CHAPTER 92: CONFESSION

"Don’t tell me that you doubted me?" Bloodberry chuckled, noticing MidnightFire’s silence.

MidnightFire didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she asked, "How did you do it?"

"It was much easier than I had expected. Unexpectedly, he has a problem... He’s a drug addict," Bloodberry said with a tired sigh as though she didn’t want to reveal such information.

"I used the excuse of searching for the culprit who had spread false information about me, so he couldn’t easily push me away. During that time, he began acting strangely and took a drug, claiming it was just a supplement." She explained.

"But I grew suspicious and eventually uncovered where he had hidden it in his office. It took a while, since he had already suspected me. Once I found it, I sent it to a friend for analysis, and the results were far more shocking than I had expected."

"What kind of drug is it?" MidnightFire asked, her voice curious.

"I’m sorry. I can’t share that information with you," Bloodberry replied.

"Besides, it’s not with me anymore."

Bloodberry was utterly shocked to learn that Fredric had taken such a pill and that such a thing even existed.

She had no choice but to turn the matter over to the higher-ups to look into it. Therefore, she was unable to share any information with her student until the issue was resolved.

MidnightFire nodded, "Can I see his confession?"

Bloodberry nodded. She tossed the cube over to MidnightFire.

The cube halted in mid-air before her.

Then, it pulled apart, with all its edges spreading backwards, revealing a transparent screen at its centre.

The scene began with Sarafina stepping into Fredric’s office as he attended to the things on his desk.

The video continued playing for two hours before coming to an end.

"The Zahara Clan Descendants are truly responsible for my current misfortune," MidnightFire spat.

The malice in her voice couldn’t be hidden.

"So, the pill was also supplied by the Descendants of the Zahara Clan?" MidnightFire said.

The contents of the video were altered, so she didn’t hear the details about what the pills were; however, she drew insights about how powerful it was to make a powerful individual like Instructor Fredric addicted to it.

She felt a chill travel through her spine in the real world, thinking about the effort the Descendants of the Zahara Clan had taken to ensure this was possible, while also implicating her in the process.

"Yes," Bloodberry responded. "Although I don’t know how they managed to get their hands on a pill like that, they will have a lot to answer for once the investigation commences."

"However, there’s a chance that this will be taken as an individual action executed only by Fredric, and the Zahara Clan’s Descendants will narrowly escape punishment. Those Beastmaster Path Clans have a lot of means to get away with anything they want. We can only gather enough evidence against them if we want to be successful."

"The Grand Avalon Academy might not be afraid of punishing the Zahara Clan’s descendants, but they are wary of the repercussions of doing so, so that’s the best approach to take. However, if we want to add another layer of security so that they don’t go unpunished, then we’ll need to secure Ezekiel Zahara’s help."

"With the help of another Descendant of the Zahara Clan testifying against them, with or without waiting for the investigation to be concluded, they will be powerless against anything that comes. However, doing so would further place Ezekiel in a worse condition than he currently is."

"He would become a target for the other Descendants of the Zahara Clan in the upper classes once they learnt of what had transpired. I know that you want him to join your camp, but at that moment, accepting him will mean drawing attention to yourself."

"I suggest you give up on the thought of accepting him into your camp if he agrees to testify against the Descendant of the Zahara Clan. The latter is the best proof plan, but I’ll meet with Ezekiel Zahara and listen to his response first. I also need to teach him a lesson for avoiding me all of this time."

The transparent screen vanished as the edges pulled together, shaping into a cube once more. It hovered in the air before MidnightFire.

Before she stretched her hand forward to grab it, the cube moved backwards, returning to Bloodberry’s hand.

"I don’t think we need to worry. While you were occupied, Ezekiel Zahara has been making quite a name for himself," MidnightFire said with a chuckle.

"What do you mean by that?" Bloodberry asked, her voice laced with intrigue and interest, as she eagerly awaited MidnightFire’s explanation.

"It’s best I show you it directly."

Upon hearing her response, Bloodberry instantly became more interested.

With a flick of her wrist, MidnightFire summoned a small transparent screen out of thin air and placed it before her.

On the screen, Ezekiel and Julian faced each other at the centre of a training ground, surrounded by a large crowd.

A duel?

Elric and Andre stood at the other end of the inner circle as though officiating the duel.

Observing this scene, Sarafina immediately understood that something significant had occurred while she was attending to her task.

She didn’t utter a word. She continued to observe the scenes, knowing that they held the key to her questions.

After an hour and two minutes, the video ended.

Sarafina fell silent.

"Are the contents of this video true?" Sarafina asked, her voice filled with scepticism.

Even as a battle-hardened veteran, no amount of experience could prepare her for the scenes that she had just witnessed.

Just previously, she had learned that Ezekiel had defeated the Class Three third-ranked Magical Swordsman in an official duel.

Now he has duelled the entire Windcrest Clan and has defeated every single one of them.

It was totally incomprehensible.

Several weeks ago, Ezekiel had defeated Ivory, and now he had dominated the entire Windcrest clan’s descendants.

If she hadn’t been informed of this matter by Chioma, she would have thought that the other party was joking or trying to fool her.

However, she still couldn’t help but ask.

She gulped, feeling the lump in her throat in the real world.

"It’s real. You can try looking for evidence on the trending forums, and you’ll find similar events of the battle taken from various perspectives," Mdnigtfire responded.

"I felt the same way as you when I first learned about this. Ezekiel Zahara is no longer a sheep among wolves... No, he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. If Ivory hadn’t challenged him to a duel, then we would have been unaware of his real strength."

"He would have continued to remain hidden until who knows when he decides to reveal his strength. I finally understood the thoughts of the Descendants of the Zahara Clan. If I were them, I would not hesitate to eliminate an individual like Ezekiel to prevent any surprises from emerging in the future."

"However, he hadn’t died and had even overcome their plans. Therefore, even if you say that I should forget about recruiting him into my camp, I’m sorry, teacher, but I can’t do that."

"The sooner I can gain his support, the better. Otherwise, if he does something ridiculous again in the future, then I’m afraid that the others might also have such thoughts."

"You seriously won’t give up. Fine, do whatever you need. If something goes wrong, then I won’t come to your rescue," Bloodberry sighed.

"Do you have any information about the strange magic item he’s using to fight?"

"No," MidnighFire shook her head in response, "I’ve checked through all the forums to see if I could find any clue, and the catalog history of the Star Auction Auditorium, and contacted other management, to see if they’ve sold a magic item like that. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything."

"So the safest assumption that I could come up with is that this is a magic item that he had brought from outside the Academy."

"I’d expected you would say that," Bloodberry said.

As an instructor, she would have known that such a weapon existed within the Academy before MidnightFire was aware, so she wasn’t surprised by her reply.

This firmly reinforced her thoughts.

Now she felt even more eager to meet Ezekiel and uncover what other secrets he possessed.

"Since you want to meet with Ezekiel, why don’t you help me inform him about my plans to allow him to join my camp for protection? Inform me that one of the perks is that no one would try to actively harm him, and he could go back to hiding his strength as he did before," MidnightFire said.

"You- I’ll see what I can do. But don’t get your hopes up," Bloodberry sighed.

"Then, it’s settled," MidnightFire replied with a bright smile as she clapped her hands together.

She stood up, walked behind Bloodberrry’s chair and hugged her.

"I’ve complete faith in you, teacher."