Chapter 31: What Did You Do!?

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"It's best if we not eat it," the gruesome sound of the splattering of innards finally stopped.

"Eh!? Why not!? We killed the thing, didn't we?" the boys were especially upset.

"No," Eleanor, our temporary supervisor for now, shook her head. "I don't like the look of the troll's organs. The eyes, liver, heart, and lungs all have signs of serious corrosion and abnormalities. Even though the meat seems fine for the other areas of the troll's body, I cannot risk everyone here eating it."

Eleanor was a pretty brave person. Strong, too. She could dissect the troll without batting an eye, despite the only thing separating her from a horrifying infection was a thin layer of spell protection and sheer willpower. If it was me, I definitely couldn't do it. I think I lurched mentally several times by just watching the whole thing.

"Poison? Do you think the troll ate a powerful hallucinogenic? Or something that sent it berserk?" Hume tilted her head curiously.

"The most dangerous plant in this forest should only ever upset an toddler's stomach, much less send a troll, a monster with high resistance to poisons, into a mindless rampage," Laura sighed, realizing the implications of the conclusion.

"Someone fed this troll a dangerous substance on purpose," one of the boys spelled out the deduction.

"Hopefully, that isn't the case. Let's just pray that it was all a mistake, instead of something done with a motive," Eleanor replied with a grim expression.

"Doesn't bode well, to be honest. I heard that just yesterday one of the girls in our academy got abducted, you know?" Hume said. "She was lucky to be one of the few failed kidnappings. Whatever the case may be, something or someone is targeting academy students."

To think things would reach this level of madness. I just about calmed down from my previous loss of sanity too, and it felt like I was about to snap again. This entire affair was harrowing, to be honest. If I had to guess, it had something to do with the elf dust, too. I just knew it.

Well, let's set aside my misgivings for you know who interfering in stuff like these. Enjoying my time as a normal student was one thing, but seeing my classmates in danger was another. Not that I was particularly close with any of them, but it would be a real shame and a bit hard on my conscience to watch on without doing anything.

To resolve this situation was rather simple, really. I just had to give the order to the Intelligence Department, and the whole thing would be done and dusted in a couple of days. Furthermore, if I asked Horizon to cooperate with her insanely broken surveillance capabilities, this whole crisis would be resolved before nightfall.

That was the entire crux of the issue, however. When possessing overwhelming power, the consequences of my decisions could very well amplify several times over. For example, the border conflict we had with the Koraine Kingdom escalated into a full blown war because I got angry and ordered the assault of the Kingdom's army.

As a result of that display of our difference in strength, it probably resulted in them agreeing to that ridiculous Carthaginian peace treaty.

If I had to come into this problem with me or my subordinates' strength, I had to be absolutely sure that our powers were needed. Was that the case in this scenario? I couldn't be sure. The whole thing seemed like the typical kidnapping crime, and perhaps the drug trade was as well, if that was somehow related.

Even so, it could just be the usual criminal problem. If that was the case, it was definitely not something I should interfere in, lest Eden somehow takes control of the underground network of the Koraine Kingdom. You laugh, but I could already picture it.

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