Miss Edna and Mr Adam, along with Jake were all running towards the forest, after hearing what Jake had said, Miss Edna wasted no time in rushing over towards the forest, the forest, though it had beasts, was often a place where people strolled through, also due to the fact that the most dangerous beasts one could find there was intermediate, students would train there, it wasn't anything any decent student couldn't handle, but based off what she had heard from Jake, only one thought came to mind, 'Could the ORA be making their move already?', if they were, and attacked a student in the forest, then that meant she would most likely have to prepare for immediate battle. After a couple minutes of running, they made it to the entrance to the forest, "Which way did u hear the scream?" Miss Edna asked, "That way" Jake said while pointing in particular direction, "Thank you" Miss Edna said before running into the forest in the direction Jake had pointed, seeing her move, Mr Adam followed suit and dashed into the forest, but before going in deep, he noticed Jake was following him, he quickly stopped and turned around, "Stay here, Things might get dangerous, I don't want you to get hurt", Mr Adam said,"Get hurt?, there's nothing but weak beasts in there, I'm positive I can handle myself" Jake complained, but Mr Adams wasn't having it, "Look this is serious, listen to your teacher and stay out of it, you'll only cause more trouble" with that Mr Adam headed off after Miss Edna, while Jake listened to his teacher and exited the forest, he then sat just outside the forest and looked up at the sky, "Your not my teacher outside of school you know", he then sighed and layed down looking up at the sky, a memory suddenly resurfaced of him and a friend that would lay down and look at the sky, A warm smile suddenly appeared on his face, but as he got up from the floor, his warm smile suddenly turned into a face full of anger, "I swear I'll avenge you, and I'll take down the so called ORA, either that...." he then clenched his fists in the air, "or I'll die trying!!".
Miss Edna had been running through the woods for some time now, and was planning out different scenarios in her head, if they confronted an enemy, if the girl was still alive, if the girl and the enemy were engaged in battle, she even considered if the girl was the enemy, she concluded that no matter what would happen, she would need to be prepared to face the strongest foe, she took out some chalk, and began drawing an alchemy circle on her right palm, when she was done, she bit her left thumb, and blood was drawn, she then smeared it on her palm in a straight line, cutting the Alchemy circle in half, the alchemy circle began glowing, a blue particles were surrounding her palm, suddenly, the white alchemy circle turned black, and the blood disappeared, she then began sucking on her bleeding thumb, meanwhile, Mr Adam had finally caught up to her, and saw her draw the Alchemy circle on her hand, along with the other actions that followed, "You really think it's necessary to make a Juken?" Mr Adam asked after seeing the technique she just used, she had stopped sucking her thumb, and it was no longer bleeding, she turned around to check if Jake was following them, noticing this, Mr Adam reassured her, "Don't worry, I told him to stay back, he's a smart kid, he'll understand", she trusted Mr Adam, and decided to let it go as she replied his earlier question, "Of course it is, if we meet the enemy, I'd want to take him out as soon as possible", "We don't know what to expect, given I haven't heard any sounds so far I'd have to assume that she's probably already dead, but if he or she is still there, I'd like to finish it as quickly as I can", They had eventually reached a slightly open area, and saw a dead beast on the floor, with other beasts which looked like slightly overgrown rats eating it's carcass, Edna had also noticed the beast trap that was covered in blood, along with a dismembered leg, she walked up to it, and noticed the trail of blood that went off in a certain direction, "You think the beast trap did that?", Mr Adam asked, "No it didn't, these type of beast traps aren't powerful enough to take off a human leg in one go" Miss Edna replied , "Whoever was with this girl, probably stomped on it", Miss Edna then began walking off, following the trail of blood.
She walked for about 3 minutes, before she saw the body of the girl, her eye brow slightly went up as she recognised the face immediately, "Nora?", Mr Adam soon came after her and had heard one of his students name being called, upon seeing the girl, he almost threw up, "Seriously, a dismembered leg didn't put you off, but this did?", Miss Edna was oddly not moved by seeing her dead body, but proceeded to inspect her body for any ties with the ORA, "Hmmmmm.... that's interesting", said Mrs Edna noticing her eyes were rolled all the way back, not only that, but there was a strange Alchemy circle on the back of her neck, "I wonder what type of alchemy this is, I guess I'll have to report it, scan the area for anyone Adam, I'll check her body for more clues", Adam wiped the vomit off his mouth, and nodded, he then went off in a random direction while Edna had kept on checking her body for clues, suddenly, her eyes went open with shock as she took a look at her palms, "A Juken?", A Juken was something only experienced and high ranking alchemists knew about, how could a little kid have learnt it?, it didn't make any sense, and even if she some how knee how to do it, the physical and mental strain would be too much for her to handle, "Maybe you were a part of them after all", she kept checking Nora's body for anymore clues, but after about a minute of searching, she found nothing else, just then Adam returned, "there's no one in the forest, except you and me", He said, " What about tracks?, did u check for tracks?", Edna asked "the only ones I found were beast tracks" Adam said, they were both silent for a while before Adam spoke again, "Why did you suspect a child of being part of the ORA?, if they wanted to infiltrate this town, anyone could've done it, plus why would they come to this crummy old place?", this was a good question as what Mr Adam said was true, it wasn't a big town, and if any random stranger wanted to, they could just stroll in, not to mention that the town wasn't a rich one, so why would they want to infiltrate her in secret?, it all didn't make any sense to him, so he was hoping she would make some sense of it.
"I don't know what they're after, but it's something only this town has, as for why send a child?, because they would be able to get information about the town, if a random adult suddenly started asking questions about the town, it would raise suspicion In an instant, but If a child were to do it, it would seem harmless", what Edna had said bad made a lot of sense to Adam, and her reasoning suddenly made a lot of sense, but there was still one question at the back of his mind, "But why those three students in particular?, why not all of them?", He thought about it for some time, but still didn't know why it had to be those three children, "That's because they all have the least credible reasons, they had also come to this town between 9-10 years ago, not to mention they're back stories, Nora's old village got burnt down and came to live with us, William was an orphan who escaped from an abusive orphanage and found refuge here, and both of Earl's parents had died of a disease leaving him in the care of his grandfather", said Miss Edna, Mr Adam had thought about what she was saying thoroughly before speaking once more, " I have to admit, you have quite the deduction ability there, but as for Earl White, he's not a member of the ORA, I'm sure of it", Miss Edna looked at Me Adam confused, did he not hear what she just said, now was not the time to play favourites, "And what makes you think that?", Mr Adam gave a serious face when giving his answer, "I've met Earl's parents before".
Grandpa Ollie was sitting on a chair behind the counter, he blew out some smoke from his clay pipe, just then two people walked into his shop, one man and one woman, " Well what can I get for y-", he suddenly recognised the man that walked in, "Adam?" he said as he got up from his chair, "Hi there Old man Ollie" Adam replied as he stretched out his hand for a handshake, but instead grandpa Ollie went in for a big hug, Adam was a little shocked by this sudden movement, but relaxed his guard and patted grandpa Ollie on the back, grandpa Ollie eventually let him go and had a huge smile on his face, "You haven't visited me in 2 years, what happened?", grandpa Ollie's face was physically beaming with joy, Adam gave an awkward smile as he gave an answer to grandpa Ollie's question, "I've just been busy that's all", "Well then, what brings you around here?", Adam was about to talk when Edna suddenly spoke up, "There's been a serious accident involving one of our students, she was found dead in the forest, and we just wanna ask your grandson a few questions," the whole place was silent, and the happy atmosphere had disappeared, this was not how Adam had planned to handle this situation, he had already planned on how to tell him, but that had all be ruined by Edna, grandpa Ollie puffed out some smoke before answering "Sure you can, but after Mr Adam over there almost killed him this morning, he's had a really tough day, so don't do anything to cause him pain, the boy's been through so much already, don't make him suffer any more than he used to", with that, both Edna and Adam headed up to Earl's room.
"I'm coming in" said Mrs Edna, she then opened the door, and saw Earl standing in the center of his room with a pile of clothes in his arms, "Oh h-hi Miss Edna, h-how are you?", Earl was stuttering as he didn't expect her to suddenly come into his room, she had told Adam to wait outside the door, and decided to come in alone, "I just wanted to ask you a few questions", Earl suddenly felt a little less tense, if it was about the Alchemy orb, he could just deny it, " Okay Miss Edna", seeing he was cooperative gave her a little hope, before coming here Mr Adam had told her that he was sure that he wasn't a part of them, so she was hoping that he was right, because she respected him, and if it turned out that Earl was a part of them, it would implicate him for defending an enemy, after having claimed to knew his parents, she would have to turn him in.
She began asking some questions about his day, and he would give answers calmly, it went on for about 20 minutes, but even when she went on about the case with Nora, he seemed to be calm and gave all the right reactions and answers someone who was innocent would give, she was done with the investigation and was about leaving when she noticed a red dagger on his bed, the craftsmanship on it was top class, and it looked like it would have some special ability, "What a nice dagger, Where'd you get it?", Edna said as she picked up the dagger, the blade looked to be red all over, while the hilt was a nice deep black, with a small red dragon on the hilt, it truly looked beautiful, and she admired it, but all of a sudden Earl grabbed the dagger and it had left her hand, "I found it in an old box of things that were here when we moved here, it's not originally mine, but I've clinged unto it", Earl said, Edna was taken by suprise, she didn't quite really understand, but who really understood teenagers, "Okay then I'll see you around then", Edna said before walking out of his room, as she met Adam just outside his room door she breathed a sigh of relief, "it seems like your right, he's innocent, and whats more.... ", but she paused mid sentence, "what was that?" Adam asked, but she just shrugged it off, "it was nothing", but in reality, she just was taken by suprise, he moved so quickly in grabbing the dagger, and her guard was completely down, if he had attacked her, he would have probably gotten a clean hit, but she knew he was innocent, but just wondered if he was always that fast, just then a thought came to mind, she went back to his room, and just gave a friendly reminder, "don't forget to pack your things, you might be leaving my Monday after all".