Display of Power
"So according to what Lucien has stated, it seems that the student who invaded your room isn’t the scholarship student Nara," sighed the acting director, relieved that Lucien’s student wasn’t involved. Otherwise, a conflict between Medik and Lucien would have been inevitable.
"If that’s the case, then this matter should...." He thought that this issue could be concluded without further problems, so he hurriedly finished off. However, Professor Gwen did not agree with letting it go so easily. How could she allow this matter to simply fade away without addressing justice, which should be impartial and not lean towards any student? This strict professor wouldn’t let things slide as the acting director had thought.
"Acting director, I think there are still 2 matters we need to address. First, we need to rectify the issue where student Ellie has wrongfully accused another student of invasion when the latter was indeed not at fault. In this case, she still owes an apology to student Nara."
"Secondly, does student Ellie still suspect that someone else might have entered her room? For her peace of mind, we need to verify this properly to ensure that no one mistakenly thinks our security measures are weak," her stern eyes swept across the room, stopping at the current administrator.
After Gwen raised these points, the acting director seemed to want to facepalm, regretting perhaps that calling Professor Gwen here wasn’t the right decision after all.
But there were those who agreed with Professor Gwen; Regan was one of them. Hearing what Professor Gwen said, he nodded in agreement.
After all, wasn’t there a student who suspected their room had been breached? If an intrusion really occurred, they needed to act quickly to rectify and protect the student, not just leave it unresolved! Or if student Ellie was mistaken in her wild accusations, then she needed to be taught about the consequences of such careless talk, to prevent her from recklessly slandering others in the future.
Had it not been for scholarship student Nara being Lucien’s disciple, and he personally explaining the situation, scholarship student Nara might have become a pitiable victim, possibly already punished by them.
With the situation becoming more tense, they all looked at Ellie with increasing scrutiny. However...
"May I speak about this first?" Medik, who had been quietly listening, interjected.
He would not allow his student to apologize until the investigation was conclusively proven. If it turned out that his student was in the wrong, then they would proceed according to the institution’s rules, not just let someone twist the truth on a whim and turn black to white like this.
Even though the student in question wasn’t his, Medik felt the same impulse to speak up.
"Medik! You..."
"Please, listen to my thoughts first." Hearing his serious words, everyone in the room had to fall silent, even the acting director, the highest-ranking position, involuntarily swallowed.
Who would have thought that a seemingly gentle and beautiful professor, when angered, could turn into a tiger provoked like this!
"Thank you all...About the incident, before I had personally brought the student here, my student had been too terrified to speak up, possibly thinking that even if she told me, I would be unable to help because I was considered a non-essential professor. My knowledge seemed to serve no purpose for other students; I was just secluded in my own botanical dome.”
"But it was I who spoke to her. I assured her that if her safety was indeed compromised, I would protect this student myself. As a professor...that’s what I must rightfully do. Even if I am just a low-ranking professor or one who doesn’t get much attention, I must stand up for my own student. That’s the very reason I was hired for this department."
"I was confident that coming here, I could clarify things for my student. I believed the institution would provide the truth. However, what I see now doesn’t seem like the work of the honorable institution I knew."
"......Perhaps because of a few words from the institution’s most influential person, others’ words seem to lose their meaning," Medik chuckled, noticing Lucien’s eyebrow twitch upon hearing this.
Professors Gwen and Regan, who had been at the institution for a long time, and especially the acting director, were stunned. They just did as Medik had pointed out. Just a word from Lucien seemed to validate everything, even though they should genuinely be working for the righteousness of all students.
How could these two claim they were just and fair after hearing Medik’s accusations? Medik’s disparaging words about being a worthless professor were more like a slap in their faces.
For two people who cherished honor and righteousness, this surely must have been provoking. Only the acting director, who had always been more accommodating, might not have wanted the director’s role initially because he knew he wasn’t up to it. Had it not been thrown at him unexpectedly, perhaps he might accept 10 more direct disciples and happily teach them, living a happy life by now.
Medik glanced around at everyone. Having seen the attitudes of all the professors, he thus ignored the acting director, who was unlikely to assist him in this matter, and turned to Professors Regan and Gwen instead.
"I heard you want my student to apologize, even though she hasn’t spoken yet. If anyone should apologize, it should be only me, apologizing to her...for failing to protect her," declared Medik that he wouldn’t let his student apologized. His unprecedented assertiveness left the other professors unable to proceed.
After more than 10 minutes of silence, it was finally broken by the experienced Professor Gwen. She seriously reconsidered the words of Professor Medik, who had once been one of her students. Realizing her own mistake, Professor Gwen not only acknowledged her position and ego but also nodded in acceptance of her faults.
"What Medik said is correct; we need to conduct a more thorough investigation. So, let’s start from the beginning,"
Professor Gwen declared. Medik released a relieved sigh—confrontations of such intensity were never his forte. If he had to engage in them too often, Medik was certain he would no longer have the energy left to cultivate his herbs!
Nonetheless...even though Professor Gwen spoke thus, Lucien wasn’t startled in the slightest. He maintained his composure, firmly believing that his student could do no wrong, regardless of the investigation.
Well...They could not find anything anyway. If there were any mistakes to be found, they would probably understand that it was due to a malfunction in the flow of magic power at that time.
It was all because of the secretive techniques in using magic power he had studied. With just a slight use of light magic power, he could disrupt all the protective magical scripts placed at the front door. He had previously used this to secretly escort a fellow student to their room—a secret he had always kept. Why would Lucien reveal such a secret to others? Ultimately, it would not benefit him but could become a danger later.
Lucien was no fool. He could easily enter others’ rooms, and if the other students or peers at the institute knew, who wouldn’t be afraid...That’s why he never told anyone until he opened up to Nara, a talented and well-behaved scholarship student. He believed that after sharing this secret with her, she could use it to create such an incident.
However, Lucien knew that the investigation would never go that deep, as all magic powers and circuits would be checked by a light magician, and the best light magician at the institute was none other than himself. If he were to go into scholarship student Ellie’s room, the first thing he would do before proving the presence of residual magic power was to destroy all evidence.
It meant that even if they wanted to check, they couldn’t!
"Let’s start with the first question then, scholarship student Ellie. Can you tell us why you are so sure that your room was invaded, and yet you point at Nara, a friend from your own village?" Professor Gwen took the lead, neutrally posing the first question. They deserved to hear Ellie’s suspicions first, to verify their correctness.
Ellie glanced at Professor Medik again, and finally, she summoned her own purple mushroom.
"Huh? What is this?"
Upon seeing the bizarrely shaped purple mushroom, Professor Gwen and the others were taken aback. Medik hesitated for a moment. He already knew the power of the student in his care—a purple mushroom, and he also knew how terrifying its ability could be. Under other circumstances, revealing one’s power might be advantageous, but this situation surely was not the right one?
Medik’s brows furrowed together. He wanted to prevent Ellie from revealing that her little mushroom could decompose various objects, including clothes and even the Tree of Wishes.
Aside from not being beneficial to the case of the room invasion, it could also be dangerous for her!
However, it was already too late. Medik couldn’t make everyone forget what they had seen. He had to let things take their course, otherwise others might become more suspicious of his student.
"Has your power awakened? Can you now summon bonded plant at will?" the acting director almost clapped in delight after witnessing such talent in a student.
Previously, he had received a report from the practice instructor about her power level, which he had thought quite good. She had only recently awakened her power, yet it had already reached Level 2, intermediate. Such extensive power would assist her in the future, although he was disappointed after learning that she had formed a bond with a purple mushroom. Nevertheless, it was undeniable that her ability to summon the purple mushroom on her first day of class was a true talent.
"Yes, sir," Ellie nodded in affirmation, but Regan did not let the conversation drift further.
He wasn’t particularly interested in this trivial botanic power, even though it was Medik’s power that could help halt enemies. There were, in fact, many other magicians who could do the same.
Such as earth magicians who could immobilize an enemy by causing the soil to cling to their feet, and water magicians who had special spells to slow an enemy’s movements. It was possible for every elemental magician to have someone capable of such feats. It just that Medik was a botanic magician who had graduated within the last 20 years—a field which had no dedicated professors before Medik, hence his prominence.
"And what does your power have to do with this suspicion?" Hearing this question, Ellie cracked a smile, undeterred by the stern tone. She raised her hand and directed the 2-inch purple mushroom to cling to the back of Professor Regan as her response."Because it is this power of mine that let me know that a friend from the same village, whom I always thought could be trusted, has invaded my room."