The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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The headmaster felt a chill up his spine as he faced the gaze of the three pillars. 'Fuck!'

Just as the student prefects had their monthly stipend of a hundred spirit stones per week, and the junior and senior professors had their own salaries, the headmaster also received his fair 'compensation' from the academy's coffers.

Of course, what he got was far, far better than anyone else in the academy, even the pillars. After all, if not for Aurora's overwhelming strength, the headmaster's position was actually superior to that of a pillar, and strictly going by the hierarchy, she should be listening to his orders.

But as it often is in the world, the strong don't need to follow the rules of the weak. Aurora would only be bound to follow his orders if she herself felt like it, or if she was forced to do so by someone stronger than her. Since neither of these was true, she would, of course, do as she pleased.

On the other hand, he had to follow her orders and advice whenever she put them forth, because her strength was superior to his own.

Technically, there was no loss of face for him as the headmaster to be following Aurora's orders. After all, the pillars were the senior-most members of the academy, and could have easily taken the headmaster position for themselves if they wished. Not to mention that the position of the headmaster was also decided by votes from the pillars.

All three remaining pillars seemed to have decided on it already. Even if he protested, they could still revoke his headmaster position. In that case, it was better to step down gracefully.

Anyway, a pillar also received about half the compensation that he used to. It wasn't too bad, though it will surely hurt his growth in the long term.

The black haired man couldn't help but lean back on his chair with a sigh. "Who will take up the headmaster position, then?"

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Evelyn had, of course, stayed in her room for the day along with her friends, and also implored Amber to do the same.

Since her teacher hadn't told her what the situation was going to be like, the pink-haired girl was of course worried that something could go wrong, and they would be caught up in the mess. In that case, it was better to stay in a position where Aurora could quickly find them.

Not everyone listened to her as obediently as Amber, though, and while Evelyn was still waiting for her teacher to return, the ash-blonde finally returned.

"Why are you out, again? Didn't I tell you to either wait with us here, or stay in your own room?" Evelyn couldn't help but frown as Cecilia slid past her with a sheepish grin.

Cecilia scratched the back of her head with some embarrassment. "W-Well, although I do understand the situation is quite serious from what you said, but we wouldn't have any idea what's going on if all of us just stayed in place, right? Plus, I've been in the academy for so long, nothing will happen to me by roaming a little more."

Evelyn rolled her eyes as she led the girl to the sofa, where Amara was teaching Amber and Vivian some tricks in 'kingdom', as both of them had been frustrated after being repeatedly bullied by Cecilia.

Amber flinched as soon as she spotted the ash-blonde girl. "Ah! S-She's here again!"

Vivian, on the other hand, was fearless. "Hmph. This time I'll defeat you for sure! Bullying me just because you know more tricks!"

Evelyn shook her head as she motioned for Amara to calm them down, and the older redhead quickly distracted the two.

Although she didn't like that Cecilia had gone out to take such a risk despite her advice, at the end of the day, the girl had her own free will. Plus, now that she was back safe and sound, there was no point in nagging her too much.

"How do things look? Any announcements in the Hall of Merits?"

Cecilia nodded. "That's what I'd been waiting for. They announced that the headmaster position will now be handed over to Harlan Stonehardt. I didn't hear anything about a pillar dying, though. I'm guessing they want to keep it under wraps."

The pink haired girl couldn't help but frown.

It made sense that the academy would want to keep this thing a secret. After all, infighting between the top echelons wasn't exactly something glorious. If they could hide it, why wouldn't they?

What she was worried about, however, was that she knew the name of the new headmaster, and he hadn't left her with a good impression at all.

Evelyn could clearly recall that, on her first day in the 'Maker's Mansion', the man had clearly shown favoritism towards the Terran students. And he seemed to favor that annoying brat Rufus especially, which Evelyn thought might be due to them having the same surname. Perhaps they both originated from the same family, and Rufus might even be a descendant of Harlan!

If he just showed a little favoritism, that was still acceptable. But Evelyn felt that he was also someone who wouldn't mind resorting to underhanded tactics just to boost his own ego. She could sense that the competition he had conducted on the first day wasn't exactly fair, and even if she had made her submission ten times better, it still would have lost to that of Rufus.

Cecilia couldn't help but be curious when she saw Evelyn look so gloomy after hearing the news. "Why do you look so depressed? It doesn't really concern us much, does it?"

Evelyn bit her lip in thought. "Actually, I just feel like this Harlan guy is bad news. And now that he's so high up, taking the position of the headmaster… I just have a bad feeling."

The ash blonde girl scratched her cheek, feeling a little confused. "Harlan Stonehardt? Uhhh… From what I remember, he was a rather pompous, buff looking guy who focused mostly on forging weapon type artifacts… I don't recall him being like that?"

Evelyn blinked. "I-Is that so? Maybe I had a bad impression just because of one incident, and he's actually not bad… But it's also possible that what I felt was right. I'll talk to Aurora anyway. She must know something about him, at least, though she may not be personally familiar with the guy either."

Cecilia nodded. "Right, that would be the best. Honestly, I still can't believe that anyone in the academy would dare to attack Aurora. Whenever I heard someone talk about her, it was with such reverence and awe, as if talking about some invincible existence. I could believe it even less that he managed to injure her like that… I guess she can also get hurt… You should also be careful…"

The pink haired girl sighed. "Don't worry."

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Of course, although the death of a pillar could be hidden from the students, the same couldn't be said for the teachers. Shortly after the headmaster stepped down from his position, the death of Lord Mantis was already a well-known fact among both senior and junior professors alike.

Whether it was the headmaster or the pillars, they all agreed that hiding it would only be worse. After all, some of the senior professors were very likely to have become aware of the event and sensed that the pillar tower belonging to Lord Mantis became deactivated.

Although the reason behind said death wasn't publicized, it wasn't like they were completely without clues.

On the same day that Lord Mantis died, another professor also went missing. Of course, professor Donna was only a puny little junior professor, and one of the weakest among them, at that. None of them were stupid enough to suspect that she killed Mantis. That would be a joke.

The most common theory among the professors was that Junior Professor Donna was killed by Lord Mantis. As for why he did so, who knows?

Of course, a pillar killing a junior professor could either be a minor thing, or a serious offense. It all depended on why they did, and whether or not there was someone who could and would enforce the rules to their fullest.

Assuming that Lord Mantis did not have a good enough reason for killing Donna, or was even trying to hide some guilt against the academy itself by doing so, there did indeed exist someone who could and would punish him so severely for the fault.

As long as Aurora judged that Lord Mantis had committed something truly egregious and must die, it was possible that she either executed him herself, or the other pillars assisted her in doing so, thus leading to a silent death for Lord Mantis.

And thus, these two facts soon became commonly agreed upon by the professors. 

First… Donna was killed by Lord Mantis. 

And second… Lord Mantis was killed by Aurora.

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