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I woke up the next day feeling like shit, I suspect it was something me and the boys ate at the food bazaar where we decided to be adventurous with the different foods available. It was only after I got home and hit the sack that my tummy started rumbling in a bad way, which caused me to be stuck squatting over the shitter for half the night.

With these food safety standards, I may need to push forward my plans to create a proper toilet bowl for the sake of comfort if I spend another three years here.

After getting dressed, I made my way to the main building to meet up with Dave and Sam. As I made my way to the main building’s canteen, I noticed that there were a lot fewer people than usual, I guess that most of them were at the tournament for the Jousting event.

When I arrived at the main building, I ran into Dave and Sam and noticed they looked as tired as I felt, “You guys got the shits last night too?” I asked and received nods in return.

“Yeah… I say it was the meat skewers. The man said it was beef, but I am starting to doubt that.” Sam said.

“Yeah, maybe… come on, we may not have an appetite, but let's at least get some soup in our bellies.” I said as I led the way to the canteen.

When we entered the canteen, a rather peculiar scene played out before me. At my appearance, the volume of the chatter petered down by more than half as others who noticed me nudged their friends who did not see me.

Soon, the volume of chatter picked up again, but it was clear to me that they changed the conversation topic from before I made my appearance.

“What did you do this time?” Dave whispered beside me as we made our way to the food line.

“I have no idea.” I replied as the three of us decided to be done with breakfast as soon as possible to get away from the awkward situation.

After we were done with our soup, we decided that this would be a rest day to recover from last night’s diarrhea. But as we were making our way out of the main building to go back to our dorms, I gave the excuse that my stomach was acting up again and asked them to go ahead first while I went to the toilet.

Once away from the boys and checked that the coast was clear, I snuck into a storage room near the canteen. When inside, I took a seat and got comfortable as I cast some wind Instinctive magic into a tendril and slithered it below the storage room door and into the canteen to pick up on what conversation was so juicy that they had to hide it from me when I arrived.

When my wind mana tendril managed to sneak into the canteen, all I managed to pick up were voices that sounded like they were behind heavy static and muffling filters, I started tweaking the properties of the wind mana tendril in order to improve the sound, but after five minutes, there was minimal improvement.

The problem was choosing between sensitivity to pick up sound, or clarity of the sound I picked up, if I did one, the other would worsen, and it did not help that the canteen dining hall was huge with high ceilings, making all the sounds have a slight echo.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the only way I could get some decent sound was to get closer instead of having my tendril just sit at the canteen entrance. I can only hope that the academy’s higher ambient mana is able to mask my mana tendril as it sneaks around.

As I concentrated on my wind mana tendril, I had a vague sense of where sounds were coming from and a pseudo sense of touch as it bumped around. Just to be safe, as I was essentially fumbling around blindly, I kept my mana tendril in contact with the wall so it did not accidentally bump into anyone and spook them.

The downside of this action was that the longer I extended the mana tendril, the more mana I was expending to upkeep it. But luck was with me this day as just ahead of me, was the sound of a conversation going on, which meant that they were chatting while leaning against the wall.

When I got close enough, I started tuning the sensitivity to pick up the conversation. “...-ou heard the latest about Luke Ironcrest and Edmund Berkeley?” I heard a boy ask.

“Oh, everyone knows by now. The bounty scandal, right?” a girl said.

Boy: “Exactly! Can you believe it? Putting a minor favor as the price on Luke during the tournament? I mean, who does that? An honor dual, I’d understand. But this?”

Girl: “I know, right? From what I heard, after that brawl when Luke broke Oswald Berkeley’s arms, Edmund Berkeley took it as a stain on his family’s name. But seeing that it was widely known that it was his brother who started the conflict, he had to use this roundabout method.”

Boy: “Yes, I heard a version of that rumor, my friends tell me that even though they are now in different classes, Oswald actively avoids Luke, even avoids the lunch hall altogether because Luke usually eats here.”

Huh, that explains Oswald’s disappearance, I just thought he decided he was too good for the rest of us and went to eat somewhere more fancy and private.

Girl: “But honestly, it’s not like we need the courts to confirm it. Just look at the way everyone’s talking and so many people saw the Melee Battles event, Luke was targeted until he disguised himself as Janos Cassor, an amusing scene that was. Even Father says it's a black mark on the House of Berkeley if that is how they raise their sons.”

Boy: “Of course it is! People have eyes. It’s one thing to lose to Luke in a fair contest, but to put a bounty on him? In a tournament watched by the king no less? It’s beneath someone of Edmund’s rank. So what do you think the Berkeley patriarch is going to do about this brewing situation? Just sweep it under the rug?”

Girl: “What can they do? The Berkeleys can't openly acknowledge it without admitting Edmund’s guilt, and if they keep pretending like nothing happened, their reputation will keep bleeding. His father must be furious.”

Boy: “Furious? Probably, but also desperate. Their family name is practically mud now. Mother told me the Berkeleys have had more than a few nobles subtly snubbing them lately.”

It was at that moment that I heard footsteps and chatter walking toward the wall where my mana tendril was lying across, which meant it was time to retreat.

After retracting my tendril a safe distance from anyone around, I safely dispersed the mana tendril and felt that maintaining that tendril over such a long and bending distance drained me of almost half my mana.

As I made my way back to my dorm I replayed the conversation I was just eavesdropping on.

Do I think Edmund made a big booboo and stained his family name for generations? I highly doubt it's that bad. He is still young and this can be easily chalked up to the exuberance of youth and foolhardy sense of maintaining family honor.

Do I think the Berkeley family is ‘Furious’ and ‘Desperate’? Well, they are most likely furious, as for desperate, I highly doubt so, if their family legacy is as long and decorated with achievements as heard it is, they would have nothing to worry about. If they had any sense, they would do what most sensible PR firms recommend and just shut the fuck up and wait for the next big thing to blow away the memory of this fuck up.

But all that speculation is for another time as I am going to crash for some sleep, and when I wake up, it is time to start practicing my magic for the upcoming Spellcasting Duels event.