Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 96 - 16: Who Killed the Roc?

Chapter 96: Chapter 16: Who Killed the Roc?

The academy was in a season of turmoil, and the unrest did not cease with the arrival of Duan Mingyuan.

Half an hour after Duan Mingyuan returned to his dormitory, Jiuyue came back with a grave expression, bringing bad news.

Communication with the monsters of Qing Chi Peak had not gone smoothly.

As the instructor of the "Magical Monsters" course, she had planned to first build a good relationship with the mountain monsters before taking students to interact closely with the monsters behind the mountain. To achieve friendly cooperation, she had spared no expense, bringing three lucky marinated chickens as diplomatic gifts.

However, the monsters of Qing Chi Peak were already hostile towards the academy. The moment they heard she was representing the academy, they did not give her a warm welcome, with some monsters accusing her of being a traitor among their kind for consorting with humans.

Forget leading students to interact closely with the monsters, that group of monsters warned her to keep the academy’s students out of their territory, or else they would turn violent.

"Didn’t Yun Lin say the monsters on the mountain got along well with the academy?"

Duan Mingyuan glanced at a woebegone Jiuyue and asked in confusion; he had never imagined that with Jiuyue’s excellent social skills, she would struggle in communicating with monsters.

The diplomatic gifts of lucky marinated chickens were brought back to the dormitory, which meant the mountain monsters didn’t take her seriously at all.

"I had Li Hua sneak in to gather information, and heard that a monster has gone missing up there."

"What monster?"

"A Roc."

Upon hearing these three words, the dormitory fell into a brief silence.

Duan Mingyuan furrowed his brows, "Isn’t the meat of the Roc tough?"

"Not tough, as long as it is carefully stewed... Wait! It wasn’t me who ate it."

Jiuyue protested, "I promised not to eat the monsters of the mountain, and I will keep my word. Even if the Roc was really eaten by someone, it wasn’t me!"

Not just Mr. Mingyuan, but even Li Hua and Miss Yun Lin suspected her.

The disappearance of the Roc was just too coincidental; on the very first night they checked into the academy, it went missing. Some monsters reported seeing a human enter their territory late at night, and the Roc vanished after going to persuade the trespasser to not violate the academy rules.

The Roc was highly righteous, and respected by all monsters on Qing Chi Peak.

Today, the monsters searched the mountain for an entire morning and still found no trace of the Roc.

As a result, Jiuyue became the prime suspect.

"But Mr. Mingyuan, you can prove my innocence."

Jiuyue spoke with conviction, "Last night, you were holding me in sleep. I stayed in bed the entire night, and it was impossible for me to kill and eat the Roc."

A powerful testimony—if the crime took place in the latter part of the night, Duan Mingyuan could provide Jiuyue with a solid alibi.

"The academy has a rule that prohibits any teacher or student from entering the monsters’ territory after sunset without permission."

Duan Mingyuan closed the textbook he was halfway through organizing, pondering.

Even during the friendliest times between humans and monsters on Qing Chi Peak, this strict regulation was an inviolable edict; violators would be confined for a month at minimum, or at worst, charged with a crime.

The reason for this ironclad rule was to prevent anyone from heading to the forbidden territories east of Qing Chi Peak without proper reporting.

He had consulted the map of Qing Chi Peak; Cloud Sea Academy occupied only a small area, while the region where Monsters lived was separated between the academy and the restricted area. If one continued straight along the eastern side, they would very likely encounter some notoriously brutal Monsters. These aggressive Monsters were relegated to the restricted area for the purpose of guarding Ghost Prison, located at the foothills to the east.

The map showed that "Azkaban" was also within the confines of Qing Chi Peak.

Due to the particular nature of the Fourfold Barrier, it was naturally impossible for successive deans to banish those who had committed unforgivable crimes. Therefore, all who were sentenced by the academy were imprisoned in Ghost Prison.

Indeed, aside from the successive deans of the four academies, almost no one else had actually traversed the restricted area and seen the sight within Ghost Prison, but within the academy, many legends about Ghost Prison had always been circulating.

For example, it was said that the prison held the most vicious criminals since the establishment of the academy, most of whom had become King of Evil Spirits after death, lingering in the darkness of their cells, deprived of sunlight.

"The missing roc must have had bad luck and encountered an academy inside traitor heading to Ghost Prison."

This was the most reasonable explanation Duan Mingyuan could think of, which also precisely matched the second possibility he mentioned—the traitor was trying everything to sabotage the academy’s Fourfold Barrier from within. Now it seemed the traitor had pinned their hopes on the prisoners locked up in Ghost Prison.

He patted Jiuyue on the head, casually stroking her drooping ears, and said, "This is an important discovery; I must report this to the dean."

The prisoners inside must be powerful enough for the traitor to believe that releasing one could sabotage the academy’s Fourfold Barrier from within.

Dean Mo Song must know exactly what is being held in Ghost Prison.

"I’m going too, how dare they make me take the fall!"

The praised Jiuyue immediately dispelled the gloom, filled with fighting spirit.

It was bad enough that she couldn’t eat the big chickens from the mountain; now the academy’s inside traitor even made her take the fall for the roc’s disappearance.

Could she, as the King of Evil Spirits, tolerate such unfair treatment?

When knocking on the dean’s office door, Mo Song was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, resting. It was not difficult to see that the series of events that had recently occurred had placed great pressure on this old man of over a hundred years. On the table in front of him was spread a painting, with rough strokes and flecks of paint splattered on the table.

This clearly was not at the level one would expect from a master artist.

Duan Mingyuan could barely recognize that it was a landscape painting, depicting the academy.

"Mr. Mingyuan, Teacher Jiuyue, what’s the matter?"

Mo Song revitalized himself, his eyes full of weariness.

Ever since the news of the first student’s murder reached the academy, he hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep for quite some time.

"The roc went missing in the latter half of the night; it’s likely been killed by now."

Jiuyue said.

"The roc?" Mo Song steadied himself, another piece of bad news, "What happened?"

"Mr. Mingyuan and I believe that the academy’s inside traitor attempted to sneak into Ghost Prison last night, and the roc unfortunately encountered and was killed by the traitor."

The reason no traces of struggle were left was probably because the roc had recognized the inside traitor, a person trusted by the Monsters, thus allowing them to strike a fatal blow unguarded.

"I understand."

Mo Song sat upright, his expression growing more solemn, "I’ve notified the guards that no one but myself is to approach Ghost Prison for the time being. It should still be secure for now, and moreover..."

He hesitated for a moment, then, making up his mind, said, "Although judged severely by the academy, it would never collude with the Imperial Court or the Extraterrestrials."