Anything for You II / Case Closed?

A familiar scene unfolded before me as I stepped into Professor Seris’s office behind him and Shina. Kerne, Mara, and Akio were already spread across the room, making Fleur the only missing element to differentiate this meeting from the last.

As before, Professor Seris took position in front of his desk before speaking. “I apologize for stealing you away during dinner, but the fallout of recent events has stripped me of spare time. I have already arranged for the kitchen to provide late meals for the five of you, so please do not worry in that regard.” His gaze shifted toward Shina and me. “Alas, I lost track of you two, but at least I found you before things escalated further.”

Shina looked down as if bowing her head. “I-I’m sorry. I behaved shamefully.”

I placed a hand on her back. “That guy was an asshole. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Even if you got pretty damn close…

“Hm? Wait, did something happen?” Akio asked.

“Nothing noteworthy.” To my surprise, Professor Seris brushed the encounter aside. “Between the inane rumors going around and the ghastly aura seeped into the academy, it was only a matter of time before someone picked a fight with one of you. I believe Shina has recognized her mistakes, and I trust her not to repeat them. As such, there is nothing more to say on the matter.”

Akio still looked confused at the professor’s cryptic response, which didn’t offer much context. Realizing it must not be too important, he didn’t press further.

“Besides,” the professor continued, his tone growing solemn, “we have something far more significant to talk about involving all of you.”

Ah, crap. Someone leaked, didn’t they? From the moment I’d stepped foot into this room, I figured he’d gathered us here to speak about our investigation, but I was hoping to be proven wrong.

Four students froze in silence at his words, looks of obvious guilt plastered on our faces. Mara, in contrast to the rest of us, masked herself with a convincing poker face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Professor, but these guys seem pretty damn suspicious. I mean, look at ‘em.” Mara, her voice passionate in a way it rarely was, made a shameless plea to offload the blame.

You traitor! You helped out too!

“Mngh,” I moaned under my breath, before letting out a long sigh.

I’ve felt guilty about this for long enough. I should just come clean.

“I’m sorry, Professor. We betrayed your trust by trying to take matters into our own hands, and everything that’s happened as a result is our fau—”

“Everett.” Professor Seris cut me off with a single curt word. “None of this is your ‘fault’—or any of your faults, for that matter. Unless you are claiming to be the one who ended their lives, it would be absurd to presume you are responsible for that in any way.”

“But—”

“He’s right, Everett,” Shina said, tugging on my sleeve to grab my attention. “I know you can’t help but blame yourself for everything, but you didn’t cause this. If those students were really killed for the reasons we think, it wouldn’t have mattered if it was us snooping around or the academy. In fact, I’m sure their investigation was way ahead of ours.”

“You’re probably right, but…” I couldn’t think of a way to continue protesting, so my words trailed off.

Mara claimed the newfound vacancy in the conversation. “This isn’t to say I was involved or anything, since I definitely wasn’t, but how do you know about what we—ahem, I mean, what they did? If someone was gonna blab, I would’ve expected it to be Everett, but based on his reaction, I’m guessing it wasn’t.”

Professor Seris chuckled lightly, a rare action out of him. “I did not need an internal source to deduce your plan. I know young people assume older folk cannot fathom how they think, but you give yourself far too much credit. I knew from the moment I left this room that at least a subset of you would act on the information I provided.”

“Hold up. You baited us into this? Why’d you do that?” Akio’s words made it seem like he was complaining, but the look on his face screamed something like, “Whoa. You’re so much cooler than I thought!”

“I would not use a word like ‘bait’ to describe it. Everything I told you that day was the truth; my intent was to provide you with the information I believed you had a right to know. My ability to predict your following actions played no part in that decision, and, trusting you to behave within reason, I chose not to interfere. My only regret is that, despite watching over you from a distance, I failed to foresee and prevent the attack perpetrated against you later on.”

“Even if you knew of our disobedience, we still broke the rules,” Kerne said. “We deserve to be puni—”

“Dude, shut up! Don’t ruin this!” Mara snapped.

“And here I thought you had no part in this…” A sarcastic comment I’d usually keep boxed in my head leaked out, prompting a harsh glare my way.

“Maybe Kerne’s right. Our actions were pretty dangerous,” Shina admitted.

“Shina, no, don’t betray us too,” I whispered. Even though Mara had tried to leave us for dead on this sinking ship, I had to agree with her stance here.

“Yeah, I can’t afford to get in trouble again,” Akio interjected. “My mom’s gonna ground me if she gets another call from the school. Last time, she took my consoles. It scares me to even imagine what she’d take next.”

“Akio, that joke doesn’t make sense to them. Know your audience, man.”

I felt a little ashamed of how much fun I was having with our side banter during a serious meeting, so I turned back to Professor Seris and voiced the question that had been weighing on my mind since he’d last spoken. “If you already knew we tried looking into things ourselves and don’t intent to punish us, why’d you bring us here today? There’s more, isn’t there?”

He nodded, instantly reigning the group back in with the silent, authoritative aura his professorship granted him. “First, I would like to thank you for successfully protecting the innocent student caught in the middle of your last battle. Everett and Kerne, your actions were truly admirable.”

Kerne shrunk at the praise, probably remembering his initial reluctance to fight back. As far as I was concerned, he heroically saved my life, but I knew if I were in his position, I’d feel the same way he did.

“And second,” the professor continued, not noticing the reaction, “I have an update on our side of the investigation. Put simply, we believe we know who killed the students.”

A series of gasps rang out across the room.

“Were they an insider?” Shina was the first to ask the question on all of our minds.

The professor, however, shook his head. “No. This time, it was indeed an intruder. Two guards were found incinerated the day of the murders, so we suspect the perpetrator broke in with brute force, executed their targets, then fled, all over a short time period.”

“Damn. I heard rumors saying some guards died, but I couldn’t tell if they were real or just more of the same bullshit people keep spewing out for fun,” Mara said. I’d heard similar gossip, but, with so much noise, I hadn’t given much weight to its veracity.

“And what have you learned about the students killed?” Kerne queried, seeking to validate our theory.

“You may have already deduced this, but we have evidence that every one of the nine victims participated in the earlier Anomaly Beast attack. They were merely strong suspects when the killings occurred, but we have since gathered sufficient proof against them. We believe their murders were prompted by the abundance of clues they left behind.”

“And what about the killer? You said you know who it is?” I spoke up this time.

“We do. A semi-famous fire mage known for his outspoken anarchist ideology, Thallen Oso. Numerous witnesses claimed to have seen a man of his description on campus during the correct timeframe, and our external intelligence network has long since suspected him of being an Iccasian.”

“Do we know where he ran off to?” Akio asked.

“We believe we do.” Professor Seris continued his train of good news. “We have collected many reported sightings of him across this region, and based on their dates, it seems he is fleeing westward. We have several agents dispatched to capture him, and it should only be a matter of time.”

The gasps that left our throats minutes ago transformed into sighs of relief. It almost felt too good to be true.

Of course, that meant I wasn’t surprised when Professor Seris finally dropped a caveat to spoil the celebration. “Although it seems this case may soon draw to a close, I cannot say the same for your situation. Many… friends of the academy are quite unhappy with the frequent close calls the Inheritors have been through recently.”

My heart immediately sank. “We’re not gonna be taken from here, right?”

“No. Not yet, at least. But we may have to give some concessions in the coming weeks. If these people cannot be appeased to some extent, they could resort to violence to get what they want. We must avoid that at all costs.”

We all grew silent, some in thought and others out of fear.

“Worry not.” Professor Seris sought to reassure us. “I will do everything in my power to preserve your freedom. You did not ask to be Inheritors; the world forced it upon you. So, no matter what, I will fight for the sake of your fates, so that they belong to you and you alone.”

I wasn’t sure where his conviction stemmed from, but his words offered a sense of comfort.

“Alright, Professor. I trust you.”

I was left with no other choice but to pray his goodwill would stave off the worst.