Professor Kazel's capability for action was actually very strong.
It was just that sometimes, he wasn't very willing to act.
Before the lunch break had ended, he had already extracted the information from the golems regarding last night.
Skipping over the chaos caused by those two Magic Guide Spirits, he indeed found traces of the "invisible person."
The "invisible person" had indeed lingered near one of the secret passage entrances.
There were also signs that the seal on that secret passage entrance had been touched.
But the seals placed by the professors were not so easily broken.
Therefore, the seal remained, and the "invisible person" had failed to intrude into the secret passage.
...
"Is it a student, or a professor?"
Professor Silf couldn't help but ponder.
The students of St. Marian were never well-behaved. Their family backgrounds gave them their own stances, and there were chess pieces infiltrated by other forces both openly and secretly.
Many of the academy's leaks flowed out from this.
But St. Marian's Academy was essentially a pure educational institution, with a touch of "education for all without discrimination," so it didn't pay particular attention to the composition of its students.
Therefore, if that "invisible person" was really a student, they would be hard to find.
But conversely, if it were a professor...
The range of suspects would instantly narrow down to two people!
Most professors in the academy knew each other through and through; honestly, they were more credible than the students.
But the newly arrived Professor Ryan Hacks and Professor Medea Bartholomew had to be excluded from this trust.
Although Professor Silf and Professor Medea were old acquaintances, one may know a person's face but not their heart; her relationship with Professor Medea hadn't reached the level of intimate familiarity.
And Professor Ryan Hacks was even more suspicious!
Since the establishment of St. Marian's Academy, almost all professors had been personally selected and invited by the successive principals.
By today, this had become an unwritten rule.
But Professor Ryan Hacks had applied on his own initiative!
Although his application seemed to have sufficient reasons, it still made one unable to help but suspect.
But this matter today couldn't be settled just by having suspects.
Professor Silf frowned slightly.
Standing in her position, she couldn't easily interrogate a professor.
Moreover, everything must have a cause and effect.
What was the reason the "invisible person" wanted to enter the secret passage?
If it was for that vampire who had likely already died and whose soul had dissipated—then what was so special about that vampire?
Why was it worth someone taking such a huge risk to find it?
"No, that's not right!"
Professor Silf suddenly realized a very important matter.
She abruptly looked at Professor Kazel and asked, "Kazel, have we made the matter of the vampire public?"
Kazel was also stunned for a moment, and it took a good while before he shook his head and confirmed, "No."
Professor Silf then said, "So theoretically, the new professors shouldn't know about that matter. And among the students, only they know..."
The "they" she spoke of naturally referred to Dark, Virt, Robert, Scott, and Betty.
Although students' mouths were always loose.
Silf had also considered that one of them might have leaked the news.
But in this case, she only needed to investigate them one by one to further narrow down the range of suspects.
Unless the purpose of the "invisible person" contacting the secret passage wasn't the vampire!
This logic also made sense.
But to investigate the case, one must certainly take it step by step.
Professor Silf and Professor Kazel discussed it carefully and decided not to publicize it for the time being, but to narrow the range and investigate secretly.
...
Monday afternoon was time for Potions class.
After the course ended, Dark originally intended to go to the library to do homework as usual, but just as he was about to stand up, a wisp of breeze blew over, delivering a note to him.
He opened the note to take a look, knew what it was about, and headed straight for Professor Silf's office.
Compared to the offices of Professor Kazel and Professor Lily, with which he was already very familiar, Professor Silf's office was relatively strange to him.
He stood at the door for a while before knocking.
"Knock, knock."
"Come in."
Professor Silf's voice came from inside the office.
As always, flat and cold.
Dark turned the doorknob and pushed the door to enter.
Professor Silf's office was spotless, emitting a scent like green grass.
Looking up slightly, one could see the homework stacked neatly on the desk, as well as the beautiful elf sitting behind it.
"Come, sit down."
It wasn't Professor Silf who greeted Dark to sit, but Professor Kazel, who was sitting on the sofa.
Dark closed the door backhand and went to the sofa to sit, not feeling constrained in the slightest.
Professor Kazel brewed him a cup of tea, then asked, "You didn't speak of last night's matter, right?"
"Of course not." Dark nodded and asked in return, "Professor, have you found out who it is?"
Professor Kazel shook his head and said, "How could it be that easy to find? However, we have already drawn up a list. Take a look."
Dark accepted the list very naturally, checked it from top to bottom, and was somewhat surprised.
The names written on the list were all students; the name of Professor Ryan Hacks, whom he was relatively suspicious of, was not on it.
This made him unable to help but look at it again.
"Virt, Robert, Scott, Betty..."
As for the names following them, he only recognized a few, but his impression was that they were all members of that Seafood Cult.
He couldn't help but look up. "Professor, this list?"
Professor Kazel explained, "These are the people who openly know that there is a vampire in the secret passage. You should have met them all; Virt has a good relationship with them."
Dark thought about it and roughly understood.
Professor Kazel asked again, "How about it, did you pass it on to anyone on your side?"
Dark: "Apart from Diana and Rose, no one else should know."
Professor Kazel nodded. "That's good. The number of people needing investigation has reduced again."
Dark asked curiously, "Professor, you suspect it was done by a student?"
Professor Kazel nodded and said, "We also investigated the two new professors in the first year, but they both have very solid alibis. Professor Hacks was drinking dead drunk in a tavern on Traveler Street last night. Professor Bartholomew was being a guest at Little Lily's place. The possibility of it being other professors is even lower."
"Is that so?"
Dark couldn't help but frown.
Of course, he wouldn't doubt the professors' investigation results, but in this era, such alibis didn't seem to count for much?
Magisters were all professional Magic Guide Spirit users.
Even if they didn't show up in person, there were countless methods of entry.
"Suspecting spells like substitutes, puppets, or simply a Magic Guide Spirit acting as an agent?"
Professor Kazel lifted his red tea and took a light sip. "If that's really the case, it is indeed difficult to find out. But that is a matter to consider later during a deeper investigation. Tonight, I will install anti-invisibility devices inside some of the golems. If the other party insists on entering the secret passage, they will eventually show their tail."
Dark nodded; the professors' thinking was even more thorough than he had imagined.
Calling him over today was probably just to remind him not to leak this matter, so as not to alert the enemy.
As for the list in his hand...
Dark couldn't help but smile wryly. "If only it were really done by the students on the list. Then perhaps it would just be a simple prank, or a disciplinary violation."
Professor Silf, behind the desk, spoke only at this time. "Actually, the possibility is not high. So we still need to be prepared; the other party is very likely not coming for the vampire."
Dark pondered, "In that case, the search area would instantly expand to the entire castle."
Professor Silf nodded. "The key is that the other party didn't leave too many traces. Trying to track them down isn't easy."
Dark asked, "Then, can we use divination to calculate it?"
Professor Silf smiled. "Divination is not something so easy to use."
Dark: "As expected, then we can only lure the snake out of the hole."
In fact.
Students casting an invisibility spell to night walk inside the castle wasn't that big of a deal.
Every year, a few mischievous guys were caught and put in confinement.
The reason this incident was taken seriously was entirely because the other party was aiming for the secret passage.
And it was during the critical period when the secret passage was sealed.
Change the time period.
This would at most become a small topic for after-dinner tea, the kind that wouldn't live to the second day.
...
Dark assisted the two professors in conducting a certain degree of investigation on the people on the list, and the final result was indeed as expected.
The members of the Seafood Cult, after experiencing the Goddess event last semester, were all excessively well-behaved.
Due to personality reasons, they didn't communicate much with classmates either, so the "Vampire Incident" learned from Virt and the others was very fortunately not spread.
...
Investigating with little basic intelligence was inherently very difficult.
The plan to "lure the snake out of the hole" also failed to work.
Since that night, no one had approached the secret passage entrance again.
As if the action that night was just a whim.
But the investigation did not stop.
The plan merely changed from short-term to long-term.
...
This week seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
Only three days remained until the end of January.
Aside from his usual studies and helping with the investigation, Dark had almost become Miltank's charger, having to charge a large pile of Ultimate Move Cards every day.
Since going out for the first time, Miltank had never tired of it.
Although it would subconsciously choose the dead of night to go out, the legend of the small pink dairy cow gradually began to circulate in the castle.
Every time Miltank went out, it would bring a Magic Guide Spirit who paid to get on the bus.
It was just that the ticket price dropped again and again, from three little red flowers down to one little red flower.
But even so, for Magic Guide Spirits without a fixed income, it was still a very large burden.
The generation of consumption effectively drove economic growth.
To obtain more little red flowers, the Magic Guide Spirits' initiative in learning was mobilized.
The entire economic circle began to develop in a benign direction.
This phenomenon was actually beyond Dark's expectations.
He was busy investigating the "invisible person" matter and didn't suddenly realize until a few days later that the Magic Guide Spirits' learning progress had surged!
The one learning best was Gatomon, who could already spell a large portion of the vocabulary.
But the one with the strongest expressiveness was the Magic Beast (Ditto)!
The Magic Beast (Ditto), simulating a transformation into Dark's head, actually utilized the complete human vocal apparatus to successfully speak!
Although it stopped at simple pronunciations like "Papa Mama," it was already a very exaggerated improvement.
It was just that the habit of transforming into Dark's head always made people panic!
But in the initial education stage, the Magic Beast (Ditto)'s imitation targets were limited.
For the sake of future grand plans, Dark could only endure it!
Once successful.
The communication problem between Dark and the Magic Guide Spirits would be thoroughly solved!
The spirits clearly had different cries, yet they could understand each other's words.
This was something Dark couldn't understand no matter how hard he thought, but they seemed to be just such creatures.
Dark looked forward very much to the Magic Beast (Ditto) becoming the family's professional translator!
...
The penultimate day of January.
Weather: Sunny.
The temperature not only didn't rise but showed a trend of continuing to drop.
Students wrapped in thick scarves sat in the Arithmetic classroom, cold in both body and soul.
Even the Little Fairy who loved to smile the most wasn't smiling.
She kept a straight face from the moment she entered the classroom, then distributed homework, deducted points, and explained, all in one go.
This was already the third test paper done by the little magisters.
The difficulty of the questions had leaped all the way from primary school difficulty to junior high school difficulty, making the little magisters, who had only learned relevant knowledge for a few weeks, suffer unspeakably.
This time, even the students of the Noble House were not spared.
Their "after-school professor" was busy with "mundane affairs" and couldn't spare any time to tutor them last week.
The further escalated learning difficulty crushed the students' nerves, and everyone wore a worried face.
But while they endured the suffering, they didn't know that the Little Fairy on the podium had also encountered a predicament similar to theirs.
Last week, after grading the second test paper, Professor Lily sensed a problem.
Holding the thought of "if things don't work, find Dark," she sought out her little sweetheart.
But her little sweetheart had been booked in advance and didn't have time for the entire week!
So when compiling the third test paper, she unconsciously used too much force again.
The result was as it is now.
After the students were reprimanded twice, they finally stopped filling in answers randomly—they just left them blank!
There were benefits too.
It saved more effort when grading the papers!
"Snap!"
The chalk suddenly broke.
Professor Lily's explanation stopped abruptly.
She couldn't help but glare fiercely at the blonde boy in the corner of the classroom.
That look was just like a resentful wife in a deep boudoir who hadn't been favored.
Dark Demon was completely confused.
The auxiliary investigation had ended last weekend. This week, he could finally be a bit more idle, so his mood was quite good.
But Professor Lily's abnormal state made him suddenly spawn a trace of ominous premonition.
That trace of ominous premonition.
Shortly after class ended, it came true!
Dark Demon was grabbed and taken to the office by Professor Lily Laplace, who had finally caught the opportunity.
Facing the excessive request proposed by Professor Lily, who had a bitter look on her face, Dark couldn't help but be stunned.
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