“Tail them?”
“It’s suspicious no matter how you look at it. They’re clearly hiding something.”
“It does seem that way, but…”
Hilde pondered deeply for a moment before finally opening her mouth.
“Thinking about it, we lack information, so tailing them isn’t a bad idea.”
“That’s the Hilde I know! You really do love an adventure.”
“…”
In contrast, Lute looked disgruntled, prompting Anakin to speak up.
“Lute, aren’t you coming?”
“…”
With both of their eyes fixed on him, he answered reluctantly.
“…I suppose I have no choice. You two would go anyway even if I didn’t, right?”
“Hehe. Exactly.”
With Lute joining in, Anakin, Hilde, and Lute began to carefully tail Komult, a 46th-term student who had been in their class.
He was the disciple who had first picked a fight with them at Nox Hall.
A woman named Renya had stepped in to stop him back then.
Where had his arrogant energy from that time gone?
Now, he looked completely shrunken.
What could have happened to turn such a confident man into this?
“He keeps circling the same spot.”
Komult was pacing restlessly near the garden fountain as if anxious.
Then, he suddenly turned toward a narrow back alley.
“Who is he meeting?”
“Let’s follow him.”
The children held their breath as they pursued him.
Just as Hilde expected, someone soon appeared before him.
A man wearing a bright navy robe walked over from the direction of Nox Hall.
His face was hidden under a hood.
However, Anakin recognized him immediately.
“Is it ready?”
“…Well, that is…”
Turning pale, Komult faltered and couldn’t answer.
The man glared at Komult sharply in irritation.
“Still?”
“It’s an issue we can’t easily decide amongst ourselves…”
Anakin gulped as she watched Komult speak while trembling, his face devoid of color.
“If you don’t bring one person by the day after tomorrow, you’d better be prepared.”
“…That is!”
“If you don’t like it, do your job properly. Are you really in a position to be keeping petty loyalties?”
As the man glared with bulging eyes, Komult lowered his head and clenched his fists so hard the blood stopped flowing.
“…Yes. I will bring them by the day after tomorrow.”
Though Komult was taller, he looked like nothing more than a small child in front of this man.
“That person…”
At Anakin’s whisper, Hilde and Lute turned to her simultaneously.
“Do you know him?”
“I’ve heard that voice. Back on the day of the exam, when I took the wrong path on the 4th floor of Tran…”
That was the moment she almost got caught, if Harca hadn’t saved her.
Anakin had accidentally overheard a suspicious conversation.
“Execute the plan that way.”
“Are we really selling them off?”
“They say it’s necessary for the ritual. It’s something the eldest brother approved of.”
It was definitely one of the voices she had heard then.
‘Is that the man who was talking about a ‘ritual’?’
“But Heron. There’s a rat here.”
“Oh, this floor is a restricted area, so no one should be coming here… What a bold fellow.”
She had definitely heard the name of the one who used polite speech and seemed lower in rank.
‘Heron.’
The voice of that man and the voice of the man standing before Komult now were identical.
When Anakin relayed this to the others, they nodded with serious expressions.
“A ritual. It sounds like things are getting big.”
“Is this something we should really be digging into?”
“If they’re doing this to the 46th term, the 47th term is next. One of us will end up like that soon enough.”
Anakin agreed with Hilde’s deduction.
“You’re right. Turning a blind eye won’t solve anything.”
The atmosphere grew heavy with silence.
As everyone remained still, lost in thought, Anakin spoke.
“Alright. Let’s end the tailing for now and go back to Tran. Staying here will only make us look suspicious.”
Lute and Hilde nodded.
The 47th-term children returned to Tran and reached the front of Hilde’s room.
Lute stopped at the door and frowned.
“Come to think of it, do I have to be with this guy?”
Lute looked at Hilde, who also nodded with a look of disgust. “I feel the same way.”
Anakin raised her eyebrows.
“Is that really what’s important right now?”
This could be a vital matter for their entire class.
As Anakin stared at them calmly, Hilde and Lute sensed the chilly atmosphere and looked away.
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped.”
Lute sighed and entered Hilde’s room.
Hilde reluctantly followed behind him.
The three of them sat down to find a way to resolve this.
Lute, sitting straight in a chair, spoke first.
“Can’t we just find that Komult guy and make him spill the beans?”
“Do you think he’d talk easily? He was shaking with fear.”
“True. He probably wouldn’t fear us that much.”
“We could just beat him until he’s half-dead.”
“…That’s a bit inhumane.”
Since the 46th-term students were generally hostile toward them, it was unlikely they would explain things kindly.
“That woman named Renya seemed nice, though.”
She was the one who had stopped Komult from picking a fight.
As a close classmate of Komult, Renya likely knew what was going on.
“Should I go and ask her?”
At Anakin’s suggestion, Hilde shook her head.
“I don’t know. Even if she is nice, it involves her classmate. I don’t think she’d talk that easily.”
“Hmm…”
The conversation was falling into a labyrinth.
“Then is Evan the one who gave orders to the man named Heron?”
“I’m not sure. But isn’t the probability high?”
If Evan was using Heron to threaten the 46th-term students… all the circumstances fit perfectly.
“Who is Evan?”
Lute, who was unaware of the situation, asked curiously.
Hilde replied with a pathetic look on her face.
“He exists. They say he’s famous among the trainees. No one has ever survived after getting on his bad side. Everyone is afraid of him.”
Lute asked in surprise, “What? Is that true?”
Anakin silently nodded. Lute asked again, “Is he exceptionally strong?”
“He’s at the top, but not to that extent. Normally, if the trainees rose up together, he’d have to back down. The fact that everyone is this scared means…”
As Hilde’s voice trailed off, Lute added, “Just how big is this Evan’s backing for him to wield such power?”
Lute muttered with a confused face.
Hilde, sitting cross-legged on the bed, said lightly:
“Isn’t an upper-level disciple backing him?”
“Why would an upper-level disciple back a trainee?”
“How should I know? Anakin just said something about a ‘ritual’.”
‘A ritual…’
Anakin sank into deep thought.
What on earth are they doing that the word ‘ritual’ comes up?
Moreover, listening to the conversation between Komult and the man, it sounded like they were told to bring someone.
Dark thoughts kept surfacing in her mind.
“Could it be…”
“What is it, Anakin?” Hilde asked as Anakin’s expression darkened.
Anakin shook her head and said it was nothing.
It was still just a guess, so she felt there was no need to cause confusion by speaking prematurely.
“I think the only way is to ask Komult or that woman Renya directly.”
“I agree.”
“How do we persuade them?”
“If they’re worried about Evan’s backing, we just need to bring someone with even greater backing.”
“And who would that…”
Just as Lute was about to counter Hilde, the door clicked open.
Standing there was the pretty Lucien, rolling a candy in his mouth and staring at them.
“?”
As Lucien looked at them as if to say “What are you looking at?”, the three of them were momentarily speechless.
“Come to think of it…”
This guy’s backing was an Elder—specifically, he was the Elder’s grandson.
It was the perfect pretext to use against the trainees.
“Are we all thinking the same thing right now?”
It seemed Lute and Hilde were on the same page, given how suspiciously they were staring at him.
“What?”
As Lucien narrowed his eyes, Anakin spoke cautiously.
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. We’ll find another way.”
“Is there another way?”
“You, shut up.”
Hilde glared at Lute for his tactless remark.
Lucien, who had been watching them quietly, rolled the candy in his cheek and narrowed his eyes.
“So, you’re telling me to sell out my grandfather?”
“Yes. That will probably work best on the trainees right now.”
“Hmm…”
Lucien sat back slouched with a look of complete dissatisfaction.
“I don’t want to.”
