With Vires and the priest inspecting the scene inside their closed of space, Micheal was inside the academy's halls. The halls were beautifully decorated, he wondered how much money was wasted to create this. He thought with that amount of wealth he could help out entire villages.
'Oh well, don't get distracted, someone in need should be nearby.', turning around a few corners, he found the man in question. A tall man with closed eyes was standing in front of him. His back was bent a bit, his shoulders slumped. In other words, someone who could definitely use Micheal's help.
"Hello there, dear sir, you seem troubled. Can I help in some way?", he said with his typical smile. The man frowned a bit, but then started to speak. "Are you one of those priest from the Order of Light? What are you doing here?"
"That's correct, I'm Micheal, a preacher of the Light and an active guide to the path of Light. As for what I'm doing here, there was a murder not too long ago and my fellow Brothers and Sister want to investigate. But enough about me, from your posture I can tell that there is something wrong, and I would love to help you out."
"Urgh, I get it, you're very religious. Shut up about that for a second, you said there was a murder? Killings on the school's grounds should be very difficult with all the teachers nearby."
"Well, it happened on the very outskirts of the school, but all we know right now is that dark magic was involved. Besides that, we don't have many other clues, perhaps we should leave this dark topic behind us."
"Wait no, hold on…", the man seemed to be in deep thought. His chin rested in his hands for a few seconds while the gears were churning. 'I see, so that's what he's going for.'
"Well, I'm a teacher myself, and I would love to help out with the investigation. Sadly, I don't think I'll be capable of doing a lot, but I know someone who might. I was on my way to meet with him in the first place, so I'll bring him."
"But sir... and he's gone.", a tiny sigh escaped his mouth, "back to searching again."
Sadly, his search for possible followers didn't do much. Most students avoided him, there were only a few that didn't run away at the sight of him. "Excuse me, I've noticed a lot of people avoid me. Would you know why?"
"We've been asked to leave the priests alone so that they could focus on the investigations. We're not to interact with you if it's not necessary"
"But wouldn't your testimonies be important to review? Who decided it should be like this?"
"Uhm, the teachers' council, I think. They decide most of the rules around the academy, and then the teachers repeat the conclusions to us during classes."
"Can you tell me more about this council?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Elam left as soon as he could, 'Those stupid fanatics can't stop talking about their faith, I'm glad I escaped so quickly. But now I see what he meant by distraction, having Gilbert help in the investigation could put him in a positive light. But did he kill an innocent girl just for this?'
Elam didn't like unnecessary slaughter, but if it had a very good reason, he could put it beside him. It didn't take long before he reached Gilbert's classroom. "Hey Gilbert, you still in there?"
Entering revealed a small classroom filled with empty desks and a layer of dust that even surprised Elam. "Gilbert, you need to start cleaning up your place, you know? I don't like working as much as you do, but at least my living space is dustless."
A door at the back of the classroom slowly opened, a stick-figure-like man with pale skin walked out. "What are you doing here? I don't remember inviting you?"
"You never invite anyone, so that's not a surprise. I came by to give you something from my student. He said that with the contents of the letter and your knowledge, you could free yourself from any doubt and live peacefully again. I don't really understand why, but he left me a list of annoying chores, and you're up next."
Taking the letter, Gilbert spared no time opening it and glancing through the contents. The letter contained two pages worth of information, Elam was just glad he didn't have to read all of that. "From which student did you get this letter?", Gilbert wasn't done reading, but his face told Elam that he was interested enough. "Conrad, the one with the blond hair."
"Blond hair? Hmm, oh yes, that one, I see. I knew he was somewhat special, but I didn't think he would have so much foresight. I'll get ready by tomorrow, let's meet up at the site of the incident."
"Wait, what are you talking about?", but Gilbert was already gone and hid himself again in his little room. Elam let out another sigh, "At least there's not much left to do, just the blacksmith and Eleven, I'll do that later. I've worked enough for weeks, I deserve some rest."
From the back he heard Gilbert's voice once more, "Hold on,", he came back to Elam with a piece of paper in his hands, "you'll need this according to the letter. Please keep this to yourself."
Gilbert shoved the piece of paper into Elam's hands before disappearing again. Elam looked at the scroll and couldn't recognize the use of the magic circle that was painted on top of it. But since Lucas said it was important, he knew not to throw it away. A tiny headache was starting to form at the back of his mind.
'I wanna go home.'
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In the research hall, an anxious atmosphere was starting to form. The cool metallic floor and walls didn't help to improve anyone's mood. The professor was focussed on the bed, while his staff were checking the data that they could perceive.
"What do you think, professor?", the contact was standing beside the bed.
"..."
"Does this look like a normal procedure?". The tone of the contact was cold, he was dead-serious.
"..."
"I can't explain what happened with the data we have collected so far. All previous procedures followed a certain structure, but this is too far removed from anything we've seen. Either the possible saplings die, or they gain part of the inheritance. Not once did this occur."
A small silence continued on, the contact and the professor's eyes were both dark. "I have contacted the Lord, but he hasn't responded yet. If He can't respond to his contacts, it means that something big is happening."
The professor turned his eyes back to his usual pair, 'For once, I don't want to research this. This is just...'
He looked at where the bed should've been. But all he could see was a mountain of flesh and tendrils, the aura of which made anyone present think twice about confronting it. The heap of meat was pulsating like a heartbeat, but the sounds and smells were anything but recognizable. The heat that emanated from the mound could be seen in the surrounding air.
'What have we created? The boy was slightly above average when compared to the educated nobles. We've had geniuses and geniuses among geniuses undergo this, yet none turned out like this. Not even the beasts and monsters react like this. I know for a fact he's completely human, so why is he so different?'
The professor turned away from the heap of flesh and entered his private study. The contact glanced around, seeing the professor leave made him think it was time to depart as well. But since his master hadn't said anything, there was a slight tug in his mind to stay. He was loyal to the Lord and dreaded screwing up his plans. But a defeated smile appeared on his face, 'Even if I were to make a mistake, he would just fix it within the blink of an eye.'
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The following day, Elam brought Gilbert to the scene of the crime. When he arrived, only one of the priests was there. After introducing himself, the priest went to gather his fellow brothers and sisters.
Leo was as always the leader of the group, so any new evidence had to be reviewed by him at least once. "Hello again, Teacher Elam, I assume you are the man Micheal was talking about?"
"Yes, but I don't see Micheal anywhere.", Elam didn't like putting in more effort than necessary.
"Brother Micheal is busy with his mission, we can't take any more time away from him. He said that you apparently have someone that could help our investigation. But all you brought was a vampire in broad daylight?"
"Brother Leo, my apologies for interrupting, but I already checked. He's human."
"Ah, thank you sister Duma, my apologies if I offended you sir."
"I don't care.", Gilbert was dressed in a black cloak. He was clearly trying to cover as much skin as he possibly could. "I'm Gilbert, a teacher at this school, I specialize in necromancy."
The faces of the priests turned sour. Necromancy was allowed by the Order of Light, but they were having debates on whether they should ban it or not. Since there hasn't been a conclusion, it is allowed, but that doesn't stop the priests from having any prejudices.
"And what? You want to raise the corpse of the victim and play God?"
"No, that's not what I had in mind, but now that you mention it. It would be a good idea to not waste any materials."
"You're willing to call a human body a material!? Do you have no morals?!"
"If a sacrifice would be needed to advance scientific exploration that could end up saving lives down the line, would that not be a good choice? Especially if the person in question is already dead?"
"Toying with the afterlife is only allowed by Gods, you and all your necromancy friends trying to uncover the veil of death are forcing others in danger!"
"When have I ever created unstable undead that ravaged the school, huh?!"
"We might not have any evidence YET, but that doesn't mean that your conspirators haven't dirtied their hands yet!"
The debate went on and on, all the while Elam was cradling his head and started to regret bringing these people together.
'Conrad, when you wake up, I'm giving you a feisty training!'
Gilbert and Leo started to calm down after a while, giving Gilbert a chance to explain himself.
"Oh, I never said that I would raise the corpse back. My reason for being here is that I can force the soul of the victim to appear for a moment in the corporeal world."
"Which would give us a chance to investigate further."
"Yes, but I do want to mention that not all souls have a perfect recollection of what happened before they died, some know every single detail, others didn't even realize they died."
"How much time would we have with the soul, and does messing with the soul damage it?"
"If you're wondering about her constitution that changes during the process, then you have nothing to worry about. The soul can be seen as an empty bucket with a small hole, I'm simply pouring in some water to make it appear. Sadly I can't tell how long you'll have, this depends on the hole in the bucket really."
After a quick confirmation from Leo, the two started to talk further about the questions they would like to ask. Elam was a bit flabbergasted on how quick Leo changed his tone when talking to Gilbert. They had only met for about an hour, and after half an hour of discussion, they stopped confronting each other entirely. His look must've seen obvious, as Duma picked up on it.
"Sir Elam, if you're wondering about why we still decided to cooperate with him, is that he is very useful for our investigation. Brother Leo determined it was better to have his cooperation, so we have decided to hold our feelings back for now. You see, we are very pragmatic people."
Elam responded with a single "uh-huh" before leaving. He had fulfilled his task and didn't have any reason to stick around any longer.