Paulina smiled and humbly replied .
"I didn't do much, just connected the dots which Eryndor already made an effort to find out.
"The appreciation should be credited to him for being cautious and finding out so many hidden things, else we would've fallen into a trap without knowing anything at all."
Eryndor simply shrugged while smiling.
"I mean, thanks. But don't underestimate yourself, if it was just putting two and two together, I am pretty sure even Drakarion would've done it."
Drakarion, who had taken out a packet of chips from who knows where, tilted his head to Eryndor.
"Looking for a beating are you? I'll hit you with this pack of chips."
Although his mouth was full of chips, everyone still heard his reply.
After a good laugh, Eryndor brought out his laptop and immediately pulled up the Academy's website.
He cross checked the number he had saved earlier with the one displayed on professor Melissa's profile just in case.
Seeing that the number was correct, he called professor Melissa and put it on speaker.
Everyone watched with bated breaths as the call began ringing.
First ring…
Second ring…
Third ring…
Their anxiety kept rising until the last ring, when it was finally picked up.
"Hello, Professor Melissa is currently unavailable, how can I assist you?"
What greeted their ears wasn't the professor's voice but a male voice with professionalism evident in his tone.
Eryndor's first thought was if the Academy disallowed private communications during missions but that was clearly not the case.
He could exchange small messages with his friends and parents just fine the past few days.
After a moment of thought, he replied.
"I wanted to relay some information to Professor Melissa personally, is it possible? It's extremely urgent."
The call operator was quick to reply as if he had done this many times.
"I am sorry but she is really unavailable. It could take anywhere from around 3-4 days. I ask for your patience as it's an important matter.
"If it's extremely urgent, you can relay it to me, and our team will decide if it's appropriate to be conveyed to her."
Eryndor looked around at everyone but no one seemed to have any opinions or ideas.
I guess the procedure for dealing with anomalies is truly different from a normal mission like ours.
This may be our only chance though.
Eryndor spoke into his phone after phrasing his thoughts. He decided to expose that he also knew of professor Melissa's mission.
"The information I have could decide if professor Melissa's anomaly containment team would be wiped out or not."
There was a long silence on the other end along with sounds of typing before the operator spoke again.
"This number, Eryndor Noctis? No wonder you know of professor Melissa's mission. But I hope you know that the words you spoke can not be treated lightly.
"Are you aware of what you are proclaiming? If you go ahead with it, the amount of resources we'll have to utilize to confirm your information would be significant.
"If it happens to be a false alarm you will be severely punished by the rules of the Human Federation, the Academy can't shield you on this matter."
Eryndor faltered at this step, because he truly didn't want to divulge the source of his information.
His teammates understood the dynamics of the group and were tactful about such subjects, but this was different.
The call operator would need proof to not immediately dismiss their statements.
Chuck it, we'll see how it goes. Worst case we head inside the red area ourselves or try to find another way.
Eryndor took a deep breath and narrated all the information.
While listening to the sounds of intense typing, he continued with occasional breaks to catch some breath.
Towards the end, he spoke about Paulina's conjectures and also a way to combat against it.
Just as he finished, before giving the other person any chance to reply, Eryndor spoke once again.
"I am ready to accept the punishment if it turns out to be false. Please check the information and rescue professor Melissa and her team."
After a short pause, he added. "And I hope Rodrick's punishment isn't light."
Seeing that Eryndor didn't give him any chance to ask about the proof or such and straight up agreed to a punishment, the operator was quiet for a moment.
After a bit of consideration, he replied.
"Considering that you're the Academy's student I'll relay the information to the verification team.
"As much as I hope the information is just a false alarm, I hope you can do your utmost to help from your side if the Federation demands it in the situation that your information turns out to be correct."
After a pause he added.
"Professor Melissa is my younger sister."
The call immediately ended after that.
The four of them looked at each other in silence, unsure of what to do now.
"Let's just sleep."
Drakarion got up while crumbling the empty packet of chips in his hands.
"Don't put your phones on silent, gotta pick them up in case the Academy contacts us. I reckon it will be an important day tomorrow."
Indeed, there's nothing else left for us to do.
Eryndor thought. He too stood up, echoing Drakarion's statement as he added.
"True, get some rest. It's already too late."
The team dispersed into their own rooms after bidding goodbyes.
Sitting cross legged on his bed, Eryndor began his daily round of cultivation.
He controlled a certain amount of Qi and began circulating it in the circuit mentioned in the practice technique.
For the first time in a while, Eryndor felt better in terms of stress.
It felt like a heavy load had been lifted off his heart when the complete plot was revealed and The Human Federation was alerted.
The fire in his heart to get back at Rodrick was still there but he also realized this was a better option than confronting him personally or even with his team.
As mentioned earlier, Rodrick was a Mage who had been treading that path for far longer than even the combined time of all four of their paths, plus an anomaly to boost his prowess.
The method Paulina spoke about would only free the Anomaly, with no guarantee of who it might attack next, making their survival an uncertainty.
Not to mention it was unlikely they could've defeated Rodrick even if he didn't bring out the Anomaly.
Eryndor heaved a sigh, removing those thoughts from his head and focusing his attention back on cultivation.