Malaya looked over subconsciously and then lowered her head, the food on her plate suddenly becoming quite interesting. She hadn't eaten very much before, and yet now she was enamored enough to take two bites back to back.
The change didn't escape Theron's notice, but he also didn't look over for more than a glance. One would have never thought he had spotted his target.
Given where they were tucked into the restaurant, Sawyer and Yonowai didn't notice them either, nor did the third individual with them.
This was the same trio that had been together in the Teahouse before.
"I'm going to go to the bathroom, Malaya. I'll be right back."
Malaya blinked. "Right, right. Take your time."
She cleared her throat, her ears turning red again, wondering why she had told him to take his time. It wasn't as though he was a lady. Had she made it weird again?
…
Theron slipped into the bathroom, his kind, amiable smile giving way to an indifferent placidity.
The plumbing situation in high-ranking cities like this one was excellent, as was the ventilation. Private rooms upstairs all had their own bathrooms, while on the bottom floor here, everyone shared a communal bathroom. Or, rather, two of them.
One male, the other female.
All of them had the same flaw to exploit: they shared a ventilation channel. Going from one bathroom to the next through the ducts was actually quite easy.
Theron went to the private stall and opened the door. His foot tapped at the toilet, and a glob of water shot out from the bowl.
With a point of his fingers, he sent it into the vents.
It was a common misconception that sound didn't travel well in water. In fact, it traveled far better through water, especially warm water, than it did in air.
Theron snapped his fingers, and the ball of water vanished completely.
…
"Where the hell are the women?"
Yonowai collapsed on a couch, kicking his feet up.
"Aren't you the one who said all the girls in town were boring?"
"Well, aren't they?! Have you seen the senior sisters at the Sect? There's something about cultivation that just makes a woman—"
Yonowai wiped his lips before he started drooling.
"Why don't you make it to Silver Mancy first? Then you can start dreaming about those senior sisters. Right now, they'd cut it off before you even knew what happened."
"F*** you, Kai. Sawyer!"
"Yes, big bro!" Sawyer stood to his feet.
"Drinks! Women! Chop-chop!"
Sawyer rolled his eyes but obliged anyway.
The standing between the two wasn't large enough for one of them to be ordered around like the other's lapdog. But for certain reasons, Sawyer chose to oblige.
"Why's he like that?" Kai asked after Sawyer vanished.
"The little rat needs help making up for his lost credits. Who asked him to be a fool? The Thistle name is only as good as the one holding it. If he couldn't hack it, he shouldn't have pissed off the wrong person."
"Didn't that teacher get canned?"
"She's canned, sure. But she's already a Gold Mancer, and what is he? He wasn't good enough to make it into the Sects, and he's doing the academic stream because he's not good enough for the military stream. If he can't even pass the academic stream, he's going to spend the rest of his life under everyone's boot."
"And what are we supposed to do about that?"
"Someone may or may not have let it slip that it was possible to get extra credit by helping a Sect out."
"Someone?"
"Okay, maybe it was me."
Kai burst out into laughter.
Was it possible to get credit through the Sects? Yes.
But if you could do that, you could definitely get a passing score all on your own. In fact, you'd probably be well on your way to Perfect Credits.
It was like banking on getting three extra credits like Theron had. If you were that excellent a student, barely graduating wouldn't even be in your cards to begin with.
"Speaking of which, we still have no information?" Kai asked.
"Nope. They just told us to wait around here."
"Don't bulls*** me, Thistle. You definitely know something."
Yonowai chuckled. "Maybe."
"Spill."
"All I can say is that it's related to the new Dean."
"You mean your father?"
"I will have to pretend I didn't hear that." Yonowai closed his eyes with a smile.
"You've got to give me more than that."
"I really don't know much!"
"Just tell me what you can before the idiot comes back."
"If you can't figure it out with what I've already told you, maybe you and the idiot are already in cahoots."
Kai threw a pillow across the room, and Yonowai laughed.
…
Theron listened to the conversation for as long as he could.
After a long while, he stood to his feet, his thoughts swirling.
He was never going to try and execute a mission this important on the first night he got a chance. That was the mark of either a foolish assassin or an all-powerful one, and he was neither.
After flushing the toilet, he left the stall and walked to the mirror to wash his hands. He stared at the young boy looking into his soul as he slowly pieced something together.
Today, he had confirmed that Dean Vermouth had been replaced with Dean Thistle, but this Dean Thistle happened to be the father of a target of assassination.
Why?
And how much influence did the Thistles also have on the Sect that a change to the Imperial Scholar Academy would be tied to their movements like this?
'Malaya implied that there would be changes soon… the military stream… could it be related…?'
But there was an elephant in the room. How could the Crown allow the Thistles to move so much of their weight around like this?
…
The next day, Theron learned that change was indeed coming.
"From today on, graduating Imperial Scholars will be required to complete at least eleven credits of the opposite stream."