The upper chamber of the Student Council tower was lit by steady crystal lamps — not bright, but clinical, designed to minimize fatigue. The table in the center stretched in a wide oval, built from polished blackwood reinforced with mana circuits.

At the far end sat Damien Ravencroft, his posture measured as always. Papers and rune-sheets were arranged before him in perfect order. A single stylus rested in his hand, unmoving.

Around the table, other members occupied their seats, murmuring quietly as data logs streamed across the suspended projection wall.

Instructor Garron's name was gone. His record, officially deleted after his expulsion, had been purged from all visible indices. In its place, however, the logs had begun to show new irregularities — subtle, but unmistakable to anyone paying attention.

Damien waited until the murmurs faded. Then he spoke.

"Before we begin with general reports, I want confirmation on the interference during the lower-floor exam."

A clerk standing by the projection monitor nodded and began transferring data to the central feed. A new sequence appeared, lines of coded resonance tracing across the glass.

"This is the sequence recovered from the team designated D-Seven," the clerk said. "Four members, one flagged instance of unsanctioned energy discharge. The anomaly was contained before it reached critical level."

Damien leaned back slightly. "Contained how?"

"Manually," the clerk said. "By the team's control operator."

Damien's stylus tapped once against the table. "Arios Pureheart."

"Yes."

Across the table, one of the council aides frowned. "Sir, if I may— the data tag attached to that name shows a conflict signature. Someone edited the timestamp after the record was locked."

Damien looked up at the projection again. The timestamp line flickered — 13:27:02 — then glitched to 13:28:04. Barely a minute difference, but enough to mark tampering.

"Who has that level of access?" Damien asked evenly.

The clerk hesitated. "Administrative Level Two or above."

"Meaning?"

"Senior staff. Or another council member."

The room went quiet.

From the far side, Chase Lexon finally spoke. His tone was casual, but his posture was anything but.

He sat slightly reclined, one elbow resting on the table edge, stylus turning between his fingers.

"It could just be a logging error," he said lightly. "Those systems aren't perfect. You know that, Damien."

Damien's eyes didn't move. "You reviewed the logs personally, Chase."

"I did," Chase said. "And I found nothing concrete. Just signal noise. If someone tampered, they did it before the report reached us."

"Yet you didn't flag it," Damien said.

"No reason to," Chase replied with a faint shrug. "An unverified error isn't grounds for escalation."

A low silence settled.

Thora, seated two chairs to the right, spoke next. "There were several similar distortions in previous trials. Each time, the records cleared after recalibration. This might be the same."

Damien folded his hands together. "Perhaps."

But his eyes lingered on Chase longer than necessary.

Down below, in the student dormitory, Arios sat at the desk in his room, the only light coming from the small crystal lamp beside him.

Pokner, Liza, and Lucy had already gone quiet — Liza half-asleep on the couch, Pokner reading through data chips, and Lucy sitting cross-legged on the floor, sketching something absentmindedly in her notebook.

The air was still. The kind of stillness that comes after too much noise.

Arios scrolled through his own console, checking the encryption on his saved copy of the dungeon data. The code line remained stable — no external traces.

Good.

He exhaled slowly.

Pokner's voice broke the silence. "You're still thinking about it."

He didn't look up. "Yes."

"The flag on your record?"

"Yes."

She adjusted her chair. "You'll have to assume they already know it's you who copied the data."

"I know."

"Then what's the plan?"

He looked at her finally. "Wait. Let them build the narrative first. Then dismantle it piece by piece."

Lucy lifted her head slightly. "You sound like Damien when you say things like that."

He gave a faint, dry smile. "Maybe he's rubbing off."

That earned a small laugh from Liza, who wasn't even fully awake. "You two should start a club for people who think too much."

Pokner didn't smile. "If we let them move first, they'll try to bury the interference report."

"I know," Arios said. "That's why we have to know how they'll do it."

She nodded once and went back to her work.

Back in the tower, the discussion was shifting tones. The council table had grown quieter, more focused.

Damien gestured to the suspended display. "Project the last ten minutes of the interference feed."

The clerk complied. A grainy image appeared — mana readings from the sixth floor, captured from scattered surveillance orbs. There were flashes of unstable resonance, fragmented like static. In the middle of it, faintly visible, was the shape of a student in uniform.

Damien recognized the posture immediately. "That's him."

Chase leaned forward slightly, his voice smooth. "You can't be sure. The interference corrupted image clarity."

"Maybe," Damien said. "But the energy pattern matches the same resonance from the Pureheart file."

One of the aides turned to Chase. "You said the student's data was inconclusive."

Chase smiled faintly. "Because it is."

Damien's stylus tapped against the table again, a small, steady rhythm. "Chase, you've always been thorough with your reports. I find it strange that this one leaves so much room for interpretation."

Chase's smile didn't fade. "Interpretation keeps us flexible."

"Or unaccountable."

The two men's eyes met. Neither blinked.

The tension in the room was quiet — not loud or explosive, but sharp enough that even the clerks stopped typing for a moment.

Finally, Damien looked away. "I'll have the technical team run another verification cycle. If it returns clean, we'll close it. If not, we'll reopen disciplinary protocol."

"Of course," Chase said lightly.

In the dorm, Lucy yawned and stretched. "Can we stop talking about tampering and data for one night? It's making my head hurt."

Liza nodded lazily from the couch. "Seconded."

Pokner raised an eyebrow. "You two act like this doesn't concern you."

"We fought through a dungeon that tried to eat us," Liza said. "I think we earned a little peace."

Lucy smiled faintly. "Besides, I trust Arios. He always figures it out."

That made Arios glance up briefly. "You shouldn't rely on me for everything."

Lucy shrugged. "Too late."

Pokner sighed quietly. "Hopeless."

Arios turned off his console. "Alright. Enough for today."

He stood, stretching slightly. His body still ached from the dungeon run, but it was tolerable.

Lucy gathered her notebook, Liza threw a pillow at her, and Pokner quietly collected her scattered data chips.

It was an ordinary end to a long day.

But beneath it all, Arios could still feel it — that low hum of tension, like a current running under calm water.

Back in the tower, as the meeting adjourned, Damien stayed seated.

Most of the others left, except for Chase, who lingered by the window.

"You're not going to rest?" Chase asked.

"I'll rest when the data is clean," Damien said.

Chase looked out over the academy grounds below, his reflection faint in the glass. "You don't trust him, do you?"

"I don't trust interference," Damien replied.

"Fair answer," Chase said, almost to himself.

He turned, his expression polite as always, but his eyes cold. "For what it's worth, I hope you're right. Because if Arios Pureheart is involved in something… it'll end poorly for him."

Damien didn't respond.

Chase smiled faintly and left the chamber.

The corridor outside was empty. Chase walked slowly, his steps unhurried. At the far end of the hall, a faint light pulsed from one of the communication crystals embedded in the wall.

He stopped beside it, pressing his hand against the interface.

[Encrypted Channel – Secure Link Established]

A voice came through — low, mechanical.

"Status?"

Chase spoke softly. "He's moving carefully. Too carefully. But he took the bait."

"Observation continues?"

"Yes."

"Then proceed."

The line cut. The crystal dimmed.

Chase stood there for a moment longer, watching the reflection of his own smirk in the glass surface.

Then he turned and walked away.

Back in the dorm, Arios finally lay back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The room was quiet except for the faint sound of Lucy and Liza arguing over who snored more loudly.

Pokner had long since retreated to her own quarters, muttering something about calibrating reports.

He let his eyes close. The world outside the dorm window looked still, peaceful.

But he knew better.

Something was moving again — unseen, deliberate, waiting.

And once again, he was standing in the middle of it.

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