Alex made his way back into his dorm building and up to his room. He shut the door after he walked in and made sure that it was locked.
He walked to the table, pulled the chair out, and took a seat. He dropped his book at the side of the table. He looked to the side—his window was open—so he got up and walked to the window. He looked outside; the forest stood there mightily.
He shut the window and then walked back to his seat. The room was dark now, but he could still see a bit because of the light that managed to stream through the holes.
He got his lamp and turned it on. The soft glow of the crystal filled the room. He pulled out his drawer and checked through the stuff. He saw his ID card there but just shoved it to the side.
He pulled out the yellow paper that was at the very bottom. It was a small stack of five or so pieces of paper.
He placed the papers on the desk and then opened the system's interface, going straight to the rune shop.
"System, I want to purchase the yellow rune recorder," he said.
[Materials needed provided.] The system said, and one of the yellow papers vanished right before his eyes, but he didn't flinch. He had half expected it to be this way.
[Estimated time till the rune is complete: ten minutes.]
"Hmm, I have time to do other things," he said and shoved the rest of the paper to the side. He pulled his journal, carried his pen, flipped it around his finger a bit, and then tapped it on the paper.
*(Last night, someone came to tell me about the investigation that was going to happen, and then that same night, the girl is killed.
That person is a loose end. He might believe that I was the one who planned this to get myself out of deep waters.
It's not certain that this person would think like this, but the risk factor is too high to overlook, so he'll have to go. But first, I have to figure out who the person is.)*
He wrote his thoughts down and then leaned back into the chair, staring at the ceiling while thinking about who that person could be.
[Mission update: Tying up loose ends. Someone might think you are the real suspect. A perfect villain doesn't leave loose ends. Find a way to silence the person.]
[Mission reward: 100 EXP, 50 SP, 2 free stat points.]
[Penalty: None.]
The mission gave Raze more motivation to find the person. He wanted to get stronger, so getting rid of this person was a guaranteed way to do that.
Who does Raze know and talk with even when everyone hated him?
He thought through all the people Raze met in the novel, but he wasn't picking anyone because there weren't that many scenes with Raze—only when he wanted to carry out his stupid plan.
"Wait, stupid plan... There was someone who helped Raze carry out one stupid plan—Joel, a fat boy that Raze helped before, so he decided to pay the debt.
"Joel... They didn't talk much about him, barely even gave him a description aside from 'fat boy.' His relevance lasted only a page."
Raze made up his mind to find Joel. Joel was the loose end, and he needed to get that tied up.
(Find Joel, the loose end. A fat boy who helped Raze on one plan and shut him up.)
Now, how do I shut him up? Should I just kill him? No, I'm sure some people must have seen us together at some point. And from the little information the book gave, Joel has very few friends.
It will easily be traced back to me as a suspect if he dies. I'll have to find another way that doesn't involve me killing him... Hmm, blackmail or something.
(Ways to shut Joel up.)
He wrote that down but didn't go any further. He would have to see Joel first before deciding what to do.
[The yellow recording rune is ready.]
The system gave the notification, and then a yellow paper formed on the table with black runes written on it.
Raze picked it up and took a good look at it. It looked perfect, well-drawn, and even though he didn't know jack squat about runes, he could still tell that it was extremely well done.
"This is what I need," he said with a smile. He opened up one of the big textbooks on the table, placed the paper carefully inside a page, and closed it up. He had finished the best part of his plan. All that remained was the meeting at the Chapel of the Seven Divine Gods at midnight.
Raze closed everything up, turned off the lamp, and then got up from the table. With a slight smile on his face, he grabbed his book and walked to the door, opened it, and left the room.
He headed down the stairs and into the academy building. After all, he still had classes today before he could call it a day. It was a class he didn't want to miss because it would help him carry out his spell-casting act better.
It was the Spell Casting and Incantation class, where they learned things like hand signs, worded casting, and longer incantations for high-impact spells.
The class was located in the same place where they had a class on magical theories. Raze got there and pushed the door open. There was still some good time before class, so the teacher wasn't even there yet.
But there were students inside—a few of them. Jade was there, and Alex with his group. Raze looked at Alex's eyes and could see that there was still panic hidden inside, and that made Raze extremely happy.
With a smile, he found a seat—not too far away from Jade, but also not too close, so that he wouldn't seem like a creep for sitting near her twice.