"If he really breakthrough and challenges you, just go ahead and kill him. You broke through before him. You should be stronger than him. Why are you coming to me and whining like a bitch?"
That is all Kai said to the nervous Pat.
Of course, Pat didn't expect much from Kai to begin with, but this is way worse than what he thought.
Kai is completely ignorant of the threat that is coming at Pat, either that or he disregarded Pat's situation completely.
Pat felt a bit panicked. He stayed alone for a long while and came to a resolution. He went to the student union's office to meet with the president.
"So, have you come to your senses and want to spill the beans?"
"I cannot give you all the details. But I can give you some leads, but you have to promise me that my academy admission wouldn't be revoked and I wouldn't die by Viswa's hands."
"Die? It seems like you are sure that he will kill you."
"Even if I don't die, my future will. I have never seen such a ruthless bastard."
"You are the one to talk. You guys set an orphanage of fire. Speak for yourself."
Pat's face reddened in embarrassment as he said.
"I will not say who made me do it. You might already know, but I am not giving any on-record statements regarding that. But I might have found out about the dire financial needs of a certain group of students from a nearby village and exploited their situation. I might have suggested that they could gain some money from an unknown patron if they use the orphanage as bait and kill Viswa.
That is all I can tell you."
Pat turned around and ran away.
The president didn't bother stopping him. He understood what the situation is right away.
He looked through a few records and sighed.
After some time, that night Student Union President made a visit to the headmaster's office.
"I heard you are poking a lot of holes because of the orphanage investigation."
Headmaster asked as soon as the president entered.
"Why? Did some flies come here to buzz in your ears?"
"Maybe. Why are you being so aggressive with the investigation?"
"Because it is my job? A lot of kids almost died, one of them actually did and that kid's body couldn't even be retrieved because it was burned to ashes. This all happened on the academy grounds.
Someone did that by violating almost three dozen rules.
In fact, I wonder why you are not being aggressive enough with this investigation."
"Because I can see things objectively without letting my personal feelings involved. I can see things in a way that would benefit our Black Sand academy without getting my emotions cloud my judgment."
The president frowned and clenched his fists as he looked at the old man.
"So, what do you think I should be doing?"
"You should take a step back and deal with this calmly.
Yes, a massive disaster almost happened, but it didn't come to fruition because Viswa acted quick enough. You must be thinking of how to make sure these things don't happen again."
"Of course, I am thinking that. These things won't happen again, only if we destroy the people who caused it and send a message."
"That is where you are wrong. If we blow this thing out of proportion and publicly punish the perpetrators, particularly when there are instructors involved, it will shame the Black Sand Academy name.
People will assume that we don't have any standards for the instructors."
The student union president closed his eyes and sighed.
"Please tell me that you are not saying that we should let these instructors go."
"Of course not. We are not going to let them go. We will give them a stern warning and punish them by halting their resources. We will seize their authority within the academy and their student recommendation slots will be taken away as well.
But all of this should happen in secret."
"Headmaster, have you punished instructor Simba in the same way three years ago? For trying to take advantage of a female student?"
The headmaster frowned as he looked the president in the eyes.
The president didn't wait for his answer, instead, he spoke.
"Because you deprived him of resources but still kept his job as an instructor, he used his authority as an instructor and started exploiting the hillside village. He raped and killed three women from there in his term as that village's protector.
He demanded enormous prizes to let their children have peaceful education in the academy.
And by the way, those children are actually entitled to that peaceful education.
Being unable to take the pressure of those bribes, the kids from that village were in a bind and a rich and arrogant noble smelled that out and baited them with money to go after the orphanage in an attempt to kill Viswa.
So, because of your stupid decision he killed three women directly, and a child indirectly.
And who knows what the fuck he did without anyone knowing.
In a way, you share the equal amount, no, no, in fact you share more blame than him in the lives that were ruined."
The headmaster didn't know what to say.
The president turned around and was about to leave, but he stopped at the door and said.
"I don't know what you are trying to save by keeping these bastards hidden. Maybe instead of giving off an image that the Black Sand Academy is as clean as a pearl, you might want to give out an impression that Black Sand Academy is striving to be cleaner.
For once, try to show that we are willing to admit our mistakes and are trying to improve.
Maybe, that will give you the desired result, if all you are after is the image like some attention whore."
*BOOM*
All of a sudden an explosive aura shot forward and locked on the president. He caved in and fell to his knees.
"What the fuck do you know? Do you think a brat like you can understand what I am doing? All I did and all I am going to do is for the sake of the academy.
Don't you dare try to criticize me."
The president stood up as the aura simmered down a bit. He spat out a mouthful of blood and said.
"I will be submitting the investigation report to you in half an hour. They will include letters for your permission to investigate, arrest and punish the instructors that are involved in this whole shit show.
If you by any chance deny it, I will take it up with the higher authorities."
"Do whatever the fuck you want. As long as I am alive, the Black Sand Academy's name will not be tarnished."
The headmaster breathed heavily in anger.
He gritted his teeth in anger and frustration. He has done many things that he wouldn't dare to share with the world, but he is never going to let them come back to light. No matter the cost.
The president who left the headmaster's room understood that things are not going to be easy. Meanwhile, he is also wary of what Viswa would do. After investigating a bit, he figured that Mathur and his group sneaked out of the village at night. Exactly five people.
He contemplated for a while and went to the Village guard to get some information.
"I don't know if it is related to you in any way, but we did find five burned corpses on the way here. We thought it might be some bandits, but the pills bottles, and tonics are all left on the corpses when they were burned."
"Are the bodies recovered?"
"Yeah, they were reported by some traveler. They are being brought here as we speak. We don't know the exact details. We might be able to figure something out once the corpses are here."
"Please let me know when they arrive."
As if one cue, the corpses arrived right then and both of them went to inspect them.
The fire destroyed all the flesh and clothes, there are bones and nothing else left of the body. But as the captain said, there are a couple of pill bottles and tonic containers along with the ashes.
The president looked through them and sighed.
"These do belong to the academy. They are definitely circle 1 students."
He muttered to himself and left.
He understood what happened. He can fill in the blank spots. But the conclusion is one of the worst-case scenarios he imagined.
If these five were killed by Viswa, then the problem is only going to get bigger from now on.
He went back to the Student Union and held a meeting.
"Five Circle 1 students are dead. They were burned to ashes. We don't have any evidence on who did it."
"So, Viswa did it?"
"Yes, that is the most likely possibility, but we don't have any evidence that he did it. He has a proper alibi and he doesn't have any motive. If we even want to bring suspicion on to him, then we would need to show evidence that Kai told Pat to hire Mathur's group to attack the orphanage.
And if we do that, we have to bring up the instructor who is cause of Mathur's group's financial situation.
Unfortunately our headmaster is completely against it.
Unless we make it all public and punish these people accordingly, it is impossible to stop Viswa with official methods.
So, what do you guys suggest?"