"So, are we hosting the Gala as planned?" Kameron asked the same old man who managed the meeting of the Seven Heads.
"No, it will be pushed ahead by 2 months, but it shouldn't matter as the dates were never announced," the old man replied.
As the Gala was not announced yet, they could postpone it just enough to maintain the pride of the Elite families.
The security issue with the Vault was not a minor one that could be overlooked. Even now, half the manpower of the Authority was working with the World Association to find traces of the unknown group, Zephyr.
"Did the results come in?" the old man asked while sipping his tea.
"No sorts of drugs were found, but Louis Rothschild did say that the drug or whatever poison the intruders used affected their mana circulation," Kameron replied.
"I can't even trust what that guy says," Kameron said as he grabbed his forehead.
Nothing that came out of Louis's mouth made sense to them.
An unknown drug that could affect the mana of an S Rank hunter and below.
Only three people below S Rank managed to escape a peak S Rank Hunter.
"Wasn't there an incident that happened with Louis Rothschild during the party of the Heir of the Greville family," the old man said as he remembered the rumors around that time.
"Is he holding a grudge for that long? I can't even do anything extreme because of his status," Kameron said with an irritated look on his face.
"His delusions are the reason our search is not going anywhere," Kameron spoke.
They had no clue about the intruders, and the statements they got from Louis didn't make sense and were not helping them at all.
"Kameron, sometimes it's not good to overlook things," the old man said.
"So, what should I do? Interrogate the heir of the Greville family who is still in his first year at the World Academy?" Kameron replied.
"Hey, I heard you fought and escaped an S+ Rank Hunter?" Kameron said.
The old man just laughed seeing Kameron's antics. He himself knew why Kameron was behaving like that.
The pressure to find the identity of this unknown group was high, and even the Chairman of the Artisan's Association got involved as the Vault's security was breached.
"Well, I am glad that only two artifacts were stolen," Kameron said.
After searching and verifying, it was found that only two artifacts were missing.
But they didn't know what they were as most of them were not analyzed by a Runemaster.
They were meant to be auctioned and the difficulty to analyze such high-ranking artifacts was too hard.
"So are we announcing the Gala this week?" Kameron asked.
"Yes, after confirmation from the Seven Heads and after we decide who will inaugurate the Gala this time," the old man said.
"Whiteheart are not a good choice anymore," he said.
"And Hargrave's Head doesn't want to be the one to do it," the old man sighed.
"Why?" Kameron asked.
Opening the Gala, and being the Main Host was considered a great honor so it didn't make sense to him.
"Let's just forget it," the old man said with a tired look.
And it was his hint to Kameron to not dig any further.
"And make sure you deliver the estimated dates to the World Academy in advance," the old man reminded Kameron.
"Ok, then I will go back," Kameron understood the orders and stood up.
Seeing the old man nod, Kameron left the room.
"Well, it's a good thing they only did such little damage," the old man said to himself.
He was thinking about Zephyr, and the people behind it. And he knew that their movements would be extremely difficult knowing that many forces were searching for their tails.
"Well, that's what you get for going against the Elite families," he muttered.
He was sure that none of the existing illegal organizations were behind this attack.
And if they were, things would get extremely difficult for them considering the crime this time.
In the World Academy,
"What? Blake Cranston lost a spar against Asher Greville?" A second-year student asked.
"Don't you know, almost everyone knows about this," his friend said.
"But how?" the second-year student asked.
"It doesn't make sense. You're telling me that the Blake Cranston we know of lost to a first-year student," he had a shocked look on his face.
But it was not just him, this news had spread like wildfire inside the World Academy, that even the Professors knew about it.
Something like that had never happened in the history of World Academy.
There were times when a first-year student would defeat their senior but defeating the Rank 1 student was an entirely different thing.
Not only was Blake the most powerful student in the second year, but he was also known for attempting the most dungeons out of all second-year students.
He had the most battle experience out of all second-year students, so him losing to a first-year student was an insane shock to the second-year student.
"Hey, doesn't that mean a first-year student is better than the whole second year?" One of them said as many eyes turned towards him.
"Wait, why is everyone glaring at me?" He noticed the stares.
It was obvious why people were reacting like that.
Knowing that a first-year student who had just joined was better than all of them was not the best feeling in the world.
"But, it was just a spar anyway," one of them spoke.
"It's not like they used Aura or lethal moves," he continued.
"Can you beat Blake Cranston in a spar? He never lost a single spar in the Duel Class. Almost all of his spars were a win, and few were a draw, never a loss," one of the students spoke out.
Blake Cranston, was not a simple guy either. The second son of the Cranston Family who had all the resources and the rough training of the Cranston Family.
Inside the Ranker's Dorm,
Leonard was sitting in front of Blake and Jack.
And his expressions right now were not bright at all. Usually, Leonard would maintain his smile, and mask his true intentions all the time but right now he couldn't control the frustration he was experiencing.
"How?" Leonard asked.
Blake was clenching his fist as he knew what Leonard was asking, and he felt that answering it was too embarrassing for him.
"In one day, your one loss will result in almost half of the people that we brought on our side crumbling and stepping back," Leonard said.
"If you can't even win against a first-year student, how were you so sure about winning the End Year Tournament?" Leonard asked while staring at Blake.
"Haah," Leonard was controlling himself from losing his temper but it was hard to do so.
But even though he wanted to strangle Blake right now, he couldn't act too rudely against Blake knowing that he was from the Cranston family.
"I will duel him again," Blake said looking at Leonard.
"Last time, I focused too much on Swordsmanship, but in a duel, it will be different," Blake replied.
"No need, just forget about Asher Greville for now, and this time follow my orders," Leonard glared at Blake.
Blake wanted to deny but seeing the look in Leonard's eyes he stopped.
"Let the Midterm Examination happen, I will handle matters regarding Asher Greville," Leonard said looking directly at Blake.
"Just focus on regaining your image, challenge people to duel from the third year, I will give you the names," Leonard said.
"And clear your reputation a bit," he said.
"And Jack, spread rumors that Blake went easy on Asher Greville and it was not an actual spar," Leonard said, and Jack nodded at him.
Right now, losing influence was not something Leonard wanted. Most of his influence was there because of the top members of the Blood Faction.
"And tell Alan and Gavin to increase the speed of the task we gave them," Leonard spoke after thinking a bit.
"Make sure most of the people lean over to the Blood Faction's side rather than the Student Council," Leonard said.
'This is getting annoying,' Leonard thought as he leaned back on the chair.
'Everything goes wrong around Asher Greville,' Leonard thought.
Since the moment Asher entered the World Academy, everything went wrong for him. And this made Leonard even more aware of Asher's existence.
"I need to be careful around him," Leonard muttered to himself.
He became even more focused on Asher, as he was the only one Leonard couldn't read properly.
'That guy would be a good card,' Leonard remembered Kevin and the deal he made with him.
Although Kevin made it clear that he would always side with Raelyn in matters concerning the Student Council, he accepted the proposal that Leonard gave him.
Now all Leonard needed to do was to make sure that Kevin, who was estimated to be the Rank 1 student, would be able to stand against Asher Greville.
"Right, the Gala will be announced this week," Leonard said, looking at Jack and Blake.
"Make sure all things I said will be done before the Gala happens," Leonard reminded them.
