Three hours had passed since I left Sue's side. The sun had already risen and so of the students still in the academy were starting to go outside.
I was out too, walking slowly toward the main campus, hiding my face with the hood I was wearing, and observing my surroundings.
I could see groups of friends joking around with each other, people hanging out with their lovers, security guards on patrol, and everything else I would expect to see in a normal academy.
Actually, when I look at this place like this, I can't help but feel like I'm not in Lunerra, but in my old world.
There are really many differences between the two worlds, but that doesn't change the fact that they are 'similar'. After all, both worlds are inhabited by a creature called 'human beings'.
Just as there are those who are joking around right now, there are those who are being bullied right now. Just as there are those who hang out with their lovers now, there are also those who cheat on them and break up with them for ridiculous or logical reasons. Just as there are security patrols now, there are those who take bribes and ignore what is happening.
My world has changed, but people are no different from before. And that's how I'll be able to do what I want to do.
Finally, after entering the main campus, I went up to the fourth floor without looking at anyone. My goal was to go much higher than that, to the highest room, but students were not allowed to go beyond the fourth floor without permission. So it didn't take long for a security guard to intercept .
"Where are you going?"
"I wanted to et the rector."
The guard suddenly frowned.
"Don't be ridiculous, is the rector of the academy going to et with you who didn't even make an appointnt?"
"I don't need an appointnt if you tell her that red roses can only be different and magnificent among the whites, otherwise they are just a simple, ordinary red rose."
"Get lost, boy! She has enough on her plate as it is, she doesn't need to listen to your nonsense!"
The man was talking loudly, drawing attention to us.
Fortunately, I was talking to him in a corner, especially so that our voices would not be overheard by others, it would not be good for in the long run if soone was listening to our conversation.
"If you tell her what I said, yes, she will listen. I'm here as an ambassador for a family I cannot na because I have an urgent ssage from the family I'm in the service of and it concerns almost the entire academy. By continuing to ignore , you are earning the hatred of my family right now and of the academy in the future. Believe , this won't be a simple firing. Now, do you still want to stand in my way?"
Taking advantage of the Absolute Mind, I added coldness to my coldness and calmness to my calmness.
A bead of sweat trickled down the guard's forehead, his expression beca hesitant, but he still didn't want to back down.
"How do I know you're not lying?"
I narrowed my eyes and looked him straight in the eye without hesitation.
The guard reflexively took a step back.
"O -okay... I'll get what you said to the Rector sohow, but it'll take a long ti, and rember that if what you said doesn't turn out to be true, you can expect a lot of bad things for obstructing security and all sorts of other things..."
The guard turned around, frightened but also furious, and gently lifted the bracelet on his left wrist.
Imdiately after he did so, a holographic screen opened in front of him.
Above the screen were indicators similar to those of old-style walkie-talkies, only more modern.
The man used his bracelet to contact soone and relay exactly what I had told him, then turned to and told that I could just wait.
He told that we would have to wait for about an hour to get any results and that the rector was really busy, but contrary to his estimation, only ten minutes later I saw a man in a suit approaching us.
"Please follow ."
When the man said this from behind the security guard, the guard jumped in fright. Then he turned around angrily, but the mont he saw the man in the suit, he went rigid.
"Sure."
Ignoring the guard, I approached the man and spoke without turning around.
"Good luck with your work."
As I left him like that, the guard didn't say a word behind .
Apparently, he was in shock...
Whatever.
The man in the suit and I went up to the fifth floor, ignoring everything else around us. They did a simple search on and then we went to the sixth floor.
When we finally got to the seventh floor of the building, there were only suits around. The environnt had beco more austere, yet luxurious. In addition, literally 'all' eyes were on in case I did sothing wrong.
"You are going to et the rector. This is no longer a normal event. So unless you have a really important reason to interrupt her, you will suffer the consequences."
The man in the suit accompanying said these words as we stood in front of a door that was almost three ters high. I scowled back at him.
"I know, I'm not that stupid. Or do I look that way from the outside?"
I looked him in the eye, putting all my weight in my gaze. There was a brief mont of tension, but neither of us looked away.
"Then you can go inside."
The suit turned to the three n standing in front of the door and nodded to them. Then the huge three-ter door opened for .
The first thing I noticed when I entered the room was that it was exactly the sa as in the ga. Everything was exactly the sa except that the graphics were more 'realistic'.
The right side of the room, which was almost several tis the size of a normal living room, was luxurious, designed to be a huge guest lounge. A few armchairs, a large table with short legs in the center, glass cups on the table, a large view of the academy campus that could be seen looking out from the seats, paintings large and small on the walls, a cabinet with glass doors containing countless trophies and so on...
Other than that, the left side of the room was a complete ss. Paintings were taken down from the wall in one corner, photos of other executives lined up along the wall, and a few boxes of colons and technological devices that I didn't even know what they were for.
"First of all... Can you tell where you heard that quote?"
As I surveyed the room, a woman's voice rose from across the room and my eyes reflexively turned in that direction.
If I ignore the left and right sides of the room, the first and most obvious thing that greeted the person was a large table in front of as soon as the door opened.
The table was covered with holographic screens, but the important thing was the woman sitting across it.
The woman sitting at the table had bright blonde hair and blue eyes. At first glance, she looked like soone in her early thirties, but she was actually forty-four. This was due to the conditions of life with mana and partly because this woman lived a really 'healthy' life.
"I would like to speak alone if possible."
There are two suits behind , watching just in case, and what we are about to talk about is sensitive.
I don't want anyone, no matter how trustworthy, to listen to . Especially in an academy that is largely controlled by others.
The rector fixed her blue eyes on , we looked at each other for a while and then I began to feel a pressure.
Sothing was attacking my mind directly, the air in the room was getting colder. I could feel it, but the only thing I did in spite of it was to sigh deeply.
Attacking my mind? Try it with Absolute Mind.
Cooling the atmosphere in the room? I don't want you to know, but I'm half-wiera.
Despite the rector's efforts, I continued to stand there and calmly keep my eyes fixed on hers. The pressure on was increasing by the second, even to the point that the suits behind started to feel uncomfortable.
Only a few seconds after even the suits started to feel uncomfortable, the pressure suddenly stopped.
"Get out."
The woman's voice sounded much more authoritative than before. This was so that the suits would listen to her without question, and so they did.
After her command, they both bowed their heads slightly and left the room. That left only the rector and inside.
"It doesn't really matter where I heard the word. I am here to make you an offer and I think you will like it very much."
The woman's eyebrows rose slightly at my words.
The saying was a code word for anything to do with academy business. It didn't matter much to except that I had used it once.
"So you are not an ambassador for a family?"
"No, I'm not."
This is where I stumbled and lost my composure.
It was sudden, too fast for to react, and this ti the mana she was using to put pressure on was penetrating directly into my body, not my mind.
I couldn't fight back, even if I wanted to, because there was a huge difference between and the woman in front of in terms of statistics alone.
"Do you know what the punishnt is for coming here lying and keeping busy?"
"Yes..."
I tried to get up from where I had stumbled, and after so effort, I managed and carefully straightened myself up.
The pressure was still there, it had just weakened a little.
"I know quite well, which is why I'm making my offer not to the rector of this academy, but to the lady of the Quie Family."
"Oh?"
The woman, Lucia's mother, as I just said, folded her arms across her chest and looked at curiously.
"Now you have my attention. So tell , what is this offer?"
Okay... Here we go.
"We can erase the Malus Family from the kingdom."
The woman's deanor turned one hundred and eighty degrees the mont she heard that. The authoritative deanor I had always maintained disappeared and she narrowed her eyes.
"Excuse ?"
"I'm talking about the Malus family, the Quie family's greatest rival. We can wipe them out of Cevilian and the foundations have already been laid. Justin Malus is dead, I killed him myself."
I don't want to bring Sue into this.
That aside... I expected her to be stunned and reflexively stand up after what I said, but she is strangely calm.
"So you're openly admitting that you killed a nobleman? And how can you, who is second to last in the ranking, kill Justin, who is directly in second place? Do you expect to believe that?"
"I don't expect you to believe , you will inevitably believe as the conversation goes on and, in the future, when news of Justin Malus' disappearance spreads everywhere."
She sighed deeply, quickly losing interest as if in a child's ga.
"The Malus Family is not a family that will simply fall. Even if you killed their son, which I still don't believe, they will not fall."
"But what if we reveal the evidence of all the dirty work they've done?"
"It won't be hard for them to cover it up, you underestimate them too much and if this conversation continues, I'll have to hand you over to the kingdom."
"No, Miss Quie, I didn't say that the only thing we'll do is spill their secrets to the dia, that's just one of the things we'll do. So much will be stacked against them that their downfall will be inevitable."
I paused, realizing that she wasn't going to be swayed like that. She had to see it directly, she had to understand.
"Listen to carefully..."
That's how I started talking. I told her a small part of my plan in small detail, and the rector, interestingly, really listened to .
Not just listening, of course. As the words ca out of my mouth, as I started to put things together, her face beca serious again.
When I finally finished explaining so of the things in my head, she beca thoughtful.
Seconds passed, then a minute.
"I see... I have no idea how you got this information, but if they are reliable, the Malus Family could indeed collapse."
"And when that happens, the Quie Family, oppressed by them, can finally start to climb higher."
She took a deep breath, then slowly stood up from her seat.
"Still, I'm not stupid enough to agree to this. Your plan is good and logical, I can't say anything, but this is a much bigger job than you think. So I'm sorry, but I have to hand you over to the kingdom because of the possibility of you killing a noble."
She walked toward , calm and relaxed. She was aware of my power and her own, she knew I had no chance against her.
I knew it too, and of course, I had expected her to react in such a way. I didn't think I could convince her so easily, but I still wanted to take a chance.
"I know that you are not in complete control of the academy."
And with that, the rector's body shuddered and she appeared at my feet, a sword in her hand.
This ti she was not calm, not thoughtful.
She was not only cold but also careful.
"You know too much."
I looked at the sword threatening to pierce through the throat as mana flowed into the Absolute Mind, but I did not avert my eyes.
"The academy is under the control of people whom you don't even know, and there is nothing you can do about it. You've tried fighting them several tis but it's been frustrating, you can't even find out who the spies are and you've received a warning from them. I can solve your problem. Moreover..."
I hesitated for a mont, slowly pushed the sword in front of away with my index finger, and fixed my cold eyes back on her rigid blue ones.
I wasn't supposed to know what I was saying. The fact that I could say these things was so astonishing that she was stunned.
"If you help , I can solve Lucia's statistics problem."
Her eyes widened for the first ti in the entire ti I was in this room, her whole body trembled for the first ti, and she showed a sign of weakness.
"You..."
"Her charm statistic has reached S- grade, hasn't it?"
Her sword slipped through her fingers and fell to the floor. A loud sound echoed around the room. The Rector could not even open her mouth, she just stared at the floor with her eyes still widened.
"My guess is that the statistic won't stop there, it will continue to grow, and you already know what she suffered because of that statistic."
Lucia was soone who couldn't go out freely because of her extrely high charm statistic. She was always restless because all eyes were on her wherever she went, she was getting so much attention that she was even tired of it and tried to be alone. This was taking its toll on her, affecting her psychology in a negative way.
In this world, even a B degree of charm could be enough for a random person to beco one of the most famous models in the world, but for soone to have an S- grade of charm was sothing divine. Moreover, this person would reach an S grade charm at the age of twenty-three.
What would be the consequences? It's scary to imagine and even I don't know the answer to that.
Because in the ga, Lucia usually finds a solution when her charm reaches S grade.
What I'm proposing to the rector is to do it earlier. And she doesn't even know that this will happen in the future.
Can she, as a mother, ignore it when she's faced with the solution to her own daughter's problems?
"Are you... Are you sure you can do this?"
Of course, she can't.
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