Chapter 327: Drugs

The entire class wore a serious face upon hearing the teacher's words, more determination exuding from them. What the professor just said was not a surprise, it was common knowledge among the top families that war was on the horizon. Some of them felt genuine pride towards their country, while others wanted there to be war for more dubious efforts. 

Professor Umbridge took a heavy whiff of air, looking at the entire class before speaking once more. "So, Kane, does that answer your question?" 

"Yes, thank you very much…" Moby bowed gracefully before once again taking his seat to listen to the rest of the lecture.

For the next hour or so, professor Umbridge explained many theories and facts about the spirit beasts that resided within each ability user. And, unsurprisingly, he confirmed many of Moby's assumptions and rebutted the lies told to everyone in regular school, including how an inner spirit was formed according to a person's personality and ability. The truth of the matter was that it was almost completely random and there was no correlation, which Moby found out when he received both a wolf and a cat for inner spirits. 

He also explained how once a person reached a certain level of mastery, it was possible to lightly communicate with the spirits who don't speak… Yet, Moby knew that was also a lie considering they had spoken to Avilia more than once. It seemed like they were not speaking on purpose which did intrigue Moby.

When the bell rang, everyone rushed out, including Moby who noticed that the teacher kept a particularly close eye on him. However, he sensed no malice from it. It was completely different from those other teachers that he could sense had it out for him. 

The time was nearly 3 pm and he could have gone to his dorm to study and train. But, instead, he decided to go to the nurse's office to pick up his reward from defeating Kai. 

He ignored most of the stares headed his way, even from some of the notable figures and reached the nurse's office. But, before he entered, he closed his eyes and decided to prepare for something, just in case it arose…

"Hello Nurse! How's Kai doing!" He entered the room wearing a bright expression, waving his hands at the white lab-coat-wearing nurse who was deep in thought at her desk. 

"Oh! Hello Kane! I didn't expect to see you back so soon! Kai is looking much better! But, I'm sad to say he probably won't be in class for a while… Oh! I forgot to ask… Are you two friends of some kind?"

"NO!" An immediate, almost annoyed sound came from behind her where Kai's bed layed, his speech as broken as ever. " I would never be friends with someone like him… He has made me sick for more than you think…"

"Oh… I see…" The nurse awkwardly chuckled. "Anyways, I feel like you have something to discuss with each other… But, before you do, Kane, please take a seat," She smiled, motioning to a chair directly beside Kai's bed. 

Moby nodded slowly and walked in that direction, and, when he did, Kai's figure was in complete view. 

'Pfffff. Does the nurse not know how to wrap or is this the best that could be done?' Moby could barely contain his laughter. Kai looked like a mummy wrapped in white, and his face looked bruised and swollen even without there being any major injuries he inflicted there from what he could remember. 

He shook his head lightly and took a deep breath, trying to ignore his glee. But, every time he looked his way, he struggled to contain himself. So, as he sat down, he focused his gaze wholly on the nurse's visage. 

"You wanted to talk to me, nurse?"

"Indeed… But, I have faith in you. This is only a formality but it's standard protocol." And there, she pulled out a lie detector crystal from a storage ring and held it firmly in her right hand. "Can you please place your palm on this for me?"

"Uhm," Moby nodded and did as he was told with confidence that even surprised the nurse.

"Did you drug Kai Fatebringer?"

"No."

"Did you use any illegal or underhanded tactic to rig your fight with him in your favour?"

"No."

"Do you have any idea who might have drugged him?"

"No."

It was clear and not surprising to any party except for the man on the bed. Moby was completely innocent, the crystal lit up in his favour every time.

"I see… You're all clear…" She breathed some sort of sigh of relief. "Kai, you see that, this man is innocent. You shouldn't be throwing accusations when you're not sure."

Although Kai did not speak a word, the disapproval and rage was more than evident on his face before he turned it around. 

"Nurse Joi, you talked to me like you did find traces of the drug in his body."

"Indeed." She nodded. "After some examination, the drug has been found in his system… It won't be expelled for another two weeks to a month as well… It was administered sometime in the morning so at least we have a full time-frame. It was only when you came in that it was fully spread throughout his body."

"Did you narrow it down? People like this are too dangerous to be running around and sabotaging the future elites of the army. Especially with what's going on right now!" Moby spoke, making Avilia chuckle in his head, something that greatly confused him.

"The school had started an investigation, many of the top suspects have been questioned already but we've got no result… Kai did say he went on an eating spree in the city the night before but was too drunk to remember where or what he ate. We may never find who did it, but we have a way to weed them out. This is a massive blow to our school's reputation and a massive oversight by staff considering this has never happened before… From now on, we will be giving every student a food testing device they must use before every meal. If traces of harmful material is found in the food, then they should not be eaten, and the cook or restaurant should be immediately reported to school staff as soon as possible."

"That's pretty smart actually," Moby's eyes grew in approval.

"Of course, the department was really quick in getting things together. Every student should be getting a device at their doorstep within the hour. Anyways, I wasted enough of your time. If you need me I'll be in the other room filing some paperwork and reporting your innocence to the principal. Oh, and don't talk about any of this to people outside if you don't wanna get in trouble. If anyone asks you about Kai just tell them he wasn't feeling too well and he's now better. And, that he's currently taking private lessons from a special teacher, that's why he can't be found in class or on campus." she smiled brightly in his direction before standing up, leaving them two alone, Moby feeling something odd in his stomach when she mentioned the principal. That woman looked like a conniving scary monster everytime an image of her popped up in his mind. 

"So, what brought you here? I know you didn't come to check up on me. Did you come to rub it in my face?" Kai spoke, yet Moby kept his calm. 

"No, I came to ask for my reward. How do you know me? Why did you just ask me to fight you out of nowhere? Tell me,"

"Fuck off, you didn't even beat me! It might have not been you, but I was drugged! Just leave me alone and let me recover in peace. If you want answers, ask your roommate. Or, you can wait until I'm out of this bed to see..." He panted heavily at the end of his sentence.

It seemed like Kai was slowly coming to terms with things and gotten somewhat back to normal, calm and collected like when they first met, although now Moby could spot the many cracks in his personality. He was an odd mixture between a thinker, and a stubborn headstrong guy.

Moby sighed hearing the response. The school seemed to have decided and there was nothing that could be done… He simply got extremely unlucky by someone drugging Kai just when he was about to get his way with him. 

"So be it. I wish you a safe recovery…" Moby stood up from his seat, turning around and leaving. He didn't even get the chance to see Kai's red face that looked like it was ready to scream all of his frustration away… His reputation, training, and time are all going to waste all from something that he was unaware of.

And as soon as the door was slammed, he did exactly that, considering all the walls were sound proofed...

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On his way to his room, Moby called and checked up on Hikari, who immediately responded happier than he usually saw her. She explained that she stayed home all day to study for the day since she had no class and how she had discovered how to browse the extremely limited internet for the first time.

The story did go off into territories he did not expect to be discussed, which Yami immediately stepped in and confirmed that she did save her from danger.

Moby felt like he was forced to check up on her to make sure she was alright and to keep up their good relationship in the case he needed her help.

Moby ended up closing the call when he was going up the elevator to his room and thinking to himself. 'I had no idea the military provided access to those kinds of websites…'

When he reached the floor where his room was situated, he noticed the presence of metal packages neatly placed at the front of each door. It seemed like things moved quicker than he expected.

Not to his surprise, he noticed the package in front of his own door was not there, which meant that Regrit had already arrived into the room.

When he opened the door, he was greeted to the now more familiar look of his apartment, and two packages on the desk one opened and one closed.

He walked in and closed the door behind him, opening his ears to see where exactly Regrit was in the house. And what did not come to a big surprise was that he was in the training area, hard at work… Despite the insolation, Moby could clearly hear his abnormally loud grunting which he assumed had something to do with  his brother. 

Moby decided to ignore him for now and open his box, only to find some sort of scanner inside. Like those things, cashiers used to scan items over 100 years ago. It was definitely low profile and looked more like a toy than anything else. 

Along with the scanner, the box came with a letter.

"Due to security reasons, all students are required to scan every single food and drink before consumption…" Moby read out loud before he mumbled to himself. "It seems like the school is really trying to keep what happened with Kai a secret…" He put the letter and the scanner into his inventory before he ate a quick meal. 

On his way to the room's computer, he walked past the training room, staring at it for a few seconds deep in thought. For some odd reason, it was like he was hearing pain coming out of every grunt Regrit let out. He took even more time thinking to himself, his hands hovering over the door handle, and like it was out of instinct, he decided to open the door and let himself in...

"What the fuck do you think you're doing here!? I thought we agreed that this is my time after school!"