First things first, Hugh sent off a message to Ruth. I won’t be going to the student council room. Something came up. See you at the mansion.

Then he tuned in to Roman and Oscar, arguing over what to do next.

“Oscar, you can’t expect us to tail all seventeen of our classmates.” Roman shook his head.

“That’s not what I’m telling you to do. Jeez, get along with the script, hero!” Oscar stomped his foot, frustrated. Roman made a complicated face at the last part.

“Okay you two, that’s enough,” Hugh stepped in. “Oscar, have you narrowed down which of our classmates might be involved?”

“Yeah, but I dunno their names. I’ll just have to describe them to you.”

Hugh sighed. “This is what you get for always not attending class… but all right. I know everyone’s name, so let’s start.”

“Okay, it’s not any of the Wild Magic people. You all have a certain kind of smell to you, so I know it’s not you guys.”

“That rules out me, Roman, Ursula Bear, Ada Hawk and Prabhu.”

“It’s not the lizard guy-”

“Reptillian, Oscar. That must be Alon.”

“Yeah, yeah. It ain’t the Orc, the Werewolf or the cat.”

“That’s Jacira, June Wolf and Felices Cat.”

“It ain’t that meddlesome gnome either.”

“That’s Xia Rong most likely.”

“It ain’t the guy who likes to sell stuff; he’s the one sittin’ behind you.”

“That’s Fiq.”

“That’s about all I know. The rest I haven’t checked yet.” Oscar shrugged.

Hugh counted. “That leaves Ami, Eva, Guillem, Huan, Maryam, Shanta and Talib.”

“Take Maryam off the list. She’s a strong devotee of the Death God Sect.” Roman brought up.

“You’re right. She wouldn’t be involved with a cult that wants to kill Nefari.” Hugh mentally crossed her off the list. “Let’s take Ami off too. She’s too involved with the navy, I can’t imagine her having the energy to go around cursing people.”

“If that’s the case, take off Eva and Huan too. Eva is always with her Adventurers team, while Huan is dedicated to reviving her family,” Roman suggested.

“Okay, so the ones left are: Guillem, Shanta and Talib.”

Roman whistled. “Not bad. Three possible suspects out of seventeen.”

“I don’t feel good pointing fingers at our classmates,” Hugh admitted, “but if we’re going with the most suspicious, it’s probably Guillem. He’s very dedicated to learning magic. At least if it’s not him, we can ask for more insight from him.”

“Great. So how do we find him?” Oscar asked. He was surprised to see both Hugh and Roman adopted the same complicated expression.

“…Xia Rong, right?” Hugh sighed.

“Yup, Xia Rong.” Roman took out his phone. “I’ll do it.”

While Roman talked to the girl in question, Hugh pulled out his own phone and was surprised to see a message from Ruth.

All right, but please be careful. Is there anything I can help with?

Hugh couldn’t decide whether to gratefully smile or sigh in exasperation. Trust Ruth to be a worrywart while extending her hand. Truthfully he didn’t want to bother Ruth, but this matter of the Demon Hunters cult will come under her attention eventually. Hugh’s idea was to go confirm if this truly involved the cult, and if it was, to straightaway inform Ruth.

I will, and I will let you know if anything comes up.

He finished and sent the message just as Oscar burst out in curses. Looking up, he discovered Roman’s phone in Oscar’s hands. Evidently Xia Rong wanted some juicy information from the latter.

“How did you-!? What? No, that isn’t- wait! Okay okay, fine. Just, not in front of these guys okay?” Oscar walked out of the room to get some privacy. Roman and Hugh exchanged looks of exasperation.

“I’m only a little tempted to hear what Oscar has to say.” Hugh gently slapped Roman’s arm to stop him. The latter laughed.

“So how’s life at the mansion? They treating you right?” Roman asked. Hugh looked up to see genuinely concerned eyes.

“Yeah, don’t worry too much Roman. It’s been… interesting, thus far.”

“In a good way or a bad way?”

“…I’m not sure yet to be honest. But I am enjoying it, so there’s that.”

“Well, if anything comes up, you can come back to the hostel no problem. Don’t be a stranger ‘kay.” Roman gave Hugh’s shoulder a whack. Since he’s quite strong, that literally took the breath out of Hugh.

Oscar took that moment to come back. “Hey, that Xia Rong person told me where Guillem is, so let’s roll.”

Turns out Guillem was hanging out at his usual haunt: Cybere Tavern, at the edge of the city’s walls. He was a slight person even for a sea elf, but had a personality bigger than his stature, as evidenced by how he was entertaining the other guards he was working with. The one thing that stood out about him was a huge tome poking out of the bag he had attached to his belt.

The three boys watched Guillem for awhile, but he seemed to not be doing anything other than hanging out. Eventually they got tired of squatting by the barrels and decided to go in and have a drink themselves.

When the waitress arrived with their drinks, it took their attention away from Guillem. Which is why Guillem’s sudden appearance by their table gave them the shock of their lives.

“So what’s up you three? I didn’t see you all after whatever happened at class,” Guillem asked, clueless.

“They’ve been watching ya like smitten girls for awhile laddie,” a drunk guard spouted from the table Guillem was at.

“I ain’t some smitten girl you pontz!” Oscar raised his fists.

“You want to brawl laddie? Well c’mon here and take it!” the guard hobbled from his seat and raised his own fists.

Hugh immediately got up and between them. “Okay you two, here’s an idea: why don’t we just sit down and continue drinking instead? Here mister, have another drink on me.”

Immediately another mug of beer was placed in front of the guard, who relented. “Aye, that’s a good lad now.” He fussed Hugh’s hair and went back to drinking.

That left the four boys to talk. It was a little awkward, but Guillem opened up the conversation.

“So… you’ve been watching me, why?”

“Um, there’s no nice way to go about it, so-”

“Are you the one who put that fire pillar spell outside of class?” Oscar immediately interrupted.

Hugh and Roman turned to look at Oscar, the former in horror, the latter in exasperation. Guillem raised his brow, then shrugged. “Well even if I said no, that still doesn’t prove anything does it?

How about you three tell me why you think it’s me?”

They told Guillem about Oscar’s magic sense as a Nefari.

“Ah yeah, the Nefari’s famed Magic Intuition.” Guillem nodded sagely. “I studied up on that you know.”

“That makes you suspect!” Oscar accused.

“Uh, maybe? But I studied it because, y’know, magic! I think it’s the most interesting thing I’ve encountered ever since I came to Izgaea. So I got a little curious and maybe a little jealous of a Nefari’s Magic Intuition. So I studied it up.

You guys do know how Magic Intuition works right?”

Hugh and Roman shrugged, while Oscar puffed up. The latter explained: “It’s all about the smell!”

“Yeah but, do you know how the smell thing works? Like, what are you actually smelling?” Guillem looked too interested at Oscar, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Noticing that, Guillem let off. “Sorry, got a bit excited there.”

“Anyway, you have to think about it guys. Magic is like, the one mysterious thing we really didn’t have in the previous world. You feel what I’m saying, right?”

The other three boys nodded. At least, Hugh certainly felt that way as well.

“So I, like, studied it up a lot cuz of that. So magic has two components: the circuit and the magic. So the magic is inside our heads, and the circuit can be written on any paper or surface. But what about Wild magic, right? Cuz Wild magic doesn’t need circuits. I mean, does it even use magic?”

“There’s definitely some magic there,” Hugh commented.

“Dude, I hear you. But back to the main question: what exactly is Oscar here smelling then?”

“The magic side, right? I don’t think circuits have any ‘smell’,” Roman suggested.

“Hah, think again Roman! Because as you have probably forgot, circuits are actually catalysts! So let me put up my hypothesis to Oscar to check: You can only smell a person’s magic strongly and accurately at the moment they use their circuits, right?” Guillem excitedly pointed at Oscar.

“Oh, so makes sense. That’s why he could only identify half the class: not everyone has yet used their spells in front of him,” Hugh snapped his fingers in this eureka moment. “Wait… then what about Wild Magic? Oscar, you said there’s a peculiar scent when it comes to us right?”

“Um, yeah…” strangely Oscar looked like he was sweating out.

“Ha ha, but remember that Wild magic people can only use very basic elemental spells. Why is that again, Hugh?” Guillem pretended the salt shaker in his hands was a microphone, holding it towards Hugh.

“Because…” Hugh had to take a moment to remember Miss Athy’s lessons. “… Wild magic is constrained to itself. Because their affinity to elemental magic… is low…?”

Guillem jumped up and slapped his hands together, the picture of excitement. “Yes, exactly! You see, what Nefari are actually smelling is a person’s affinity to different elemental magics. But for Wild magic users whose affinity to elemental magic is low, there’s barely a scent about them! Oscar, I bet this is the ‘peculiar scent’ you were getting.”

“Wait.” Roman paused the conversation. “At the moment when a spell is used… Oscar, what did you actually smell?”

Oscar looked to the side, crossing his arms. “…Nothing, okay. I smelled nothing.”

“… That means the Wild Magic people are the most suspect!” Hugh concluded.

“Why didn’t you just admit you didn’t smell anything?” Roman asked.

Oscar fidgeted in his seat.”… Fine! It’s because I didn’t know about this smell thing okay. I thought… ahh damn it, now that he’s said it, the answer has been in front of me the whole time…”

He stood up suddenly, startling the other three boys. “That means I can’t trust you two then!”

“Wait, Oscar-,” Hugh meant to get up, but Roman stopped him. That left Oscar to storm out the door.

“Why did you stop me?” Hugh was more confused than angry. Roman crossed his arms.

“…Remember who in our class is a Wild magic user?”

“Um… you, me, Ursula Bear, Ada Hawk, and Prabhu.”

“If it’s not you or me, who else in that list can be taken out?”

“… Ursula Bear. She’s the kindest and shyest person I know. Ada Hawk… she’s our responsible vice-class representative. That only leaves…”

“Yeah.” Roman took out his phone; Hugh guessed it was to call Xia Rong.

He didn’t want to think badly of anyone in his class, but if Prabhu hadn’t been taken out of the list, he would have been Hugh’s main suspect. Prabhu was an introvert, never really making friends with anyone in class. It would have been fine if he was like Alon, always reading a medical journal… but Prabhu did nothing like that. He was usually found mumbling to himself and looking out the window. In fact, Hugh recalled that he rebuffed efforts to befriend him.

… it was not a good feeling, suspecting someone just because they didn’t mix in with the crowd. But it was their biggest shot yet.

“Thanks Guillem, for your insight about Magic Intuition.” Guillem, who was staring out towards the door in shock, looked at Hugh and nodded, speechless.

Roman pocketed his phone. “She doesn’t know where Prabhu is right now, but he’s usually at the Dockside Fountain.”

“Okay then, let’s see what we can do.”

The boys got up and left.