Chapter : 1409

  "I would rather share you than lose you," Mina said simply. "And I think... I think Rosa might feel the same, eventually. If the alternative is losing you completely."

  Lloyd ran a hand through his hair. "This is insane. I am one guy. I like quiet evenings and building robots. I am not built for a harem."

  "You are a builder, Lloyd," Mina smiled gently. "Build a family that works. Even if it is a strange one."

  Lloyd looked at the sky. He looked at the Academy in the distance. He looked at Mina.

  "Okay," he said slowly. "I won't say no. I won't say yes. I'll say... maybe. Let's survive the curse first. Then we tackle the impossible geometry of my love life."

  "Deal," Mina said.

  The move was completed by noon. Lloyd and Mina rode in the lead carriage, followed by the wagons of equipment. Ken Park rode beside them on horseback, looking alert.

  They arrived at the Academy gates. The atmosphere was heavy. The usual bustling campus was quiet. Students walked in groups, looking nervous. The air felt thick, charged with a sickly static.

  Headmaster Valerius met them at the gate. He looked relieved to see the convoy.

  "You came," Valerius said.

  "I brought my toys," Lloyd said, gesturing to the wagons. "Where is the lab?"

  "The Old Tower," Valerius pointed to a stone spire on the edge of the cliffs. "It's isolated. Thick walls. Deep basements. Perfect for... whatever it is you do."

  "Explosions," Lloyd said. "Mostly explosions."

  They unloaded the gear. The tower was dusty but spacious. It had a main floor for the Aegis project and a lower level for alchemy.

  "This will work," Lloyd said, surveying the room. "Mina, set up the library in the corner. Alaric, get the furnace running. We need heat."

  Within hours, the tower was transformed into a command center. The Golem Heart was installed on a reinforced table. The Aegis chassis stood in the center of the room like a sentinel.

  "Now," Lloyd said, rolling up his sleeves. "The curse."

  He turned to Valerius. "Show me a corrupted artifact. I need to see what we're dealing with."

  Valerius produced a small wooden box. He opened it carefully. Inside was a student's wand. It was blackened, the wood twisted like it had been burned. It pulsed with a faint, reddish aura.

  "Don't touch it," Valerius warned. "It drains mana on contact."

  Lloyd activated his [All-Seeing Eye]. He looked at the wand.

  He saw the corruption. It wasn't just a spell. It was a living, viral energy structure. It looked like black veins choking the natural flow of magic within the wood.

  "It's a parasite," Lloyd diagnosed. "It latches onto the enchantment and inverts it. Instead of projecting energy, it consumes it. And it sends the stolen energy... somewhere."

  "Where?" Valerius asked.

  "There's a tether," Lloyd said, tracing a faint, invisible line of dark energy trailing off the wand. "A connection. It's sending the mana to a central collection point."

  He looked out the window, following the line with his enhanced vision. It led towards the main dormitory.

  "The traitor," Lloyd whispered. "They aren't just breaking things. They are harvesting. They are stealing the Academy's power."

  "Who?" Valerius demanded.

  "I don't know yet," Lloyd said. "But I can track it. This line... it's like a breadcrumb trail."

  He turned to Mina. "We have a new project. Forget the suit for a moment. We need to build a tracker. A device that can follow this frequency back to the source."

  "I can adapt the Golem Heart interface," Mina suggested instantly. "Tune it to the frequency of the corruption."

  "Do it," Lloyd said.

  He felt a new urgency. This wasn't just sabotage. It was a feeding frenzy. Someone was getting stronger off the Academy's fear.

  "Valerius," Lloyd said. "Lock down the dorms. No one leaves. No one enters. If the traitor realizes we are tracking them, they might try to flee. Or detonate the accumulated power."

  "I will seal the gates," Valerius promised.

  Lloyd looked at the blackened wand. This was Firefly's work. Or the Seventh Circle. It was efficient, cruel, and parasitical.

  "We're going hunting," Lloyd said to Mina.

  "I am ready," she said.

  Lloyd looked at her. She was brave. She was loyal. And she was willing to share him with two other women just to keep him.

  He felt a surge of gratitude. He didn't deserve her. But he would fight for her.

  "Let's catch a rat," Lloyd said.

  He picked up his tools. The Scholar's Mission was over. The Professor's War had begun. And class was officially in session.

  Chapter : 1410

  Lloyd Ferrum stood at the front of the classroom in the Old Tower. It was a dusty, circular room with high windows that let in too much light and not enough air. The stone walls were lined with chalkboards that Lloyd had installed himself because he hated the magical projection orbs the Academy usually used. Orbs were flashy, but chalk was reliable. Chalk didn't run out of mana in the middle of a lecture.

  Sitting before him were the "misfits." These were the students the Academy didn't know what to do with. There were students who couldn't cast a fireball to save their lives but could calculate the trajectory of a falling rock in their heads. There were students who had strange, weak spirits. And then there was Airin, the scholarship student who looked too much like a ghost from Lloyd’s past.

  They were all looking at him with a mix of fear and confusion. They had heard the rumors. They knew he was the man who had fought a demon in the arena. They knew he was the "White Mask." They expected him to teach them how to shoot lightning or summon monsters.

  Instead, Lloyd picked up a piece of chalk and drew a large square on the board. Then he drew a line coming out of the square. Then another square.

  "This," Lloyd said, tapping the board, "is a fortress. It is located on top of the Whispering Crag. It is surrounded by snow, ice, and very angry goats."

  The class stared at him. A boy in the back raised his hand. "Professor? Are we going to learn how to blow it up?"

  "No," Lloyd said. "Blowing things up is easy. Any idiot with a fire crystal can blow things up. We are going to learn how to keep the people inside alive. We are going to learn about supply chains."

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  The class groaned. It was a collective sound of disappointment that vibrated through the floor. They wanted war. Lloyd was giving them math.

  "Silence," Lloyd commanded. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the groans like a knife. "War isn't about swinging swords. War is about eating. If you can't eat, you can't fight. If you can't fight, you die. So, logistics is the art of not dying."

  He turned back to the board. He began to draw a complex diagram. He drew the roads leading to the fortress. He drew the river. He drew the nearby villages.

  "Here is the scenario," Lloyd said. "You are the commander of this fortress. You have five hundred men. It is winter. The roads are blocked by snow for three months. You have food reserves for two months. The river is frozen. The nearest friendly city is two weeks away by march."

  He turned to face them. "How do you survive?"

  A girl in the front row, whose spirit was a small, useless turtle, spoke up. "We use magic to melt the snow on the roads?"

  "Good thought," Lloyd said. "But the road is fifty miles long. To melt that much snow, you would need a team of twenty high-ranking fire mages working non-stop for a week. You have one fire mage, and he has a cold. Next."

  "We hunt the goats?" a boy suggested.

  "The goats are magical," Lloyd said. "They breathe ice. If you hunt them, you lose ten men for every goat. The calorie trade-off is negative. Next."

  "We fly supplies in?" another student asked.

  "With what?" Lloyd asked. "We don't have airships. Griffins can carry maybe two hundred pounds. You need tons of grain. Do you have a fleet of a thousand griffins hiding in your pocket?"

  The class fell silent. They were realizing that this wasn't a hero fantasy. It was a puzzle. A boring, deadly puzzle.

  "This is the reality of power," Lloyd said, walking between the desks. "You can have the strongest sword in the world, but if your arm is too weak from hunger to lift it, you lose. I want you to look at this map. Look at the lines. Somewhere in this perfect plan, there is a flaw. A single point of failure that will kill everyone in that fortress."

  He pointed to a specific line connecting a village to the main road. "This represents the Merchant Guild of Oakhaven. They have the contract to supply the grain before the snow hits. On paper, it works. The numbers add up. They have the wagons. They have the grain. So, why does the fortress starve?"

  Chapter : 1411

  He leaned against his desk, crossing his arms. "I'll give you ten minutes. Look at the data. Look at the profiles of the people involved. Find the crack in the wall."

  The students scrambled to look at the papers Lloyd had placed on their desks. These were dossiers. Background checks. Trade reports. It was boring paperwork, the kind that usually ended up in the trash. But Lloyd had taught them that trash was sometimes treasure.

  Lloyd watched them. He saw them struggling. They were looking for a magical reason. A curse. A monster blocking the road. They weren't looking at the system. They weren't looking at the people.

  He looked at Airin. She wasn't looking at the map. She was reading the dossier of the Merchant Guild leader. She was reading it intently, her brow furrowed.

  "Interesting," Lloyd thought.

  He checked his pocket watch. He remembered his days in the military academy on Earth. Logistics was the class everyone hated, but it was the class that won wars. He was going to turn these misfits into the most dangerous thinkers in the kingdom, even if he had to bore them to death first.

  "Time is up," Lloyd announced. "Who has the answer? Why are my soldiers eating their boots?"

  The room was quiet. The students looked at their papers, then at the board, then at each other. They were stumped.

  "It's the river," a boy said confidently. "The ice is too thick to break, so the water filtration system fails."

  "Wrong," Lloyd said. "The fortress has a deep well. Water isn't the issue."

  "It's the bandits," a girl suggested. "The report says there are bandits in the woods."

  "Bandits don't attack armed convoys carrying grain," Lloyd countered. "They steal gold. Grain is heavy and hard to fence. Bandits are criminals, not idiots."

  "It's the weather," another student tried. "An early blizzard?"

  "The weather is predictable," Lloyd said. "The report accounts for early snow. The wagons leave two weeks before the first frost."

  He sighed. He was disappointed. They were still thinking like mages. They were looking for external forces.

  "Does anyone have an answer that doesn't involve bad luck or monsters?" Lloyd asked.

  In the middle of the room, a hand went up slowly. It was Airin.

  "Scholar Airin," Lloyd said. His voice softened slightly, though he tried to keep it professional. "Enlighten us."

  Airin stood up. She looked nervous. She clutched the dossier in her hands. "It... it is the Guild Leader. Master Gorm."

  "Go on," Lloyd said.

  "The numbers say he has the grain," Airin said, her voice gaining a little strength. "And he has the wagons. But the dossier says his daughter was passed over for admission to the Royal Academy three years ago. The rejection letter was signed by the Commander of the Fortress."

  The class blinked. What did that have to do with grain?

  "Explain," Lloyd commanded.

  "Master Gorm is a proud man," Airin continued. "The report mentions he has a history of petty lawsuits. He holds grudges. If he sends the grain late... just a few days late... he can blame the weather. He can claim a broken wheel. He can make excuses."

  She looked at the map. "If he delays the shipment by three days, the convoy hits the early snow at the pass. The wagons get stuck. The fortress doesn't get the food. And he gets his revenge on the Commander without ever breaking the law."

  The room was silent. The students looked at the dossier again. The information was there. Buried in a paragraph about family history.

  Lloyd smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was a sharp, satisfied smile.

  "Correct," Lloyd said. "Ten points to Airin."

  He walked over to the board and circled the village of Oakhaven.

  "You were all looking at the numbers," Lloyd told the class. "You were calculating tonnage and distance. But systems are not run by numbers. They are run by people. And people are petty. People are emotional. People are flawed."

  He looked at Airin. "You saw the human element. You understood the logistics of the human heart. That is what destroyed the fortress. Not a dragon. Not a blizzard. But a father's wounded pride."

  Airin blushed under the praise. She sat down, looking down at her desk.

  Chapter : 1412

  "This is your lesson," Lloyd said, his voice serious. "When you build a machine, you check the gears. When you build a plan, you check the people. A perfect plan handled by an imperfect person is a disaster waiting to happen. Never assume competence. Never assume loyalty. Always assume that someone, somewhere, is angry about something stupid."

  He erased the board with a wave of his hand.

  "For homework," Lloyd said, "I want you to design a supply chain that bypasses Master Gorm. You have the same resources. Figure it out. Class dismissed."

  The students stood up, gathering their things. They looked at Lloyd differently now. They weren't just bored anymore. They were thinking.

  As the class filed out, Lloyd pretended to organize his papers. He waited until Airin was passing his desk.

  "Good work today," Lloyd said quietly.

  Airin stopped. She hugged her books to her chest. "Thank you, Professor. It... it just seemed obvious. People do strange things when they are hurt."

  "They do," Lloyd agreed. He looked at her. He saw the ghost of Anastasia, but he pushed it away. He saw the student. The intelligent, empathetic young woman who had saved his life in the jungle. "That intuition of yours... it's a weapon. Don't underestimate it. Magic can break walls, but understanding people can open gates."

  "I will try to remember that," Airin smiled.

  She left the room. Lloyd watched her go. He felt a strange mixture of pride and sadness. She was brilliant. She was kind. And she was in the middle of a war zone, whether she knew it or not.

  "Logistics of the human heart," Lloyd muttered to himself. "That's the hardest subject of all."

  He packed up his chalk. He had taught them about supply lines. Tomorrow, he would teach them about leverage. He was building an army of thinkers. And judging by today, he might actually succeed.

  Lloyd Ferrum walked down the wide, stone corridors of the Royal Academy. He was heading to the cafeteria to get a sandwich. It was a simple mission. Walk. Buy sandwich. Eat sandwich.

  But he had a feeling. That prickling sensation on the back of his neck. The feeling you get when a cat is watching you from a high shelf, deciding whether to purr or pounce.

  He stopped and turned around quickly. The corridor was empty. Just a few students rushing to class and a suit of armor standing guard.

  "I know you're there," Lloyd said to the empty air. "You breathe too loudly."

  Nothing happened.

  "Fine," Lloyd sighed. "Be creepy. See if I care."

  He continued walking. He passed a large potted fern. He paused. He leaned in and whispered to the fern. "Your perfume is very distinct, Princess. It smells like expensive soap and violence."

  There was a rustle from behind the fern. But no one stepped out.

  Lloyd rolled his eyes. This had been happening for a week. Ever since their "duel" on the cliff, Princess Isabella had become his personal ghost whenever he is in her area. She didn't speak to him. She didn't confront him. She just... hovered.

  He entered the cafeteria. It was loud and smelled of cabbage. He got in line. He grabbed a tray. He reached for the last piece of chocolate cake.

  Another hand reached for it at the exact same time.

  Lloyd looked up. It was a student he didn't recognize. But before the student could grab the cake, a bread roll flew through the air from across the room. It hit the student square in the forehead with impressive accuracy.

  "Ow!" the student yelled, dropping his hand.

  Lloyd took the cake. He looked in the direction the roll had come from.

  Sitting two tables away, partially hidden behind a stack of books, was Isabella. She wasn't looking at him. She was aggressively reading a textbook on military history. But Lloyd saw the corner of her mouth twitch.

  "Okay," Lloyd thought. "She is protecting my dessert. That is... useful. Weird, but useful."

  He sat down at his table. As he ate, he noticed a folded piece of paper under his napkin. He hadn't put it there.

  He unfolded it. It was a report. Handwritten. Elegant, sharp script.

  Subject: Lord Walder.

  Status: Compromised.

  Intel: Walder has been seen meeting with known anti-royalists. He is planning to challenge your budget proposal at the next council meeting. He has a gambling debt he is trying to hide.

  Recommendation: Mention the 'Golden Dice' tavern to him. He will fold.