219 Chapter 219: Piecing Together (1/2)
Shun Yin watched numbly as the medics ferried Tenshi's corpse away in a black body bag, his eyes hollow. Behind him, Gabriel and Rebecca related the events to Henry.
”Lady Angelica came and she…she killed Tenshi. Without saying anything. She had this weird, powerful sword that we had never seen before…casting awesome fire spells and destroying all our equipment except the computers.”
”Then after cutting Tenshi apart, she went and downloaded all the data from our computers. Transferred it into some private cloud server. Then she destroyed our computers, our computing processing units, everything.”
”Our data is all gone. I just checked the school's cloud server. They've been wiped clean.”
”All our work…gone just like that. Worse…Tenshi…she…she…!”
Rebecca began weeping and sobbing uncontrollably. Gabriel put an arm around her, trying to comfort her. From the looks of it, this wasn't the first time he had tried to console her whenever she broke down.
The two of them had been too afraid to move after Angelica left silently, still hearing the noise of battle outside. They continued to cower inside the remains of the ruined lab, unable to move out because of their lack of combat ability.
”What did Lady Angelica want our research for?” Gabriel demanded, his voice quivering. Henry glanced at Shun Yin, and then shook his head.
”I honestly have no idea.”
”She…she wanted to summon spirits of her own. I'm not sure how exactly, but she found a way to seal them into weapons. She claimed that the technology had not been completed yet, that she planned to perfect it. I'm guessing that's why she stole your data.”
Gabriel and Rebecca stared at Shun Yin in amazement. ”Lady Angelica actually told you all that?”
Shun Yin hesitated at Gabriel's question, and then nodded. ”Yes. She wanted me to join her.”
”Obviously you refused.” Glen placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. His expression darkened. ”I don't care who she is…heiress or not, the future clan leader or not, she's not going to get away with this.”
”The clan leader and elders are in an uproar, from what I can tell.” Henry looked grim. He glanced at Shun Yin. ”They refuse to believe that Angelica is a traitor and that she had joined the Assassins Guild. They are actually accusing you of lying.”
”Huh? Then how are they going to explain all this?!” Glen demanded, gesturing at the destruction all around them.
”I don't know. For now, they are asking us to confirm if Angelica wasn't actually kidnapped by the Assassins. They said there was no way Angelica would follow them of their own volition, and they want to personally interrogate the eyewitnesses…including you. Glen.” Henry sighed and lifted his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. Yes, even in the far future he chose to wear glasses, not because he was shortsighted but because of the various functions installed within the lenses to help with analysis and calculations. ”However, I've just transmitted the recordings of the security cameras in this building, including the video of her murdering Seinagi Tenshi in cold blood and stealing all the data from the computer terminals in this lab.”
”They surely can't deny her guilt after that!” If he didn't know him better, Shun Yin could have sworn he heard some relish in Glen's voice.
”Honestly…at this point I think they would hide from the truth and choose to delude themselves if it means preserving their pride. They probably will continue deceiving themselves and denying reality until Angelica shows up herself to personally kill them.”
Glen snorted. ”If that happens, then they deserve it.”
”Now, now.” Henry raised both his hands in a placating manner. ”Don't wish ill of your relatives. As…delicate as they are, they are still your uncles and granduncles.”
”Hmph.”
Glen scowled as he turned away. Shun Yin raised an eyebrow at that. It was clear that the blond mage had some grudge against the higher-ups of the Porter clan, though he could not imagine what reason that could be.
Perhaps it was discrimination against his father and his family for being ”outsiders” and the ostracizing he received from the main families that shaped his attitude toward them.
However, Shun Yin was still concerned about what they planned to do.
”I don't suppose they'll knock me out with a tranquilizer dart, lock me up in a cell, drug and torture me in an interrogation session to force the truth out of me? And then after abusing me, ask me to be his right-hand man?”
”…huh?”
Both Glen and Henry stared at him in bafflement. For a moment, everyone was too stunned to say anything.
”What the hell are you talking about?” Glen finally broke the silence.
”On my authority as principal of this school, I will not allow any of my students to undergo such violent interrogation sessions,” Henry declared firmly. ”You have my word on that. I don't care if it's an order from the clan head himself, I will not hand my students over.”
”Thank you, sir.” Shun Yin breathed heavily. However, Henry shook his head.
”Don't thank me yet. I'm only just an outsider in the Porter clan, with no authority. There are limits to what I can do. I will do my best to stop them from touching you, but if the Porter clan decides to send their elite mages to capture you by force, then even I won't be able to do anything about it.”
”I still appreciate the sentiment, sir.”
Henry smiled sadly. ”I'm really sorry that you're dragged into all of this. You deserve better.”
”Those old man should stop being obsessed over bloodline and lineages!” Glen growled angrily under his breath. This time Henry didn't reprimand him.
”Wait, what's going on? You're saying Lady Angelica betrayed us?”
Being in a daze all this while, it took quite a lot of time before the trio's conversation sank in, and Rebecca stared at them dumbly. Gabriel still didn't quite follow what was going on, but he probably already understood that Angelica had turned her back on her schoolmates the moment she callously murdered Tenshi.
”It's a long story.” Shun Yin sighed. Rebecca glared at him determinedly, and then gestured toward the body bag that the medics were carrying away.
”We have a right to know.”
”You are right.” This time it was Henry. He regarded the two surviving researchers seriously. ”Angelica has joined hands with the Assassins Guild. We believe there is someone hiring the Assassins Guild to eliminate the Porter clan, but we don't know who exactly. I don't know why, but it seems that Angelica wishes to destroy the Porter clan as well. To achieve that end, she appears to want to finish the development of spirit technology…through these spirit weapons.”
”It is possible that your data on summoning spirits might be vital to perfecting and stabilizing the current technology used to craft spirit weapons,” Shun Yin added wearily. ”At least that's the impression Angelica gave me.”
”…I see.” Rebecca nodded resolutely. ”Then we have to stop her, don't we?”
”But how?” Gabriel blurted out.