Chapter 154: Amos Visits
Meeting a teacher after graduation can be an interesting interaction, and, depending on the relationship the two shared, such interactions can cause the relationship to either bloom or fade away.
The relationship between Vivian and Amos was much more complicated than that, starting as very academic and strictly professional, but, as they were teacher and student for three years, and Vivian learned a lot from him, they eventually became somewhat close.
After the graduation day scandal, Amos Morgan conducted his own investigation, refusing to accept the shameful result that stated that one of his students sexually assaulted another, and a third student killed him for it.
After investigating, he found many traces of magic used all over that night, a magic that his house is famous for: Formation Magic.
A Formation is a huge network of spells that covers a certain area and applies some application to those who are given access to that formation by their rings. For example, the main formation of House Morgan’s main estate allows the House Lord to instantly teleport anywhere across the mansion and estate, even to a legendary chamber known as the Merlin Retreat, a place where some of the most advanced tomes of magic are hidden. Other uses include emergency teleportation for all members of the House in case of an emergency, wide-range communication across the entire estate, and an alarm system exclusive to the sentries, along with many other powerful and secret applications.
There was also another Magic Formation applied in the Royal Academy, an imitation of the one from the main house, but still powerful in its own right. And since the sorcerers of House Morgan were tasked with maintaining such formations, Amos Morgan had access to the Crux Nodus, the secret point of maintenance where the formation can be both powered and monitored by its admins.
There, Amos entered the log and discovered a teleportation pattern at the time of the incident, even though he was not looking for it. This serious matter meant that a member of House Morgan was present at the exact time of the incident as it took place.
Identifying the member was not difficult; he simply memorized the Spell Ring’s runic pattern and cross-referenced it with the Administration Log to find out who that potential witness—or maybe suspect—would be.
However, that was when the runic pattern seemed missing from the logs, indicating that the user was illegally using the formation, which also meant that one among the admins had given access to someone who may or may not be a Morgan.
Since this was the most likely lead for Amos, he started to interrogate his fellow admins, and most of them claimed ignorance, while others seemed rather disturbed by his questions, one in particular lashing back at him for intruding into matters he should not stick his nose into.
His hunch proved to be right, and, as he almost found out the identity of that intruder, he was summoned directly by the Provost, Count Albert Morgan, and was given an official command to cease all investigation. Amos became emotional and questioned the Count harshly, which led to the latter taking action against him, demoting him from a 1st-class Professor and revoking his entire access to the formation.
Amos realized that he had gotten too close to the truth, and so he returned to the main house and plotted to continue his investigation in a radical way. He made a list of suspects from inside the House, all of whom Count Albert would have a reason to protect fiercely, then sent a junior member whom he trusted to peek through the Archivum Custodum, the tome where all these ring names and their users’ names were recorded, as well as much information about them.