Severin stared back at the Head Instructor, his face calm and composed.
His face might be calm, but his heart was a raging sea. To attain the rank of a Commander in the Empire isn’t an easy feat, especially if the Academy was built on the ideology of the strong over the weak.
Then the military is where it was most upheld.
And to be powerful enough to climb the rank? That was exactly what Darius Faulkner did, right from an ordinary soldier to become a Commander.
Severin picked his words carefully. "Ethan is only concerned about his House leader."
"Eh? He’s a member now?"
"For now, yes. He is a temporary member of the House."
Darius didn’t say anything but watched him for a while. His eye flashed with a brief hint of confusion, but it was gone the next instant. "I don’t understand. How do you make those who are much stronger obey you?"
Mentally, Severin rolled his eyes and sneered. ’...because everyone has what they want, and there’s a threshold for how far they are willing to sacrifice for it... I just need to know it and then twist it to what I want... Fortunately, in an Academy like this, what everyone wants the most is power...’
But outside, Severin merely shrugged.
Darius took a step forward, and his presence came with pressure that pressed down on Severin so hard he stumbled backward. It was as if Darius had a force of his own around him. "I picked up on your background. A gutter orphan. Your Talent Ability seems useful, but it was deemed too weak. An F rank? It was a joke..."
He looked at how Severin straightened back as if the pressure wasn’t affecting him. "...and yet you are not doing like the weak should do. I don’t like it. Are you weak, or are you strong?"
Severin frowned and thought about the question. He gave it serious attention before he opened his mouth. "I am a weakling that will do what must be done to be strong."
Darius seemed surprised before he threw his head back and laughed. "Ah! This is an interesting one. A weakling that accepts his own weakness. But that part about you becoming strong? Forget it. I’ve seen thousands of you like that, and their corpses always turn to paste on the battleground."
Severin thought about it again and decided to share more, so he nodded. "That also is a possibility. I am not special. I am only Severin Reignhart, and yet I must do what I must do."
Severin knew the truth about himself. If he was special, he would have been in the body of the Main Protagonist or any of his cast. Given a cheat system or given heaven-defying treasure.
Well.
Maybe he was special with the knowledge that he has.
But the truth was still the truth. Especially when the plot was already unraveling before he could even survive up to a year. Special? When were extras ever special?
And yet.
He must do what he must do to survive.
Darius stopped laughing, and his face hardened. "I don’t like you, and it’s getting more convenient for me to just kill you."
With that, the Head Instructor began to head towards the door, but suddenly Severin called out. "Head Instructor Darius Faulkner!"
The room’s temperature went up instantly, and tension coiled in the air like a viper. The Head Instructor turned slowly, his body rippling with dark lightning. "What is it?"
His voice was calm. The classic example of the calm before the thunderstorm.
Severin took a step forward, unflinching. "The reward. You said you were going to give out a reward for the House that catches the culprit."
The Head Instructor’s face went blank for a while before he narrowed his eyes. "That’s right. I will forward the necessary information to you."
Severin bowed to his retreating back.
"Now then, what should I do?"
☆☆☆ ▪︎▪︎ ☆☆☆
Celia was found that same night because the interrogation of Zigi was fast and brutal once he was confined in a prison that restrains his power.
Of all the people that were kidnapped, only nine people managed to escape. The rest had been killed off by the most creative methods that Zigi could think of.
And his reason for the kidnapping? They wanted to terrorize the Academy because of the key that was lost and also to kill Severin.
In the report that was given to Severin days later, it was mentioned that the Scar targeted him because he killed their members in the research facility and the dungeon.
But Severin knew that the Academy just didn’t want to mention the key.
There was also a small paragraph that stated that there were still spies in the Academy, but most of them weren’t worth it—except for a single one.
Zigi wouldn’t say more about the spies no matter how much he was tortured.
Severin knew of the spy. A spy.
Or at the very least, someone that was working closely with the Scars.
It was why the Scar was able to always mess with the Academy formation that blocks the transmission of important videos and such.
It was why explosives were teleported directly into the Training Center.
It was also why Zigi mentioned the word "Evolve" in the context that he did.
There’s someone in such a position to do it.
Someone that was directly involved in the bringing down of the system and someone that was part of those that made the OPT Core.
It was the person that was blessed by the system.
Severin thought about what he should do about it, and in the end, he came to a rough conclusion—a no-go area.
That was what he concluded.
He didn’t have the power or proof to move against such a person at the moment. Not even his building power could do much, and so he would pretend that he didn’t know anything.
Because even the person wouldn’t move carelessly with all the tension going around.
Severin decided to treat it as a direct link to Scar that he has.
The operation of catching Zigi was a success.
Now, it’s time to deal a blow to the Scar.