Who is the enemy, and who is the friend?
This is a question that requires deep thought.
In this incident, is Rivers Francis necessarily the enemy? Is Mina, the victim who tipped him off, necessarily a friend?
Link didn't jump to conclusions, but he didn't simply consider Rivers an enemy and the former victim Mina a friend.
In fact, Link had no intention of personally retaliating against Rivers; he just wanted to extricate himself and Molly from this matter.
If Molly agreed with his idea after their conversation,
and if she disagreed, then all Link had to do was distance himself.
After seeing off the five terrified people, Link went to the reading room to calmly review the breeding notes he had taken yesterday.
Molly arrived quickly.
"Link, why did you call me over so urgently? Did you miss me? I'm so happy!"
After a night's rest, Molly had the leisure to tease Link again.
"No."
Link's face was cold and indifferent, showing no mercy as he abruptly got to the point: "If, and I mean if, the friend who informed you of this invites you somewhere, don't rush to agree, and definitely don't rush to go. Tell me first."
"You suspect she has something going on?"
Jasmine reacted quickly, or rather, having come from a noble family and witnessed conspiracies since childhood, she had long harbored suspicions, though she hadn't confirmed her vague guess.
"Yes."
Link responded honestly.
"What happened?"
Jasmine asked, her brow furrowed. "Did Rivers really send people to cause you trouble?"
Link countered with, "If Rivers sent people to cause me trouble, if they really taught me a lesson, how do you think I would feel? How would I feel about Rivers? After being threatened for no reason, and then beaten up for no reason without provoking him."
"Anger? Hatred?"
Jasmine pondered, guessing, "You would definitely feel very uncomfortable."
Link asked again, "At this point, if something else happens to you, or if someone tells me something is going to happen to you, how would I react?"
Jasmine's face turned frosty, and she said coldly, "Report to the Academy, find the intelligent law enforcement puppet, and deal with Rivers." Link
didn't ask any further questions.
Last night, after learning from Jasmine about the relationship and entanglement between Rivers, Enrique, and Mina, who relayed the message, Link vaguely guessed the possible truth behind a series of events.
It was nothing more than using someone else to do the dirty work.
The tool would definitely come from the Academy.
As for who wants to use someone as a tool, it's either Enrique or Mina, or both of them.
Link doesn't care about that. What
Link cares about is that he and Jasmine have undoubtedly become the reason for using someone as a tool, tools that can be kept in the dark and sacrificed at will.
This makes Link a little unhappy.
So...
"If my guess is confirmed, I'll talk to Rivers Francis and then find a way to let them fight it out."
Link lays out his thoughts, "We don't need to get involved in this mess, get ourselves into trouble, waste time, or make a point. What do you think?"
"Okay."
Jasmine nodded. She actually felt some sympathy for Mina's situation, which is why she was reluctant to confirm her guess.
But when faced with someone who wants to harm her, Jasmine is still ruthless.
She took the initiative to ask, "How do you need me to cooperate with you?"
"No rush."
Link waved his hand, his expression indifferent, "Let's wait for them to make their move."
To be honest, Link doesn't think too highly of himself, but Enrique and Mina's tricks are really not clever at all, and he saw through them very easily.
However, on the other hand, what clever tricks could a thirteen-year-old and a fourteen-year-old possibly come up with?
People are different.
A very small number of people are exceptionally intelligent at a young age; some can weigh an elephant at six, some become high-ranking officials at twelve, and some children can debate the sun so well that even wise men are speechless.
But the vast majority of people, without education and experience of the world, are not mature enough, their thinking is extremely unreliable, so how can they plan things and scheme against people?
Link's reluctance to participate in the academy's social activities and entertainment was partly due to this factor.
Those occasions, and the people in those occasions, always gave him a sense of incongruity, like a child trying to act like an adult.
...
Time passed peacefully while he studied.
In the evening, Link made an appointment with Jasmine; Jasmine would wait for him at the library, while he went to the botanical garden to handle some work.
Upon entering the botanical garden, Link and Sophie Lucia met from afar, but neither of them greeted the other.
Link went straight into the third greenhouse in the third row, randomly checked the condition of the seeds, and first cast a growth-inducing spell, followed by a super-powerful misty rain spell.
After sitting on the ridge and meditating briefly to recover his mental and magical energy, Link cast the super-powerful misty rain spell a second time.
His work for the day was finished.
Whether the effect was as Link had anticipated would need to be checked tomorrow morning.
Not in a hurry to leave, Link meditated briefly again to fully recover before leaving the botanical garden and returning to the library.
Jasmine sat in a corner seat in the reading room, a hint of sadness on her face.
It seemed Link's guess had come true; Mina had indeed invited Jasmine somewhere.
All his sympathy had been wasted.
Seeing Link's inquiring gaze, Jasmine nodded.
Link then gestured for Jasmine to leave the library.
"What do we do now?"
Jasmine immediately asked outside.
"If someone invites us, of course we'll go,"
Link replied earnestly.
As he spoke, he pulled out his personal smart device and used his once-per-semester free protection benefit from the intelligent law enforcement puppet.
A short while later, an intelligent law enforcement puppet, resembling a fixed-wing drone, flew to Link's side.
"Please enter stealth follow mode,"
Link politely requested of the puppet.
Politeness never hurts, and besides, no one knew whether the puppet's controller was a high-level tower spirit with an emotional system or a low-level one without.
If it was the former, it would at least leave a good impression.
And so, Link and Jasmine casually headed towards a lounge near the lakeside lawn, which Mina had arranged to meet.
Along the lakeside lawn were many such leisure cabins, accessible by swiping ID cards, with a symbolic usage fee paid in gold or silver coins.
Soon, the two arrived at one of these cabins and pushed open the door.
Inside, a charming blonde, blue-eyed girl awaited them—Mina Haverczek.
On a small round table beside her were two glasses of water.
Seeing that Jasmine hadn't come alone, but with Link, a flicker of panic crossed Mina's eyes, which she quickly concealed.
Jasmine didn't intend to speak, leaving everything to Link.
Link stopped at the small round table, picked up both glasses of water, and sniffed them.
Unsurprisingly, one glass contained hallucinogens.
Link stared into Mina's eyes for a long time, until her gaze flickered.
Only then did he say seriously, "Wanting revenge is fine, go after the perpetrators. If you don't have the power, then silently accumulate it. If you harm others, wouldn't you become a perpetrator too?"