Death, Devotion, Dissonance

As Leanne sorted her thoughts, a voice from inside the room called out to her.

"Come inside, Ms. Leanne."

She went inside, and found the Chairman, Gehenne, and the supervisor looking back at her. If she had to rank the people inside, it would be Gehenne at the top, the Chairman next, and the supervisor at last place.

'I guess if I had to include myself, I'd be the least important.'

"We've reached a conclusion regarding your case," Gehenne began casually. "I won't tease you anymore. You are found innocent due to the reason of: It being impossible for you to have colluded with Albin Faizan and the unknown assailants on the Island. You can find more details regarding your case inside this file here."

Leanne received a rather thick file in her hands and promptly put it away.

"Any penalties or punishments? Or perhaps a demotion?" Leanne asked.

"The situation was considered out of your control, so no such actions will be taken. In fact, the king commended you, saying that you did right by making sure to bring us back this information. Without you, we'd still be struggling to find out what happened on the Island," Gehenne answered. "As for a demotion… well, you can discuss that with Chairman Kent here."

Leanne and Kent shared a glance, but she didn't see anything that would suggest a demotion.

"And about the case of the Albin's Oath not working as intended and them being able to use portals?"

"We've performed a recheck on the Oaths of all the important criminal mages and found that they're working as intended. But it's still unsafe for us to use them in the short term, so there will be some problems. As for the blue portals… hmm… Well, it's a problem for king Seth and the kingdom to worry about. The Ministry of Magical Development is trying to recreate both feats, so please don't worry about it too much."

Leanne thought about the Talisman she got from Albin and decided to hurry in her attempt to reach out to the king.

"At any rate, we must discuss the next problem that we face… one more grounded and common, but still quite important for the future of the kingdom," the Chairman spoke in an unusually grandiose tone. "Who shall we dedicate as Helm from the test takers?"

'Oh yeah, there's also that…'

"Indeed, we must," the supervisor for the Island spoke. "Let us first nominate our personal choices. Let us begin with Ms. Leanne."

Leanne did not hesitate and immediately answered. "Eviendra."

She was struggling to find some way to help Evin out, and this was the perfect method. If he became Helm, it wouldn't be so hard for him to receive a good enough prosthetic from the kingdom, and he would also be getting many more privileges with it.

The Chairman agreed with her and nominated him as well. "I agree with Ms. Leanne."

'Since the Helms of other Academies are mostly all nobles, it understandable that Kent would try to put Evin on the position. But whatever his reasons it's a good thing, so I won't care.'

The supervisor, though, had different thoughts. "I propose to nominate Decatur Carew as Helm."

The proposition confused Leanne, as the noble boy definitely wasn't someone who showed a good performance during the test. 'Is she trying to curry favors with Gehenne?'

The way the supervisor was stealing glances at the silver-haired man suggested Leanne's guess to be true.

But Gehenne himself had a different opinion. "I propose Arza to be nominated as Helm."

'Arza? Why Arza? …  I guess he's a not a bad choice as well, huh? But I still need to push on Evin becoming Helm.'

"Since it's two choices against one each, the conclusion is obvious," Leanne started with a strong front.

"I'd love to choose Evin as Helm as well, but the Ministry of Education is heavily against him becoming Helm of the 1st years," Gehenne replied.

"What? For what reasons?"

"Two main reasons. Evin does not have a large circle of followers and he mostly prefers to work alone, as we've seen from how he approached the test. The position of Helm more often requires leadership skills and good communication abilities, hence our decision."

"But the situation did not allow for him to go through the trials with others. Except for Bellaslayn, Phel, and Arza, every other student was against him due to the bounty that Decatur set on Evin's head," Leanne looked at Gehenne accusingly.

"Don't look at me like that. Using one's money and influence is a valid strategy in the test, so you can't accuse Decatur of cheating. And it's not like he wasted any of Greater Ankelite's money, mostly taking care of the bounty payments from his own pockets, so I will not condemn my brother's actions…"

"…"

"Anyhow, if Evin showed any proactivity to try to become allies with the other students, I would've nominated his name as well… but Evin never showed such tendencies. When he learned that practically the whole school was against him, he did not seem shocked or betrayed by the fact and simply accepted the fact and continued on with the assumption that everyone else was his enemies.

"But the test only went on for two days. Since Evin was successful in conquering the Laboratories, the final trial area, he definitely would've focused on creating his own community during the rest of the test."

"Don't be ridiculous," Gehenne replied immediately. "He would've retired from the test due to his missing foot. Even if he hadn't been injured by the Type 12, there's no guarantee that he would do as you're guessing."

"Ah."

Leanne had no argument against that. But there was one thing she could use.

"But it's still true that he was the strongest among the students. Even if he doesn't show any tendencies to create allies now, it wouldn't be weird to assume that others would flock around him due to his strength. And if the kingdom supports him from the back as well, who knows what kind of new levels he'll be able to achieve? You've heard our reports on his capabilities, right? Even a prepared group of 5th year students struggle against a Type 12, but he managed to do it all by himself, without even knowing what he was facing!"

"Hence comes the Ministry's second reasoning of refusing to nominate Evin as Helm," Gehenne shook his head. "He's more than capable of obtaining what he needs, so the privileges that come with being Helm are simply overkill. The same reason applies to Decatur, who can access to the resources that Greater Ankelite receives from the kingdom. But going back to topic, considering Evin's disposition, it wouldn't be weird for him to hoard those resources all to himself. Ms. Leanne should know that the reason why Helms receive so much resources is that because they're expected to use them to create their own subordinates and receive some experience in ruling over others."

"…"

"Remember. The kingdom does not spoil its mages just so they can waste away its care. And as long as his strength does not reach the levels where he starts to be considered a 'Strategic unit', then the kingdom would not care for it. It'll be happier to see the average level of mages increase instead."

"In that case, I shall change my mind and nominate Arza to the position of Helm," the supervisor added. "He's strong enough, he's much friendlier with the other students, and also, he's one step closer to creating his own Conditional Absolute. I also considered Bellaslayn Borna, but her role in the test was quite small. She didn't really struggle through the Trials, but her achievements weren't that impressive compared to Evin's and Arza's."

"In that case, I shall also change my mind in favor of Aran's boy," sensing the situation, even the Chairman expressed his support for Arza.

Leanne began to realize that Evin's chances of becoming Helm were practically non-existent. In the first place, if the Ministry of Education was against it, then it was almost impossible for someone like Leanne to change the outcome.

"If there are no objections, then Arza's position as Helm has now been decided," Gehenne concluded.