Chapter 286: Some Things Are Irreplacable

Before the vice headmaster could begin to ask questions, Lily spoke up.

“I don’t believe it is necessary for all of these people to be here,” she said with a meaningful look at the crowd of staff members who were sitting there.

“With all due respect young lady, you don’t tell us what is necessary or not,” a man close to the head of the table said with disdain.

“Then I guess this is over,” Lily said while standing up and grabbing Julius by the armpit.

He didn’t bother arguing because he agreed with her. This amount of people felt completely unnecessary. Marcus didn’t hesitate for a moment and followed his lady’s actions, already going over to the door to hold it for her.

“You can’t just leave,” the Kelsa woman said sternly.

Lily stopped suddenly and turned to face the woman with narrowed eyes and pinched lips. “Are you going to stop us?”

At her question, Julius felt both Marcus and Stella tense up and a surge of mana flowed through them. The two of them then released some of their aura in warning, as if daring one of the staff members to try and stop them.

He was sure that the other people at the table could understand the message too, because almost all of them paled at the sight.

“I don’t think we need to go that far. Please, Mr. Avery and Ms. Stella, pull back your auras. You are terrifying some of the people here,” Gabriel chuckled placatingly, still looking at ease.

If Julius had to guess, he would say that the massive baldy was enjoying this. Something he wouldn’t be surprised by either.

Kelsa looked unhappy, but she also looked over at Lucien who placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

“It’s fine. If it makes Mr. Snow more comfortable sharing, then I don’t mind,” Lucien said before addressing the rest of the room. Please give us some privacy. I am sure we won’t be too long.”

Some people seemed more than happy to leave while others seemed a bit more bitter. Julius was guessing that some of their egos were bruised from being kicked out. The lady from his examination was definitely bitter about it if the death stare was anything to go off of.

He couldn’t help but give her a smug smile when they met gazes. A flash of anger appeared on her face, giving him a weird feeling of satisfaction.

Serves her right, she was always so rude, he thought to himself. He didn’t forget her words about his ‘shit’ affinities all that time ago.

Well… actually he kinda did, but he recalled it pretty quickly, so that was all that mattered.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he saw Gabriel standing up to leave as well and interjected quickly. “I don’t mind if Gabriel stays, I would actually feel more comfortable if he did,” he said aloud.

Gabriel stopped getting up and looked at Lucien, who gave him a stiff nod before sitting back down.

Once the room emptied out, there were only a few people left. There were the people at the head of the table. Then there were Julius and the others, as well as Gabriel who was still looking mighty pleased with himself.

“Okay, can we start now?” Kelsa asked him.

He nodded in affirmation and made sure to give Lily a squeeze of appreciation for how she was able to remove all of the peanut gallery.

The questions that followed were pretty expected. They first asked him to narrate his version of events from the day before until the time he was transported. They impressively didn’t interrupt him a single time until he was finished.

He didn’t hide anything from them. He told them about the night before and how he had been hanging out with the others. Then, he described his morning and the events that led up to the rift. There was nothing to hide; he was sure that they already knew most of what happened anyway.

He also informed them that he had not known about the assassination attempt nor did he really know anything about teleportation circles. At least not enough to help them.

However, after he was done, they had many questions.

“Would you be willing to allow us to see your memories and see what kind of runes they were?” The lady beside the vice-headmaster asked.

“Nope, he had it right,” Julius said while pointing at her boss. “Nobody is going to be entering my mind anytime soon.”

The lady didn’t seem to get the message though. “I don’t think you quite understand how important it is for us to find out who had done this, boy. If we can figure out the style or structure of how they built the circle, it can help us determine who was behind it.” She didn’t stop and kept on insisting.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Lily cut in sharply. “He said no, and if you continue to badger him or pressure him into doing anything he doesn’t consent to, you are going to find many people upset over your actions,” she warned, her voice teetering with anger.

“Is that a threat, Miss Violet? I don’t care who your parents are, I will not stand here and let a little girl threaten me,” the woman said with a frown.

“It’s not a threat. I am simply telling you what is going to happen if you continue to act like this. You might be able to pressure other students into allowing you access to their minds, but you are not going to be allowed to act like this with Julius. It is not his fault you guys have not found out who has done this,” Lily said firmly.

“We are not saying it is his fault. But he has information that would greatly help us,” Lucien interjected gently, his voice sounding equally calm and firm.

“It is not his responsibility to figure it out for you. If you don’t remember, he is a student at this school, one who you have failed to protect in the first place. The fact that he is even willing to answer your questions is enough as is. I’m sure the Royal Family and the other parents would be thrilled to learn that this whole situation was because someone from the inside allowed this to happen,” Lily ground out.

“How do you know it is someone from the inside?” The vice-headmaster asked, looking at Lily with more scrutiny.

Aubrey scoffed from the side of the room. “Well, it’s quite obvious that is the answer. If you haven’t thought about that yet, you guys are more incompetent or stupid than I thought.”

Julius stifled a chuckle of his own and he saw that Edgar, Kyle, and Derek all facepalm at Aubrey’s words. While Lily and he had been argumentative, they didn’t outright insult the staff. It would seem that Aubrey didn’t have any compunctions about speaking her mind.