NOVEL NEXT Chapter 120: The Storm Before The Storm
The whole Starlink Academy was in chaos even though the staff and professors had managed to send every student to rest in their rooms.
Vice Headmistress Morgon had personally come forward to handle the situation. But it didn't mean that the students were calm. Far from that, actually.
Everyone in the Academy's local server was discussing the murder. They were shocked by the sudden incident and also began to question the credibility of the Academy.
After all, if an Academy couldn't protect their students on their own home ground, then why would any students join them?
Even the higher-ups of the Academy were under stress, looking through the matter deeply while also trying to calm the students. They had even cut off the connection to the outside world so the information didn't leak out.
The fact that the murder happened right before the Conclave, where the funding of the Academy would be decided, made everyone believe that it was a deep scheme of the Academy's enemies.
There was also one more thing that many students didn't know but the higher-ups did. The student who died was the daughter of one of the richest women of the Western Continent.
It further complicated the matter since that woman had many connections and would definitely make trouble for the Academy in the upcoming Conclave.
While the entire Academy was in chaos, Leon sat silently in his dorm room. He didn't even open the server to know the things students were discussing.
His mind was trying to remember the details of the game and form hypotheses about the future. Thousands of thoughts passed through his mind as he rejected some and accepted others.
Event Two was much simpler than Event One. In it, one of the Cabinet members in the Council of Nine, who was also a famous scientist, was murdered, and the daughter of one of the richest women was framed as his murderer.
There were many things that proved she was the murderer, and the quest the player received was to find the real culprit. It was a suspenseful, mysterious, and thrilling quest.
In the end, they would find the true murderer, and there would be a Boss Fight. And then came the aftermath.
It was a relatively simple quest whose charm lay in the way Leon had weaved the mystery of the real murderer and all the other factors.
As Leon already knew all the mysteries, this Event would have been the easiest to deal with, but now things had changed completely.
The girl who was supposed to be framed had already been killed, and the standing of the Academy would also be different in the Conclave.
The problem he needed to solve was that Event Two was a complete mystery to him now. There were only predictions that he wasn't even sure of.
Still, he was calmer than ever. He spent a few hours camped inside his room and ignored everything else to focus on Event Two.
It was almost evening when he received a call. Well, he did receive calls from his friends since he had a strong reaction upon seeing the murder, but he didn't tell them much.
They were smart enough to guess that this murder was likely related to his attempted murder.
This time, the call was from an unexpected person. He raised an eyebrow, connected the call, and heard a flat voice from the other side.
[What are you doing?]
"You already know," Leon leaned back in his chair and responded to Amber. "I'm sure the murder was done by the same person that tried to kill me."
[Tell me something new.]
Leon stayed silent for a while before asking, "Do you guys have any progress?"
[Nope. It seems like she died normally since even the poison was undetectable. Still, its signs were present, and I'm sure it was intentional.]
"They are taunting us," Leon paused before adding. "Or maybe they're warning us of the future."
[If we didn't know everything about Silver and you, then we would have thought they were trying to bring down the Academy. But it's clearly something different. What do they want?]
"Investigate her mother," Leon said. "Find out about her enemies and allies too. I have a feeling it'll include one of the Cabinet members."
[....how do you know that?]
Leon smiled lightly, "So she really has someone there. It was just a hunch on my part."
[Elaborate.]
"Amber, what if we see the situation differently?" Leon said, staring at the ceiling. "What if there are two different enemies here?"
[You do know how ridiculous that sounds, right?]
Leon could sense from her voice that she actually did believe his words to some extent. She was just trying to find reasons not to.
[It's already a miracle that we have traitors among us, and that's only possible because that enemy is really formidable. But if there is someone else who can sneak in and murder a student, then this Academy would become a joke. I can assure you there aren't any more traitors.]
"Stop lying to yourself, Amber," Leon rolled his eyes. "Always expect the unexpected and suspect the impossible. Only then can we be sure of our safety."
[You want me to believe that right under my nose, a lame enemy managed to sneak inside the Academy?]
"I didn't say that," Leon said. "But what if they are working together?"
[...]
"What if the second party asked the first party for help?" Leon said as he sat straight and began to go through his notes again.
There was a momentary silence on the other side before Amber's solemn voice entered his ears.
[The Conclave...]
"Yup! They want to do something in the Conclave where the Cabinet members and Saylin, the mother of that girl, would gather. They are definitely planning something with it, and that's why they dared to murder her daughter in broad daylight."
[But what and why? If they wanted to do something in the Academy, then this is useless since we will just increase the security. As for bringing us down in the Conclave, it won't happen and everyone knows it.]
"Why is that?" Leon asked in confusion.
[Even if there was a murder inside the Academy, it won't stop students from entering the Academy. It's not like other Academies have any better security than us. Most of the students with average and above-average potential will still enter the Academy. As for the students with top potential, they would enter the Academy too.]
"Because of you," Leon drew the conclusion.
[Yes, because of me. This is why this stunt to pull down the Academy won't work in the long term. At most, it would defame us a bit but nothing much. So, what are they trying to achieve?]
Leon stared at his notes and said, "We know the objective of the first enemy. They want to kill me at any cost, and I believe they won't use direct methods. They will use the second enemy, and that is the sole reason they accepted their request of murdering someone."
[They must have demanded something big from the second enemy considering the lengths they are willing to go to fulfill their request. They are more likely to expose themselves and make their years-old efforts useless.]
"Yes, they demanded something big from the second enemy, and they would use that to kill me somehow..." Leon paused, as his eyes darkened and he added, "There will be another murder at the Conclave."
[How are you so sure?]
"Trust me on this, Amber," Leon said as he stared grimly at his notes. "This is going to be disastrous. Many will die. Remember, they are willing to sacrifice everything and go to any lengths to fulfill their goal."
[The students would be safer in the Conclave than ever, then only the guests remain. One of them would be killed?]
"Maybe not one," Leon rubbed his eyes and said. "The second enemy's goal has to do with the Conclave. And they exchanged something to fulfill it with the first enemy."
[Why are you repeating the same thing?]
"Just trying to find some connections," Leon closed his eyes and said.
A long silence followed where neither spoke but also didn't disconnect the call either. Leon could hear various screams in the background, making him wonder what kind of atrocities Amber was committing, but he didn't bother asking.
He knew she was angry too. No, calling it anger would be an understatement. The most precious thing to Amber wasn't her life or anything else, but the legacy she inherited from her Master.
That also made the term 'students' very, very precious to her. The fact that there had been two murder attempts where three of her students died and now, in the third attempt, another one died and she couldn't do anything made her helpless.
It was normal she would...
"Wait! Amber! Stop!!" Leon screamed as he felt a chill run down his spine thinking of the hypothesis forming in his mind.
[What happened?]
Hearing that indifference in her voice, Leon cursed out loud, "Fuck!!"