It was weeks ago when Eliana sent a message to Izen, who was the current Dean of the Academy and the most powerful out of them all. In fact, they believed that even if they all fought Izen together, they still couldn't defeat him. That was Izen's strength.
At the moment, they needed proper guidance, and the only person who could handle it was Izen.
"I received a response from him," Eliana answered. "He is coming back in a week..."
"Where is he even doing to take so long? Where is he?" Lishen inquired, confused. Their Dean just disappeared one day, handing over the temporary responsibilities to Eliana. They didn't even know where he went in reality.
Eliana also shrugged her shoulders. "If only I knew. I'm sure he's doing something important, which is keeping him engaged. We should get the answers when he returns."
"Anyway, that's not the only thing I called you here to inform." Before the others could question her more about Izen, Eliana continued, shifting the topic.
"What more?"
"It's about Lelin..." Eliana let out. Unlike Gabriel, who she hid about from the Head Council, she had already told them about Lelin from the start.
"The boy who was selected by the Holy Priest of Light to be his heir?" Yoan asked, resting his hand on the table before him. "What about him?'
"Now that the classes have begun again, we've noticed that he has been missing," Eliana answered. "We've searched the entire academy, but he's nowhere to be found."
"Did he leave the Academy, thinking it wasn't safe for him after the last attack?" Lishen suggested. The attack on the Academy had really weakened its reputation.
Previously, the Academy used to be considered the safest place in the Lumen Empire, comparable to the Sacred Church of Light in safety, but not anymore. The news about them being robbed had already spread in the entire city, dealing a heavy blow to their reputation.
Even though the Academy took every step possible to make sure this news didn't spread out, none of their steps worked at all. They had become a laughing stock for some people in the city because of this.
However, it wasn't just them who took a blow to their reputation. The Sacred Church of Light took some of the heat, even though not on the same level as the Academy. Now there were some questions being raised as to how a Dark Mage managed to enter the city, passing through their barrier undetected.
The Church of Light had no answer to that question, so they could only choose silence and use their influence to spread a rumor that it wasn't a Dark Mage who robbed the Academy of Element.
They changed the story only slightly to change the Element of the robber from Darkness to Summoning to protect the reputation of their protective barrier.
"No. The Academy was sealed right after that attack, and even now, no student is allowed to leave the academy, so there is no way for him to leave. At least not through normal means," Eliana expressed, refuting Lishen's thoughts.
"Not through normal means...? What are you implying?" Xinci asked, noticing the importance of the specific terms Eliana used.
"At the moment, there are two possibilities, according to me." Eliana took a brief pause before continuing, "One is that Lelin was working with Gabriel. The Element of a Light that was used to clean Hawrin's room of all evidence? It was Lelin. We already knew that Gabriel had the help of one of the students who could Lelin light. That person could very well be Lelin..."
"How does that even make sense? Lelin came with the Holy Church of a Light. He was sent by the Holy Priest himself. Didn't you tell us that? You also had a letter from the Head of the Church of Light."
It made sense that Gabriel had the help of one of the students who could use the element of Light when he killed Hawrin, but for that helper to be Lelin? That seemed like a stretch. Why would someone who was going to be the Head of the Church of Light in the future help Gabriel?
"Maybe because he wasn't actually sent by the Holy Priest of Light... Gabriel fooled us using Illusions. It could be the same for Lelin. The carriage which brought him here...? What if that was also an ordinary Carriage that was under the illusion to look like the carriage from the Church of Light?" Eliana explained.
"As soon as he came here, he made up a story to make sure we didn't cross check his identity with the Holy Church of a Light by telling us that he was sent by the Holy Priest himself, secretly. To keep that secret, we couldn't ask the Church of Light directly, and that was the final piece of his trick to fool us," she further stated.
"I should've guessed as much! It was too much of a coincidence for two youngsters with such talents to come on the same day at around the same time..." Eliana sighed, slowly realizing that she didn't just make one mistake in this episode. Instead, she had made mistakes after mistakes due to her greed.
The more she realized her mistakes, the angrier she got at Gabriel.
"That would definitely explain how he disappeared right after the theft... He had executed his mission and left. Gabriel was also supposed to leave, but he stayed behind due to the Tower." Rem didn't find this story too far-fetched. If anything, this made more sense.
"What is the other possibility you talked about?" Yoan asked, remembering that Eliana had mentioned two possibilities.
"The other possibility is that we are wrong about our initial assumption and that he was actually sent by the Church of Light. Under this possibility, Lelin was killed by Gabriel since he wanted to remove a future threat. This time, however, Gabriel made sure not to even leave the body behind," Eliana stated, shocking everyone who heard the possibility as it made just as much sense as the first possibility.
In both cases, they had lost Lelin, but the first possibility was still better. If the latter was true, that meant the Holy Priest of Light was going to be quite angry at them for not being able to protect Lelin!
