Now I had to investigate some mysterious secret group, threatening to endanger the entire academy.
I sighed internally, silently looking at my ceiling.
If I knew my life at the academy would be so tiring, I would have preferred staying in that crazy household.
I turned to the side, thinking about the good advantages I could get. At least, I had to delude myself.
I knew that after finishing this mission, as I contributed all my missing points , I wouldn't be obliged to do any more missions until the second semester, in 5 months.
Moreover, as it was a rather important issue concerning the academy's future, I would get rewarded.
As for what it was, I didn't know.
Finally standing up, I took my coat and left.
It was presently at the beginning of spring, and the time was chiller than a few weeks ago.
I had to permanently make sure I was dressed enough, as I was rather sensitive.
A little ahead, Sylvester awaited for me.Like always, he had this dignified aura surrounding him, like he was a kind gentleman.
His face was as handsome as it was yesterday, but today he looked particularly dashing .
Maybe it was because of the sunlight reflecting on his beautiful porcelain skin?
Or the well-kept dark brown hair?
Or his beautiful, knife-like eyes?
"Morning, Sylvester!"
"Good morning, Miss Georgia!"
"I told you you could just call me by my name, Sylvester. Aren't we friends now?"
Like always, I plastered on my face my signature smile of kindness.
I was the embodiment of an "angel.".
"…yes. That's right. We're friends."
"Should we go now?"
We first went to the very first place the anomalies were found.
Around five days ago, some students had spotted dark magic particles—the sign of the people who used the forbidden magic—around the academy's training grounds.
To be more precise, the training grounds of the knights faction.
Now we had to go there to see it with our own eyes and maybe find any clues.
As much as I disliked working on those missions, I actually found this one quite interesting.
After all, not everyone can sneak into the worldly-famous private royal academy.
The academy was the very first institute established in Gefya and, at that, founded by the first queen.
Trying to destroy it was like declaring war on the country and the nobles. Not everyone could do that…not because they couldn't, but more likely because they risked much more than just their lives.
They were things that were worse than death.
So I had my reasons to think that it was not just a minor secret group, like the school's directive board pretended it to be.
We talked about rebellion and insurrection against the king. It was not nothing!
I would even say it was stupid and reckless.
And just knowing that piqued my curiosity.
I was eager to know who had enough guts to do that.
"So you are saying the one who noticed it is named Orel? A knight student?"
" Yes. We will have a little interview with him. He can be useful."
Useful, huh.
Sylvester was really faithful to his personality.
He was exactly how I imagined him.
He was calm, uncompromising, strict, and icy.
He oftentimes acted like people were no good if they didn't hold any value whatsoever.
But he still maintained his composure and basic etiquette.
Really a true gentleman.
I was not fooled by his exterior appearance.
He was far from an innocent youngster.
Sylvester Ocnor Duvalion was a man of few words, but not any less dangerous.
I knew the basics about this character: he was the son of the grand duke and the nephew of the current emperor.
Although he had lived all his life as a pampered young master, he had a huge part of darkness lying profoundly in his heart.
He had lost his parents young, making him the eligible new patriarch.
Unfortunately, as he was still too young to take care of the ducal house, his uncle from his mother's side took charge of the family affairs in the meantime.
He then only lived as the future heir.
I didn't know what happened in the meantime, but I knew that it deeply changed him.
He became heavily paranoid, never believing anyone. Moreover, he became controlling and pragmatic.
He only saw in humans tools he could use to achieve his goals.
And to hide it, he veiled himself under false pretenses.
Sylvester was a fake. But a good one.
The reason I didn't dislike him as much as Mainu was because at least he had a bottom line.
He knew when to stop and what line not to cross.
Unlike Mainu, he wouldn't kill you just because you were a sore sight for his eyes.
We were now waiting on the training grounds platform for Orel.
The man was a normal human student with a straightforward personality.
The first thing he did when he saw us was to politely greet us before directly leading us to a private room—an annex.
"Sorry, I thought you would come later. I hope I didn't make you wait too long."
"Fufufu, do not worry. We were observing an interesting simulation of combat." I spoke about his earlier performance, fighting against a beast hologram.
"It's my pleasure, then. Coming to our interview, I wanted to first say that I didn't see it from that close, so I might have been wrong.
"Don't worry. We will not hold you accountable for anything. We only need information." Sylvester responded apathetically, like his usual behavior during a mission.
" Yes…"
"So… It was about five days ago, Tuesday afternoon.
I had just left my training, having forgotten the time, when I heard a commotion.
Before I could get to where the sounds were, it was already too late. The only thing left were dark, cloudy particles."
"I see… and you did not go see what it was?" I said it in the most sincere voice I could muster.
I was genuinely curious as to why the man who ran after mere sounds, afraid of a possible violation of rules, didn't go to the end of his adventure, only observing from far away.
Did he feel the danger?
Was he afraid?
Didn't you think much of it?
Any answer was welcome.
But I wouldn't have expected what the boy replied—slightly uncomfortable.
"Well, I was on my way to the toilets at that time... Seeing that there was no problem, I …"
"I see! Ok! I think we got everything we needed here, right, Sylvester?" I quickly said, red with embarrassment.
Sometimes, it is better not to be too curious.