The Council of Mediocrity

The game between Ursa East and the Academy was scheduled for tomorrow morning, and it has already been a month since they delivered the letter to the Council.

"I don't think they plan on responding at all, Professor." Ronin said. "Perhaps they were intimidated by a spectacular concept of seeing a live resurrection."

But Professor Vyrill's will would not be deterred. "I'll send a letter again, it may have gotten lost or misplaced from the pile of requests they receive every day."

"Can you not ask them directly yourself? It's only students who are not allowed to go to the upper floors, right?"

"The Council and I have a..... complicated relationship. They are not pedagogues. They are a couple of rich mediocre people parading as something important." Professor Vyrill said with gritted teeth.

His contempt towards the Council was obvious, but he also knows that he was under them and could not do anything if they do not want to entertain his research anymore.

After all, he was using the school premises already for free to conduct these experiments, and they were the ones who provided him with all the specimens he needed.

Ronin had read these thoughts, and frowned. It really was difficult to be the underdog, to not have enough powers to fight off those who block the path you want to take.

"They'll soon see that its their loss if they do not want to observe the research. We could always show it in a different way, Professor." Ronin suggested.

"And where would that be?"

"Not where. When." Ronin pointed to something on the window outside.

It was the Exhibition building, currently unused and mostly empty.

Professor Vyrill's eyes widened from this suggestion, but he did begun to consider it.

Doing the presentation in the Science Exhibit with everyone in the Academy to watch it... That would really be an experiment to remember in the history of Magecia itself.

He would be risking his position as a teacher, but it's all worth it in the end. The world deserves to know the truth, this research had been kept hidden and only the subject of rumors and false news for too long.

"You should tell them that if they would not like to have first-class seats at the live presentation, then we'll just find a wider audience who would be more willing." Ronin grinned. "There are two ways they may respond to this. They either disbelieve us and think we are just bluffing to gain their attention, and they themselves would go here to question us....."

"Or... They would have no choice to let us do the presentation for them, fearing that something as grand as that would ruin their school's reputation in case of failure."

Professor Vyrill nodded. "It's our win either way."

"Exactly. Trapping them into a position where they have no choice but to deliver to us what we demand." Ronin grinned.

And so, Professor Vyrill sent a second letter that night.

When it arrived at the upper floors, the whole Council was incredulous and shocked.

Lord Blanc D'Argent's hands shook, crumpling the letter but not tearing it this time.

"He had truly lost his mind. In the Science Exhibit!"

"Perhaps he is bluffing, my lord." A Council member said, exactly what Ronin expected. "He wanted to scare us. Surely, not even a madman would show himself to more than a thousand students be stabbed to death!"

"I-I think he is being serious this time...." Professor Espinella spoke up again. "After all, I know Vyrill. He doesn't make empty threats like this, that's not his character. "

"Well, what is his character besides being a lunatic? It must be caused by the trauma and injury he received from the Krystal household burning after his graduation." Lord Blanc D'argent rubbed his forehead.

He looked a lot like his son, Pavone D'Argent, the rich fop who was one of Cermin's friends. They both have the same hawkish nose and frivolous expressions on both their hands and face.

"Shall we send for him then, M'Lord?" The secretary of Lord Blanc D'Argent asked.

"No need... I have made a decision." He said.

The Council waited. In the eyes of Professor Espinella, they were all yes men that only follow every single word that comes out of the Head's mouth, with no brains of their own.

Completely mediocre people that just happened to be in a position of power.

Undeserving. That was the word to describe them.

But he stayed quiet, and merely adjusted his glasses. On the outside, he was a very fidgety man that cannot look you in the eye when he speaks, and stutters like a child the more emotional he gets.

"I want you to send him a letter saying that in three months' time, he must be prepared as a Council Member will be his audience. Then we shall see if this lunacy of his is worthy of being shown in the Science Exhibition."

"If he dies, our hands our clean. He shall sign several copies of papers that indicate his willingness to this experiment, and how he INSISTS not to have the Council and the Academy involved in case of failure. His death would not be accounted for and will be suicide."

The other members of the Council gasped at this.

Meanwhile, Professor Espinella was impressed that for the first time, the Head did not make a lackluster decision.

This school needed bold leaders, as all civilizations do. They cannot be someone like Blanc D'Argent who just lays in his bed of money and relax with what was the norm and the mediocre.

Change is needed. A major one, something that would transform the Academy forever, or perhaps the entirety of Magecia itself.

His own experiment aims for something grand like that.

"Professor Espinella."

He broke from his contemplation once his name was called. His expression while thinking was much more serious and intimidating, but once he was surprised by being called, he stuttered again.

"Y-yes, Lord Blanc D'Argent?"

"Since you are the most hopeful towards this little project of Vyrill, and you claim to know him best, why don't you be the one to watch the presentation?"