The Student Union meeting room is completely silent.
They have done some pretty great work investigating different things in the academy. They have dealt with grudge murders, missing students, students turned criminals, they have seen some shit. But this is the time, they have been in such a situation.
A student in Circle 1 is creating so many waves.
After five minutes of long silence, one of the members spoke.
"President, I think we should issue a warrant on Viswa. Even though we don't have any evidence to even have some reasonable suspicion, we all know he did it. We cannot punish him or anything, but let's just temporarily detain him in the name of investigation.
Once we have dealt with the remaining issues we can let him go if we still cannot find any evidence of the murders against him.
In my personal opinion, the only mistake he did is acting against the rules of the school.
As far as killing those guys, it is pretty justified. After all, who uses little kids as bait and almost kills them with fire?"
"I think that is a pretty good plan, President." Another member seconded that suggestion.
The president sighed and went into deep thought. What they are saying is a reasonable solution. But the problem is he would have to bend a lot of rules. The headmaster does the same after all.
The only justification is the headmaster is after some vainglory, while the president is actually after justice.
"What is Viswa's status right now? Any report from the guards?"
"No, President. We already changed all the guards and put some trustworthy people there. They have not seen any traces of Viswa coming back to the entrance, he must still be in cultivation."
"Alright then. For now let's proceed as normal. We will think about what to do with Viswa when he comes out. As long as he is the forest, cultivating, he wouldn't be a big problem to us right now.
Go deep on the instructors involved in this. The guy who pressured the hillside village students and the guy who manipulated the barrier.
We need to get information on every single dirty deed they did and we need to do it fast. If we are any slow, the headmaster will succeed in cutting our wings. He is already on to us.
So, throw the caution out of the window and be more aggressive. You can use my name and the favors that I have with other people. Cash in everything if you have to. I am going to see this investigation to the end."
After that was done, The president walked out of the main building and went towards the dormitories. He didn't go to his own dorm, instead he went to the dorms of Circle 4 Students.
The people that are in Peak stage of Elementary Level cultivation. They are the people that are on the way to graduating the academy.
Usually, only Circle 3 and below students participate in activities like the student union and college administration. The Circle 4 students are left alone as they need to focus more on their future.
The president went ahead and knocked on a door.
A young man opened it with groggy eyes.
"Are you sleeping?"
The president asked in confusion.
"Yeah, I made a habit of it. What's up? Why are you here?"
The guy is tall and thin. He looked to be in his late teens. He had messy brown hair.
"I heard that you are going to the City in a few days."
"Yeah. I have an interview there. I am trying to join the Intermediate Academy."
"I heard that too. The interview from the Grey Stone Intermediate Academy. Another Sacred ground."
"You are pretty well informed. I didn't say that to a lot of people. So, what's your business?"
"I want you to leave right now."
The senior suddenly felt awake.
"Right now? Why?"
"I need you to run an errand. Submit a letter at the Regional Educational Office for me."
"What? At Regional Educational Office? What business do you have with them?"
"I am investigating the orphanage case and I am facing heavy obstruction. I need an administrator from the Regional office to be here. Otherwise, things will go sideways really quickly."
"Oh my god, Suman. Don't tell me you are facing obstruction from the headmaster."
Suman, the student union president replied.
"In fact, I am. It seems like you know very well what kind of person that is."
"Of course, I know. I used to be in your position. Do you think things like this haven't happened before? Maybe not to this scale, but there are definitely some fishy things going on in the academy during my term.
But if you go against the headmaster now, you will have to face a lot of heat."
"I know, but I am not going to let this go. If things really don't go the right away, I will request my elder brother if I have to."
The senior widened his eyes in disbelief. He wanted to say something, but he sighed.
"Okay, where is the letter?"
Suman passed the letter and the senior said.
"Be careful. The headmaster might not look like much, but he is way too cunning. He might have already anticipated his resistance."
"I know, but that is why I am doing things differently. Anyway, good luck with your interview. I hope you can get in Grey Stone and warm a seat for me there."
"Alright. You don't really have time to joke around. Get out. I will leave in five minutes."
"Thank you Senior, Rahul."
Suman greeted and left the room. But he didn't go back to the office once again. Instead he went to another dorm of a different Circle 4 student. This person is also a former student union member.
After that was done, he went on to visit a few more former student union members until late into night.
His actions were observed by a lot of people and they were very surprised.
The news spread and fell into the headmaster's ears. He called for one of the students that Suman met.
"He met with all the previous student union members? Do you know why?"
"He asked me what we would have done in the situation we are currently in. He has a strong sense of justice and is asking me to suggest what to do to make sure that he doesn't compromise on his own values."
"Did he ask the others the same questions?"
"More or less. I talked to four more people and all of them told me the same."
"Okay, you can go now."
That night, no one involved in this incident was able to sleep peacefully.
Meanwhile, back in the Circle 1 forest.
There are four students from the hillside village standing at the bank of the stream that goes through the forest.
"Shall we start then? We have cultivated enough in the past few days, we won't be able to go further anyway."
"Yeah, the boss would be waiting for us at this rate. We need to go out. Since Mathur and the rest didn't come back here, we can assume the worst has already happened. We might have to make some contingencies."
"But our plan needs us to be in close contact with the forest. What are we going to do about that?"
"I think it is better to stay in the academy only. After all, here everything goes by the rules, even though they don't apply to people of high status, which benefits us as well. No one has evidence against us, even if Viswa was told about our secret, he doesn't have any proof against us.
We can just stay in the academy and worst case, we will stay in the Circle 1 Second half forest. Right now, there are not many people who go there. At the current pace of the students, the time would be enough for the plan to come to fruition."
One of the four said and all of them agreed.
After that, they laid down a fish trap in the stream. They caught a live fist.
They dug a pit and filled it with water before throwing the fish inside. After that, from within their supplies, they took out a glass bottle.
It is filled with blood and a seed from that large demon egg is placed inside. It looked a little different from the one the shark had in its body.
They made the fish open its mouth and made it swallow the blood and the seed, before throwing it back into the stream.
They kept on doing the same thing throughout the night. They almost sent over two dozen fish with the seeds inside.
"I wonder how long it will take for us to see the results."
"I don't think it would take long. Anyway, we just have to wait."
They stayed in the forest the whole night.
The next morning, at the crack of dawn.
Sir Warden arrived at the academy in a horse carriage with the egg. While he was still at the gate, Suman ran to him.
"Sir Warden, I need to speak to you."
"I have something important to do Suman. I need to meet the headmaster immediately."
"No, I need to speak to you before you go to the headmaster. It is about the orphanage and Viswa."