Chapter 224: The Names Behind the Curtain

Professor Antoine Chastellain returned to SkyRune three days after the massacre at Saint Aurelia.

His arrival surprised the researchers, several of whom had assumed he would remain absent for at least another week.

Nobody expected him to enter the workshop at his usual hour carrying a stack of documents, much less begin asking about unfinished projects.

Ilya had accompanied him from the residence. Although he wasn’t convinced that returning so soon was a good idea, Antoine had insisted that remaining at home would accomplish nothing.

The professor greeted his colleagues, thanked them for their concern, and resumed his responsibilities. For a while, the workshop resembled its ordinary self, with researchers discussing unfinished assignments and senior students preparing their latest reports.

Then an Imperial investigator arrived.

Inspector Laurent had participated in the investigation of the Cult of the Second Dawn since the hostage crisis began. This time, however, he brought information that extended far beyond the perpetrators captured at Saint Aurelia.

“The Intelligence Bureau raided seven properties connected to the cult,” Laurent explained. “Four were abandoned, two contained research materials, and the last was operating as a licensed private laboratory. Its director is currently in custody.”

Antoine requested the details.

According to the inspector, several companies had supplied equipment and funding to the cult over the previous decade. Most transactions appeared legitimate individually, but certain intermediaries repeatedly appeared whenever restricted research was involved.

One name had emerged from several independent sources.

Edmund Falkenrath.

He was a financial intermediary who had arranged private research grants for years, usually through foundations that kept their investors anonymous. Although he rarely appeared in official records, investigators had recovered his signature from agreements involving two laboratories associated with the cult.

Unfortunately, Falkenrath had disappeared shortly before the raids began.

“Do you believe he funded Saint Aurelia?” Antoine asked.

“We believe he helped arrange the funding. Whether he knew what the researchers intended is still under investigation.”

“Then I want to know everything you discover about him.”

Laurent agreed to provide information relevant to Antoine’s cooperation with the investigation, although certain records would remain classified.

The inspector then explained that one of Falkenrath’s former clerks had identified a research foundation operating outside the Imperial Capital. The organization sponsored legitimate academic projects, but its financial records contained unusual transfers to individuals associated with prohibited experiments.

More troubling was correspondence suggesting that the cult maintained several separate research groups.

The organization was considerably larger than the people who had occupied Saint Aurelia.

Ilya understood why the discovery concerned the authorities. Arresting the perpetrators responsible for the school massacre wouldn’t prevent another group from attempting something similar elsewhere.

Fortunately, the Imperial Intelligence Bureau was already coordinating with provincial authorities. Several suspected laboratories had been placed under surveillance, and additional searches were being prepared.

Antoine requested that the investigators intervene immediately wherever civilians appeared to be in danger.

Laurent assured him that protecting potential victims remained their highest priority.

The meeting continued with several questions concerning equipment recovered from the raided laboratories. Antoine identified two devices as modified versions of commercially available instruments, while Ilya helped distinguish legitimate applications from the alterations described in the records.

Their consultation concluded without requiring additional experiments.

Before departing, Laurent mentioned that the Imperial government intended to investigate the security failures that had allowed the cult to prepare its facilities beneath Saint Aurelia.

Antoine supported the inquiry, although he requested that the authorities distinguish between individuals who knowingly assisted the perpetrators and ordinary employees deceived through forged documents.

The inspector agreed.

After Laurent departed, SkyRune gradually returned to its usual activities.

Several researchers began preparing the purchasing records requested by the Intelligence Bureau, while others resumed projects suspended during the hostage crisis.

Antoine supervised their work with his customary efficiency.

Ilya found that encouraging.

The professor answered questions, corrected mistakes, and even criticized a junior researcher for submitting an incomplete report. For a short while, he sounded exactly like the man Ilya remembered.

Unfortunately, that impression changed when the remaining researchers returned to their assignments.

Antoine requested access to SkyRune’s restricted archives.

The administrator explained that several documents required additional authorization, but the professor instructed him to submit the necessary applications.

Ilya heard the conversation while organizing his own materials.

“Professor, are you investigating the cult’s previous associates?”

“Among other things.”

“That’s a rather broad answer.”

Antoine gave a faint smile.

“I suppose it is.”

The professor explained that he wanted to understand why the cult believed extreme suffering could produce extraordinary magical changes. Its research had been deeply flawed, but the idea itself had appeared in several unrelated historical accounts.

Ilya understood the distinction. Certain unusual magical phenomena remained poorly understood, and scholars had long debated whether extreme experiences could influence a person’s abilities.

However, the cult’s experiments had provided no reliable support for its theories.

“I wouldn’t put much faith in their conclusions,” Ilya said.

“Neither would I. That’s why I’m looking beyond their work.”

The answer was reasonable enough, although Ilya remained uncomfortable with the direction of the investigation.

Antoine had spent years studying inventions because he enjoyed understanding how things worked. Now his attention appeared increasingly fixed on the suffering that had taken his daughter away.

Nevertheless, Ilya decided against interfering. The professor was entitled to seek answers, provided he didn’t begin treating the cult’s methods as legitimate research.

By late afternoon, another communication arrived from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau.

The authorities had recovered Falkenrath’s private archive from a country estate belonging to one of his business associates.

Among the documents was a list of prospective research locations.

Saint Aurelia appeared on it.

The entry was dated nearly two years before the occupation.

When Laurent forwarded the discovery, Antoine demanded clarification.

“You’re telling me they selected the school two years ago?”

“That’s what the records suggest. We’re examining whether the location was chosen for its facilities, its students, or both.”

The cult had spent far longer preparing the massacre than the authorities initially believed. Its members had studied the school, arranged access through maintenance contracts, and gradually positioned everything necessary for their experiment.

However, the investigators had recovered something even more significant.

Among the correspondence was a memorandum discussing the Saint Aurelia operation’s expected results.

A substantial payment had been authorized upon completion of the examination.

The payment didn’t depend on producing a successful transformation.

It depended on obtaining the final experimental records.

Antoine read the passage twice.

“Someone was paying them to conduct the examination?”

“That’s our interpretation,” Laurent answered. “The payment was arranged through Falkenrath, but the ultimate recipient of the records remains unidentified.”

Ilya understood why that mattered.

The cult’s members had claimed that the children were participating in an experiment intended to advance humanity. Their leader appeared genuinely committed to that belief, however monstrous its consequences.

But someone outside the school had been willing to finance the operation even if every participant died.

“Have you recovered the complete records?” Ilya asked.

“Only part of them. Several documents were destroyed during the assault, and others appear to have been removed beforehand.”

“Then someone might already have them.”

“That’s what concerns us.”

Laurent explained that investigators were tracing the missing records while examining the identities of personnel who entered and left the school before the occupation.

Antoine requested copies of the documents the Bureau was willing to release.

Laurent agreed, although he warned that the investigation was expanding into matters involving powerful private institutions.

The professor accepted the warning.

After the communication ended, Ilya remained with him.

The latest discovery had changed their understanding of the massacre. Until now, the cult’s actions appeared to be the work of fanatical researchers pursuing an unproven theory.

That remained true of the people who had occupied Saint Aurelia.

However, the financial records suggested that another party had been interested in the experiment’s results regardless of its human cost.

“Professor, whoever paid for those records might not share the cult’s beliefs.”

Antoine considered the observation.

“Then why would they want them?”

“I don’t know. But someone willing to pay for a failed experiment must believe the information itself has value.”

The professor returned to the documents.

For several minutes, he read the passage concerning the payment without speaking.

Then he asked Laurent to reconnect.

The investigator answered shortly afterward.

“Was there something else, Professor?”

“Yes. I want to know whether the Bureau intends to continue pursuing this matter after the immediate investigation concludes.”

“Of course. The evidence suggests a larger organization remains active.”

“Then I’d like to make a formal request.”

Laurent invited him to continue.

Antoine explained that he was willing to provide SkyRune’s expertise wherever it might assist the investigation. He would review recovered materials, identify unfamiliar equipment, and help investigators understand legitimate research that the cult had exploited.

However, he wanted one condition established.

If the Bureau uncovered any research involving unwilling human subjects, he was to be informed through an authorized liaison so that he could offer assistance in preventing further harm.

Laurent considered the request.

“Professor, we can’t promise you access to every investigation.”

“I’m not asking for that. I’m offering assistance in cases where my knowledge may be useful.”

The distinction was important.

Antoine wasn’t demanding authority over Imperial officers or attempting to replace the investigators. He understood that an independent researcher couldn’t simply insert himself into criminal operations.

Nevertheless, he possessed expertise that had already proved useful during the Saint Aurelia crisis.

Laurent agreed to submit the proposal to his superiors.

Antoine thanked him.

Then he made another request.

He wanted SkyRune to establish a small research initiative examining the misuse of magical technology in illegal human experimentation.

Its purpose would be to identify dangerous modifications, improve methods of detecting them, and help legitimate institutions recognize suspicious activities before they caused another tragedy.

Ilya found the proposal considerably more promising than another attempt to reconstruct the cult’s theories.

It gave the professor a concrete objective while remaining within the responsibilities of a research institution.

“That’s something we could actually accomplish,” Ilya remarked.

Antoine agreed.

He understood that identifying the perpetrators wouldn’t restore the lives lost at Saint Aurelia. However, preventing another group from repeating the massacre was something he could still work toward.

The professor immediately contacted SkyRune’s senior administrator and requested a meeting concerning the initiative.

He also instructed the workshop to preserve all documents connected to the Imperial investigation.

Unfortunately, his renewed determination carried another consequence.

When Ilya returned to the professor’s desk, he discovered several historical accounts concerning extraordinary magical phenomena.

Some described individuals who had experienced profound psychological distress before undergoing unusual changes.

Others concerned incidents whose causes remained unexplained.

Antoine had marked several passages.

“Professor, are these connected to the new initiative?”

“Not directly.”

“Then what are you looking for?”

Antoine considered the question before answering.

“I want to understand why those people believed suffering could change someone.”

Ilya understood the curiosity, although the subject remained troubling.

The cult’s theories were unsupported by its experiments, and the professor had already recognized that.

Nevertheless, there were genuine unexplained phenomena associated with extreme emotional experiences. Studying them wasn’t inherently unreasonable, provided he maintained the same standards he expected from his students.

“I’d recommend beginning with independently verified cases,” Ilya said.

“An excellent suggestion, Belozersky.”

“Glad to be useful, Professor. I’d prefer my next assignment to involve fewer criminal organizations.”

Antoine smiled faintly.

However, once Ilya returned to his work, the professor continued reading.

The reports described unusual changes in individuals who had experienced profound suffering.

Some were unreliable. Others concerned phenomena whose causes had never been established.

Antoine had encountered similar material during his career and dismissed much of it as insufficiently documented.

Now he found himself approaching those accounts with a different question.

He wanted to know what suffering could do to a person.

Before leaving the workshop that evening, he made one further decision.

Antoine submitted a written request to the Imperial Intelligence Bureau asking permission to examine the recovered Saint Aurelia records personally, including the documents excluded from the summaries provided to SkyRune.

He explained that the victims’ families deserved to know what had happened to their children, and that the investigators might benefit from an independent scholarly assessment of the cult’s claims.

He also requested access to the names of researchers who had approved the earlier experiments.

The Bureau hadn’t yet answered.

Nevertheless, Antoine instructed his assistant to reserve a portion of his schedule for the investigation.

For years, he had devoted his life to discoveries he hoped to share with Lucile.

Now he intended to use that knowledge to ensure that the people responsible for her death could never hide behind the appearance of legitimate scholarship again.

At the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, Laurent received another document from Falkenrath’s archive.

It was a receipt confirming that a sealed collection of research records had been delivered to an unnamed recipient outside the Imperial Capital.

The date was the morning before the hostage crisis ended.

The recipient’s identity had been deliberately removed.

However, the accompanying instructions contained one sentence that immediately prompted Laurent to contact his superiors.

‘The Saint Aurelia results are to be transferred to the central archive, regardless of the participants’ survival.’

Somewhere beyond the capital, someone was already waiting to receive the records of the massacre.

And Professor Antoine Chastellain had just decided that he would help the Empire find them.