Chapter 117: An Absurdly Melodramatic Plot

Giles Academy.

“Is this Kelly’s residence?”

Borne looked at the luxurious little villa ahead, rather surprised. He had not expected this woman named Kelly to be so wealthy.

“Yes,” Lissper replied with a nod.

Two spellcasters stood guard at the entrance. They were not students of the academy, however; their mage robes marked them as court mages.

“Pass,” said the taller mage on the left coldly.

“We were here just this morning. Why do you need to check again?” Daliena could not help protesting.

“We recognize only passes. No pass, then get lost. Stop standing there and blocking the way!”

The tall mage was utterly arrogant, and the court mage beside him was no different. Both looked down on the entire group with undisguised contempt.

“Just two security guards. What are they so smug about?” Beroen muttered under his breath.

Jennifer secretly snickered. Beroen was certainly a quick learner.

“Brat, what did you say?” the tall court mage barked. He did not know what “security guard” meant, but it was clearly no compliment.

“Please don’t be angry, senior. My junior doesn’t know any better. Here is our pass. You can let us through now, can’t you?”

Seeing that the conflict was about to escalate, Lissper hurriedly produced the pass and handed it to the court mage.

The tall mage gave a cold snort. “One pass only admits three people.”

“Hey, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? We were all allowed in together this morning, and now you’re limiting the number of people?” Daliena demanded indignantly.

The tall mage merely sneered in silence. The other mage, however, spoke up.

“After you left, the Crown Prince arrived. These are His Highness’s orders.”

Fortunately, the Arcane Society was an auxiliary institution of the academy and still possessed a number of passes. Only after Lissper produced another one did the two court mages allow the group to enter.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

The president glanced at Borne in confusion. What sort of madness was he indulging in now?

“Huh? I… I’m fine. Ha ha ha.”

Borne gave an awkward laugh.

He was feeling faintly disappointed. Ever since the Arcane Society had clashed with the court mages moments earlier, he had watched with shining eyes.

A prince, court mages, and what was clearly an attempt to make things difficult for others—wasn’t this the classic cliché of arrogant people looking down on everyone else?

Borne had even been rather期待ant to see the confrontation escalate, followed by the court mages being humiliated and the prince making a grand entrance only to be humiliated in turn.

Who would have thought it would all end without incident…

Hmph. Terrible review!

…

After the Arcane Society entered, the tall mage asked, “Joe, why did you bother explaining anything to them just now? They’re only a bunch of rookies, acting as though joining the so-called Arcane Society makes them so impressive.”

“I’m not worried about those people from the Arcane Society. It’s the boy beside them—the new face who appeared this afternoon.”

“Oh? You mean the spellcaster wearing that strange robe?”

The tall mage immediately recalled him. Borne’s gaze had been so peculiar that it was impossible not to notice.

“That’s right.”

“You know him?”

“No. But I recognize the family crest on his collar.”

“They’re all nobles. It’s perfectly normal for them to bear insignia.”

“No, his is different. If I remember correctly, that is the crest of House Ioulaum.”

“Oh?! That’s Borne Ioulaum?” The tall mage’s expression grew solemn.

Borne had been on the court mages’ radar ever since he enrolled. He held the title of youngest arcanist, and no matter how unwilling they were to acknowledge it, they could not deny the fact. They had therefore begun watching him from the very start.

If Borne could be persuaded to join the court mages, their reputation in Netheril would rise considerably. That was why they had kept such close track of him.

Since his second year, Borne had been causing one disturbance after another at Giles Academy. It was impossible for the court mages not to notice him. His later exploits had been even more astonishing: he had single-handedly crushed the Arcane Society’s enforcement squad.

Not long afterward, the court mages sent Borne an offer of employment.

Borne was the only student ever to receive an offer from the court mages before graduation. Yet he had rejected it without a moment’s hesitation. The decision caused an uproar among the court mages, and many of them were furious with him.

If not for their regard for Count Ioulaum, they would have taught Borne a lesson long ago.

…

“Not bad. You’ve got pretty good taste.”

Borne wandered about as casually as though he were in his own home.

“B-Boss, we didn’t bring you here to admire the house. We brought you here to investigate the case!”

Beroen hurriedly dragged him back.

“A student has died in the advanced dormitory. In the more than one hundred years since Giles Academy was founded, nothing like this has ever happened. The consequences are far too serious!”

“The court mages have even gotten involved now,” Daliena added quickly. “If they find the murderer before we do, where will that leave the Arcane Society’s reputation?”

“In recent years, the court mages have been interfering more and more in the Arcane Society’s affairs. Now they’re openly trying to seize our responsibilities. If they really find the culprit first, replacing the Arcane Society will probably be their next step!”

The members of the Arcane Society had spent the entire day searching without finding a single clue, which was why they had thought to seek Borne’s help. Of course, this incident was also connected to him in one way or another, so they wanted him to take a look. For all Borne’s flaws—his carelessness, his love of showing off, and his other bad habits—he could still be quite reliable when it mattered.

“All right, all right, I’m here, aren’t I? Step aside and stop getting in the way.”

Borne was not actually strolling around to admire the house. He was searching for clues.

“When was the body discovered? Give me the exact time,” Borne asked.

“The night before last, sometime after midnight. The academy instructors had only recently changed shifts when the signal lit up,” Cook replied hurriedly.

“The instructors were changing shifts?”

Borne pondered in silence for a moment.

Even Borne could detect the flaws in the academy’s defensive magic. It was impossible for the academy’s upper administration not to know about them. The problem was not that the formation was poorly designed, but that the academy’s grounds were simply too vast.

The academy had originally been built with the assistance of the elves, and its magical array had been modeled after elven mythalcraft.

Yet mythalcraft was the pinnacle of elven magical achievement. How could the elves possibly have truly built one for humans? The Mage Tower alone made that clear: it did not even possess a tower spirit. The magical array covering the entire academy was merely a crippled version of mythalcraft, and it naturally contained countless flaws.

Although Netheril’s magical civilization had advanced greatly over the years, the elven array had already been fixed in place and was extremely difficult to modify. Even if changes were made, they would not improve matters by much. Thus, academy instructors had to supervise the Mage Tower at all times.

Put simply, they served as substitutes for a “tower spirit,” carrying out the monitoring manually.

“The academy changes its guards three times every night. If the shifts are changed at the same time each night, then the relevant change should have occurred at around one in the morning. That means approximately forty hours have passed.”

Borne walked over to a patch of dried blood and crouched down beside it.

“She died here?”

Cook stepped forward and answered, “Yes. When the signal from the magical array lit up the night before last, the academy instructor arrived and found Kelly already dead, lying right here.”

Cook pointed toward the dried blood ahead.

“Activate chip scan. Simulate the scene. Roll back to forty hours ago.”

Borne issued the command in his mind. A faint blue light immediately shimmered in his eyes.

…

End of Chapter