Chapter : 1445

  But he didn't sleep. He waited.

  He waited until the moon was high. Until the campus was silent.

  Then, he went to the dungeon. Alone.

  He unlocked Jamie's cell. Jamie was awake. He was braiding a piece of straw.

  "Lloyd?" Jamie asked. "Did you bring the comb?"

  "No," Lloyd said. "I brought an apology."

  "For what?"

  "For leaving you in here," Lloyd said. "But it was necessary. You were safer here."

  "Was?" Jamie asked. "Am I not safe anymore?"

  "No one is safe," Lloyd said. "The harvest is coming."

  He sat down. "Jamie, I need you to think. Think hard. The gold in your room. Did anyone visit you? Did anyone have access?"

  "Only the cleaning staff," Jamie said. "And... Rubaiya."

  Lloyd froze. "Rubaiya?"

  "She came by," Jamie said. "Last week. She said she wanted to borrow a book on fencing theory. She said she was interested in the 'geometry of the blade'."

  "Did you give it to her?"

  "Yes. I went to the shelf to get it. She waited by my desk."

  "Your desk," Lloyd said. "Where the gold was found."

  It was circumstantial. But it was there. Rubaiya had access. Rubaiya had a reason.

  "Did she say anything else?" Lloyd asked.

  "She asked about the sword," Jamie said. "Tom's sword. She asked if it was heavy. If it felt... alive."

  "Before the attack?" Lloyd asked sharply.

  "Yes. Two days before."

  Lloyd stood up. His heart was pounding.

  Rubaiya knew about the sword before the attack. She planted the gold. She pushed the narrative.

  She was the traitor.

  Or she was being set up too.

  "It's never simple," Lloyd sighed.

  "Is Rubaiya bad?" Jamie asked, eyes wide. "She is scary, but is she bad?"

  "I don't know," Lloyd said. "But I'm going to find out."

  He looked at Jamie. "Listen to me. Tomorrow, I'm going to create a distraction. A big one. When I do, I want you to be ready."

  "Ready for what?"

  "Ready to run," Lloyd said. "Or ready to fight. Can you fight, Jamie? Without a sword?"

  Jamie stood up. He struck a pose. "I am a weapon, Lloyd. My body is a blade."

  "Okay," Lloyd said. "Let's hope you're a sharp one."

  He left the cell. He walked out of the dungeon.

  He looked up at the stars. The web was tangled. The players were hidden.

  But he had a thread. A single, golden thread leading to Rubaiya.

  "Tomorrow," Lloyd whispered. "We pull the thread."

  He walked back to the tower. He had to prepare. If Rubaiya was the enemy, she was dangerous. She had the [Absolute Pierce] spirit. She could cut through anything.

  Lloyd touched his chest. He felt the hum of his own power. The Demon Gates. The Steel Blood.

  "I can cut too," he thought.

  The investigation was over. The confrontation was coming. And class was about to be dismissed. Permanently.

  Lloyd Ferrum sat in his office in the Old Tower, staring at a diagram he had drawn on the wall with chalk. It looked less like a battle plan and more like a collection of angry squiggles.

  "Okay," Lloyd said to the empty room. "Let's review. Jamie is innocent because he's an idiot. Daniel is innocent because he's gullible. Tulip is innocent because she's too busy organizing tea parties. That leaves... the ghost."

  He was talking about the mysterious woman in the market. The dealer. The one who had vanished into thin air.

  But Lloyd didn't believe in ghosts. He believed in people wearing sheets.

  "Someone on the inside is helping her," Lloyd muttered. "Someone smart. Someone who knows the Academy's defenses. Someone who can deflect suspicion onto everyone else."

  His thoughts kept drifting back to Rubaiya. The strategist. The woman who had been so eager to accuse Jamie. The woman who had conveniently "found" the gold in Jamie's room.

  "It's too neat," Lloyd thought. "She's playing 4D chess while everyone else is playing checkers. But I don't have proof. I have a gut feeling, and gut feelings don't hold up in court. Especially when the judge is a princess with a sword."

  Just then, the alarm bell rang. Again.

  "Seriously?" Lloyd groaned. "Can we go one week without a magical catastrophe? Is that too much to ask?"

  He grabbed his coat and ran out.

  The chaos was in the Enchantment Hall this time. Students were screaming and running out of a classroom. Smoke was billowing from the windows.

  Chapter : 1446

  Lloyd arrived just as a girl stumbled out, clutching her wrist. She was wearing a silver bracelet that was glowing with a sickly, pulsating purple light.

  "It won't come off!" she screamed. "It's burning me!"

  The bracelet was tightening. It was cutting off her circulation. Her hand was turning blue.

  "Stand back!" Lloyd ordered the crowd.

  He didn't hesitate. He didn't wait for a plan. He acted.

  He stepped forward, right into the girl's personal space. He grabbed her wrist. The cursed energy lashed out at him, trying to infect him.

  "Nice try," Lloyd whispered.

  He activated his [Black Ring Eyes]. His sclera turned pitch black. His irises glowed with a ghostly blue light.

  "Seal," he commanded.

  He didn't use brute force. He used precision. He targeted the flow of mana inside the bracelet. He placed a conceptual seal on the energy source, effectively putting a cork in the bottle.

  The purple light flickered and died. The bracelet loosened. It fell off the girl's wrist and clattered to the floor, now just a piece of cold, tarnished silver.

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  The girl gasped, clutching her bruised arm. "Thank you... thank you, Professor."

  "Go to the infirmary," Lloyd said gently. "Get that checked out."

  He watched her go. Then he turned to the crowd of students and faculty who had gathered. They were staring at him. They had seen his eyes change. They had seen him stop a curse with a glance.

  "Listen up!" Lloyd shouted. His voice was commanding. He decided to gamble. He decided to set a trap.

  "I have found the solution," Lloyd announced, lying through his teeth. "I have discovered a method to reverse the energy flow of these cursed items. I can trace the mana back to its source. Tonight, I will perform a ritual in the Old Tower. I will find the traitor. And I will end this."

  It was a bluff. A massive, dangerous bluff. He couldn't trace the mana back to the source. But the traitor didn't know that. If the traitor believed him, they would panic. They would try to stop him.

  "Class dismissed," Lloyd said.

  He picked up the dead bracelet with a handkerchief and walked away. He felt eyes on his back. Burning eyes.

  "Take the bait," Lloyd thought. "Come and get me."

  He spent the rest of the day preparing. He fortified the tower. He set up sensors. He told Mina to stay in her room and lock the door.

  Night fell. The Academy was silent. Lloyd sat in the center of his lab, the bracelet on the table in front of him. He waited.

  Hours passed. Nothing happened. No assassin. No shadow monster.

  "Maybe I'm wrong," Lloyd thought, feeling a creeping doubt. "Maybe they didn't buy it."

  Then, he felt it. Not a sound. A presence.

  It wasn't coming from the door. It wasn't coming from the window. It was coming from inside the room.

  Lloyd spun around.

  Standing in the corner, blending perfectly with the shadows, was a figure. It was a student. A boy named Kian. He was quiet. Unremarkable.

  But his eyes were glowing. Not with fear, but with a dull, yellow light.

  "Professor," Kian said. His voice was wrong. Distorted. "You should not have interfered."

  "Kian?" Lloyd asked, standing up. "What are you doing?"

  "Kian is sleeping," the voice said. "We are awake."

  Kian raised his hand. A wave of force hit Lloyd, slamming him against the wall.

  "Okay," Lloyd wheezed. "Possession. Classic."

  Kian didn't attack with a weapon. He attacked with his mind. Illusions filled the room. Lloyd saw the floor turn into lava. He saw the walls closing in. He saw spiders dropping from the ceiling.

  "Cheap tricks," Lloyd growled. "You think you can scare me with spiders? I live with three women who want to marry me. Spiders are a vacation."

  He closed his eyes. "Activate. [All-Seeing Eye]."

  He opened his eyes. The illusions vanished. The lava was just stone. The spiders were dust motes.

  He looked at Kian. He looked through Kian.

  And he saw it.

  Clinging to Kian's back, wrapped around his spine like a backpack made of smoke, was a spirit.

  It wasn't a cat. It wasn't a sleek predator.

  It was a leech. A giant, spiritual leech with too many eyes and a mouth full of needle-teeth. It was feeding on Kian's mana, piloting his body like a meat puppet.

  "That's disgusting," Lloyd said.

  He recognized the energy signature. He had seen it before.

  When Rubaiya had shown him her "cat" spirit.

  Chapter : 1447

  The cat was an illusion. A glamour. This... this parasite was the truth.

  "It's you," Lloyd whispered. "Rubaiya."

  The realization hit Lloyd like a bucket of ice water. Rubaiya. The strategist. The woman who helped him hunt. The woman who tutored students for free.

  She wasn't a hero. She was a monster.

  "So," Lloyd said, stepping away from the wall. "You're hiding behind a student. Very brave, Rubaiya. Very noble."

  Kian—or the thing controlling him—tilted his head. "Who is Rubaiya? I am Legion."

  "Cut the crap," Lloyd snapped. "I see you. I see the parasite. I see the connection."

  He pointed at the leech-spirit. "That's your real spirit, isn't it? 'Parasitic Control'. You don't have a cat. You have a tick. You latch onto people. You drain them. And you use them to cast your illusions."

  The spirit on Kian's back hissed. The boy's face twisted in anger.

  "You see too much, Ferrum," Kian said. "You should have stayed blind. You should have stayed dead."

  "I get that a lot," Lloyd said.

  He needed to break the connection. He couldn't hurt Kian. The boy was innocent. Just another victim.

  Lloyd moved. He used [Void Steps]. He flickered across the room, appearing behind Kian.

  The leech tried to turn Kian around, but Lloyd was faster. He grabbed Kian's shoulders.

  "Black Ring Eyes: Seal of Severed Connection," Lloyd commanded.

  He channeled his Void energy into his hands. He visualized a pair of scissors cutting the thread between the parasite and the host.

  SNAP.

  There was a psychic scream. The leech recoiled, detaching from Kian's spine. Kian collapsed, unconscious.

  The spirit hovered in the air for a second, a writhing mass of shadow and teeth. It glared at Lloyd with hateful yellow eyes.

  Then, it dissolved. It didn't die. It just recalled itself. It went back to its master.

  Silence fell over the tower.

  Lloyd stood over the sleeping boy. He was shaking. Not from fear, but from rage.

  "She played us," Lloyd whispered. "She played us all. She framed Jamie. She tricked Daniel. She almost killed Elara. And she was sitting right next to me, drinking tea and pretending to help."

  He checked Kian's pulse. Strong. He would be fine. Just a headache and some memory loss.

  Lloyd picked up the boy and carried him to a cot in the corner. He covered him with a blanket.

  Then he sat at his desk. He stared at the empty space where the spirit had been.

  He had the proof. He had seen the truth with his own eyes. Rubaiya was the traitor.

  "Why?" Lloyd wondered. "Why destroy the Academy? Why hurt these kids?"

  He remembered Tulip's story. Rubaiya was an orphan. A commoner. She had fought her way up. Maybe she resented the nobles. Maybe she hated the system that had discarded her.

  Or maybe she just liked power. Maybe the parasite needed to feed, and the Academy was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

  "It doesn't matter," Lloyd decided. "Motive is for the trial. Right now, I need a plan."

  He couldn't just walk up to her and arrest her. She was a master of illusion. She could make herself look like anyone. She could make him look like the attacker. She could turn the whole school against him with a single spell.

  "She thinks she's safe," Lloyd thought. "She thinks her spirit escaped. She thinks I only saw a minion."

  He smiled. It was a cold, predatory smile.

  "Let her think that. Let her think she's still the hunter."

  He needed to confront her. Alone. Away from witnesses. Away from illusions.

  "Tomorrow," Lloyd said to the darkness. "Tomorrow, we have a little chat."

  He leaned back in his chair. The game had changed. He wasn't hunting a ghost anymore. He was hunting a colleague. A friend.

  It hurt. It hurt more than he expected. He had liked Rubaiya. He had respected her mind.

  "Trust no one," Lloyd reminded himself. "Lesson learned."

  He watched the sun begin to rise through the window. It was going to be a long day. And an even longer conversation.

  "Good morning, Rubaiya," he whispered. "I hope you slept well. Because your nightmare is just waking up."

  The next morning, the faculty lounge was bustling. Professors were grabbing coffee, complaining about students, and generally acting like the world hadn't almost ended the night before.

  Rubaiya was at her usual desk. She looked calm. Composed. She was grading papers with a red quill, slashing through incorrect answers like a butcher.

  Chapter : 1448

  Lloyd walked in. He looked tired. He made sure to look tired. He wanted her to think he had spent the night chasing shadows and failing.

  "Good morning, Lloyd," Rubaiya said without looking up. "Did your ritual work? Did you catch the boogeyman?"

  "No," Lloyd said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "It was a bust. False alarm. Just a mana surge in the ventilation."

  Rubaiya smirked. "I told you. Your theories are dramatic, but they lack substance."

  "Maybe," Lloyd said. He leaned against her desk. "Can we talk? Privately? I have a... personal question."

  Rubaiya put down her quill. She looked at him. Her eyes were mocking. "A personal question? Lloyd, are you going to propose to me? Because I must warn you, the line is very long. And I do not like commitment."

  She laughed. It was a light, cruel sound. She was enjoying this. She thought she was untouchable.

  "Not a proposal," Lloyd said, his face unreadable. "Just a question. About cats."

  Rubaiya raised an eyebrow. "Cats?"

  "Yes. Let's go to the roof. The air in here is... stifling."

  "Very well," Rubaiya sighed, standing up. "But make it quick. I have a lecture on 'Theoretical Mana Displacement' in twenty minutes."

  They walked up the stairs to the roof of the main building. It was a flat, stone expanse overlooking the entire Academy. The wind was blowing hard, whipping their cloaks around them. It was isolated. Quiet. Perfect.

  Lloyd walked to the edge and looked down at the courtyard. Students were walking to class. Innocents. Prey.

  "So," Rubaiya said, joining him. "Cats. Are you thinking of getting a pet?"

  "I'm thinking about your pet," Lloyd said. He turned to face her. "Shadow. The wild cat spirit. The one that can 'pierce anything'."

  "He is very effective," Rubaiya said. "Why do you ask?"

  "I ask," Lloyd said slowly, "because I didn't see a cat last night."

  Rubaiya froze. Just for a second. A tiny, microscopic flinch. Then she smiled. "Last night? You said your ritual failed."

  "I lied," Lloyd said. "I saw a student. Kian. He was possessed. And on his back... there was a spirit."

  He stepped closer to her. "It wasn't a cat, Rubaiya. It was a leech. A parasite. Ugly. Too many eyes. Very hungry."

  Rubaiya's smile didn't waver, but her eyes went cold. "A leech? Sounds nasty. But what does that have to do with me?"

  "Everything," Lloyd said. "Because I know your secret. You don't have an offensive spirit. You have a parasitic one. Illusion. Mind control. That's your real power."

  He watched her carefully. He waited for the denial. The outrage.

  But Rubaiya didn't shout. She didn't act offended. She just sighed. She took off her glasses and cleaned them on her robe.

  "You are smarter than you look, Lloyd," she said softly. "I thought the 'dumb noble' act was real. But you... you see things."

  "I see you," Lloyd said. "Why, Rubaiya? Why hurt the students? Why frame Jamie? Why destroy the school that saved you?"

  Rubaiya put her glasses back on. She looked at him, and her face changed. The mask of the strict professor fell away. In its place was something cold, hard, and utterly remorseless.

  "Saved me?" she laughed. It was a bitter sound. "Valerius didn't save me. He collected me. He saw a talent and he took it. He put me in a noble house where I was treated like a pet. A trick pony. 'Look at the clever slum girl! Look how she does magic!'"

  She walked towards the edge of the roof. "This Academy... it is a factory. It takes children and turns them into soldiers for the King. It grinds them down. It kills their dreams. I am not destroying it, Lloyd. I am liberating it."

  "By turning students into bombs?" Lloyd asked, disgusted. "By feeding on them?"

  "My spirit needs to eat," Rubaiya shrugged. "And chaos... chaos is the only way to break the wheel. If the Academy falls, the system falls. And from the ashes, something better can rise."

  "That's a nice speech," Lloyd said. "Did you practice it in the mirror? Because it sounds like justification for murder."

  "Call it what you want," Rubaiya said. "But you are alone here, Lloyd. No witnesses. No backup. Just you and me."

  "And your leech," Lloyd added.

  "Yes," Rubaiya said. The air around her shimmered. "And Legion is very hungry."