Chapter 259 - 259 Permafrost’s Downfall

After having searched the room, he had his meeting and subsequent slaughter of the Permafrost members, Marcus had collected a number of documents about Permafrost's business and a few pouches of precious gems and money that had been in a hidden safe.

In fact, this was Obadiah's personal meeting room where he conducted the majority of his business for his branch of Permafrost, so the number of incriminating documents and amount money was quite high.

With everything he needed from the room now collected, Marcus went into his ghost form and floated up.

Now that he had devoured the soul of Obadiah and the high-ranking guard whose name was Mara, Marcus knew exactly where he was.

Currently he was under a high-class bar that catered to wealthy merchants or low-ranking nobles, that was located just a stone's toss away from the inner wall.

Of course, it was just a front for Permafrost to do their elicit business. 

But for now, Marcus was more worried about Lilia than anything else, and as soon as he made it to the surface he reappeared and began running towards the royal academy.

He was nearly certain now that he had some of Obadiah's memories that Lilia would be fine since he knew who was after her, but he had to make sure first.

'Blitz I need you to leave the estate and meet up with me. I need to get to the royal academy as fast as possible so no holding back on your speed, run as fast as you can.'

Receiving Marcus' message, Blitz shot out of the stable moving at an incredible speed and leaving the guards and maids who saw him jump over the gate dumbfounded.

Running down the streets with his full speed, Marcus rushed past dozens of other people creating a gust of wind behind him.

In fact, some guards even began to get complaint reports about some mad person running around, and others of an unmanned beast going at incredible speeds.

However, soon the two speedy nuisances for the other inhabitants of the city met up, and Marcus jumped up onto Blitz who shot off down the streets towards the royal academy.

Marcus even pumped his legs of light and lightning strider spell into Blitz allowing him to move even faster.

Of course, normally Marcus could have just flown which would have gotten him to his destination faster, but unlike Loursend, the capital heavily restricted flight, so Marcus was sticking to the ground so as to not have the military come down on him.

With Blitz's extreme speed it was not long before Marcus could see the academy, and without even waiting for Blitz to stop Marcus jumped off his back and barreled towards the entrance.

Naturally there were a number of guards outside and they were on high alert because of the incident that had just happened within the first year's dormitory.

So, as they saw this figure running up to them with incredible speed, they all braced themselves to deal with the intruder.

However, a few dozen feet before he would have run into the guards Marcus slowed himself down and said to them, "I am Baronetess Irene Geist, and my sister Lilia Geist attends this school as a first year, I need to make sure she is alright."

"I am sorry Lady Geist, but we have been ordered to keep anyone from going in or out without permission from the headmaster or the royal family. I understand you must be worried about your sister but please remain calm and we will let you in to see her when everything is resolved."

Yet as Marcus was about to just decide to sneak in, one of the other guards came up to the captain that had stopped Marcus and whispered in his ear, "Sir, I believe that the student involved in this incident is named was Lilia Geist." 

The guard captain's eyes then went wide as he looked at Marcus again and said, "Wait just a moment while I contact the headmaster."

Pulling out a sending stone like the one Marcus had seen Mrazivý use in the past, the guard captain whispered something into it and waited a moment for a reply before turning to Marcus and saying, "Lady Geist please follow me. Your sister was at the heart of this incident and the headmaster wishes to speak to you."

Having already expected that Lilia was at the center of the incident that had taken place on the campus, Marcus nodded his head and followed the guard hoping that Lilia was okay.

Following the guard, Marcus was soon brought before the headmaster of the academy who had a troubled look on his face.

"So, you are Lady Irene and the sister of Lilia. I must say you arrived here with impeccable timing; it has only been slightly more than thirty minutes since the incident happened." The headmaster said in a probing manner.

Of course, it seemed suspicious to him that the sister of one of the two perpetrators for tonight's commotion had arrived mere minutes after.

"Yes, I found out that she was being targeted so I rushed right over. Now if you would not mind, I would like to see her to make sure she is not hurt."

Shaking his head the headmaster said, "That will not be possible right now. We are still sorting things out and there is the possibility that your sister just committed a number of grave crimes. Luckily no one has ended up dead, but she is under suspicion of assaulting a professor and she heavily damaged the first year's dormitory. Now you said that you found out your sister was being targeted, do you have any proof of that."

Unfortunately, Marcus had no concrete proof that would show that Permafrost had been targeting Lilia, but he could at least tell what he knew and hope that it would help.

"No, I do not have any proof, but I was just being strong-armed by a group calling themselves Permafrost to join them, and they already kidnapped some of my servants and said they would do the same to my sister."

"Permafrost!" The headmaster said with astonishment.

Naturally as a high-ranking member of the kingdom he had heard of the criminal group that worked within their borders, but he never thought they would be brought up during this incident.

However, as if everything started to put itself together the headmaster remembered certain incidents thinking about Professor Avery and his involvement in them.

"That bastard."

Connecting the dots from numerous incidents in the past. While individually they had seemed minor or other perpetrators were found, the headmaster could now only think that Avery had been behind any number of the students that suddenly dropped out or committed "suicide".

Storming off, the headmaster made a beeline for the room they had locked Avery in while Marcus and the guard that had escorted him followed.

Slamming the door to the room open the headmaster saw Avery chained to a table drinking another healing potion to fully restore the horrible wounds that Lilia had given him.

Yet as the headmaster rushed in, he knocked the potion out of his hands and grabbed him by the shirt and said, "How many. How many of the students did you kill or kidnap?"

The headmaster seething in anger kept ahold of Avery who just looked at him calmly and said, "Headmaster I have no idea what you are talking about. I have never once harmed one of the students here and it was that girl who attacked me unprovoked earlier."

Dropping Avery back into the chair he was in, the headmaster looked at him and said, "We already know that you are an agent of Permafrost, so you should just spill everything and make whatever sentence you receive lighter on yourself."

Hearing this for just a moment Avery's calm demeanor warped into one of panic but he quickly got back himself under control.

However, the headmaster noticed this moment and while he had no actual proof Avery's reaction had solidified in his mind that he was a member of Permafrost.

Except a moment later a voice resounded through the room saying, "Headmaster I would appreciate it if you would not say baseless claims to a prominent member of a family that are my vassals."

Looking over to see who had just interrupted him, the headmaster's already angry expression hardened, and he said, "Count Eisher what are you doing here?"

Walking deeper into the room the count moved right in front of the headmaster and said, "As the current leader of the academies board of directors of course I have come to investigate this incident. Now you say that our esteemed professor that my house recommended years ago is a member of a nasty organization, surely you must have mountains of proof to back this up."

The headmaster knowing, he had nothing other than what Marcus had said and his own gut feeling backed off and said, "No, it is just a suspicion brought up by Baronetess Geist here. I was just questioning him to see if he might admit anything."

"I see so it was lady Grist here who is trying to label the respected professor as a criminal. If I remember correctly, the girl accused of attacking Professor Avery was named Geist as well. Surely Lady Geist here is just trying to protect her sister by claiming the Professor who was brutally attacked, to be a criminal. And seeing as how you have already labeled him as so in your mind as well headmaster, there should be an independent investigation to avoid any biases. Therefore, I shall send for a royal investigator to take both of the persons of interest into custody, and headmaster you should have the academy's guards cease any investigation and only seal off the pertinent areas."

Glaring at Count Eisher Marcus recognized him from Obadiah's memories since he was also a leader of Permafrost. 

His branch specialized in information and coercion and could be considered the backbone of the whole organization keeping them from being too heavily on the kingdom's radar.

Yet before the count could further enact his plan, another voice resounded from the room's entrance saying, "Very well then, I will be taking over from here."