that Sin Mark may be even greater than we imagine."

Ritas mentally reviewed his previous conversation with the carrier pigeon and the others.
“I think the high-ranking members of the ‘Darkin’ are not fighting over ‘numbers’, but over ‘sinful blood’.”

"Uh, could you elaborate?"

"The Goddess of Bath seems to have forgotten the most fundamental logic of the 'Darkin' organization: the worship of 'the blood of sinners.' In other words, what they value most is bloodline. And bloodline is something that is usually very difficult to change. In other words, no matter what heinous crimes the current generation of Darkin members commits, at least within the Darkin organization, only their next generation benefits, not themselves."

After listening to Ritas's words and pondering for a moment, the goddess of bathing finally uttered a sound of realization.
"That seems to make sense!"

"Leaving aside the additional benefits, at the most fundamental level of logic, it's meaningless for high-ranking Darkin members to fight each other for numbers. Even if they strive for higher rankings, their bloodline won't change. They won't gain any greater power as a result. As for the status itself, what's the point of an organization full of mediocre people and riddled with problems if you've already killed off the capable members to climb to the top?"

After a brief pause, Ritas began to recount his final conjecture.

"Therefore, I believe that the competition for high numbers is a ritual in which the winner absorbs the 'sin blood' of the loser. The sin blood mark that condensed after the death of the woman in white, and the number that Captain Wayne often has even when she does nothing, can be seen as indirect evidence to some extent."

It's not unusual for a Darkin ranked higher than Vayne to rise in the rankings if she suddenly dies or is replaced. However, it's puzzling that her rankings occasionally drop automatically.

"hiss"

"And if my current guess isn't too far off, the 'Darkborn' might have a means of surveillance, or more accurately, surveillance of 'Sin Blood.' They can periodically monitor the concentration of 'Sin Blood' within the bodies of all members, and then use this to rank the higher-numbered members. As for the method…"

"It's the 'Sin Blood Mark' itself! No wonder, most of the Darkin members who have a number have had to use the Sin Blood Mark. And, to prevent those with insufficient Sin Blood from climbing to the top through various methods, there's even a patch that limits the maximum to thirty-one!"

As more and more details emerge to corroborate his speculations, the credibility of Ritas's conjectures grows.

"Therefore, the goddess of the bath was undoubtedly the right choice to prevent me from joining the 'Darkborn' or, in other words, from accepting the mark of sin and blood."

Even now, looking back, the goddess's suggestion still seems more like nonsense.

But the goddess of the bath undoubtedly once again demonstrated the characteristic that even if the information she knew was somewhat off, and whatever her thoughts were when she made her choices, the choices themselves would inexplicably be very "correct".

"It seems that the Blood Mark of Sin cannot only have the convenient ability to detect the concentration of blood sin. Therefore, if you don't want your fate to be in the hands of some unseen hand, it's better not to use any kind of Blood Mark, even if it can actually make you the tenth Blood Mark."

As he spoke, Ritas casually took out a "Blood Moon Mark" that he always carried with him.

Perhaps because he knew these things, the more Ritas looked at the mark of sin, the more he felt it resembled an "eye".

"The actual meaning of 'sin and blood' may not be what it literally means."

As Ritas gained a deeper understanding of the "Darkborn," new speculations began to emerge in his mind.

After all, according to common sense, it seems too abnormal to purify the abstract substance called "sin" in the blood of the body by stealing each other's blood.

"Yes. But rather than worrying about what exactly the Sin Blood is, what you should be more concerned about right now is that many members of the 'Darkbloods' seem to be coming to Spring City, or rather, Erles Academy, to join in the grand event, right?"

In addition to the previously mentioned "Fireworks Craftsman" and number ten, "Commander Wayne" will also be arriving in Spring City soon.

Even though some of the movements of these high-ranking members are traceable, it is hard to imagine that it is just a coincidence that the Darkin gathered so many elite members during this rather special period.

"These things are actually not something we need to worry about too much."

Faced with the rare and reasonable concern of the goddess of bathing, Ritas seemed remarkably confident.

(End of this chapter)