I stayed a little longer in the city since many were still busy with their missions.
When everyone was done—or time was up—we went back to the academy.
We had all come in carriages, and we returned the same way.
Lucas was sitting next to me.
I asked,
"So, what were you doing? I didn't see you anywhere."
He looked at me, expressionless.
"After what happened, I didn't want to go anywhere. I just slept and ate."
I laughed.
Well, his life wasn't really in danger the whole time. After all, I was there with him.
But it's good for his growth.
He said suddenly,
"But was it really important to do it now?"
He was talking about the report. I had barged into his room and made him do it. Of course, I was there too—our mission had been the same.
I nodded.
"Yes. When the professor asks, we can present immediately that way."
He sighed.
And so, talking about this and that, we soon arrived at the academy.
Lucas bid me farewell, and we went our separate ways.
Well, our rooms were in the same building, but he was heading to the cafeteria first.
I didn't feel hungry, so I just went to my dorm.
I reached my room and jumped onto my bed. I hadn't been in any real danger, but I still didn't like dealing with all this weird stuff.
But now I was thinking about something I'd ignored before.
Why wasn't the place we went to mentioned in the novel? Obviously, no student was capable of going there, so the author didn't write about Alaric visiting it. But someone must have gone there. After all, the number of missions equaled the number of pairs—so someone had to have picked it.
But that place wasn't mentioned.
Now, you might say the author simply didn't include it, even though it happened. Maybe the professors didn't inform the students because it wasn't something they could handle anyway.
But it's not like that.
The author actually mentioned a lot of things around the world—even those not directly related to the protagonist. Something like that, and in the same city, would've been mentioned.
Maybe the students didn't enter the broken wall. After all, it wasn't marked on the map. So… was it me who triggered it?
Well, since no one was harmed, it's all good.
In the first place, even if not from the academy, someone would've gone there for a regular inspection and triggered it. Maybe some dark organization entered and harnessed the power. That could also explain why it wasn't mentioned.
And thinking about everything that happened in the city, and reviewing it all, I fell asleep.
---
A few days passed, and our classes resumed.
Everyone was sitting in the room, talking—some about the mission, others about random things.
Soon, the door opened, and Professor Kael entered.
Everyone went quiet and instantly became attentive.
Professor said,
"Everyone did quite well on their mission. This time, things were better than average."
Everyone looked happy and excited.
Then Professor said,
"Alright then, submit your reports."
Students looked at each other.
One student asked,
"Report?"
Professor raised an eyebrow.
"Well, you do a mission—then isn't it obvious to submit a report to your superior in rank?"
Everyone was at a loss.
That's when Lucas and I stood up and submitted our report.
Professor nodded to us before saying to the others,
"Complete the reports by tomorrow."
Well, the academy hadn't asked for reports during the previous missions, so it was obvious they forgot.
The class continued as usual.
The next day, everyone submitted their reports. Professor had asked to put it in the desk of his office.
And then, after reviewing them all, Professor Kael said,
"Are you all idiots?"
Students looked at him, confused.
Professor continued,
"You were discussing your missions in cafés. What about secrecy? What if a spy was watching you? What if they found out you were investigating them? What if, because of you, other students were compromised?"
No one said a word.
Then he announced,
"The second-highest grade is given to the pair of Alaric Blackwood and Thalia Trystan. They receive sixty points out of a hundred. And the highest goes to Elric Lewin and Lucas Rivers—with ninety-eight points. The third-highest hasn't even crossed fifty."
Well, all that did make me a little happy. But what made me happier was that this was the only lecture today.
---
The sound of chairs scraping echoed through the lecture hall like the aftermath of a long battle. Class was finally over, and everyone looked too tired—or too proud—to care. Most students left chatting about their grades—some smiling smugly, others cursing their luck.
Lucas nudged me as he packed his bag. "You're not coming?"
"In a minute," I said, staring absently at the professor's desk.
He shrugged, clearly eager to escape the suffocating classroom air. "Don't overthink it. We did fine."
I waited until the last of the footsteps faded down the corridor. The quiet after noise always felt heavier, as if the air itself were waiting for something else to begin.
And that's when I noticed it—just faintly—a shimmer near Professor Kael's desk. Barely visible unless you'd spent years practicing detection magic. The light bent ever so slightly, like air around a candle flame.
But my Omniscient picked it up. To detect it without Omniscient, one would probably need to use a high-level detection spell.
"Huh," I muttered. "That's not supposed to happen."
Mana residue.
And not just any kind—it hummed wrong. It wasn't aligned to any natural element. It pulsed like a tear in space.
My chest tightened slightly. I'd felt this before.
Distortion.
The same signature as the man who'd attacked me in the ruins.
I crouched near the desk, tracing the edges of the lingering residue. It was faint—hours old at most—but still strong enough to leave ripples. Whoever had stood here had used advanced space manipulation magic.
Which raised an obvious question: what the hell was someone using Distortion for inside a classroom?
Kael wasn't the type to toy with space spells. He was a swordsman—efficient, direct, and allergic to anything requiring magic circles or patience.
So this wasn't him.
I sighed and placed my palm on the desk, letting a trickle of mana flow outward, activating my low-level detection spell, Spectral Veil. It was one of those spells everyone in the first year learned and forgot by midterm—except I never forgot.
This will work only because I already know exactly where to use it.
Blue threads of light spread out like veins, marking faint lines of residual energy. The pattern confirmed it: someone had teleported something here. Small-scale, precise—like passing a letter through space.
A message?
Or… a report.
My mind clicked.
Our reports.
Professor Kael had collected them. I remembered his hand hovering over the pile longer than usual, like he was thinking about something.
I straightened up slowly. Maybe I was being paranoid. After all, paranoia and mana detection were like siblings—always together, rarely helpful. Still, the thought gnawed at me.
"Alright," I muttered. "Let's see if I'm overthinking again."
---
The Library Archives
The academy library smelled like dust, ink, and old magic—basically my three least favorite things. The archives were on the lowest floor, sealed behind a brass door inscribed with preservation runes that hummed faintly when touched.
The librarian, Professor Mireille, sat behind the counter with her usual unamused expression, a stack of papers taller than my self-esteem.
Well, my low self-esteem is mainly because of my ordinary appearance.
Sigh.
"Elric Lewin," she said without looking up. "If you're here to request restricted access again, I will personally escort you out."
Old lady, I've teleported in plenty of times when I really wanted to. Don't think you're guarding anything successfully that I wish to access.
"Not this time," I said quickly. "I just need to check the submission records for mission reports."
Her quill froze mid-stroke. "The reports?"
"Yeah. Something's been bugging me. I want to confirm if the professors received them in proper order."
She gave me a long stare over her glasses. "That's not standard procedure."
"Neither is getting ninety-eight points," I said with a half-smile.
She sighed. "You have a talent for irritating authority, Mr. Lewin."
Well, it's mainly because, after spending a few days as a lord, anyone else's authority just irritates me.
But I simply said, "Occupational hazard."
She muttered something about "troublemaking prodigies" but handed me a small iron key anyway. "Five minutes. No copying, no enchantments."
"I wouldn't dream of it," I said.
I walked past her counter into the archive chamber—rows of shelves, each lined with neatly bound reports, organized by class, then by pair, then by date.
My fingers brushed across the spines until I reached our section: First-Year Missions.
Lucas and I—Row 7, Slot 15.
Alaric and Thalia—Row 7, Slot 16.
I pulled our report out first. Everything looked fine: two signatures, standard parchment, stamped by Professor Kael. Nothing unusual.
Then I slid Alaric and Thalia's report free.
Something was off immediately.
The edges of the parchment were crisp, but faint mana residue lingered along the seal—like someone had broken and reattached it. Most people wouldn't notice, but mana leaves fingerprints, and whoever handled this hadn't bothered to wipe their traces.
I whispered, "Distortion magic again."
The exact same kind.
I turned to the logbook beside the shelf. Every time someone accessed or moved a document, they had to record their name and date.
And there it was—a gap.
Between Professor Kael's recorded submission and today's entry, there was a blank line—no name, no date. The writing charm even glitched there, ink smudged into static.
Someone had accessed the report, bypassed the magical log, and reinserted it later.
I exhaled slowly. "Well, that's subtle."
A part of me wanted to laugh. Because really, what were the chances? I'd fought a pseudo-powerhouse in the ruins, and now I was finding traces of the same kind of magic inside our academy.
Fantastic. I really needed a vacation.
Still, curiosity always wins. I placed both reports side by side on the desk, activating my Omniscient Sense just enough to analyze the residual energy patterns.
Ours was clean—our writing, our mana.
Theirs… had a faint echo. The same distortion signature appeared in two places: near the seal, and faintly across the lower half of the parchment. As if something had been added and then erased.
Not physically—but magically. Of course I was observing physical effects since using magic in here might do more harm than good.
I couldn't tell what it had been, but the mana trace suggested it was information about a location—or coordinates.
Someone had used Alaric and Thalia's report to smuggle or transfer data.
And that someone had been right here.