The stone hallways, once the quiet paths for professors and researchers, were now filled with guards in magical armor and weapons engraved with ancient runes, stationed at every intersection and gate.
The sound of their footsteps mixed with the shouts of security unit manders, putting the tower’s already heavy atmosphere under even more pressure.
From the moment it was revealed that Aurelia’s death was not a suicide but likely a planned murder, the centuries-old order of the tower had crumbled.
No one trusted anyone anymore.
No one was sure the killer or their acplices weren’t still walking among them.
Even though it had been announced that one of the killers had been arrested and another had fled, who knew if there weren’t more acplices and killers?
This wasn’t about the deaths of a few servants. The deaths they had thought were suicides—many of them were great professors and mages.
And among them was the tower leader’s daughter.
In this tense atmosphere, the doors of the central investigation room, part of the tower’s judicial system, opened, and Serys entered the building with Daniel.
The guards present initially gave them only a casual glance, but the moment Serys pulled out the silver ring engraved with the tower leader’s insignia from her robes, everyone’s faces changed.
The guard mander immediately placed his fist on his chest and lowered his head.
"Professor Serys, the tower leader’s mand has been received."
In less than a few seconds, all the guards on both sides of the hallway stepped aside.
Even the professors who had e to object or ask about their presence fell silent upon seeing the official insignia of the tower leader and made way.
The authority of that ring spoke louder than any explanation.
From today, Serys was no longer just one of the tower’s professors. She was the direct representative of the tower leader.
And opposing her meant opposing the tower leader himself. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for whispers to spread throughout the building.
"Did you see?"
"It was the tower leader’s insignia..."
"The murder case has been reopened."
"So it really wasn’t a suicide?"
"Then Professor Morcan..."
"No, perhaps there’s still more to it."
As they passed through each hallway, the whispers followed them like a wave behind them.
Daniel walked calmly without even glancing around once; as if those heavy gazes meant nothing to him.
The first destination was the residence of one of the senior professors from the Department of Magical Theories.
The choices were pletely random, to ensure they had no connection to each other. Daniel had selected a few pletely random options, and they were to investigate and interrogate them.
Upon seeing Serys’s ring, the professor didn’t offer the slightest objection. He opened the door and allowed all the rooms to be searched.
Nothing unusual was found. But as they were leaving, Daniel paused in front of a half-burnt fireplace.
He brushed aside the ashes with his fingertip. Among the ashes, a small piece of paper still remained unburned.
Only two words remained on it:
"...Protocol..."
"...3..."
Daniel said nothing, just left it there. But after leaving, his mind fully analyzed what he had seen.
Either it was a trap, and Lioran was scattering evidence to make finding any evidence impossible, or this professor was truly one of Lioran’s subordinates and involved in the murders.
But Daniel’s guess leaned toward the first option. He felt the man was scattering evidence, trying to stop them from reaching him.
A few hours later, they had also searched the third residence.
Again, no evidence was found. But this time, one of the drawers still smelled of burning mana.
The Document Destruction Spell had been cast no more than a few hours ago.
In the fourth building, one of the researchers was so eager to cooperate that before Serys even asked, he opened all his shelves and chests himself.
He smiled too much. Daniel only looked at him for a few seconds, and when they left the building, Serys said:
"I think he was truly innocent."
"Perhaps. Or perhaps he was trying too hard to appear innocent." Daniel answered quietly.
But the strange thing was, everyone they searched had traces of evidence, and in his view, each could be a suspect.
This confused him. Either everyone he had randomly chosen were Lioran’s secret subordinates, or he was being too paranoid.
Of course, he didn’t think he was paranoid. His guess remained that Lioran was somehow scattering evidence.
The question was how and why.
As time passed, a mon pattern emerged among all the inspections.
There was no direct evidence, but the erased traces were too many. Letters that had just been burned, rooms recently cleaned with cleansing magic.
Researchers who had suddenly decided to organize their personal archives.
Daniel watched all of this in silence.
When they left the fifth building, one of his Fallen delivered news to him, and he said quietly:
"The news of the inspections has spread too quickly." The Central Magic Tower was very large, and such news shouldn’t spread that fast.
"Does that mean someone is informing?" Serys frowned.
"No. It means the other side... has a very good intelligence network."
At that moment, a thin shadow moved along the wall. Another one of the Fallen emerged from the darkness for only a few seconds.
So brief that if someone happened to pass by, they probably wouldn’t have seen anything.
"Master."
"Report." Daniel asked without looking at him.
"Since the inspections began, Lioran has changed his daily schedule three times."
"He also secretly met two people, but no suspicious conversations were recorded."
A few moments of silence passed, and then the Fallen continued:
"It seems he’s just... making sure nothing was exposed."
"No... he’s making sure of what we know." Daniel nodded very quietly.
The Fallen faded back into the darkness.
"So this...?" Serys muttered under her breath.
Daniel cut her off.
"Not yet. It’s still not enough. Nothing has been proven yet."
A few hours later, they entered the residence of one of the professors from the Botany Department.
Again, everything seemed normal. Again, no evidence. But as they were leaving, Daniel suddenly stopped.
His gaze fixed on an elderly servant standing by the hallway.
From the moment they had entered, the old man kept glancing toward the shed at the end of the courtyard.
Not out of curiosity, but out of fear.
"Open the shed." Daniel changed his path.
The servant’s face lost its color.
"But... that’s just old equipment..."
"Open it."
The man’s hands trembled. The key fell from his grip several times until finally the lock opened. Inside the shed, there was nothing.
A few wooden shelves.
A few empty boxes.
And a clean stone floor.
"Again, nothing..." Serys sighed.
But Daniel knelt down. He touched the floor. His eyes gleamed for a moment, and then a very faint smile settled on his lips.
"Interesting."
Serys came closer.
"What is it?"
"This place... was repaired today." Daniel ran his finger over one of the stones.
Serys looked closely. Now she too could see the very slight difference in color between the two stones.
Earth element magic had been used to restore this area only a few hours ago.
"Meaning... something was here and was moved... just today." Daniel rose to his feet.
A heavy silence formed between them. This could be a coincidence and have nothing to do with their matter, but Daniel’s bad feeling grew even worse.
In these inspections, his goal wasn’t actually to find evidence. He just wanted to waste time so the news would reach Lioran and he would take action, allowing them to track him and finally find evidence.
But today, everything was confusing. They had found no evidence, but scattered clues and burnt letters were everywhere.
Either the entire tower was practically working for Lioran, or he was planting those clues to steer the tower’s judicial system where he wanted.
"By confusing everyone, he wants to divert all attention away from himself... If I hadn’t known from the start that he was behind the murders, it would have been really hard to find him."
The sun was slowly approaching the horizon. After hours of searching, Serys sat tiredly on a stone bench.
"Again, we found nothing..."
Daniel stood beside her. His gaze still fixed on the tower’s distant buildings.
"On the contrary... today we found more evidence than ever."
"What?" Serys looked at him in surprise.
"Today, we found out that Lioran has had a backup plan for such a day all along. A truly professional plan that even makes finding evidence difficult for us."
"He probably expected the tower’s judicial system to e searching from the start."
"I’ve changed my mind. We need to change the plan. With the current method, we can’t scare or worry that man. We need to do something outside the normal framework, something he doesn’t have a plan for."
Before he could even finish his sentence, the sound of footsteps was heard from the end of the hallway.
One of the tower’s mages, with steady and calm steps, came toward them.
Neither hurried nor anxious. As if he had been standing there for a long time, waiting for them to leave.
When he reached a few steps from Serys, he gave a short bow.
"Professor Serys."
"Yes?" Serys raised her head. She recognized this mage. He was one of Morcan’s old students. But why was he here? Had he e because of his master?
The mage paused for a moment.
He glanced around briefly, as if making sure no one else could hear him.
"One of the tower’s professors... has requested to meet only with you." Then he said in a cautious tone.
Serys frowned.
"Who?"
"Professor... Morcan." The mage showed a bit of hesitation and then answered very quietly.
For a moment, time seemed to stand still.
Serys’s face pletely lost its color.
"Morcan?!"
Her voice, filled with disbelief, was louder than ever.
"But... wasn’t he supposed to have fled?"
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