I quickly ran back inside the restrooms, to check out what had just happened.
When I got inside, it was quiet. Eerily quiet. There didn't even seem to be anybody inside when looking around, but I was sure there were at least two people inside.
I looked inside each of the stalls. I saw nothing each time, until I got to the last stall furthest to the back. When I opened the door, I was shocked to the core by what I laid sight on.
On the toilet was the corpse of a student who had a knife stabbed into his chest with clearly multiple other stab wounds on various places on his body.
The blood was flowing from his wounds, painting the floor red.
I unconsciously walked a few steps backwards, feeling like I might faint from what I'm seeing. I then heard footsteps from outside quickly approaching this place.
It was Professor Mel, the zoology teacher, who was running here when she heard a loud scream across the halls.
"Were you the one screaming? What happened?" She asked worried, but not too concerned at that moment as she couldn't see what was lying in the bathroom stall.
I slowly pointed towards the open stall. The teacher slowly entered it and when she saw what was inside, she froze. Then she collapsed on the floor as she fainted.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Naoki was now being detained inside a room, which was locked with a magic spell, so it couldn't be forced open. The zoology teacher had been brought to the infirmary long before.
On the murder site was Professor Nolan, Professor Yasmin, headmaster Merain and some people from the civil guard investigating the site.
"What do you think?" Nolan asked the other two standing next to him.
"Did you think he really did this?"
"I honestly haven't the faintest of an idea." Merain answered Nolan's question.
"I don't see him doing something like this. Murdering a student and putting Mel unconscious. I don't think he's that type of person. Besides, what even would be his motives?" Yasmin said.
"That's what is being investigated right now. Since he was also the only person near the bathrooms when this whole thing happened, he is naturally being suspected."
As the three were debating whether Naoki could have done this, a nurse from the infirmary returned to report on the status of Professor Mel.
"From our diagnosis, we have concluded that she wasn't put unconscious through means of violence or a spell. Rather, she most likely fell unconscious naturally after witnessing the murder scene."
"So, that already clears up why Mel was lying on the floor. But now there's still the murder."
This murder case attracted a lot of attention from all the students, who were all trying to get a closer look inside. However, everyone was being kept from getting closer by the civil guard, who were blocking access to the bathrooms by the students.
Merain then tried to get a closer look to the body of the murdered student again, but this time he tried scanning the area for traces of mana.
He figured that the victim must have at least tried to resist the attacker and since all students could use magic, some form of magic must have been used at one point.
Merain's intuition would be proven right because he noticed multiple traces of mana inside.
"Somebody go get Sildok. We need his equipment."
"Have you noticed something off?" One of the civil guards investigating the place asked.
"Yes. Look." He said pointing at the ceiling above the bathroom stall and also towards the floor.
"I don't see anything." The guard said.
"Excuse me, I didn't know you had no mana affinity. There are traces of spells being used on the ceiling. We could analyze the residual mana and see if it matches with Naoki's."
While they were busy with the investigation, Naoki was being interrogated by one of the civil guards.
"As I said, I just happened to walk by when I heard a scream! I then walked inside to check it out and all I saw was the body in the stall. I swear I didn't do anything!"
"Oh? And there just happens to be multiple stab wounds and screams when literally nobody was even in the vicinity and nobody had been seen leaving the bathrooms? That's unbelievable!"
"But you do have to believe me! I'm telling the truth! I've gone over this multiple times already."
As they continued their bickering for a long time, somebody entered the room to disturb the two.
"Oh, it's the chief! This guy keeps insisting that he wasn't the one! Like could you believe something like that?"
"That's because he most likely wasn't the one who performed the murder."
"What? How are you sure?"
"Because of this." He said while holding the results of the mana fingerprint analysis.
"What's that?"
"A mana fingerprint analysis. Without going into much detail, two distinct traces of mana where found, with both of them from different sources. We suspect one of them is from the victim and one from the perpetrator. Judging from the results of a mana fingerprint analysis performed on Naoki earlier, he isn't the source of either of them. Meaning that he most likely wasn't involved in the murder."
"Then, what about the teacher who was unconscious at the same location?"
"She had been checked by a doctor and she was found to have fainted after seeing the murder scene rather than being put unconscious purposefully. So, Naoki Rhein, you may leave now. Excuse us for wasting your time."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ugh, why do all things always occur wherever I am. These past weeks have been nothing but trouble for me. First when I left my home to then encounter an ambush, to then gain power suddenly, which then led to me getting to attend this academy. Then everything regarding Yasmin happened and now this! On top of that, I now have to deal with the rumors that have been spreading. Even though the evidence of my innocence has been made public, some people still created their own theories of what conspired exactly.
But right now, I want to forget about all of that and just take a long and nice sleep. It's weekend anyways, so I can sleep as long as I want to. At least that's what I thought I could do, but because I'd been absent for two weeks, I had to catch up on all the lessons I've missed.
This would have been an impossible task without the help of Silvia, who is somebody that always pays attention to all lessons and knows all details of all the contents of the various courses. I don't know how she's able to remember everything to the finest detail, but I got to say it is impressive.
She's been helping me already for the past week since I've returned and it's been a tremendous help.
"Now tell me what this plant is."
"The Small Swamp Dweller."
"Yes and tell me what is special about it."
"It is poisonous."
"Wrong. It has painkilling properties."
Right now, Silvia was in my room examining me after I had to try and remember the contents of the botany book that they've gone over so far.
"Well, I guess that's good enough for now. I think we've managed to catch up to speed with almost everything except one."
She then looked around until she found the book of the course she was talking about.
"This." She said while holding the book of Professor Robin's course.
"If I have to be honest, this is the course that I'm the worst at, so I'll see if I can explain everything clearly."
Surprisingly, even the very intelligent Silvia was bad at something. She tried her best to help me understand the contents of Professor Robin's book, but she clearly had a hard time, since she herself didn't even fully understand everything.
"I still don't understand this part completely."
"Well… you see, you just utilize… erm…"
Silvia was thinking very hard, but eventually got confused herself, so we decided that we had no choice but to ask the professor himself to help me with his course.
As we both made our way through the endlessly stretching halls of the academy, we finally made it to his classroom. We weren't even sure if he was there, but it was the first place we thought of looking at.
When we approached the door, I noticed that the door was already partially open. It was just a little gap, but enough to let out some of the noises coming out of the room. It sounded like Professor Robin was talking to someone.
Not wanting to interrupt him, we both decided to wait until the perfect moment to enter or until he was done talking. His curiosity got the better of him and he decided to chime in on what they were talking about.
"I know! As I said, everything is going according to plan! It'll work out!"
"Ya really gotta get yer ass out there and prove that everything is to plan! Otherwise, I'll get my ass kicked by the boss and afterwards yours will be next! Ya know the letters that boss sent you? You're almost outta time, my guy!"
"I know! Again! I'm well aware of that, I received these letters and I keep getting letters to remind me of my limited time… if I can find them. I've got the most recent ones, but I seem to have lost the old ones… They used to be in this drawer. Well, whatever! Doesn't matter. In fact, how about I finish the job now? Then that piece of shit of a cardinal will shut his mouth up and finally release my family."
"Ay yo! Chill, he might hear you for all I know."
"You know this is important to me, Michael."
"Yea yea, I know. I almost pity you though, being forced into this. Well, what can ya do? Anyways, I'll head out now, good luck!"
"Goodbye."
Then the conversation ended between him and the man known as Michael. I haven't exactly processed what they were talking about, but what struck me was how he mentioned that his family would finally be released? What in the world is even going on.
Then, we suddenly heard the professor stand up and walk around in his classroom. We didn't enter his room because that would tell him that we had most likely heard what he was saying, so we decided to wait it out. He was walking around in his classroom and making a lot of noise, as if he was looking for something.
When the noises stopped, he finally stepped towards the door. We quickly hid in the classroom next door, so he wouldn't see us. When he left his classroom, we heard him walking at a fast pace away.
"Did you hear what I think I heard him say?" Silvia asked me as if she couldn't believe what he said.
"Now that I think about it, what he said did sound suspicious. He mentioned so many things at once. He was already quite a strange fellow when I first met him."
We waited until he left and decided to take a look in his room out of curiosity. We expected the door to be closed at first, but to our surprise, it wasn't. Guess he really was in a hurry.
When we entered the room, it didn't seem like anything was out of the ordinary. We looked around everywhere but it just seemed like a normal classroom. Then, I recalled him mentioning letters in a drawer, so I opened his drawers to look for them and found them in the first drawer on the right of his desk.
"Hold up! You have to look at this, Silvia!"
"What is it? Let me see."
"Here, this one says something about an artifact that has recently arrived at the academy and him slowly running out of time. Does that ring any bells to you?"
"I think I know what he might be after. I've heard recently about some kind of ancient artifact that is being researched here at the academy. The letter may be talking about that. Though I don't know what its name is."
"Doesn't matter. What does matter right now is what do we do?"
We were both thinking about what we should do with this information. The most logical option would be to go to a trusted teacher or the headmaster. However, Robin said that he would "finish the job now".
"I don't think we have enough time left to go to the headmaster right now." Silvia said, suggesting that we'd take matters into our own hands. We do realize that we as students aren't exactly a match against a teacher, but we could at least tail him to see what he's doing.
So, we quickly went towards the direction Professor Robin last went in.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Robin was walking down the hallways of the academy determined. He had two things in his hands. The first thing was a communication device, the second a tool that he acquired a while ago from one of his connections in some far away town.
When Robin made it to a hallway with nobody inside, he activated the communication device and said connection he knew about appeared on the other end.
"Is everything in position?" Robin asked across the device.
"Is it finally time? Are you done preparing?"
"Answer my question."
"Yes, yes! Everything is in position as you asked. So, do I do it now?"
"Yes."
"Alright then! Here goes nothing."
Right after he said that, a loud explosion could be heard across the entire academy. At the southern gate of the academy, a huge smoke cloud could be observed.
This attracted the attention of everybody at the academy, students, teachers, and guards alike.
When people went to check out what happened, a large bear-like monster appeared out of the smoke.
This caused everybody to panic, attracting even more attention from all the people across the academy. The news of something happening at the southern gate quickly spread across the entire school.
The nearest teacher that could use offensive magic got to the scene and tried to subjugate the monster.
"Everybody, get to safety!" After which he used lightning magic to attack the monster. However, it barely did any damage as the monster's fur was too thick and resistant to magic. The bear-like monster then retaliated with an attack of its own. It breathed fire, attacking the teacher that dared to hit the monster, but he quickly managed to get out of the way. His arm still got burned, so he had no choice but to flee.
As nobody in the near vicinity had the ability to stop the monster, it easily made it inside and started attacking all the students left and right, causing mass panic.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"So, to summarize, we are aware of its potential capabilities. It is an offensive weapon that can potentially destroy any defense of any kind. What we do not know is how to use said powers. We've tried every form of magic, including demonic magic, to try and activate it, with no promising results." Said one of the lead magic researchers at the academy.
"The research on its composition and its magic inscriptions have yielded no real results either. The craft is too ancient and too foreign to us. We need more references from the same ancient time period."
"Seems like we've come to an impasse. As scheduled, this might be the right time to end the research on this for now. We'll come back to this once we have both more funding and more resources."
Four people remained in the research lab, one of the lead researchers and three guards, who would escort him.
They were going to put the artifact back into the magic vault, where nobody could access it from outside without the code. It couldn't even be opened using brute force.
As they put the artifact into a chest, the guards carried it and they walked towards the staircase leading to an underground area, where the vault is located. What they weren't aware of, is that they were being trailed.
As they made it all the way to the vault, the lead scientist opened the vault using the right code. After he opened the door, the guards went inside to place the artifact on a place holder.
It was at this point that they realized that somebody was trailing them, but it was too late. Before they could even say a thing, a bright light could suddenly be observed. After that, everybody in the vault fell unconscious on the floor.
Then from a dark corner, Robin Cilhood appeared, holding a device that was lighting up brightly and wearing tainted glasses. It then quickly dissipated and he then walked inside the vault, while removing his glasses.
He quickly looked at the people on the ground to confirm that they were indeed out cold. After that, he walked towards the artifact and held it in his hands.
"Finally, I've gotten my hands on the Eschaton. After my failed attempts earlier, I've finally done it. Now, for the final step. I just need to get out of here and leave this place behind forever."
As he got ready to escape, he suddenly realized something. Since he was so focused on trailing the guards and researcher without being detected, he failed to notice that he himself was in fact also being trailed by somebody.
"Who's there? Get out here, now!" He yelled towards the exit of the vault.
The person that appeared was none other than Naoki. He stepped inside the vault that Robin was in and approached him. When Robin saw who it was, his facial expression went from on edge to one of hatred.
"You… why do you always have to interfere with everything that I do!"
"I also have some questions for you, but first of all, I have to ask you what you've done to these people and Silvia!"
"Who's Silvia?"
"She was with me earlier outside the vault, but she suddenly felt unconscious the moment we saw that blinding light."
"Oh, that? Well, it's just a device that takes you unconscious when you see the light it produces. That's why I wore these special glasses. But I got to ask, how are you still conscious?"
"I'm… not sure myself honestly."
"Well, that doesn't matter right now. I'm going to have to deal with you now. You do realize what that means, right? You know too much, so I need you gone. Nothing personal kid, it's just adult business."
"Try me then!" Naoki said confidently.
As he said that, Robin quickly cast a light beam. Naoki, who anticipated an attack from him, quickly formed a stone wall in front of him to block the attack. If he was just a split second later, he would've been hit and reduced to ashes.
"Hehe, that was close."
After that, Naoki used body enhancing magic to allow him to jump over the stone wall and surprise Robin with an aerial assault. He fired multiple powerful fireballs from above, bombing Robin.
The whole vault room was filled with smoke afterwards. Naoki couldn't see anything, until the smoke dissipated after a moment. When it dissipated, Naoki noticed that Robin was still standing somehow, even though he got bombarded by so many fireballs. He did notice he took some small damage.
"Guess I wasn't accurate enough. You've lucked out today."
"You little bastard. I'll get you for that!" Robin yelled, as he used holy magic to start forming a sword. He then used it to attack Naoki head-on.
Naoki easily evaded his sloppy attacks and used his temporarily enhanced strength to throw Robin to the ground.
"That was honestly just pathetic. Have you even used a sword before?" Naoki asked him, almost pitying the sorry state Robin was in.
As Naoki clearly had the upper hand in this fight, Robin then suddenly started crying.
"My… my family… they're… they're being held hostage…" Robin whispered quietly while sobbing.
"What? What are you saying?"
"You kids don't understand this harsh world. Do you really think I'm doing this out of my own volition? You're wrong. You see, my family is being held hostage and I need to bring this back to get them free. I've already tried multiple things to get them back, but this is my only chance. If I fail here right now… I fear… for the worst. So, please! Would you let me go?"
Naoki was internally debating what to do right now. On the one hand, he almost felt bad for him seeing the state he was reduced to, he also remembers the letters and his conversation earlier, indicating that what he said was partially true, but on the other hand, Robin didn't hesitate to even attack him. He clearly was ready to kill Naoki to get away, so who is to say that he wouldn't do so again once he lets his guard down.
Internally he was slowly leaning more towards sympathizing with him, but then he suddenly heard loud footsteps from just outside the vault.
"Robin Cilhood! You're being arrested for spying and attempted robbery on state property!"
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile in the academy, a monster was ravaging everything. Some people have attempted to stop it, but to no avail as the monster was too powerful. One might wonder where they got this monster from.
One of those people who attempted to subjugate this monster was Marcus.
"This monster is no big deal. I'll show you how a real mage deals with this!" He proclaimed confidently.
He cast his signature spell, being a flaming sword appearing in his hand, which he utilizes to fire off fire blades. These fire blades did manage to stagger the monster, but that's all it did. Once again, the fur of the monster was too thick and resistant against magic.
As the monster started getting annoyed by Marcus, it rushed towards him and was about to use its claws to maul Marcus. Luckily for him, he got rescued by somebody.
"You should follow the orders of the teachers! Escape to safety right now!" Said Chris Riverius, the president of the House of Lions.
"Seems like magic has no effect on its fur, but perhaps conventional weapons will work." He deduced from what he's seen so far.
"In that case, leave it to me!" Said Fynch, who stepped forward to approach the monster.
He used body enhancing magic to boost his agility and strength. He quickly dashed forwards towards the monster with a sword in both of his hands. The monster attacked with its claws, but it was very predictable, so Fynch easily dodged it. He then took this opening to slice at the monster and as Chris has predicted, conventional weapons did indeed penetrate the fur. Even then, the damage wasn't enough to stop the monster. Fynch simply wasn't strong enough, even using body enhancement magic. This didn't mean he'd give up though. He kept going at it, until he got too tired. The monster also got worn down a lot, but it was still dangerous.
"Watchout!" Chris screamed as he noticed the monster going for another attack. Because Fynch was trying to catch his breath for a second, he lost focus and couldn't react in time. So, he got hit by the claws of the monster and landed further down the hallway. If it wasn't for his magic, he would've died right there and then.
"Shit! That hurts badly!"
The monster then charged towards Fynch again, wanting to finish him off and get pay back for all the cuts he has delivered to the monster.
As it was about to land a final blow on Fynch, a loud slashing noise could suddenly be heard across the hallway. Then, the monster stopped and its head suddenly fell off its body, which also collapsed afterwards.
Behind its corpse stood a woman with dark hair, holding a sword.
"Wait, aren't you…"
"No need to thank me." She said without emotion and as if taking down a monster of this caliber was not something impressive.
The girl that just saved Fynch's life was none other than Moira.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A group of men in dark metal armor with blue pieces of cloth hanging over the armor came running inside, while holding swords. These were the elite soldiers of the civil guard tasked with subjugating dangerous individuals and keeping the streets of the major cities safe from these people.
"We've gathered evidence of numerous acts of spying on the government and stealing important information. You are also being charged with two counts of attempted robbery on state property. The second one being just now." The man in armor in the front said.
"Wait, what? How have you found out? I was certain I have covered all of my tracks!" Robin spoke in anger, cursing his own incompetence.
"You see, it's not hard to figure something is amiss when only a handful of people know about a plan and it gets leaked." Merain said, walking in just now.
"Let me explain it to you. I've asked the civil guard to start up an investigation into the first robbery you attempted on the Eschaton. I think Naoki will remember vividly what happened."
Naoki didn't know what the headmaster was talking about, which made sense since he didn't know that Robin was the one who planned it.
"You see that night when you witnessed the ambush and you also got your magic powers, it was all because of Robin Cilhood. At first, we were aware of a leak of information, so we investigated all the people that had knowledge of the true plans. The person who was suspected the most was the head of the adventurer's guild. After a short investigation, we found out that he had received a deal involving a large sum of money with an unknown person. This of course led us to you. We eventually came to the conclusion that you got the information about the fake convoy from the head of the adventurer's guild, so you hired a group of bandits to attack the real convoy. This would have actually resulted in you getting his hands on the artifact, but thanks to you, Naoki, he didn't. Right about now, the head of the adventurer's guild is also being arrested."
Now that Naoki realizes what has been going on the past weeks, everything now made sense to him and it also explained the animosity of Robin towards Naoki on day one.
"No… this can't be…" Robin was in complete disbelief, not willing to acknowledge that this was it for him.
In a final desperate attempt, he grabbed his sword again and quickly ran towards Naoki. Because of the appearance of these armored men, Naoki let his guard down, so Robin managed to grab him and hold him hostage using the sword he made through holy magic.
"Don't move or his head will roll!" Robin yelled while being cornered.
All the guards put up their swords, being completely on edge. They couldn't do anything, however, since they're dealing with a hostage situation right now.
He then used one of his hands to grab something from his pocket. It was a bracelet with a very large gem on it with a magic inscription on it.
"Again, don't come closer, or he's dead!"
The bracelet he had in his hand was in fact a teleport device. It was his last-ditch effort to escape in case things got dicey.
"I didn't want to use this, since the chances of spells this complex malfunctioning was very high. But you made me have no other choice. If I'm going to end up in God knows where, then you're going with me! See you, suckers!" Robin yelled, while laughing crazily, clearly having lost his mind.
When he activated it, he expected to be teleported, but after a moment, his laughter quickly stopped and an awkward situation was created.
"Wait, why is nothing happening? Don't tell me it didn't work at all?"
"That's exactly what is happening." Said Yasmin, also coming inside the vault room.
"You see, I had my suspicions for a while already, but I wasn't sure. Not sure until I found these." She said while holding a stack of letters.
"Wait, those are…"
"Your letters? You really should have invested in encrypting your messages and having stored this somewhere more secure. So, thanks to these, my suspicions were confirmed and I also found the magic device you are currently holding. I thought it would be funny if I screwed with it just a little bit."
As Robin has become fully distraught, Naoki took the chance to set himself free by freezing his hands using an ice spell.
Naoki quickly escaped Robin's grasp and the guards then went ahead and arrested Robin Cilhood, bringing him away.
"Wait, there is one more thing." Naoki stopped the guards to ask Robin a question.
"Were you also the one behind the murder of the student in the bathroom stalls?"
"No, I was not."
"Don't lie! I know it was you!" Naoki said in a heated tone, still pissed off about the troubles that has caused him.
"Actually, I can vouch for him on that matter." Said Merain, the one they expected the least.
"During the entirety of that, Robin was present with me and some other teachers during a meeting. So, he couldn't have done it himself physically." Merain explained.
"So, that still remains a mystery then?" Yasmin said.
As the guards left with Robin as their captive, the people who were unconscious on the floor started to wake up again. This included Silvia.
"Silvia! Are you alright?"
"Huh? Naoki? What happened. Why am I…" It then suddenly hit her that she had fallen unconscious and that Naoki was now holding her in his arms.
"You aren't hurt or anything?"
She then got flustered and quickly got up.
"Y-yeah, I'm alright! Everything is fine."
Naoki looked a bit dumbfounded, since she hadn't seen Silvia act so flustered before. Usually, she's very collected and she doesn't seem to lose her cool that easily.
"By the way, what happened to Robin? Last I remember, we were tailing him until I saw that light."
"Oh, him? He's been taken care of and has been arrested by the civil guard. He has indeed been planning on stealing the artifact for a very long time."
"So, as I suspected earlier."
"Anyhow, let's get going, shall we?"
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As everybody had left, the only people still in the vault room were two magic researchers. They were still there because the fight between Robin and Naoki caused significant damage to the innerworkings of the vault. This has caused it to be broken, so it will be out of commission for the foreseeable future until it has been repaired.
One of them had put the Eschaton back where it was, but as he took another closer look. He noticed that the artifact had been glowing faintly. Something it never done before while being researched by them.
"Hey, come look at this. Isn't this peculiar?"
"Yeah… I don't think I've seen this either. Should we report it to the others?"
"We should. We'll leave it here for now."
"Are you sure, with the vault now broken?"
"Yeah, it'll be fine. After that whole incident, security here will definitely be increased drastically. I'm sure we'll be safe under their protection."
"If you say so."