Professor Rueger smiled ruefully and held out an envelope to them. He pulled out the Grand Plan with only Henrik and Mathias’ name on it. “Vigant, this is the real reason why you didn’t write Keyserling’s name as well as Baumann’s, isn’t it?” He gave Henrik a stern look.
“This was my third safety measure. I was positive they wouldn’t allow him to be held back for a second year,” Henrik answered with full composure.
“You’re somethin’ else,” Mathias whistled.
“With that said and done, get both of their signatures and resubmit it to me.”
“You’ll let us do that?!” Mia exclaimed.
“I’ll write it off officially as my students carelessly forgetting to write their names. Part of the blame lies with Einz’s ineptitude too. Besides, I can’t refuse a request directly from President Stricker. Just keep this between us.” Professor Rueger sounded pleased. Their Grand Plan must’ve really caught his fancy.
“Even though the Royal Academy is the biggest organization at the heart of the kingdom, they won’t let us take part in any stimulating research. I’ve been fighting for innovation to the system for a while now. Restrictions shouldn’t be placed on learning,” he continued, “This should be a place where scholars can study what they want. If we can get your Grand Plan to pass there’ll be huge reforms, but it’ll be a challenge for me considering my position. Basically, you could say you’re my accomplices in fighting the system.”
Boyish delight and deviousness glimmered in his eyes, which Mia found adorable. They had gained a reliable ally, and it brought an unintentional smile to her lips.
“We will do everything we can to make it happen. I look forward to receiving your continued guidance.”
“Then take care of getting the signatures.” Embarrassed about getting so passionate in talking to children, Professor Rueger sheepishly exited the classroom as fast as he could.
He’s a great professor who’s zealous about academics, Mia thought from the bottom of her heart.
“Oh no!” Mia exclaimed, looking at the Grand Plan. “How will we get Felix’s signature while he’s under house arrest? Mathias, do you know where he lives? I’ll deliver it to him.”
Mia’s casual question struck Mathias stiff. “Nah, I’ll take it to him instead!” he quickly offered.
“I bet he lives pretty close by,” Henrik broke in, checking over their Grand Plan next to Mia.
“I’ll sew your lips together,” Mathias threatened.
Their sudden tension reeked of secrets. Mia narrowed her eyes on her teammates. “I know he’s a wealthy nobleman, but you aren’t going to give me some lame excuse by saying I can’t visit him because I’m of a lower class, are you?”
“Uh…I mean, that guy doesn’t want you to find out. No way am I gonna be the one to blab ‘bout it.” Mathias wavered, his eyes darting around the room for a way out of explaining.
Mia felt bad putting him on the spot, so she lightened the pressure. She didn’t like that they were keeping things from her, but everyone had a secret or two. Friends were people who respected each other’s space when necessary.
“Okay, go get his signature for us then, Mathias.”
“Will do. I’ll hop right to it.” He roughly scratched his black hair in relief over being spared an inquisition and marched toward the door with the Grand Plan in hand.
“…Wait up.” Henrik circled around in front of him to block his path. “We probably need to move as one right now.”
“Why’s that?” Mathias dubiously eyed him, itching to get out of there before things became more complicated.
“Some things have bothered me since seeing this Grand Plan. The paper with just your and my name on it was left alone in the mailbox. Most people here know Mia is teamed up with us, so it’d be weird for them not to destroy our paper too if they’d looked in the mailbox. In other words, we can assume the culprit went straight for Professor Einz without ever touching the mailbox.”
“Ah!” Mia exchanged looks with Mathias.
“Only the four of us were in the hallway when we submitted the paper. Now how did the culprit know the Grand Plan was with Professor Einz?”
Mia sank into silence. The only way for the culprit to have found out was if a member of Mia’s team or Professor Einz had shared the information with someone else.
Every member of the team had put their heart and soul into the Grand Plan and had no reason to sabotage it. Process of elimination left Professor Einz as the information leak. If it turned out she was the informant, then whoever she had told was the culprit.
Coming to that conclusion, Mia studied Henrik’s face—he was likely hinting at the same thing.
He took her look to mean she caught on, and summarized the rest of her thoughts for her, “Here’s the thing, no matter how you look at it, from Mia getting frozen to Professor Einz coming down with a sudden illness, this series of attacks is beyond what students can pull off on their own. Mia was frozen in the greenhouse, where it’d be difficult for a mage to gain entry, and even if they had somehow, didn’t Professor Bahr tell us there aren’t any students proficient enough with water magic to pull it off at this school? You could claim he’s lying, but if there really was such a student, there’d be rumors about them before the incident. And in the case that someone’s trying to conceal their power, what motive would they have for doing that? But there is one theory I have where everything makes perfect sense.”
“What’s your theory?”
Henrik lowered his voice to a barely audible whisper, “The military has always been trying to stop us.” He grinned at the two gaping at him. “What attacked Mia wasn’t something as benign as a girl’s jealousy gone wild. They might’ve used her to their advantage, but their real goal was to obstruct any submissions related to Demon Claw. Someone from the military has infiltrated the Royal Academy—the dots connect if we think about it that way. Think about it: the high-level freeze spell, they’re always one step ahead of us, and, most important of all, the fact that research into Demon Claw has never been touched even once until now.”
Having finished his speech, Henrik folded his arms and sighed loudly. “Man’s thirst for knowledge can’t be restrained simply by money. I’ve always thought it was highly unnatural that no scholars before us yearned for the truth. We’re talking decades of untouched research potential.”
Shudders racked Mia’s body. If Henrik’s theory was right…not only did they have enemies on the outside, but right beside them, inside their very own campus a fearsome enemy was lying in wait. She instinctively scanned the room and the view outside the windows. As she was doing that, Mathias turned blue and begun to mutter restlessly to himself. PING! A transparent bubble coalesced around them. Startled, Mia turned to Mathias.
“I made a wall of air around us. It’s beginner wind magic,” he explained, sounding relieved that his spell had worked. He was covering them so there was less of a chance they would be overheard.
Henrik still kept his voice low as they continued conversing. Their whispers were heavy, as if to represent the gravity of the situation. Nervousness tensed Mia’s cheeks.
“They shouldn’t be able to take any drastic measures on campus, but we aren’t protected outside Academy walls. So let’s not do anything alone. We’re in a crisis. We’ll go to Felix’s place as a group.”
Mathias was reluctant yet grimly nodded anyway.
“But if your theory’s right then…we’re in danger at the Academy as well. I wish we could at least pinpoint who it is,” Mia groaned.
“Professors from the Mage Department are connected to the military, but when it comes down to it, it’s President Strickler who controls personnel affairs here. The royal family only employs neutral parties,” Mathias lamented with a scrunched-up face. Silence fell inside their transparent bubble.
“I think there’s a real simple answer to this though… Not like I want to test it, but…I say we set a trap.” Sadness clouded Henrik’s visage as he held the Grand Plan up to eye level.