It didn't take much inspection from the students that were present to figure out who was lying on the floor. It was clearly one of the two second-year students. With the state he was in and the ones in the room, questions quickly entered their minds as they started to think who could have done this.
"What do we do?" a student asked.
"We can't even report this to the teachers; I mean, there's no one around us. Was something like this meant to happen?"
"Who would even do something like this when we're in a tense situation as it is?"
The second second-year student walked up to what was considered his friend and looked at the person on the floor. His shoulders were shaking as if he was in pain, sulking.
"Isn't it obvious who did this? It had to be that damned White Dragon!" The student pointed behind him, his finger directly at Raze. "You all saw what happened yesterday. Oper stated that he would deal with this guy, so he decided to deal with him before he got the chance. He probably attacked him in the dark in the middle of the hallway and then placed him in his room."
The connections added up, and for a lot of the students, they thought Raze was the number one suspect as well. No one else had a reason for taking out the second-year student.
The main reason they suspected Raze, though, was because it was a second-year student. These weren't just any students but Red Headband students, the best of the best and those that had an entire year at the academy.
The only ones they could imagine that could take out a student somewhat silently would be either the main disciples or the White Dragon, who had bested even them.
"Hey, hey, hey, does that mean we are here with a murderer, like a literal murderer, and he's a no-name? He probably has a grudge against all of us clan members." The students were commenting and whispering among each other.
"Isn't it dangerous to just let him wander around in here while we are all here? He could go after us next."
"It has to be him; I heard he poked the guy's eye out without a second thought. If the librarian didn't turn up, then the student would have been dead; he was just finishing the job, and now he could go after us as well."
Simyon, Liam, and Dame could see what was happening, and they didn't like it one bit. All of them went to stand in front of Raze, including Safa, creating a type of shield around him.
"Quit jumping to conclusions!" Simyon shouted out. "It could have been anyone who did that to him. He was an arsehole; do you know how many people he could have angered that we didn't see?"
"Yeah, where's your evidence, huh? Raze is friends with one-eyed people, so he would never do something like that to someone with one eye." Liam's voice was shaken; he was panicking a bit and didn't know what he was saying. It was hardly making any sense at all.
Despite the pleas of Liam and Simyon, it wasn't enough to convince them. They still had worried eyes looking at Raze, and they felt cornered; when people felt concerned, they sometimes did extremely irrational things.
'What a clever situation someone has spun,' Dame thought. 'They saw a way for them to target Raze. They probably knew there was no chance they could go against him in a one-to-one fight. So they found a way to turn everyone against him, and they had done it by acting first.
'Someone did this having already figured out the truth behind this assessment.'
It was hard to predict who, though; most likely, it was one of the five main disciples, but would they act against Raze again? Nearly everyone was a suspect since they were all talented students.
"We should lock him up, keep watch over him for what he's done!"
"Yeah, even if he isn't really the one, he should understand, right? If we just keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't do stuff like this again."
Simyon and Liam were practically baring their teeth at the others, trying to force them to take a step back, but that's when Raze walked through and past the two of them.
"It's okay," Raze said. "There's no need for you to come to my defense because I don't care what these people think. You think I'll listen to what you say? If anyone wants to come for me, then come for me, and we'll see what happens."
With that, Raze walked off, and he headed through the dark tunnels before anyone else; he was the only one disappearing into the shadows.
Tensing his fist, he continued to walk until he was back in the other large room, the entrance from which they fell down. This one had no light source and was pitch black, though.
'It happened again, just like at the academy; everyone turned on me, not even giving me a chance to speak up. At the time, I allowed things to go through to follow the process, thinking things would work out, but they didn't.'
Raze then pulled out something from his hand, while also summoning one of the four swords he had. Before, he hadn't enchanted the weapons for fear something would happen, but now he knew, after figuring out the real reason behind his assessment, he might very well need them.
'I know this time that I need to act and prepare myself.' Raze was ready to enchant the rest of his weapons.
Dame left the room, the five main disciples left the room as they all slowly started to figure it out.
This assessment was the Kodoku assessment. In a tropical Kodoku, poisonous insects would all be placed in a jar, letting them kill each other until only one survived, leaving only the very strongest and the most deadly poison.
In this case, the students were the insects.
'If they think I'm the killer and have decided it as fact already, then I might as well get on with it.'
The sword had lit up from the ground; the enchantment was complete. Picking it up, the sword was sparking, lighting up the dark area Raze was in slightly, revealing his face and his sharp white hair.
