N-M Chapter 124 : Chapter 124
Chapter 124 : Chapter 124
Chapter 124. West
Just one word.
Simple, crude, and beyond dispute.
The Viscount’s wife clutched her son and fled in utter embarrassment under the watch of hundreds of eyes in the hall.
She did not even dare to pick up the fan she had dropped on the ground.
Clap, clap, clap—
No one knew who started it, but scattered applause rang out in the hall, quickly swelling into thunderous cheers.
Those students and clerks who had long endured such humiliation now looked at Logaris as if he were a god.
“That was so satisfying!”
Logaris ignored the noise and turned to look at the stunned clerk at the counter.
“Can you process it now?”
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”
The clerk nodded frantically like a pecking chicken and hurriedly opened the VIP passage beside him that was usually kept closed.
“Professor, this way please! No need to queue! It will be done immediately!”
Ten minutes later.
All procedures were completed. With Logaris’s letter of recommendation, not only was the tuition fully waived, but Emily was also assigned a dormitory right next to the magitech engineering department, with extremely high security.
The clerk maintained a smile that practically screamed, “Serving you is the greatest honor of my life,” even filling out the forms on their behalf.
After leaving the administrative building, the cold wind hit, and only then did Ryan feel like he had come back to life.
“That is enough.”
Logaris stopped and handed Ryan a freshly issued magnetic card.
“Take her back to the dormitory. This is her room key—keep a spare.”
He glanced at Emily, who was now holding onto Ryan’s arm, already quite familiar with this seemingly gentle and easy-to-bully senior.
“I’ll leave Emily in your care while she’s at the academy.”
Logaris patted Ryan on the shoulder.
“Her father is part of the Court of Equilibrium. I assume you have heard of that organization. If anything happens to her under your watch—if she gets bullied, or gets tricked by some foolish boy…”
“Even if I do nothing, her father will bring people from the Court of Equilibrium to beat you senseless.”
Ryan shuddered and immediately straightened his back.
“Professor, rest assured! Anyone who wants to bully her will have to step over my corpse first!”
“Good. Go on.”
Watching the two figures—one big, one small—walk away, Logaris rubbed his temples.
This day had been more exhausting than fighting a war.
However, there was still one last matter.
…
Top floor of the Dean’s Tower.
This time, Logaris actually knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Barnabas’s voice sounded somewhat heavy, lacking his usual playful tone.
Logaris pushed the door open.
The old man stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the dazzling nightscape of the capital, leaning on his old oak cane.
“Finished your business?”
Barnabas turned around, a trace of complexity on his face.
“Yes. I have settled the girl. I should be leaving as well. There is a train tomorrow morning back to the Northern Territory.”
Logaris did not stand on ceremony. He walked straight to the liquor cabinet, poured himself a glass of the old man’s treasured amber liquor, and downed it in one gulp.
“You are leaving already? Not staying a few more days?”
“The Northern Territory cannot function without me. Sylvia is capable, but there are certain technical matters she cannot handle. And with this batch of newly recruited students needing to be settled…”
Logaris set down the glass and looked at Barnabas, who seemed hesitant to speak.
“What is it? That expression does not suit you. Did you run out of funds again and want me to fill the gap?”
Barnabas did not respond.
He remained silent for a moment, then walked back to his desk, opened the drawer that was always locked, and took out a list.
It was the roster of all newly enrolled students this year.
“Logaris.”
The old dean’s voice turned serious.
“I should not really interfere in this matter. But since you have returned this time, I think there are some things you should take a look at.”
He pushed the list over, his age-spotted finger pressing heavily on one particular line of a name.
Logaris was puzzled.
He walked over and casually swept his gaze across the paper.
The next second—
his pupils suddenly contracted.
Even Logaris, who could face thousands of troops without changing expression, experienced a momentary halt in his breathing.
It was a very ordinary name.
One could even say it was somewhat plain.
[Ashley West, 12 years old, first-year student of the Evocation Department.]
But that surname—
West.
It was the surname of his mother, the one who had refused to mention her family until the day she died.
Logaris’s long, slender hand pressed firmly against the paper, his fingertips turning pale from the force.
“Do you want me to retrieve her file?”
Barnabas’s voice was soft, unusually serious. “All the new students’ records are in the confidential archive next door, including family background, three generations of direct relatives, and…”
“No need.”
Logaris released his hand.
The poor sheet of paper had been left with a deep imprint.
For once, he pulled a cigarette case from his pocket, took out a cigarette, and held it between his lips without lighting it, simply chewing on the filter.
The usual refined demeanor he carried was gone, replaced by visible irritation.
“There are plenty of people in this world with the same name.”
Logaris’s voice trembled slightly. “It might just be a coincidence. After all, West is not some rare, unique surname.”
“Is that so?” Barnabas looked at him. “Then why do you look like you have just seen a ghost?”
Logaris did not respond.
He turned around and raised the collar of his coat, the movement so quick it was as if he wanted to hide himself inside it.
“I’m leaving.”
“You are leaving just like that? Not having another drink?”
“To hell with that.”
Logaris cursed under his breath and pushed the door open without looking back. “I’m going to take a look. Just one look.”
Watching the door slam shut, Barnabas sighed, picked up the roster, and let his gaze fall on that name.
Ashley West.
“My dear student…” the old man muttered, pulling out a doughnut from the drawer and taking a vicious bite. “This is going to be interesting.”
…
Late at night, Saint Arcadia Academy was quiet.
Aside from the occasional chime from the distant clock tower, only the mechanical clicks of patrolling constructs could be heard.
The freshman dormitory area was located in the southeast corner of the academy—a cluster of red-brick buildings hidden among plane trees. At this hour, most students were already asleep, with only a few windows still lit.
Girls’ dormitory of the Evocation Department, first floor, Room 103.
Logaris did not enter through the main entrance.
Instead, he stood in the shadows outside the dormitory building like some kind of stalker, his back leaning against a thick plane tree.
The faint glow at his fingertips flickered in the darkness.
He rarely smoked.
As a researcher who needed to maintain absolute clarity of mind at all times, nicotine was, in his view, a toxin that interfered with neural transmission.
But tonight, his thoughts were as muddled as sludge.
Ten years.
Ever since that woman had died in that leaking wooden shack on a stormy night, he had not heard a single thing about “West.”
Elvira West—his biological mother.