In the headmaster’s office in the council building, Francis heard a knock on the door.
"Enter!" he raised his voice so it could be heard outside the door.
The door opened and Michelle stepped inside.
"Headmaster... I was told Master called to co here," she bowed her head slightly in greeting.
Francis nodded.
"Did you rest well?" he asked.
"Yes, headmaster," Michelle answered calmly.
"It has been quite a while since I slept this good." That was actually true.
She wasn’t even aware of it at first, but she realized it when she thought about it; she ended up naturally falling asleep on Alexander’s lap and slept comfortably through the whole night.
And Alexander’s presence probably helped with that.
"That’s good..." Francis didn’t know what was going through Michelle’s head.
He just thought that after returning to a sowhat familiar place, she was able to sleep peacefully.
He had no idea that the whole night, the man he deed dangerous and suspicious was with her.
"As you’ve probably guessed, or your father already told you," Francis spoke, "Marcus won’t be coming here. We just told him to have one of his students call you here. Soon, Vincent will bring that guy that brought you back and we will talk about what happened."
Michelle nodded as she sat down in one of the prepared seats in front of the desk.
On the other side was Francis’ seat.
Just like Francis said, soon, the door opened and Vincent stepped in, Alexander right behind him.
Vincent showed Alexander to sit on the chair next to Michelle while he himself walked around the desk and leaned on the window fra behind the desk.
Seeing Michelle next to him, Alexander’s eyes narrowed into sothing that resembled a smile.
"I see you are fine now... So the academy was at least able to let you rest." His dislike of the Ostrich Academy was still as clear as day.
Francis had a slight frown on his face.
He didn’t like Alexander.
So, instead he turned his attention to Michelle.
"Ana, how did you really disappear? What happened?" he asked, concerned.
In the end, Ana Ostrich was his family, so he was genuinely concerned about her safety and what had happened to her.
Michelle looked down at her hands, a frown forming on her face.
It looked like she was uncomfortable rembering what had happened.
And if she was really Ana, it would make sense, since (officially) she had nearly drowned because soone was plotting against her.
"Well... When that body-tempering cube Teacher Deeber gave pulled into its space, I was in my room. But when I got out of it, soone grabbed from behind and forced my head underwater..." as she spoke, she gripped her hands together, which made it highly look like fear gripped her when she rembered what happened.
Listening to Michelle, Francis had a frown on his face.
Standing behind him, Vincent was calr, since he knew that didn’t really happen, but he still put on a distressed expression in case Francis looked back or soone barged into the office.
After listening to Michelle talk, Francis turned to Alexander:
"When you found her, she was already unconscious?"
Alexander nodded.
"She wasn’t responding when I dragged her out of the water, and her breathing was uneven," that was what Michelle told him to say.
"Why would soone like you drag an unconscious student out of water? People of your power usually don’t concern themselves with things like that."
Francis was still clearly suspicious of Alexander.
Even after the talk he had with him the day before.
But it was a fact that Alexander made no effort to rid himself of the suspicion.
Quite the opposite; he constantly did or said things that were ant to unsettle Francis.
Because of that, Francis kept asking him questions of all kinds, sotis even repeating himself.
By asking the sa questions all over again, he could see changes in what Alexander said, letting him know if he was telling the truth.
Small changes in the answers were to be expected.
Nobody tells the sa story twice the sa way unless they’ve rehearsed it beforehand.
Perfectly sa repetition would raise suspicion.
But at the sa ti, the changes in the answers couldn’t be all that big.
That would be a clear sign of lying.
Francis thought he could find out the truth that way, but Alexander and Michelle were ahead of him.
As the Dark Lord, Alexander had interrogated quite a few people in his life and thus knew all the tricks.
So, he made slight tweaks to his answers as he repeated them, but made sure not to change the facts.
"Are you doubting ?" Alexander’s eyes narrowed dangerously at Francis’ question.
In the first place, it was clear he didn’t like the academy, so it wasn’t surprising that being questioned about his actions ticked him off.
Francis felt goosebumps rise along his spine, but he stayed calm.
"I’m rely concerned by the fact that what you did is unusual compared to others." He didn’t want Alexander to get angry.
He was clearly dangerous, so he didn’t want to risk things.
Alexander kept his eyes narrowed, but his posture eased a bit.
"Are my intentions all that important to you?" he questioned.
His defensive stance made Francis really wonder what was going on.
It highly felt like Alexander had so ulterior motives he was hiding.
Thinking about that, Francis glanced at Michelle seated opposite him.
He was expecting her to be tense next to Alexander, but she seed quite calm.
Even comfortable.
Considering how Alexander was acting, a normal person wouldn’t be calm and comfortable next to him.
Unless they personally knew him.
And even other things suggested that Alexander wasn’t just a random person who saved Michelle.
If Alexander did hold a grudge against the academy, why did he bring her back?
And when he brought her back, why was he fixated on how the academy treated its students?
He was obviously biased towards Michelle.
When the realization dawned on Francis, he looked over at Michelle.
"Ana, did you know this man before he brought you here?" he asked with furrowed brows.
"No!" in Francis’ eyes, Michelle denied it way too quickly, like she was trying to cover sothing up.
Also, when he asked that, Alexander shifted a bit, as if he was uncomfortable with the question.
Sothing was definitely fishy.
So, Francis turned to his brother behind him.
Vincent also had a frown on his face, though that was just pretend.
"Have you ever seen him?" Francis asked, beckoning with his chin at Alexander.
Vincent narrowed his eyes further, observing Alexander closely.
"He seems familiar..." he finally said, sounding uncertain.
Francis had the view of Vincent that he rarely rembered faces.
So if Vincent vaguely recognized Alexander, he must have seen him at least a few tis, just didn’t talk or interact with him.
That was an important clue.
Francis turned his gaze back to Michelle and Alexander.
"So you two know each other!" he was nearly certain when he said that.
Michelle remained silent, while Alexander turned his head towards her, a knowing glint in his eyes.
It was as if he was asking if that was what she wanted; to cause a scandal.
The mont Francis saw Alexander turn to Michelle, he thought he found the answer, and it wasn’t one he was happy with.
"Ana Ostrich!" he raised his voice.
"You are the daughter of the Ostrich family! How can you fool around like this?! You know your engagent will be decided by the family!"
"Uncle!" Michelle snapped back, calling Francis uncle instead of headmaster.
"When has this family cared about ?! When my parents died, ancestral grandfather had to take care of because no one wanted to take in! If father didn’t adopt later on, I would have died because ancestral grandfather had never been capable of raising children!" she was nearly shouting.
"This family has never once cared about , except father, so why should I wait for you to decide an engagent for ! It would only be a political alliance and I would be forced into a marriage with soone I would barely know!"
Francis froze at Michelle’s retort, unable to react for a mont.
It was true that since Ana Ostrich had been a child, he barely interacted with her.
And that was true for the whole family.
The only ones who ever showed her care were the ancestor, who was clumsy in his way, and Vincent, her adoptive father and biological cousin.
Not knowing how to react, Francis turned to Vincent for help.
But Vincent had his hand over his face, seeming as stumped as Francis was.
Finally, Francis spoke; at Vincent.
"Brother, she’s your daughter, you have to take care of this..."
Vincent raised his head to look at Francis before turning to Michelle and Alexander.
"The man has to leave!" he finally said.
"And you aren’t allowed to contact him again, Ana!"
Michelle instantly protested: "If you make him leave, I’m going with him! You won’t see again!"
"Ana!" Vincent was clearly unhappy with that.
But Michelle had argunts to throw back.
"He saved from drowning while you didn’t even know I was missing! He was with while nobody noticed !"
Listening to Michelle’s made up argunts, since she wasn’t really Ana Ostrich, Alexander suppressed a smile.
She was really planning to blow up the whole thing.
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