Two older men appeared next to the squabbling pair of students, carefully looking at the surroundings with sharp eyes. Once they were sure it wasn't a trap, they looked at the destroyed metal puppet.

"You said you shot it down while it was flying over your heads?" One of the men looked at the pair of students, sporting an expressionless face.

"Ahh.. yeah, we were doing our patrols when this puppet appeared in the sky, its tail was releasing intense winds that alerted us to it." The female student replied, unsure if they did something wrong.

"Don't worry about my partner here, you did a good thing, though you should have been careful and watched from a distance next time instead of coming so close." The other man smiled at the two students, trying to reassure them.

"Go back to your patrols, we will take care of this." The first man ordered as he turned around, coming closer to the destroyed body. The pair of students looked at each other, before looking at the other man. Seeing him nod, they excused themselves and left quickly.

"Edd, you didn't have to spook them like that you know?" The man came close to the destroyed puppet as well, scanning it carefully.

"And you don't have to be nice to them all the time, one simple mistake could cost them their lives," Edd replied, beginning to pick up the parts that were kicked by the male student.

"So, what should we do with this thing? and how or why did it come to the restricted grounds of the Academy?" The other man looked at their surroundings, continuing to keep watch in case of an enemy ambush.

"I don't know, but it seems it was not made as a weapon. Most makers of puppets would have rigged it to explode the moment it becomes useless, first to not allow the enemies to salvage it for parts, and second to not let their blueprints fall into the hands of their enemies as well." Edd inspected the parts that made up the puppets. 

He stretched his hands, gathering all the metal parts he could see and sense, though inevitably some were too small to find in the forest terrain. Once he gathered all he could, he tried to put everything in his storage crystal, and he succeeded to put most of the body parts inside it, except for the chest. 

"How strange, isn't it just materials, why isn't entering the storage crystal?" The other man commented once he saw the chest part refusing to enter the storage crystal. Storage crystals were nothing more than a crystal inscribed with expanding space spells, one of the first inventions to be used extensively once the method of inscribing spells on mana crystals was discovered.

However, the space could only hold inanimate objects, any living being no matter their form couldn't even enter it even if they tried it. And no one knew or discovered the reason as of yet. At least to their knowledge.

"Well, we assessed the risk of this thing causing damage and destruction, now we have to bring it to the experts who specialize in them." They quickly left the area, heading in a specific direction. Though the way they traveled wasn't just flying or running quickly. Edd, the man holding the chest part of the puppet was moving as if he was being pulled in directions, which kinda looked like flying, but there was a clear distinction.

The other man was completely underground, traveling as if a mole. It wasn't long before they arrived in a clearing, and in front of them was a huge wall located deep in the forest, yet the trees were still bigger.

They stopped before a giant gate, once their identities were confirmed, the gates opened on their own, with no guard in sight even beyond it.

Beyond the gate, was what looked like a main street of a town, the sides of which were shops and stalls bustling with young men and women, while the owners or managers of the stores looked like ordinary mortals. 

The two men didn't stop, now they were forced to travel on foot since the Academy forbids any use of magic inside its grounds. Only Authorized personnel were allowed to use non-threatening magic, which was why Edd was still using his ability to hover the chest part in front of him.

Once they left the area of the market, they went deeper, finding themselves in front of another huge door and walls. This time, they had to put their hands on the grooves on the door and restrain themselves from instinctively defending against the probing energy released by the magical door. Once their identity and their authority were confirmed, the doors opened for them.

The area they were in was the actual school grounds of the Academy, full of grand buildings and beautiful parks. Edd and the other man quickly went to one such grand building, A sign in front of it, it read 'CRAFTING HALL'.

Once they were in, an assistant female student saw them and quickly took out a crystal tapping it for a few seconds. Once she was informed of their presence, she quickly left to do her duties. They were used to it, after all the Crafting hall was the busiest among the different halls in the Academy.

"What is the problem this time?" Said a grumpy voice, one that was a female.

"Audra, you are more grumpy than usual, have you forgotten to have rest as usual?" The other man smiled at Audra, she was a tanned and muscular woman, wearing thick gloves an apron, a thick glasses on top of her head.

"I don't have time to rest thanks to all of you, just get to the point, I don't have time to waste." The woman looked annoyed, but she already noticed the floating chest, analyzing it at a surface level.

"Well, two of our students patrolling the outer areas of the forest shot it down from the sky as it was flying, and once we came it was destroyed, but thankfully it wasn't rigged to explode." The other man replied as he pointed at the chest, looking at Edd who took out the parts he collected from the ground.

"So, why are you bringing this scrap shit to me? what am I supposed to do with it?" She already had enough on her plates, so she didn't want to deal with whatever this was at all.

"Well we would have disposed or scraped it for materials, but this part was the mystery. It was unresponsive to being put in the storage crystal. We hope you could examine it and figure out the reason." This time Edd responded, getting straight to the point.

"Sigh.. you guys are seriously trying to overwork me to death." even though she was complaining, she was interested in what kind of mystery it held. 

"Come on follow me." She guided them through different rooms and halls, those mainly used to teach students, whether it's theory or practical every craft ever discovered.

Past the study rooms, were the specialized stations specifically used to create most items whether they be magical or not used inside the Academy. She guided them into such a station, ordering Edd to put it down on a table filled with runes. She activated the formations written on the table, as each performed its function of scanning or recording everything regarding the deformed chest part of the puppet. 

"It will take time to figure this thing out, so I would appreciate it if you don't breath down my neck." She gave an annoyed look as the two men hovered around her.

".. Well we will leave you to it." They quickly excused themselves, making Audra sigh as she finally got some peace she hasn't experienced for a couple of days now.