Chapter 58. Absurdity
The wasteland outside Cuilan Academy.
Beloli walked a long distance before finally arriving at the target location.
The land where Richter’s flesh had been detected had now been dug into a massive pit, while the excavated soil was piled onto carts nearby.
When Beloli arrived, an apprentice who had been standing there absentmindedly imdiately ran over.
“ntor...”
Beloli raised a hand and said,
“What is the current situation? Have you found anything?”
The apprentice organized his thoughts before replying,
“We have confird multiple tis that Richter’s flesh and bones are present here. It is certain that this is the majority of Richter’s remains. As for the two items you were looking for, ntor, they have not been discovered yet.”
A faint ripple passed across Beloli’s otherwise calm face, but it quickly settled again.
“Where is ntor Losqi? Take to him.”
The apprentice imdiately led Beloli to the edge of the pit, where a man in a long robe was standing.
Losqi had brown hair that seed to have gone untrimd for a long ti, and his robe bore several stains. Yet when he turned his head, it was clear that his skin was unusually clean.
“Ah, you finally arrived.”
Then he seed to rember sothing and called out to an apprentice.
“Tane. Yes, co here for a mont.”
Tane walked over with a nervous expression. Losqi calmly introduced him.
“This is the apprentice who discovered the corpse.”
Beloli lowered her gaze and examined Tane.
“You did very well, apprentice. I will include you when I next conduct surgical instruction.”
Tane stiffened for a mont before relaxing, joy appearing on his face.
“Thank you, ntor Beloli...”
Beloli waved him away, dismissing him. Then she turned back to Losqi.
“Has the other side found any clues? Can we identify the murderer?”
Losqi cleared his throat and lowered his hands, revealing his clean palms.
“The Astromancy School cannot help in this matter. The corpse is no longer intact, and too much ti has passed. They cannot locate the killer through divination.”
“I have already sent another apprentice to investigate the Alchemists’ Association. We should have news soon.”
Beloli frowned slightly and said with so confusion,
“That does not match the school’s policy. We should minimize the number of people exposed to this knowledge. You should have continued letting the apprentice who found the corpse conduct the investigation.”
Losqi rubbed his hands together, his gaze drifting away from Beloli for a mont.
He knew the academy had strict regulations: important knowledge had to be carefully restricted. When teaching apprentices, even the number of students allowed to learn certain things had to be tightly controlled.
However, Losqi had recently lost a considerable amount of money in his experints. At that ti, several apprentices had offered him so assistance, allowing his experints to continue.
In fact, he had already accepted paynt when he first assigned the tasks. The apprentices who paid were allowed to choose their missions, while the tasks least likely to yield clues were left for the remaining apprentices.
Who would have thought that the tasks that seed like searching for a needle in the sea would actually uncover the crucial clue?
Losqi personally did not care. His own matters had already been settled. It was rely a stroke of luck—whoever had better luck would find the clue.
But the apprentices refused to accept it.
They quickly set their sights on investigating the Alchemists’ Association, believing it to be a lucrative task with an easy chance of finding clues.
None of the apprentices were willing to yield. In the end, one of them used his connections with the Necromancy School and had a friend intervene, which finally allowed him to claim the task after a full day of arguing.
When Losqi was questioned, he showed no panic at all. He had done such things many tis before, and his skin had grown thick.
“Richter is dead. That ans we have one fewer apprentice to teach. The school also requires us to instruct a certain quota of apprentices.”
Beloli’s lips pressed downward slightly.
She was displeased, but she did not continue questioning Losqi’s decision.
Those who had beco official mages rarely ca to the City of Apprentices. There were few opportunities here to advance to higher ranks, materials were scarce, and the location was remote.
The official mages who did co here usually had no choice. So were sent here by the school, so had offended powerful figures, and others ca to retire quietly.
She would not risk becoming enemies with Losqi over such a trivial matter. If he decided to leave, what then?
As the head of the Alteration School here, any trouble that arose after his departure would ultimately fall on her shoulders.
“Oh! The apprentice I sent out has returned. I will go see what happened.”
Losqi noticed an apprentice running over, gasping for breath, and slowly walked toward him.
Beloli turned her attention to the mound of soil piled on the carts and began forming an idea.
Perhaps tracking insects could use these traces of flesh to locate the murderer.
But there were too many impurities mixed into the soil...
“What?!”
Losqi suddenly let out a furious shout, as if he had heard sothing unbelievable.
Beloli turned toward him.
Losqi lowered his voice and scolded the apprentice a few tis. The apprentice shrank back nervously before Losqi walked over.
“This situation has beco troubleso. There are no leads from the Alchemists’ Association.”
Losqi’s face was tense and unpleasant. Investigating the possible leakage of knowledge was their primary duty. If they failed in this matter, they might face punishnt.
Perhaps we should avoid reporting the full truth...
He glanced at Beloli but quickly dismissed the thought. The head of the school would never accept such a suggestion.
“What exactly happened?”
Losqi explained,
“The apprentice traced the forr president who signed the docunts. After so interrogation, he learned the identity of the person who delivered the file. Then he tracked down that person and applied so additional thods, eventually forcing him to reveal who had instructed him to place the construction order with the Construction School.”
Losqi paused before continuing in disbelief.
“That person said it was Richter who ordered him to place the construction request.”
“What?!”
Beloli could hardly believe what she had heard.
“What kind of situation is that?”
“The apprentice also believed he was lying, so he intensified the interrogation and even used thods from the Alteration School. Yet the man still insisted that Richter had placed the order.”
Beloli’s tightly furrowed brows showed no sign of relaxing.
After pondering for a mont, she said slowly,
“So you are saying that Richter personally placed the construction order, buried himself underground, and arranged for the Construction School to crush his body?”
Losqi did not respond. He was still thinking about how to continue investigating the real murderer.
That finally made Beloli laugh in disbelief.
“What an absurd joke. So Richter committed suicide, hid the items sowhere, and left us running around like fools.”
Then her expression relaxed, and the corner of her lips lifted slightly.
“In that case, use the sa thod that discovered the corpse.”
“Send those apprentices out with tracking insects. Anyone who had contact with Richter—bring them all in.”
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