Chapter Five: Fate
1
ROSWALD MERLIN GOLDBERG, HEADMASTER OF Aslan Magic Academy, quietly looked out of the window of his office. The black curtain of night had yet to open on a new day, but there were a great many guards rushing around the buildings outside.
“Luke is strong. ’Twas that strength of his that saved us this night. Oh, how pathetic…”
Who exactly those words were directed at was unclear. Perhaps the headmaster was speaking to himself, unable to protect the students of his academy, or perhaps—
Thud, thud!
There was a booming, rough knock at the door, which then opened without the slightest pause for a response. An academy instructor entered—a man named Duke.
“I’m back, old man. Silver lining is that we had barely a scrape here tonight, let alone any casualties… You been to see him?”
“Hmph, Luke appeared completely unfazed. He even looked annoyed by my fretting over his well-being,” the headmaster replied. “Ho ho…truly, the boy looked quite displeased with me indeed. Strong, that one.”
“Yeah,” Duke nodded. “Looks like he killed all of his attackers. Much as I hate to admit it, the kid really saved us. I mean, if it weren’t for him—”
Thump!
Roswald drove his fist into the wall.
“What kind of instructor am I, when I cannot protect my students?”
The headmaster’s words were drenched in anger and regret. This behavior was so uncharacteristically concerning that it made even Duke fall silent.
“To be so brazen too…” Roswald continued. “The contemptuous, uncivilized brute responsible for this will rue the day that they undermined my academy, I will make sure of that.”
“You realized it too, then?”
“Of course. The long life I have led hasn’t been for naught. ’Twas someone on the inside that guided the attack this night, no?”
“Yeah,” Duke agreed uncomfortably. “I don’t want to think it, but that’s the only explanation that makes sense to me.”
“Nor do I wish to believe it, yet nothing can be done about that now.”
There was someone in their order who had betrayed them. It was not an uncommon occurrence by any means, but that did not make it any easier to stomach.
“Heck…this might spell the end of the whole academy, so that might not even matter much.”
“Indeed. The noble faction will not allow this incident to go unpunished… ’Tis an awful thing that I must consider now.”
“Damn right. We’d all forgotten, but this attack’s exposed just how weak Milestia really is…” Duke paused. “Nah, I think maybe we already knew. We were just tryin’ not to see the truth all this time.”
“…Hmph.”
Roswald stroked his long beard and silently turned to face Duke. In the headmaster’s eyes dwelled the stubborn light of determination.
“We’re having a meeting. Call everyone together for me, won’t you?”
“Sure.”
With that, the two of them left the headmaster’s office.