The Cornflower Witch

Book 3: Chapter 36: The Origin Hourglass School

A new day, with no classes today. Sylutia and her two roommates went out to buy some things.

"First, small alchemy apparatuses and matching basic materials, then the oven Lovier wants to buy, along with cake ingredients and some fruit." Aurora held a list detailing the items the three planned to purchase.

"Let's go to Wasp Street first to buy the alchemy apparatuses and materials, then to Spider Street. There are plenty of restaurants and taverns there, and they also supply many baking ingredients."

After deciding, the three set off together. They finished buying the alchemy apparatuses in the morning, ate something outside at noon, and then continued to Spider Street in the afternoon.

Just after selecting an oven in a shop and moving it onto the carriage, the three saw a large crowd gathered on a street not far away and curiously looked in that direction.

"What's happening over there?" The girls couldn't help but feel curious and walked over.

Before they could get too close, several roaring steam police cars drove over from one side of the street and stopped beside the three. The police officers who stepped out were familiar faces to Sylutia.

"It's Hedra." Seeing the things in their hands, they quickly understood the girls were just passing by.

"Out shopping on the weekend? What a coincidence."

"What happened here?" Sylutia asked. Her keen hearing had already picked up some of the discussion."Someone died. Reportedly, they were a student from your school." One officer flipped through the roughly recorded notes in his hand.

"We can't chat now. We need to go inside to investigate and secure the scene." After saying this, the men passed through the crowd and squeezed into the location of the incident.

Seeing more and more people gathering around, Lovier lightly covered her nose and then slowly took Sylutia's hand to retreat. This young lady disliked crowded and noisy environments.

"Let's go back, Hedra, okay~" She leaned close to Sylutia's shoulder, her cheek lightly brushing the girl's earlobe as she made the suggestion in a soft, cooing voice.

"Alright." Although somewhat curious about who might be involved, this was indeed not the time to get tangled up in things. Sylutia and Aurora followed Lovier out, then boarded the carriage and returned to their residence.

On Monday, the three returned to school and only then heard the general situation described.

"So it was two third-year students who died in an alley after drinking at a tavern." Aurora whispered to Sylutia while chatting. On the other side, Lovier was concentrating on writing her homework.

"Is death common in the Asra District?" Sylutia suddenly had this strange feeling.

"Not really. The Mage Alliance, especially in areas where new students gather, has always had very good public security. So when such a case occurs, it receives extra attention." Aurora shook her head.

"In the previous incident you were involved in, at least those who died were beastmen who weren't highly valued, so it didn't trigger intense news coverage. But this time, the dead are students, and they were excellent apprentices recruited by the Mage Alliance from various places. They could have become official mages in the future. Such accidental murderous deaths are not permitted by the upper echelons, so they will pay extra attention." She explained.

"This time, it probably won't just be the police investigating and solving the case. The Alliance Council will have dedicated department personnel coming to assist." Aurora guessed.

The subsequent development of events matched Aurora's prediction. Two days later, No. 89 School, where Sylutia attended, temporarily suspended classes for half a day. All students gathered in the school square. Two special personnel wearing dark trench coats and face masks stood beside the principal, their gazes sweeping over the entire assembly.

"Due to the recent incident, we now need to conduct a simple verification check on all students in the school. Please don't panic." The principal explained from above, then had everyone line up according to their classes.

Afterward, the two men in dark trench coats, each carrying a strange instrument, walked into the student formations.

Its shape resembled a hollow hourglass, but inside was a complex mechanical structure that seemed to be constantly rotating, emitting a faint sound of gears. When it passed by students, it occasionally emitted faint rippling fluctuations. Then these two men would ask the students who showed anomalies to step out of line.

Among them, 165 students were detected as anomalous. Most were classmates and acquaintances of the deceased from the third grade, while others were people who had spoken to or had close contact with the deceased within the past week.

"Carmilla was also detected as anomalous?" The classmates were quite surprised to see the frail Carmilla being asked to step out.

"She was probably approached by the deceased. After all, Carmilla just arrived; it's impossible for her to have had a conflict with them. On the other hand, I heard those two were quite lecherous. It's possible they tried to ask Carmilla out."

Under the requirements of the two staff members, these anomalous students and teachers had to write down on the spot the scenes of their contact with the deceased within the past week, what was said, what they were doing that night, and any witnesses, etc.

During the writing period, another 32 people were detected for providing false content and were subsequently taken away separately for further investigation. But what happened afterward was not something ordinary students could learn about.

"How did they know the written content was false?" Lovier curiously asked Aurora. At this moment, Sylutia and they were having a meal in the school cafeteria.

"That's a spell that can detect lies. Although not one hundred percent accurate, it can assist in completing many tasks." Aurora explained.

"The two who came today are members of the Origin Hourglass School. They can trace back origins or investigate connections and traces based on subtle clues."

"However, these are just side activities of their school." Aurora used her fork to spear a small piece of pineapple and put it in her mouth.

"Their true primary purpose is archaeological tracing and historical verification."

"Most of the history books you see in the Mage Alliance have been organized, verified, and authenticated for authenticity by their school. Their school is also the best at analysis, able to deduce the weapon that caused a wound and the identity of the user from a single injury."

"Under the leadership of their school, the Mage Alliance obtained a lot of valuable knowledge and secret arts from the previous era and even earlier eras from various excavated ruins in its early days. They also clarified the development processes of various schools, the causes of cultural customs in different regions, and the origins of various racial bloodlines, etc."

"They are more like a group of scholars than mages. However, after uncovering many secret arts and knowledge, they inevitably started researching them, leading the faction to master many rare ancient secret arts. Then they also began integrating and improving them using a mage's mindset." Aurora slightly complained.

"In the past, they were very strong, almost the founders of the Mage Alliance."

"Within the Mage Alliance, several schools actually split off from them because their research fields gradually expanded, becoming independent schools."

"By the way, the Bionics School that Hedra is learning from is one of the branches that became independent from them." Aurora raised a finger.

"Huh?" Sylutia belatedly looked up at this moment, not expecting this to have a connection to her.

It seems there is some truth to it. According to Instructor Nox, the earliest Bionics School consisted of wizards who studied the meridians and runes of ancient powerful creatures. However, that group perished in the great war of the previous era. The current Bionics School is a new faction that inherited their ideas and knowledge. Looking at it this way, it probably split off from the group within the 'Origin Hourglass' school that researched such knowledge.