Just like I had been doing these past two days, I kept myself busy with recordings and writing as much notes that I could use once the skill [Memorize] was found by Jun.
And as much as I wanted to concentrate and understand at least a little about the contents of lessons in front of me, my mind would wander on the events that took place yesterday.
The problem regarding the Order's artifact and the difficulty of studying the said broken artifact.
Most of all, my head aches when I think about the input they're heavily expecting from me.
A report containing my observation of the sealing artifact.
This predicament was something that I had directly caused because I couldn't take into account every little detail of the story.
If I did, I would have tried to avoid breaking the damn thing to pieces.
However even if I did a do over with this new knowledge at hand, I still couldn't possibly knock down Marie in that situation.
This means that this event was unavoidable the moment Marie appeared.
It was such a big slap on my face that I just couldn't sleep properly last night.
Rubbing my eyes from the slight mental fatique I was feeling, I noticed Vivian directly looking at me.
'....Hmm. What, did I do something?..'
"Class that would be all for today. I highly suggest that some of you take some ample rest. A fatiqued body and mind isn't an efficient state to work with, just a word of advice"
Everyone seemed a little confused that Vivian had ended the class early but some seemed happy that their beautiful teacher was worried about them.
Her words at least gave them a little boost on this unforgiving period.
"See you class tommorrow. Dismiss"
She then left as everyone dispersed among their respective groups.
"...Lucky!"
"My oasis.."
"Professor, you're the only one who understands us.."
Murmurs and exclamations rang out as they raved on about our professor.
'...Damn, is my fatique that obvious. She's at least considerate, making us help out with their issue in the middle of this studying period..'
I rested my head over my hand as I thought about the contents of what I was supposed to write.
There's not much details described on the finer mechanics of the artifact. The novel had only described the important bits on how it worked.
I knew it's general function and conditions such as it's sealing ability of one layer and the need for a sealing skill to activate it.
I could write that on the report but I worry that would sprout some suspiscions on me. Knowing exactly those kinds of things from an unknown artifact is quite a red flag in my opinion.
'...I could just half-ass the whole thing and leave them to conclude that I didn't really get how it worked, my marks on magic subjects also correlates to that...'
That kind of move would make much more sense. They only placed great expectations on me because I was the one closest to it.
My own understanding of it would be entirely subjective given I'm not a really bright student at all.
So making a false report would save my skin but-
'I would be risking the development of the item. The story never really needed help from the main cast since they could just directly study it but that isn't possible now'
'If I leave out such details, it could jeopordize the flow of the story in a completely unpredictable way' I thought, weighing on the possible consequenses of fully giving out information or messing up the upcoming events after the midterms.
Both of the outcomes of those two choices require me to avoid suspicion from the headmaster and our professors.
'..If I want to keep the story advantageous to myself and the main cast, helping the school out is the best possible choice..'
I decided to choose helping them out without holding back any knowledge I know about this problem.
This leaves me with no other choice but to fully coincide my academic marks at the same time I make the report.
Luckily, they didn't gave us a fixed schedule of submitting our observations not until the practical exam are held.
This gives me a reasonable time to make a detailed report that would erase any suspicions on me by taking a high rank in the academic tests.
'...Top 5 would probably suffice..' I concluded, my original goal was top 15 or 20 at those ranges but circumstances has changed.
With that in mind, my hopes lies on the lucky streak of the person beside me.
Glancing towards him, I saw dark circles on his eyes.
"...I...need to find it..I need to-"
Jun mumbled repeatedly while his head slumped down on his desk. The air around him was heavy and his gaze was unfocused.
"...Jun, are you ok?.."
"...Ah Ray. Yeah, I'm totally fine. I feel that I'm close to finding it, just a little bit more.I do think I'm going to take a...nap.."
He said with a forced smile as he closed his eyes gradually.
'.. What the hell? is he going to be fine?..'
Looking at his current state, my confidence in him slightly dropped. Moreso, I think he's pushing himself too hard at this point.
I actually planned to spur him on today but seeing him like this, I think heeding Vivian's advice for a day is the wise move to make.
I was about to remind him to take a break for the day when a familiar feminine voice resounded from the entrance of the room.
"Umm is J-Jun Carter here?"
"Jun Carter? Yeah he's here....so what do you want?"
"Why are you looking for that guy.."
"Who are you anyway?.."
"Hey are you ok? You don't seem well"
"U-Ummm I-"
A slight crowd of my classmates surrounded the girl who was looking for Jun.
Turning my attention towards the noise, my eyes slightly widened in surprise to see her here.
She was obviously trembling from the crowd forming around her. She couldn't get any word out from her mouth as she constantly stuttered.
Some of my classmates were quite forceful in questioning her probably because she was looking for their common enemy.
But what took my attention was her appearance, brown hair tied in a braid and thin framed glasses.
It was the librarian.
I stood up when I confirmed that it was really her.
"You...why are you here?"
A voice filled with a grudge silenced the anynomous noise of the small crowd. Not only that, most of them made space when she confronted the girl.
Standing imposingly with her six fluffly tails swinging wildly, Sophia Foxx stared down on the poor girl.
While the librarian just looked shocked to see Sophia in front of her all of a sudden.
'..Well this quickly turned into a mess..'
----
Vivian was absentmindedly pacing around the laboratory room on the fourth level, restlessness could be seen on her face.
Various laboratory apparatus and equipment were currently being used by Vivian on several transparent shards of an artifact.
She has been working on this herself after the incident had happened. She was very eager to crack how it worked.
Normally, problems concerning items and artifacts would be handled by their very own dwarven craftsman and professor.
However he can't work with a broken artifact. If it was a weapon or any kind of armor, even if it was in a broken state, he would still stubbornly fix it.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to apply to utility artifacts that focuses rather on the magical arts than craftsmanship and blacksmithing.
Hence it was left on the hands of the few top tier mages that the academy has but it was mostly Vivian with the most progress among her peers on this issue.
All was good until she hit a bottleneck in her studies. She concluded that she would require the perpectives of a person with spatial nature and someone with an alternative magic system.
From that notion, she also needed additional on hand information hence she consulted the headmaster on this which eventually led to the events of yesterday.
Despite being aversed to seeking help from the victims of the assassination attempt, she had compromised for the sake of everyone and the school.
However seeing the tired expressions of Ray Irisville and feeling the restless air from Amana Reandelle made her overly concerned for them.
"You know~ it's not healthy for you to be overthinking this"
Hearing the nonchalant voice of Ulden, Vivian stopped to stare at him directly.
"Can you blame me? I don't think we should be placing such things on them after all"
"Hey they already agreed to do this, besides, all of this started because of you. You even dragged me into this~"
"Ulden, this should be natural because you're one of our professors"
Vivian reprimanded Ulden as he lazily sat back on his chair, looking at the Vivian with his usual sloven face.
"You know I hate this kind of work right?"
"It's a waste of your talents. In fact, you're better than me when it comes to the msyteries of magical arts....
"I'm not a magician Vivian~. I don't know what you're talking about"
Dismissing her words, he spun his chair in place. His face showed he enjoyed the childish act.
Vivian sighed heavily from seeing her lab partner do horseplay but she couldn't complain because he had already done his part of the work fast.
Her brows then knit in contemplation as she asked Ulden.
"Do you really think one of our students is a mole? I find it hard to believe that you would suspect Ray Irisville of all people.." she said in a conflicted and doubtful tone.
"It's just a guess~ Don't take it too seriously. Their reports would be indicative of my suspicions though"
Ulden then stopped spinning his chair as he looked outside the window.
"And I think it's not him, far from it. I'm just a little interested in what they would do"
"You...the students are not for your entertainment Ulden.." Vivian warned while giving out heavy preassure.
However Ulden just waved it off like it was nothing.
"Hmm you really care for them don't you Vivian. I just have to warn you not to get too attached if one those kids really turn out to be what you fear"
Vivian stiffened slightly as she felt like a prey being stared by a predator in the sky. It was beyond intimidation, the feeling was more akin to a primal instinct to eliminate it's enemies.
"Because if you can't, I might just get a little bit serious~"