Supreme Magus novel Chapter 307

"If there really is a weapon capable of defeating an Awakened, we must get to it first. That’s why I’ve given her the royal override and control over a division of the royal army. We cannot afford any more failures."

Queen Sylpha pondered on those words, before agreeing with her husband. The Royals needed all the power they could muster to survive the impending crisis.

***

"Mom, dad! Thank the gods you are here!" Phloria quickly embraced them both. Their presence was enough to mitigate her fears.

"I’m glad to see you too, my little Flower." Jirni returned her embrace, feeling something was different about Phloria.

"There isn’t a moment to lose. Mom, this is the list of all those Lith had marked as suspicious." She handed Jirni a list of names followed by their addresses in the academy. Phloria hadn’t been idle either, collecting all the intel she could while waiting.

"This one is the closest one to my room." She pointed a name in the middle.

"Dad, whatever happened, it must have taken place between my room and his. I can guide you there."

"There is no need." Orion replied. "My amulet already contains all the blueprints of the fifth floor and the list of its residents. I’ll go check on my own, you go with your mother. You are the only one that knows these kids. Maybe you can notice if anything is out of the ordinary."

’And maybe keep your mother in check.’ He inwardly added.

Orion took off, quickly reaching Lith’s room and moving from there towards Phloria’s after taking out his equipment. Open spaces were a nightmare to investigate, too many things could go wrong.

Animals, bad weather, worst case scenario the culprit could burn everything. A closed space, an academy at that, was another matter entirely. Orion didn’t take much to find the place of the ambush.

"What a smart son of a dragon." Orion smirked while finding a cut alongside the stones on the floor. Before falling, Lith had employed his failed slash against the girl to leave a mark behind. Darkness magic could delete many things, but couldn’t hasten the academy self repair mechanism.

Starting from there, Orion found traces of water marking the use of ice magic and small burnt marks in the crevices between the rocks. That coupled with the lingering traces of ozone indicated a powerful lightning had been employed.

’Whoever attempted to clean the scene is an amateur. Either they know nothing about our investigation methods or they didn’t expect an investigation at all.’ Orion’s guesses were actually both right.

Nalear had cleaned the crime scene to the best of her abilities, but not being a Forgemaster, she had a limited idea of what they could achieve, aside from what Wanemyre knew.

Professor Wanemyre was many things, but not a member of the Knight’s Guard.

***

Hung on the wall, Lith had already undergone several cycles of regaining consciousness just to be knocked out by the anti-academy weapons again. Nalear’s little lambs weren’t allowed much freedom of thought or movement.

They were trapped in a nightmare of their own creation. When they accepted to follow Archmage Lukart’s plan to trigger the civil war, only a few raised objections about the use of slave collars.

Even then, it was only because slave collars were one of the most universally despised versions of forbidden magic. Simply owning one carried the death penalty, if not for the whole families to be stripped of their titles and wealth before being executed.

Most of the little lambs considered slave collars the most natural course of action. Each one of them would receive a Master ring, allowing them absolute control over their victims. Just considering all the possible uses an obedient slave could have made their mouths watery.

Little did they know that even their Master rings had been replaced with normal slave items. Nalear made sure no little idiot could endanger her plan out of lust or cruelty. She hated nobles the most, so she had always intended to use them as cannon fodder, in case something went wrong.