Chapter 99 Volume III – Chapter 20: One Disaster Prevented by Another

“Ms. Melany! The enemy has begun to retreat! It looks like we managed to push them back!”

I looked at the dozens of holographic screens in front of me in my room at the top of the Academy’s main building. I responded thoughtfully without turning to the guard who was talking to me.

“Send me a detailed report as fast as you can.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The guard then quickly left the room. Seconds later, a notification appeared on one of the holographic screens.

It was a notification of the incoming report, and the moment I opened it, which was updated every second, my eye twitched.

There were already more than a hundred dead and about a thousand wounded. There were some attackers who were captured alive, but almost all of them had been seriously injured by a small explosion from a wristband on their arm. The minimum amount of money needed to restore the academy was very high, and all these figures were being updated every second. On top of all this, the situation had already leaked to the media.

It was spreading fast, and messages of protest were already pouring in. The academy was losing reputation after reputation.

“Tch.”

I closed the report and took a deep breath.

What we had planned had happened. We had cleansed the academy of the organization ‘for now’, but we had suffered much more damage than planned.

I brought Aiden to my mind and sighed.

He was right about most of what he had said, but the gates in the academy had come as a surprise to me and to him.

A quick little search revealed that the gates had only been installed a week ago. So they were quite new. And the installation of all these gates had not even been completed yet.

If we had waited a few more weeks, we could have suffered much, much greater damage. We could have handed over the most competent academy in the kingdom to an unknown organization before we even knew what was happening, but because of our sudden action, they had to act quickly.

So even if I blamed Aiden, even if I was angry, I knew it was wrong. After all, even if there were things we didn’t take into account, if we hadn’t acted, we would have suffered much worse, that boy had used a disaster to prevent a much bigger one.

Still, after this incident, I decided to approach him more cautiously. Even though there was a mana contract between us, I began to question him, to wonder about his true identity.

It was extremely unlikely, almost non-existent, but thoughts were swirling in my head that the organization might be trying to use him to take over the academy for good.

I hadn’t thought about it at first because the reason he approached me in the first place was that he was trying to save himself and that girl Olivia, but now the thought that this could all be a game was really bothering me.

~knock! ~knock! ~knock!

“Come.”

A different attendant than the one before quickly walked in, bowed slightly, and spoke.

“Ma’am, the royal family has requested a video call with you. Reporters are also sending interview requests.”

“Haaa…”

I took a deep breath, lowered my head, and started rubbing my forehead with my hands. One annoying thing after another was happening.

“Reject the reporters for now, I’ll handle the rest.”

“Understood.”

So he left the room as before, and I was alone again.

I waited for a while, prepared myself as best I could. Then I turned to the holographic screens in front of me and dialed a specific name.

The call echoed around the room for a while. Then a young man with coal-black hair and bright green eyes appeared on the holographic screen in front of me.

The crown prince had a tired expression on his face.

“Melany… Let’s skip the formalities and get to the point, the nobles are angry. Very angry. Many want to withdraw their children from the academy, and those who have already lost them are spewing hatred in the media. At this rate, the best we can do is to close down the academy.”

“Closing the academy is not a solution… What we do is simple, we shift the blame away from ourselves.”

The prince sighed.

“I’ve thought about that, but I’m not sure if we can calm the nobles and the media with that.”

“We will expose the existence of the organization to the media, we will expose anyone who collaborated with the organization. We will also… scapegoat the Malus Family.”

“Excuse me?”

“Everyone knows that the Malus Family is involved in illegal things, they just don’t have the proof, but if we expose their involvement with the organization, whether it’s true or false, and then document all their illegal activities, it won’t be hard for the media to find them guilty. The Malus Family will be accused of infiltrating the organization into the academy and the spotlight will be on them. They are already among the five most powerful families in the kingdom, so there will be no question about how they managed to do it. They are the perfect scapegoat.”

The prince’s green eyes were literally on fire, his brow furrowed in fury.

“I cannot accept this!”

I was even more frustrated when I saw the anger in his expression.

“Pull yourself together, please.”

I know he is young, but has he learned nothing from the world in his twenty-three years?

“You are the heir, the future ruler of this kingdom. If you want to continue down this path, you can’t be the kingdom’s plaster saint. The Malus Family is already nothing more than a rotten force, and rotten is never a good thing, even if they are powerful and contribute to the kingdom. We will invent an extra lie just to put an end to them, and not only that, we will avoid the intense anger of the media and the nobility. And the academy will at least be spared closure.”

“It’s true that the Maluses are troublesome, but… still…”

The prince looked thoughtful and I sighed.

“The final decision is still yours, I only offered the most effective suggestion. Now… I assume you are aware of the spies among the royal soldiers.”

He shook his head absent-mindedly, he must have been confused by what had just happened, but there was nothing I could do.

This is our best chance to take the pressure off and get rid of the Malus Family. Even if it’s very difficult to restore the reputation of the Academy, even if we have to start all over again, we can use this crisis as leverage.

“I have no idea how they managed this… All the personnel of the royal army are handpicked, but somehow they managed to get past the security. This organization could be much more extensive than we think.”

He narrowed his eyes and focused away from the screen.

“We’ll go through all the personnel one by one and try to find the spies, no problem there. As for your plan with the Malus family.”

He bit his lip and waited a moment. Then he took a deep breath, even with difficulty.

“Okay, you can do it.”

An involuntary smile formed on my face.

“Thank you, Your Majesty. It will be very easy once we contact a few families who have fallen victim to the Malus Family and work with them.”

Of course, I had already spoken to these families. The third most important family that would provide us with evidence of the Malus Family’s downfall had recently agreed to cooperate. Everything was already in place. Aiden’s plan seemed to run smoothly, at least as far as bringing down the Malus Family was concerned.

“Then I’ll ask you to meet again when something important happens. Now… I need to get some rest. I will be waiting for your good news.”

“I look forward to giving you that news too, Your Majesty. Until our next meeting, be well.”

The call ended and the image of the prince disappeared. I went back to the holograms with a smile on my face when there was another knock on my door.

“Come in.”

The person who entered looked out of breath, obviously something important.

I instantly became serious, I didn’t like what I saw one bit.

“What happened?”

“M- Ma’am! Adrian Caleo…”

The moment I heard the name, the possibility that we had lost the best student in our academy flashed through my mind.

That… would be the biggest disaster we would ever face.

“What happened to him?!”

“He- he’s fine, ma’am!”

“Then what the hell is going on? Hurry up!”

I realized I was tensing up, sweat beading on my forehead, and the overall temperature of the room had risen.

“He found Aiden Tenebra and Celine Potenbea when they were nearly dead!”

For a moment it felt like time stopped, and the world turned upside down, it was another one of those worst-case scenarios that I didn’t expect to hear about.

“Quickly tell me the details and take me to them!”

*******

Darkness.

An endless nothingness where I can’t feel anything.

It’s different from that split-second void you feel when you sleep.

Here I can feel time passing, my perception is not very good, but I can think. I just… can’t feel anything, that’s all.

I thought as I continued to float in the darkness.

I wonder if it worked… If the asshole in me was able to stall that guy until backup arrived. Although… did I manage to send the message to anyone?

As I continued to think about these and other things, I paused. Something had occurred to me and fear filled my mind.

That thing inside me was my wiera side. So he was crazy.

What if he collaborates with that man? What if I somehow hurt Celine? What if I attack them when reinforcements arrive? Who’s to say they won’t see me as part of the organization and kill me?

What if… I never see Clara again?

For the first time in a long time, I felt truly scared. All other thoughts aside, the fear of never seeing my sister again began to eat at me. I felt as if I was drifting away from my own self.

This dark, infinite nothingness seemed to be taking me with it. I could feel my consciousness slowly disintegrating.

“Clara…”

For a moment I forgot where I was, who I was.

“Where are you?!”

The only thing on my mind was my sister. I was looking for her, looking this way and that way, even though I knew I wouldn’t find her.

I had lost myself.

“I… I’m sorry…”

Why am I apologizing?

What is happening…?

“I can’t lose you again… I’m sorry.”

Who… is this? These thoughts… are they mine?

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