Upon hearing Bishop Hamilton's cryptic revelation, the entire holding room descended into silence. It seemed as if each person was trying their best to understand what he meant, as it did not seem to make sense to them at all.

In the end, Professor Conti was the one that broke the ice, as he looked at the raging man with a peculiar glint. "What do you mean by a madness you know nothing of Hamilton... does that even make any sense?"

Bishop Hamilton appeared to hesitate, seemingly bothered by the weight of his revelation as well, "I'm struggling to grapple with it as well Conti, but it's the truth. The madness plaguing him seems to be a special type of mental degeneration, not related to the domains of psychology and neuroscience at all.

"Regular types of madness spawn based on latent psychology issues or trauma, with most being tied to background experiences. A person that loses their sanity usually has an inherent reason to, something that pushes them off the edge that has been dormant and unnoticed for quite a while."

Bishop Hamilton then paused slightly, before turning his confused gaze to the person before him, "But not only did this not spawn from some type of inherent problem, it seemed to be instantaneous and untraceable, which totally defies the laid down rules present in mind science."

All of the people within the isolated room had grave expressions on their faces after the revelation, with the most troubled being Professor Conti. Being part of the same Echelon of Faith as Bishop Hamilton, he perfectly understood the weight of the issue.

The case went against all pre-existing and established laws of the mind domain!

He slowly walked over to the side of Bishop Hamilton, as he aimed to perform his own check to verify the worried True Scholar's words. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, it was just that he had to see for himself to be totally certain.

The case was that important!

As he stretched his hands onto the irrational True Scholar, the latter struggled in place before giving in to the ethereal glow emanating from his hand.

In the end, similar to the attempt from Bishop Hamilton, the man seized his lunatic display, before resuming in full force a short while after.

Professor Conti pulled his hands away with an extremely troubled expression on his face.

"It is like you said Hamilton, the reason for his degeneration is vague and unclear. I can't seem to scope out its origin, which has never happened before.

"Even when dealing with the madmen from Synod Betise, there was always a specific latent cause following the madness they caused whereas this one is untraceable, it doesn't make sense at all."

The people within the room exchanged hushed glances as they all seemed to understand the severity of the situation.

For two experienced Apostolic Bishops from the Echelon of Sapience to arrive at the same result, it seemed like the case was really dire!

A figure from the small crowd moved elegantly to the side of the two worried men in front with a soft and gentle voice that seemed to soothe the mind, "Teacher is there anything I can help you with? Maybe the problem stems from a physical source and not a mental one."

Both Professor Conti and Bishop Hamilton turned their head to the source of the voice, as their faces revealed gentle expressions.

The person beside them was an elf, but an elf that carried herself in a way more graceful way than regular ones.

Her hair was the characteristic blonde color of the elves, with the major difference being the strands of light green hair mixed into it. She was garbed in a royal dress made out of green spring flowers and a ceremonial crown woven out of tree bark on her head.

She had a natural and simplistic feel to her, which made her appear soft and charming. She was the type of person that could naturally improve the mood of those around her.

Professor Conti smiled at the girl before remembering an important detail, "Aranelle you are no longer my student so you can't keep calling me teacher. You are a princess, do you know how ridiculous it is to see racial royalty referring to an academy principal as teacher?"

Princess Aranelle maintained her soft and polite smile, obviously not flustered by Professor Conti's reprimanding. "I don't see how that's much of an issue..."

Sounds of suppressed laughter rang out from somewhere within the crowd, and Professor Conti turned back to see Princess Adele, Prince William and Prince Mesias all snickering to themselves at the back. They seemed to find the entire situation quite funny.

'These kids... They are strangely cooperative when it comes to the wrong reasons.'

Professor Conti had been the Dean of the History department in the academy before his promotion to principal, and during that time, he had been the one in charge of overseeing anything related to the mind domain in the academy.

The four royals were students of the academy around the same time, even if all four of them weren't in the same year. Princess Adele and Prince William were third years in the academy when Prince Mesias was a second year, and Princess Aranelle, having just been admitted around that time, was a first year.

The four of them grew quite close in the one year they were together as a group, and Professor Conti often acted as their conflict meditator, mainly for Prince William and Princess Adele who seemed to hate each other despite their close relationship.

'Well, at least it isn't as bad as it used to be..."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Professor Conti shook his head dejectedly as he enjoyed the trip down memory lane. He then sighed, before putting on a serious face fit for the principal of an academy as prestigious as White Helm.

"In any case Aranelle, you can't help in this case. The cause of the degeneration has been confirmed to be mental, we just can't pinpoint it's exact source."

Professor Conti then thought for a bit, before turning to Bishop Hamilton with a questioning gaze, "Do you think our failure to grasp the cause stems from our own lack of strength and inexperience? The cause might exceed what we can handle so maybe we should ask Archbishop Francis to check up on him."

Bishop Hamilton turned towards his fellow clergyman who was in a pitiful state, before nodding his head in agreement to the idea, "I think that would be for the best. The problem now is how long it would take him to get here. It would take at least a week to sail here from Berlin... would he be able to hang on for that long?

"Besides it would be a problem if this issue spreads beyond this room."

Bishop Dufresne then walked out from the crowd, placing a reassuring hand on Bishop Hamilton while attempting to encourage him, "He should be able to hold out for a week. Before the Archbishop gets here, we will try various methods to soothe him before then. I know you are worried about your fellow clergyman, but at this point, we need to be rational."

He then turned towards everyone in the room and said in a tone of confidence, "And as for the issue of this matter leaking, I'm sure the esteemed principal of White Helm Academy has a way to prevent that."

Professor Conti felt the eyes of everyone in the room fall on him which caused his mouth to twitch, How come everyone was looking at him again?

'I feel like even when the world is ending, they would still turn towards me with a gaze expecting me to solve everything... '

While he inwardly lamented, Professor Conti gave the group his assurance that no one here would be able to leak the issue later on.

No one really knew how he was going to get them to keep silent about the entire thing but judging from the confident and straightforward manner he used to say it, they concluded that he definitely had a way to do so.

In the end, Bishop Hamilton was barely convinced, as he decided to let the matter be and trust in the confidence of the principal for now.

Professor Conti sighed in relief at the temporary conclusion of the matter. If Bishop Hamilton still pressed the issue, he didn't know how he'd calm him down. He was just glad that Bishop Dufresne stepped in to handle him since Bishop Hamilton seemed to be more open to listening to him for some odd reason.

Placing his hands on his silver inlaid cane, Professor Conti regarded the group with formality, "Anyways ladies and gentlemen we should be getting back to the hall. The written exams should be starting soon and it wouldn't be a good look on all of us if we missed the entire assessment process."

Prince Mesias saw this as an opportunity to jest to lighten the mood, and commented from the back In a manner that was neither too soft nor too loud, "You especially Professor..."

Everyone in the room broke out into soft laughs, before proceeding to exit the room while slowly making their way back to the main building.

Bishop Hamilton gazed at his afflicted brethren for the last time, before saying a prayer for him in his heart and slowly closing the doors to the room.

...

Elias stood within the grand auditorium hall once again, anxiously awaiting the results of the now-concluded written exam.

The exams were much easier than he had expected them to be, but he still felt strangely anxious about the whole thing, especially when he thought about the questions related to numerology.

Elias had found out that 140 people had passed the assessment process, which meant that he was fighting for the top spot against 139 other people... Well, 138 if he removed Damien who he knew would never best him in written exams.

It wasn't that he was underestimating his friend or anything it was just that Damien excelled more in physical aspects rather than written aspects. Damien's knowledge proficiency was definitely better than average but was not enough to challenge for the top spot.

Looking at how Damien was nonchalantly leaning on the wall while snacking on an apple, it was apparent that he didn't really care about the results.

Unlike Elias, he seemed totally carefree, as if he didn't even know why he was being told to wait behind.

Elias glanced at him before shaking his head. He wished he could be as aloof as him right now but his hands were shaking,

He really needed the scholarship!

Elias glanced around the hall and saw the anxious faces of some other candidates, as he felt his heart get wary of them. These were his true opponents!

Their look of worry gave their need for the scholarship fund away, a look that Elias totally understood and resonated with.

He was just about to continue looking around the hall when his gaze spotted Aamiya, who was elegantly seated In a secluded part of the hall like she didn't want to be disturbed. Like Damien, the lady showed no apparent interest in the results, with her's stemming from an entirely different reason,

She was too loaded to care about it!

Elias sighed in dejection. He wished he was rich enough to not worry about these things but alas, life wasn't that simple.

He and Lars had given their best so all that remained was to see how far their best could take them.

As Elias was engrossed in his inner thoughts, an old man had appeared at the podium at some point in time, with none of the candidates having noticed him.

It was like he had appeared out of thin air!

Professor Conti's deep gaze studied the new inductees within the hall, his face revealing immense satisfaction.

'Seems like we have some good eggs in this year's batch. Dufresne would love this, as there are a lot of them from the Echelon of Law and Order.'

As he scanned the hall, his gaze seemed to fall on an elven girl in the corner who seemed to be trying to blend into the background unnoticed.

The girl appeared timid and seemed uncomfortable by the amount of gazes being directed at her.

'Isn't that Aranelle's little sister? I heard she had quite the potential, let me see how she scored in the written exams.'

Professor Conti glanced at the list in his hands, a list that only carried the names of the top 20 people of the exams.

His gaze wandered down till he stopped at the 13th place, where the name 'Auriel Celynn' was marked with a score of 89%.

'Not bad... Not as high as her sister when she wrote hers but not so far behind.'

The man's gaze then wandered to the top of the list where the top place was marked.

Professor Conti revealed a shocked expression, before chuckling to himself in pleasant surprise while adjusting his top hat.

He then called the rowdy hall to order while enduring the shocked expressions of the inductees, as they hadn't noticed when he got into the hall.

Professor Conti went on to introduce himself which caused their shock to instantly turn into awe, this was their first time meeting their principal!

He once again called them to order, before explaining what he was doing there while pointing to the list in his hand. The inductees tensed up at the sight of the list, as many of their lives depended on what was written in it.

Professor Conti then started calling out the names, causing shock, surprise and disappointment to fill the hall. A lot of them performed worse than they expected, causing them to look dejected.

After calling the list all the way up to the top 3, which were the spots for the scholarship, he took a moment of silence to tense up the atmosphere before continuing.

After the third and second places were called, a girl within the hall fainted with excitement, while another boy was frantically jumping while shouting "I won, I won!" within the crowd.

This caused Professor Conti to break out a smile of joy before he readied himself to announce the top spot.

"Now ladies and gentlemen, allow me to announce the top candidate within this batch of new inductees, a student with a record score of 100% in all exams taken..."

He then took a moment to glance around the crowd in pride,

"Elias Nor!"