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Arnold got into his Nova disguise and had a clone go back to the academy to report his findings to Morwenne, who was still in the office even at this hour with the others—
"—The security guard my original self sent was successfully able to locate a high-ranking officer who could be used to establish a direct connection to the inner circle of the drug syndicate." An emotionless voice spoke, "Fortunately, the officer had a meeting scheduled with a member of the inner circle so he hurried over there to discuss the plans to move the base."
"For a clone created from some skill, this thing is indistinguishable from Arnold…" said one of the boys a part of the SDC.
"Yeah, it even speaks like him but more polite, you know?" another girl said.
There were about six of them gathered in the office. Thinking that they might need the manpower, Morwenne had them all gather here since they had nothing better to do besides school work.
"Did you run into anyone familiar? Like a professor or student?" asked Morwenne.
"…" it didn't respond.
Was that a yes but it refuses to tell?
Arnold already knew about 1B's association with them but chose to keep that to himself as Morwenne might attempt to make contact with Serz. It might be too dangerous even if she knows Serz works with all kinds of criminals.
She concluded on her own that a contact of Arnold might be working there but isn't a direct associate so they wouldn't know the inner workings of that syndicate.
"The memory hologram is ready, Ms. Morwenne." The SDC third year put the machine next to the clone and pulled out the wires.
"Plug it in."
"T-This is going to sting a bit. D-Don't attack me, okay?" the girl pleaded, fearing that one punch would send her flying through the wall.
She carefully plugged two wires into his temples. His eyes began to glow green then that energy formed a hologram screen.
Since this machine works on commands, and is typically used with Truth Serum, Morwenne decided to speak, "If you checked the basement floor map, show it to us."
To throw people off, they might've renovated the underground floors.
The screen stayed green, "That's unfortunate. If there were any special orders to look out for the Student Disciplinary student body, show us."
It stayed green again.
"They might be keeping things quiet to avoid panic." Said one of the members.
"You're right. Since they're moving product out of the base, it'll only complicate things if people become too nervous. This will lead to paranoia and many will assume they can get reduced sentences if they tell on their comrades. Having enemies this smart is very troublesome but you don't stay hidden for this long without some degree of intelligence."
She issued another command, "Skip to the meeting with the ring leader."
The green hologram flickered then it showed the security officer's vision in first person perspective. The officer opened a door and entered a room.
-"—I'm here, boss." Through Arnold's vision, their voices echoed, as if they were in a cave or tunnel.
Inside the room the officer entered was an ordinary office but judging by the biological charts on the wall and trophies about science in the office, this belonged to a highly respected scientist.
Morwenne gritted her teeth, "I know that man…"
Further in the back was a middle-aged man of average height, a balding head, thick glasses and a well-groomed mustache.
"Raul von Whetsome. He's a respected scientist and count. Just why is someone like him doing this?" While not so close to the point of being friends, her father has done business with him many times. Being a scientist with friends in the economic and farming fields, he was able to help their territories prosper once upon a time.
When her father learns of this, he'll be devastated.
At least it's someone she recognizes so she can have him in handcuffs by tomorrow morning. But it's stupid to be too hasty so she decided to listen to their conversation to plan ahead.
-"—Have you encountered any trouble? Did the mules do alright?"
-"Nothing worthy to report. The mules didn't pose a problem either and delivered the product successfully. Even the newer ones were determined. I hope the new arrivals do just as well. Ah, 1B came to visit on orders of inspection so she met with the academy's Dean at the entrance of the basement."
Morwenne's frown grew deeper.
'Even the dean…? Just how deep are their connections in the academy?'
-"Why do they care so much about inspection when they've already decided to not help us? They should at least help us with networking since this operation is one of their money-makers." The man clicked his tongue.
-"…"
-"I called you here for an important reason. But…" he pressed something under a table, which activated a contraption that cast a spell on the office, "it can't leave this room. This operation of ours, if caught involved with it, would end with me just receiving 35 years to life in prison but if what I'm about to tell you gets out, we'll all be hanged in public. I've invested too much of my life's work for that to happen."
-"What could possibly be more serious than this, sir?"
-"…Demon cultists demanded a partnership."
-"…What?"
-"They weren't nice about it either. We first heard of complaints through our employees who were robbed of the product they were meant to deliver. Turns out, they've been testing this stuff on people. I'm not sure how they found out that we're the suppliers but they demanded a bulk supply within the next two weeks. Rumor has it that they're working with a powerful demon. If we don't do as they say, they'll send that thing after us and slaughter us all."
-"S-Sir, this is a much more serious crime! They almost destroyed the continent with their debut attack!"
-"Hah! Debut attack? They aren't idols so don't use that term. They're worse scum than us who simply wish to ascend our mortal flesh and serve the demons."
-"W-What should we do?"
-"Firstly, assemble all the security we have and arm them with everything we have. Also make sure you tell them that we need to increase security and that more hours will earn them fifty percent more extra shift pay compared to the standard twenty percent. We can't allow anything to go wrong while we move."
-"Aye, sir. We're at our most vulnerable right now so I was thinking of sending a letter to the heads to request more forces."
-"No, let's not do that. if the cultists have eyes and ears among us, that may be seen as a threat. We can't handle conflict right now. Let's take this to headquarters first then let them handle this after we've moved."
-"Roger. About that problem with those kids in the academy investigating us… Shouldn't we be looking for spies among us?"
-"Hah! They're just brats so they don't pose a threat to us! And even if they tell officials, we have ways of making sure everything is covered up. Even a spy will be worthless if they can't find anything in this maze of a basement."
Hearing that, a few tongue clicks spread in the office.
"Cocky bastard." One of the students said, "Doesn't even realize we have Arnold by our side to get right into their base."
"To be fair, no one really knows the Halo has the ability to control people. It can even be spread without direct contact from Arnold, something not even the highest tier mind control can do."
"Oh yeah… Sucks for them then, hahaha! But Ms. Morwenne, wouldn't they be able to see the Halo in the person's eyes?"
"Ah…" Morwenne had completely forgotten that the Halo had this red glow around its pupils. They only had one set of contacts so they couldn't just give every single target a pair.
The clone then spoke in an emotionless tone, "Original me made sure to have Fallene take the contacts out after imprinting on another person in a private area before breaking her link."
"Well, Arnold isn't an idiot, so we should've expected that, haha…"
The hologram suddenly lagged then switched off.
A moment later, the POV changed from the security guard to Raul. He was going through some paperwork.
'Good, he implanted the Halo in Raul as well.' Morwenne sighed in relief. They wouldn't be able to pull off another plan like this if he didn't. With this, they can find out much more.
He was having some boring science talks with his coworkers.
"Arnold, can you hear me? Have him excuse himself and go back to office."
After getting the message through the system (which he was using to multitask as both Nova and help with the operation), he sent a suggestion to the man.
-"Pardon me for a moment, everyone. Keep up the great work, you hear?" he sat his coffee down.
-"Don't stay too late, sir! We can't have you collapse from exhaustion as we need you!"
-"Haha, I know, I know."
After leaving the cafeteria, he headed back to office.
Morwenne signaled for one of the students to bring over the recording magic item and make it face the hologram screen.
"Have him go up to that white board in the corner of the room with a marker and write down all the names involved in this operation and connected to the academy, nobility, and every foreigner aiding them. Don't give the laborers' or fodders' names as we can hunt them down later. Then indicate in red those who are handling the business aspect of this operation." She went into specific detail, watching Raul write them down in silence, and remembering to record on paper as well even when the magic item was recording.
"Now indicate in green who handles distribution if business is a separate job."
"What the hell!?" when they saw how many names were on the board, many cursed, "This many people are involved!?"
"Why are so many of them betraying humanity!"
There were about 132 names.
"…" looking at all those names, she thought to herself:
'The demon cultists in suits. Why did they betray humanity…? For profit?'
"Ms. Morwenne, what should we do? Turn in the evidence?" they all looked at her.
"…I'll speak to the Archmage first. She's the director of the academy and deserves to know first. It will also be better if she tells the world since we're just students."
A knock suddenly came from the man's door, "Answer it."
It might be a new suspect.
"Sir, there's something I need to talk to you about—" on the other end of the door was Jenlak Bridder, another renowned scientist…
**
Morwenne was laying with her head on the table in that awkward silence.
They've heard the most damning thing—
A Demon Lord has somehow ended up in this world and they plan to use the cultists to invade the empire…
Looking up, she noticed the others' faces were pale and they were shaking. Looking at Arnold's clone, it had a blank expression.
She wondered what kind of face Arnold was making now, wherever he is.
"This information will shake the entire empire. We'll be forced to stop all meaningless human conflicts amongst ourselves to band together—" she was about to give them a speech about the importance of facing the threat instead of trying to run from it and how they must rely on each other.
However—
"Fourth-Rank – Static Memories." The clone's voice suddenly resounded before Morwenne's head went blank.
…
"Can't have you ruining my plan by telling Freya that, Morwenne." Switching consciousness with Arnold, the clone stood over her unconscious body, writhing every second as foam came out of her mouth.
"This spell will let you forget anything you've heard over a few minutes so it's perfect to use on you despite the shortcomings…" he took a look at the camera magic item, "it's a relief this thing can't transmit sound. This world barely entered the electronics age so inventors are still in the process of making all those conveniences on earth."
No one must get in the way of Luke's awakening. He'll kill if he must to prevent that.
Luke is the continent's ideal meat shield.
…
"hn...? W… What happened?" getting up sluggishly, one of the students looked around in confusion.
"All of you should get proper sleep." The clone said, "You fell asleep halfway through what he said."
"That's… true… None of us has had any decent sleep lately. To be honest, I feared for my life. We're dealing with criminals, after all…"
"Yeah, I was on edge all the time…"
Morwenne jumped up, "W-What did he say in the end!?"
"Someone from the demon cult approached him too and offered an alliance."
"Ah, is that it? But why not approach both at the same time?"
As he prepared the answer beforehand, he said:
"The cult might be divided and have different interests… For example, one side might wish to summon the demons into this world using the drug while the other… wishes to use the demons' powers. To destroy humanity or just starving for power, who really knows?"
The former… Isn't that similar to what happened in Eswick Valley? That means that the ones that approached Jenlak is most likely the suspects that caused that incident.
'But how why the alliance? Could the drug have a bigger role in this than previously thought?' it might be dangerous to dig deeper just for her curiosity as she might jeopardize their plans.
She also can't place the other students—who are in inside the basement—in danger.
"…" all of them looked at each other.
"We might need to get the churches and temples involved earlier than I thought, after all."
"All right. Nothing important happened after that so my original self cut the connections."
"W-We still needed him to confess! You heard him, prison is nothing to him! And if he senses something is off, he'll burn evidence!"
"The Halo still lies dormant inside him and can be activated any time in case there's another use for it. So long as he's within range of Warrior Sense, that is."
"O-Oh… That's a relief."
'This means we can get a full confession… And maybe we can find out what this drug is really capable of. Arnold really thought of everything… I know he said he'll treat us but we should be the ones treating him this weekend. He's done a lot for us.'
And without him, they wouldn't have gotten this far. Or they would've been too late to catch these people.
"Lie low for now. Today will be the last they'll be allowed to ruin the lives of so many people."
"Roger!"
After the others left, Morwenne spoke to the clone, "Tell Arnold I'm grateful. He's doing a lot for us."
The clone nodded, "I'll take my leave."
Then it left through the door. Weird, she thought it would disappear like smoke since it's just a skill of Arnold but it seems it had some other business to attend to.
"…Time to review what we've learned and plan ahead. Then tomorrow… I'll go see the Archmage."
At first, they thought the drug was just a simple lethal substance that bored rich kids take to get high. No different from any other drug that her predecessors faced. But who would've thought it would be connected to the demon cultists that almost destroyed the continent…
She thought back to all the quarrels and conflicts she'd had with Arnold—some big and some small.
"...I really did misjudge him."
Not just as a former lover she had once had a troubled past with or as a man who had made people nervous simply by standing in the same room.
He had proven to others that, despite his shortcomings and past actions, he still cared for his people. Facing that wave of unkillable monsters was proof of that. And that… is what makes him a Hero.
He was still keeping his Halo active even though she knew it must consume a great deal of energy. Morwenne could think of two reasons for that. One was practical: he was preparing himself in case they needed it again during the investigation. The other was far more telling. He was ready to act the instant the cult made a move. He wasn't waiting to be told what to do. He was watching, thinking, and protecting them from the shadows before anyone else even realized what was happening.
How many threats had Arnold handled on his own without people knowing? And how many times has he done despite the bad rumors and hate being thrown his way?
That wasn't the same Arnold she had known before.
Or maybe it was.
Maybe this was the real him.
The thought made her chest feel strangely light.
From an ex she had once struggled to understand, to a man now standing at the center of something much larger than himself... he had changed. Or perhaps she had simply failed to notice the parts of him that had always been there.
Either way, the version of him she was seeing now was far harder to dismiss.
So cool...
She blinked once, then looked away as if embarrassed by her own thoughts. Slapping herself once, she became determined once again.