“And we still don’t know what caused the monitors to malfunction?” Headmaster Sonare asked while sitting at the table.

“None so far,” One instructor said. “The technicians said that there was something blocking the signal which is why we couldn’t see anything.”

The instructors and Headmaster were currently in the meeting room where they were discussing the incident involving the Group Training Session.

“What of the Manticore beast?” Sonare asks.

“We still have no idea how that monster was in Agoge forest,” Another instructor states. “The last Savior that did an investigation on the forest and do any clean-up didn’t notice it. Much less whatever...this manticore was."

“Which means this thing had some kind of stealth Talent or it was planted after that Savior left.”

“Hmm…” Sonare ponders over what she was just told.

The Agoge Forest was a maintained area where it mostly consisted of F, D, and very few C-rank monsters. This forest is mainly used to train Agogo Students and have them gain experience in hunting and fighting monsters since that’s what they will do when they become full-fledged Saviors.

However, the Academy is very careful with the monsters because they know that if they leave the forest unattended for long periods of time, new and stronger monsters will appear and that will cause a lot of issues for the students.

To the point where it’s possible they could be killed…

This is why the Academy does monster sweeps where they send in a Professional Savior to the forest and have them kill any monsters that are too strong and shouldn’t be in the forest for their students. However, it seems that something happened since the Manticore made its appearance when it wasn’t supposed to be there. And no one knows why…

And it appeared to have been an A-rank threat. There was no way anyone could've missed something like this.

“How about the students? Have we questioned them all to see if they saw anything strange regarding the appearance of the Manticore? Like someone that wasn’t supposed to be there?”

“None so far. The only students that encountered the beast were a couple of currently severely injured ones along with Luke Hope’s group, Thea Lochmann’s group, Jeanne Orlean's Group, and Ethan Monroe’s group.”

“Speaking of Monroe…” Sonare starts. “How are we in…validating the other students' claims on him killing the Manticore.”

The other instructors all looked a bit nervous after being asked this like they weren’t expecting the Headmaster to ask this. This caused Sonare to sigh, knowing their answer.

“According to Luke, Thea, and Jeanne’s groups, Ethan Monroe was the one that defeated the Manticore,” Sonare states.

“Yes, after summoning dozens of blades and ripping the Manticore to shreds...” One instructor said with a hint of doubt.

"A manticore that appeared to have been a variant of the original species and also an A-rank threat."

“While also suffering from the Manticore’s venom that was also slowly killing him …” Another instructor added.

After everything that happened with the Manticore, it was Luke’s group along with Thea, Jeanne, and the two teammates of Ethan’s group that told the instructors that it was Ethan himself that defeated the Manticore. However, due to Monroe’s ranking of his Talent being F-rank, this should’ve been impossible.

Ethan Monroe’s Talent relies on mana in order to work, and according to his stats, he shouldn’t have enough of that to summon that many blades. This caused the Instructors to believe that the students were lying. However, a Savior with a Lie detection Talent confirms their story, meaning that it was, in fact, Ethan Monroe that did it. This only made the situation more difficult to investigate.

Especially with the other instructors still doubting the facts before them.

“Continue looking into Ethan Monroe,” Sonare orders. “If you need to, question him in person once he recovers.”

Suddenly, Sonare ponders for a moment, thinking about something. This caused the other instructors to look a bit nervous.

Then, Headmaster Sonare said this. “Never mind. I’ll question him instead.”

Upon saying this, the other instructors were a bit surprised to hear this. To the point where a few were a bit opposed to it.

“A-are you sure that’s wise, Headmaster?”

“You shouldn’t bother yourself with something like this…”

Sonare simply sighs again before looking at the instructors with a judgmental gaze, causing those that opposed to freeze up. None of them talked back.

“It’s better than having you lot, that will only doubt the boy, question him. You’ll likely pressure him into confessing that he cheated or something when he actually didn’t.”

None of the instructors said anything back to Sonare’s statement…because she was certainly right about that.

It’s obvious that none of the instructors, aside from Jayde that has Ethan in his class, believe that Ethan Monroe is capable of pulling off such a feat. If anything, they likely believe that Ethan somehow cheated. Knowing this, Headmaster Sonare decided to just question the boy herself, since she’s not biased in regards to Ethan.

“Ethan Monroe aside,” The Headmaster continued. “We need to keep investigating the Manticore incident. It’s obvious that the beast was planted somehow. And if that monster was placed there, that means…”

“That our information regarding the forest has been leaked.”

“And if our information has been leaked…”

“It means we might have a Mole on our hands,” Sonare finishes.

There’s no way that the Manticore just suddenly appeared in the Agoge Forest, especially when they were doing a Group Training Session. This meant that the Manticore was planted there for the session.

This also meant that if that Manticore was sent into that forest, someone had to have done it. And that means there was a mole in Agoge Academy.

“If we have a mole on our hands, we need to be careful with how we proceed with the school training,” Sonare states. “We need to keep an eye out for any suspicious individuals lurking within our Academy.”

“Understood,” All of the instructors said to the Headmaster.

After the meeting was done, all of the instructors then left the meeting room to head back to their respective classrooms, leaving The headmaster alone.

Once she was the only one left, Headmaster Sonare sat in her chair for a moment before activating the Holo-Table. A blue panel appeared with the icon of a phone on it. There was a ringing sound before someone finally answered.

“Ah, if it isn’t the Headmaster herself,” A masculine voice said in the other line. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Hello, Aeolus. How would like a little job to do?” Sonare smiles while talking to the other person on the line.

...

"I see...I understand," Hunter said while on his slate call. "This...is rather bothersome. I'll inform you of your next task later. For now, just lay low."

After ending the call, he puts his Slate down gently...only for him to smash the arm of the chair with his fist right after, destroying it. Shards of woodchips scatted upon the wood being obliterated.

"Dammit...!" He growled in frustration. "Just what the hell is going on with these freshmen!?"

He just got word from his spy that the mutated Manticore they planted in the forest had just been destroyed. A monster that was a high-level B-rank threat. And it wasn't by the instructors...it was by their students.

This itself was and should've been an impossibility. Those students in that forest were D-ranks, and some of them, those being the prodigies, were most likely C-Ranks. There was no way that they could've defeated the Manticore. And yet they did. What's even more surprising...is that it wasn't the student they initially sent the Mutant Manticore to take care of that killed it.

It was another student...who has a very mysterious and confusing background.

"This is becoming rather bothersome indeed..." He groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose.

While fretting over this fact, an unexpected person appeared before him.

"Yo, Hunter! How'd it go with my pet? Did he slaughter those students like you asked?"

Walking over to Hunter was a man in his mid-thirties with short black hair with a couple of red streaks. He wore a nice leather Jacket with slightly ripped jeans and boots as they made a stomping sound as he walked.

"Ddraig..." Hunter turns to the man before him with a stressed expression.

This was the person that Hunter borrowed the manticore from. He was known as Ddraig the Dragonnewt. A person is known for being destructive and absolutely dangerous amongst their little group. And considering what kind of monstrosity that beast was, it fit Ddraig's tastes nicely.

"Whoa, you look a bit tense, man. What, did our little spy fail to stay in cover or something?"

He said nothing as he continued looking at Ddraig. He had no idea how he was going to break the news about what happened to his "pet". The very thought of telling him

But, he still had to.

"The plan...was a failure."

As soon as Hunter said this, Ddraig's smile disappeared in an instant. He was shocked at first, but that was soon replaced with a blazing anger as he frowned deeply. He could tell that the Dragonnewt was furious from the burning gaze in his eyes. If looks could kill...Hunter would've been burned a thousand times at this point.

"...What happened?" Although he asked this with a calm demeanor, the sheer rage being held back in his voice was evident.

"It appears...that these freshmen were a lot more formidable than we realized."

Upon hearing this, Ddraig started to release a menacing aura that was filled with anger. Although Hunter wasn't fazed by this, he knew just how enraged the dragonnewt was.

Just from releasing a bit of mana, the floor of the building lightly shook along with the chandelier above them, swaying back and forth haphazardly.

"Who...killed it?"

Hunter sighs before answering. "Apparently, his name is Ethan Monroe..."