Misa was drowning in paperwork for the past week. The recent attack during the midterms had the media buzzing on the Academy grounds like flies. Parents were storming the office, demanding how the most prestigious Academy for future Heroes could have such lax security. The situation had worsened so much that the Principal had to hold a press conference on how they were doing their best to find the culprits.

Since Misa was one of the best Heroes at the Academy and had a lot of respect from the public, she was made to be the official head of the investigation. She had already pulled several all-nighters going through the video footage of the artificial Dungeon. Their original purpose was to monitor student performance so they can be evaluated appropriately, but she and her team were now using it to find clues on the culprit.

There were many monsters in the Dungeon that were originally supposed to be training dummies but had been replaced with real ones. Even a swarm of Faydes had found their way inside, which caused another set of headaches since you needed a very high mental resistance to counter them. Even the best Heroes have fallen prey to their mind attacks.

There was one more strange thing that happened during the match. Many eyewitnesses confirmed that they had seen a peculiar flaming bird during the attack, but when Misa went through the footage, she couldn’t find anything. She had replayed the video many times, but there was nothing there. But since there were quite a high number of witnesses, she couldn’t discard it as a case of a panic attack.

“Find the bird. Whoever owns it, could be our culprit.” She ordered her subordinates.

A teacher came rushing to her.

“Ms. Misa. We got another victim.” He came rushing to her, showing her a tablet.

On the tablet, it played a video of a female student. A ghoulish woman had cornered the student in the restroom. The two were surrounded by a thick black fog, obstructing the view of the camera. Once the fog cleared, the monster was nowhere to be seen, and the girl was trembling on the floor.

“Some of the Faydes must have escaped the artificial Dungeon and are now haunting the Star Academy. This is already the third student we found today. Including the victims from the exam, there are already nine students who have been attacked.” The teacher informed her.

One of the teachers, James Lanton, who was listening in on the conversation, stepped in.

“If you allow me, I will gladly kill the infiltrating monsters.”

“Thank you for your offer, James, but your position is that of a Tanker. You guys don’t really have the best mental defences. I need a mage like myself or at least a Scholar with significant mental power so that I can have someone track down the monsters.”

“Haa. Scholar? Wasn’t that Ray supposed to be one of the best Scholars? He was the first teacher to fall to the Faydes’ panic attacks.” James mocked his colleague.

“At the time Ray got attacked, no one was aware that Faydes had infiltrated as well. He was just unlucky.”

“Oh, please, Misa. There were plenty of teachers out there, yet he was the only one who got attacked so badly? Are you sure he wasn’t the one who instigated the attack on himself so that he can gain a sympathy vote and not get suspected?”

“Just what are you implying, James?”

“Oh, come on, Misa, we both know the Laxons are being investigated for secretly being in contact with the Fallen.” He whispered lightly to Misa so that the other people in the room couldn’t hear it.

“Mr. Lanton. Just because your uncle works in the League and tells you information that hasn’t gone public yet, doesn’t mean you are allowed to spread baseless rumours.” Misa snapped at him.

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“Just because you got a bit close to him in the past few days, doesn’t mean you should cover for him.”

“Are you implying that I, who personally investigated the matter, gave the League false information?”

Misa’s right eyebrow twitched. James had crossed the line. What he said was implying that she had lied to the Hero League for the sake of a man colluding with the Chaos Alliance. This would further imply that she, herself, was also helping the Alliance. If Misa decided to pursue the matter and James was unable to provide evidence for his claims, she could make it difficult for the entire Lanton family to stay in the Capital City.

Fortunately, James understood what he had just said and quickly apologised before returning to check the footage. Misa also decided to leave the matter aside. She didn’t have the time or energy to pursue the matter at the moment. Not to mention, this incident had given her a small leverage over James Lanton.

But, he wasn't wrong. Someone inside the Academy has been colluding with the Alliance and it was upto her to find them. But right now her only priority was one.

“All of the available Academy staff are ordered to make groups of two and supervise all the sections of the Academy. If the Fayde transforms into the nightmare of one person, the second person can attack it. But by no means should you face it alone. Also, a curfew will be established for all students until the current situation has been resolved. And make sure to warn them to travel in groups.”

The announcement rang throughout the Academy grounds.

Since Misa had been going through the surveillance footage all day, she decided to get out of the office to stretch a bit. It was already dusk. Students were already heading back to their rooms.

Faydes were ghoul-type monsters and were only active after dark. They were also good at hiding in the shadows, like the bogeyman in the children's stories, popping out of nowhere. It was the main reason they hadn’t been exterminated yet.

Misa’s Voice of the World was an area-of-effect skill and affected everyone around her, so she couldn’t even use it to force the Faydes out. As she debated on her next move, she found herself in front of the second-year students' dorms.

“Aunty. Hey!” A girl called out to her. She was a tall slim girl with jet-black hair and large ruby-red eyes. Dangling from her ears were two large ruby earrings. She was quite a beauty and surely would have been the heartbreaker of many boys.

The girl was Miyu, the daughter of Misa’s older brother. She was currently a second-year at the Star Academy and a D+ Rank Hero. Following behind her was an equally handsome blond boy.

“Miyu, why are you not in your room? And Rhian, you should head back to your dorm.”

“Aunty, we-” Miyu began, but Misa cut her off.

“Miyu, we are at the Academy currently. You need to address me more respectfully.”

“Ok, Ms. Misa.” Miyu reluctantly obeyed her aunt’s orders.

“What are you guys doing outside right now? Don’t you know Faydes are roaming the Academy grounds.”

“That’s what we were discussing right now, Ms. Misa.” Rhian began. “We were thinking that the Academy students should also take part in the investigation.”

“Rhian, I know you are quite an accomplished student. But the Academy isn’t so understaffed that we will take help from not even Heroes, but students.” Misa quickly shot down their idea. “It would do the two of you good, to stop wasting your time with such foolish ideas and follow the other students and go back to your rooms.”

Misa wasn’t usually so strict but she knew her niece’s reckless personality. Unless said firmly, that girl never listened to others. And somehow she had entangled the first-year boy Rhian into her schemes too. Those two hadn’t even fought monsters properly yet, that’s why they didn’t know how dangerous Faydes were.

Strength wasn’t the only way to dominate someone. In fact, since Misa’s own powers were on controlling the minds of others, Misa knew how scary psychic Skills could be. It would be too dangerous for students to join in.

Misa stayed on watch until the two of them headed back to their rooms.

After checking the entire campus grounds to make sure no other students had such reckless ideas, she finally decided to go back to the office. It was already late, so the staff room was empty. The other teachers were probably having dinner right now, but she still had things to do. She took out an energy bar and began to munch on it as she evaluated the student performances on the Dungeon Raid before the attack began.

Since the Academy wasn’t going to hold the midterms again, the teachers had to make do. Misa sighed at the thought of the all-nighters she would have to pull in the future. What a dreary life.

“Hmm. This guy is seriously good.” Misa commented on Rhian’s performance. His Sword Style was quite graceful, as he killed all the monsters in a single stroke. When the attack began, instead of panicking, he took decisions rationally, helping his fellow students as they moved towards the emergency exits that opened up in the Labyrinth.

On another screen, Rachel and Luke were performing similarly well. Though, unlike Rhian, Luke would ignore the students he ran into. He just stabbed the monsters mercilessly, while Rachel shot them down from a distance.

Another screen popped up. It was the scene when Ray got attacked while helping her. She had watched the event unfold before her very eyes, but seeing it now allowed her to analyse the events with a rational mind.

The Fayde transformed as soon as it looked into Ray’s eyes. The familiar black fog covered the monster and in its place was a boy in his early 20s. He was plain looking and would fit right into a random college group. But once, you looked at his hands, the horror would dawn upon you. Faydes had the power to strike fear with their transformations, and the fear was intensified several times for the target.

Even she had goosebumps seeing it, she couldn’t even imagine what Ray had felt. She focused back on the transformed boy. His wrists were slit, obviously an attempt at suicide.

She couldn’t make out the face of the person, but it did poke at her curiosity. What kind of relationship did Ray have with this guy, whose suicide had rooted itself so deep in his mind to be deemed his worst nightmare?