"They ran?"
Dean Andrew paid no mind to the man's abrupt entrance. Instead, he slowly repeated the word to himself, as if savoring it.
"If they've run, then recruit others into the factory.
Savant is a large city. If they don't want to work, there are plenty who will. We're not lacking those few."
"B-But… Teacher…"
The middle-aged man swallowed, his voice trembling with anxiety.
"All the workers we can recruit in and around Savant have joined that Heim Industrial Park.
Even the workers who fled from our factories have gone there."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Andrew actually let out a cold laugh.
"I haven't even gone looking for trouble with them yet, and they've already come to me.
It seems Sherlock was the one who got played instead.
Heh. Impressive. Truly impressive."
Andrew's faint sneer made the middle-aged man's heart pound even harder.
Having followed his teacher for over a century, he knew Andrew's temperament all too well.
The calmer he appeared, the angrier he was.
And once his teacher truly grew angry, there was very little he wouldn't dare to do.
The man genuinely feared that Andrew might storm off to confront Lady Viola, the one backing Tina, in open combat.
Even the aftermath of a battle between Sixth-Tier powerhouses would be enough to reduce half of Savent to rubble.
Thus, the man forced himself to speak up cautiously.
"T-Teacher… the Heim Industrial Park's backing is—"
"I know."
Andrew shot him a flat glance before speaking in a low voice.
"Go contact Savant's Chief of Public Security. Have him seal off the industrial park and arrest everyone inside."
"But, Teacher, the Chief of Public Security only answers to the King's orders…"
The man hesitated.
As a scholar deeply immersed in theoretical research, his thinking was rigid—he believed matters should be handled according to rules. In his mind, there were no such concepts as bribery or coercion. If they wished to mobilize the Chief, they would have to go through official procedures.
But clearly, Andrew had long since prepared for this.
With a casual gesture, he summoned a scroll and a token, tossing them to the man.
"This is a temporary order issued by one of the clan elders, along with his signet. Take them and do what needs to be done."
"Y-Yes, Teacher."
The man responded and turned to leave, but before he reached the door, Andrew called out again.
"Have the Academy's Disciplinary Corps accompany them."
The man paused, then nodded.
The Mechanical Academy's Disciplinary Corps was a special force composed entirely of Transcendents, responsible for maintaining order within the academy.
It included not only students but also numerous faculty members and graduates who had chosen to remain at the academy.
One could say that the Corps represented the Academy's strongest overt military force. There were even quite a few Fourth-Tier powerhouses within its ranks, and its captain was none other than the Academy's Vice Dean—Andrew's first student—and another Sixth-Tier powerhouse.
Of course, such a trivial matter would not require the Vice Dean's personal involvement.
Even so, this force was effectively unrivaled within Savant.
After the middle-aged man left, Andrew sat in silence for a moment. Then he put away the Soul-Scorching Lantern and departed as well.
There was nothing more for him here. He intended to return to the Academy.
On the surface, he still had to support the Kingdom's Fourth Princess.
Although the Second Prince's backing—the Magic Potion Academy—had nearly ruined his claim to the throne with the fake formula scandal, the Fourth Princess's camp was hardly faring better.
Among her supporters, the Alchemy Academy had fallen into internal strife; Grand Duke Frick had committed suicide due to the financial crisis; and now the Mechanical Academy was mired in economic turmoil.
At present, her remaining stable forces consisted only of the Savent Knights Order and another powerful duke.
Meanwhile, the recently risen Seventh Princess, Hiness, had secured the support of both the Academy of Bloodline and the Academy of Biology.
In terms of Sixth-Tier powerhouses, the two sides were now evenly matched.
However, Tina—who backed Hiness—had acquired a massive sum of gold. That wealth might well influence the upcoming royal selection.
That was yet another reason Andrew had set his sights on Tina.
Yet when Andrew returned to the Academy, he immediately sensed that something was wrong.
Ordinarily, students at the Mechanical Academy worked diligently for their graduation certificates. The campus streets were usually empty—students either holed up in workshops assembling intricate machinery or studying theory in libraries and lecture halls.
But today, the students were gathered in front of the main gate plaza.
They held banners aloft, as if organizing some sort of demonstration.
Andrew glanced over indifferently. Seeing the name "Kindling Society" displayed on their banners, he assumed it was merely some student club activity and paid it no further mind, quietly walking away.
What he did not know was that a storm of unrest was about to sweep through the entire Mechanical Academy.
It began the day after the financial bubble burst.
Members of the Kindling Society spread a rumor throughout the campus:
The Academy's upper management had secretly embezzled public funds for investment—and lost it all. The Mechanical Academy was bankrupt.
At first, aside from the commoner students, most others dismissed it as attention-seeking nonsense.
But on the second day after the rumor spread, other students began noticing irregularities.
In the past, reimbursements for materials were processed swiftly.
This time, however, when students brought in receipts, the accounting staff offered excuse after excuse to delay payment.
Faced with this, and recalling the earlier rumor, even the skeptical students began to feel uneasy.
After all, tuition at the Mechanical Academy was already exorbitant. Their research achievement belonged to the Academy as institutional property. Now, if even research expenses were no longer reimbursed, how could they possibly accept it?
Thus, more and more people joined the protests led by the Kindling Society—including lower-tier resident scholars and professors.
For them, their relationship with the Academy resembled that of employees to a company.
Andrew's true base of support within the Academy had always been the high-tier Transcendents. In his view, the research scholars contributed little more than financial gains.
He needed them—but not so much that he couldn't do without them.