***
It had been an hour since Mikhail had started searching.
And so far he couldn't find a single clue of any pact or treaty related with wormholes.
Anything with the Ironhold, or the Dominiques. Nothing.
Mikhail took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.
The man whom he had faced back there. He wasn't strong by any means.
In fact, in a straight on fight it wouldn't take Mikhail more than a minute to send him packing.
So Mikhail doubted he could have made it far to the lake without being caught by those people first.
In that case, there was a very minute chance of him having overheard this S- pact thing.
It wasn't information he found out from them.
It was something he already knew, and with how illiterate these people at the wall are, it had to be something commonly known.
Something famous that he would know from seeing those people.
'What could it be..what could it be..?'
"S-pact, S-pact…S-pact…" Mikhail gritted his teeth.
"Are you troubled, Mikhail?"
Mikhail's head snapped to the side, where he saw Master Vance peeking from a bookshelf.
In his plan of getting to his answer quickly, Mikhail chose to at least seek some help.
"Master Vance, do you know of any treaty or pact that starts with S? Any famous treaty, maybe related to this Ironhold?"
The old man's face caught surprise for a second, probably for a second.
Mikhail didn't fear him much. He did give him a weird vibe but it wasn't one of danger or distrust.
In fact, he was a good man, always wishing the best for everyone on the hold.
Not every man sent to the wall was rightfully sent. The system of law in the Empire wasn't perfect.
Perhaps it was the worst there could be.
There were many people on the hold unfairly sent because they were chosen to be the scapegoat for someone's crimes.
Mikhail knew Master Vance was one of them.
Besides, the man was already pushing death. There wasn't much he needed to be careful of.
"A pact or treaty starting with..hmm..S? A famous one too…I can't say there are many that relate to what you need, Mikhail."
Frustration was seen on the black-haired boy's for a second.
But he quickly masked it.
What if?
A realization struck his hard.
Of course, the man couldn't have known about a pact or treaty when seeing those people.
What if it was something else? What if it were the people?
What if…
S- Pact, wasn't a treaty or pact. But an organization?
Mikhail turned to Master Vance, in perhaps his last hope of the situation.
"Master Vance, what if it was an organization or group? Something that's named S-pac-"
Mikhail was interrupted by a tap of the stick on the hard wood by Vance.
He saw his blue calm eyes lock with his, a confirmed expression on his face.
As if he knew what he meant now.
"You're talking about Silent Pact, that's the only answer to your description."
Mikhail's eyes widened, and Vance knew he had been right.
***
Mikhail stepped out of the library, everything making sense in his head now.
Silent Pact.
A famous organization, even later in his previous life.
It all clicked up.
What they were famous for…
'Famous for exploitation of mana sources and wormholes for the use of destruction and resource hoarding.'
A single part echoed inside his mind from the sentence.
'Mana sources and wormholes.'
And they had been near a mana source just this morning.
Magnolia Lake.
There was no need to wonder what they were up to.
He knew about it.
Forced Wormholes.
As the name suggested, these were wormholes forcefully opened by people.
Oftentimes, it was done for training or hunting, however, it was also a method exploited by people for evil as well.
Using mana sources to artificially create monster raids was one of the uncommon methods.
A reason for this was because it took multiple days to set a single wormhole up.
Most of the times, people would just get discovered before they could stage it.
Which was supposed to be the case here as well.
The group wasn't even supposed to get close to the mana source without getting discovered.
It made no sense how they avoided it.
There was a very minor chance for someone to betray the academy but it was definitely a possibility.
Especially from outside as the guards kept record of everything.
In any case, what it definitely confirmed to Mikhail was that they weren't a normal group.
Just a normal forced wormhole required a lot of resources to open and operate.
But from the incident in his past life, there were multiple ones.
Not only that but to infiltrate the academy security system was no joke.
However, a point was still unclear to him.
It was their motive with this attack.
No matter how many forced wormholes they orchestrated, trying to execute a Dominique with it was plain stupid.
A Dominique was a force to be rivaled with.
Even they probably knew that this would not assassinate a Dominique.
It didn't happen in his previous life too so why do it?
They were literally a one person army that you do not want to trifle with.
A couple of wormholes were barely enough to stop them.
Mikhail could confirm this with definite surety after the incident in his past life.
Nobody would think of it as an assassination plot where the chances of the target were less than even 10%.
Unfortunately, he needed to figure this out. It still confused him.
He could only have any chance of solving it after the incident though. It was useless right now.
In any case, most of the information he needed was in his hands now.
He knew the people, the targets, the time and how they would do it.
Now he just needed to prepare for the fateful day and when it would come, he'd be ready.
This time for sure, he'd pass the mission and finally find out more about himself.
Closing his thoughts, he quickly made his way back to the messing hall to eat before joining his squadron.