Fourth Prince's Debauchery

"... Headmistress, what is happening?" Tear asked with a confused expression.

Evelyn smiled. "Have you not realized it yet? Someone messed with the formation covering the forest."

Tear paled. "T-Then, the students…!"

"Calm down, Tear. Why are you panicking?"

At that moment, Tear realized that Evelyn was smiling with a relaxed expression.

"Could it be… Have you already taken control of the situation, headmistress?"

Evelyn curved her lips up. "I must admit that their work was exquisite. If not that the boy told me about it, I only would have noticed the anomaly when it's already too late. But now than I know, the advantage is in my hands. Tear, follow me. The rest of you, you know what to do." Evelyn said to the other teachers around her.

"""Yes, headmistress."""

Waving her hand, several teleportation magic circles appeared below the feet of each teacher, then, the magic circles lit up.

"Remember my instructions, try to capture them alive, but if you can't do it, don't show mercy."

Then, the teachers disappeared. Only Evelyn and Tear remained behind.

But almost instantly, they were teleported too and appeared in front of the teacher in charge of the central part of the formation.

When the teacher saw the two of them appear, he was surprised.

"Headmistress? What are you doing here?"

Evelyn smiled mockingly. "Don't you know the reason?"

The teacher was stunned, and then, his face turned ashen white.

"Y-You… Y-You know…"

"Do you think you can play in MY forest, and with MY students without me noticing?"

Cold sweat started to flow from the teacher's forehead, but then, his eyes flashed with a ruthless glow.

And without hesitation, he destroyed the core of the formation!

From this point onwards, every student in the formation was completely unprotected!

Furthermore, fixing up an array of this level would need months! There was no way the institute could fix it up in time.

The teacher started to laugh madly.

"Hahahahahaha! You are incredible, headmistress. But it doesn't matter if you noticed! Although our plan will not be complete this way, it's enough to send you to ruin! How are you going to get out of this after so many noble descendants die under your protection!?"

But when the teacher looked at Evelyn, he realized that something was wrong.

Evelyn... She was smiling.

"You…" The teacher took a step back.

"What? Did you laugh enough?"

"W-Why are you not panicking!?"

Evelyn chuckled. "It looks like you have misunderstood something, my friend. My plan was never to stop you. No, since the start, my plan was to use your plans for our benefice."

The teacher was completely startled. "W-What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Even if I manage to salvage the situation and save the students, the most I will manage is to get a few scapegoats punished. However, what I want is to make the masterminds behind this suffer big. And to do that, this expedition must turn into a tragedy.

"Of course, I must find a way to shift the blame away from the academy, and that is when you enter the game, Franklin Hera." Evelyn spoke the teacher's name smilingly. For some reason, Evelyn smile resembled Claus's evil grin. "The empress and Earl Riea are a bit too strong, and even something of this level is not enough to shake their foundations. But If I can find a way of making you confess that the Hera family were the ones behind all of this, how do you think your family will fare?

"And If besides that, I spread certain rumors in the capital about this incident, it's easy to make the reputation of the crown prince's faction to hit rock bottom.

"And at that moment, a new heir to the throne will appear."

"You are crazy!" Franklin sneered. "Do you truly think I will betray my family?"

"Oh, don't worry. I recently broke through the fourteenth layer, becoming a Saint. And after studying a certain spell that my favorite student gave me, I learned some new things about the soul. And you, my friend, will be a perfect test subject. I wonder if that will help me to get a confession."

The teacher paled. Instinctively, he tried to run away, but he suddenly realized his body was paralyzed.

"You… You are crazy! You will let your students die just to damage the crown prince's faction?"

"My students?" Evelyn's mouth formed a sneer. "You are mistaken about something, my students are not the ones that will die. Instead, the ones to die will be only the ones that allied with the crown prince."

Without allowing the teacher to speak more, Evelyn cast a spell and sealed him completely.

Then, she turned towards the teacher she had brought with her.

"Tear, communicate with the palace. Tell them that we discovered a huge plot in progress."

Tear hesitated and put on a struggling expression. "… But headmistress, many students will die due to this."

Evelyn looked at the young teacher and sighed. "Don't be so naïve, Tear. From the moment they joined to the crown prince and acted against the institute, they stopped being the institute's students. Now, they are just our enemies. Now hurry up and contact the palace."

"… Okay." Tear nodded after hesitating slightly.

One minute later, the image of the emperor appeared in front of Evelyn.

"Headmistress Evelyn, what is it that you discovered?"

Evelyn bowed slightly. "Your majesty, after I sent the students to the forest, I discovered that the Hera family manipulated the formation to kill several students and weaken the empire."

The emperor fell silent.

After a few seconds, he opened his mouth again.

"That is a heavy accusation, headmistress. Why would they do something like that? Do you have evidence?"

Evelyn nodded gravely. "Of course I have evidence. As for the reason behind why the Hera family did such a thing... I recently discovered they allied with the Daemons, your majesty."

"Daemons?" The emperor's voice turned ugly.

"Yes, your majesty. Currently, a group of Daemons is trying to kill the students in the forest. Your majesty, the current situation is very grave, thus, I require your assistance to rescue the students! No student has died yet, but if we don't act fast, many of them will not survive!"

Once more, the emperor fell silent.

A few seconds later, he sighed.

"Unfortunately, I'm currently unable to send troops. You will have to work with what you have."

Evelyn put on a frowning expression. "Your majesty, it's impossible for us alone to take care of the situation. I have felt the auras of several beyond-twelfth-layer practitioners. If you don't send reinforcements, the students will die! The academy reputation will be destroyed!"

"… Just try your best. I won't hold the academy responsible for the results." said the emperor.

"Your majesty! Will you leave the students to die!? What is more important than the future of the empire!?" Evelyn put on an angry expression on her face, but inwardly, she was grinning.

The emperor, however, could not know that.

And due to that, he committed a mistake.

"My order is final." He said.

Then, he cut off communication.

Instantly, Evelyn's angry look turned into a wide smile.

"This, dear Tear, is politics. Now that I asked for reinforcements and the emperor did not agree, plus with a culprit behind this disaster, it stopped being our fault. This conversation has been recorded, so no matter what happens in this place, the academy will not be impacted."

Tear was stunned.

"Headmistress, how did you know the emperor was not going to send reinforcements?"

"Easy." Evelyn smiled like a cunning demon.. "There is someone he wants to kill in the forest."