CHAPTER 241: THE ART OF BLACKMAIL [PART 1]

"Dim Dim!"

"I see, so they finally made their move, huh?"

"Dim!"

The corner of Alex’s lips curled upward. The ones who ordered to have Dim Dim captured must have thought that the little bun was easy pick.

What a big mistake. Dim Dim was certainly cute and harmless, but the projectiles in its arsenal were devious.

It had spent a lot of its Academy Points buying alchemy bombs, stink bombs, smoke bombs, flash bombs, and many other throwable weapons from the Exchange Center of the academy.

"Do you remember what they looked like?" Alex inquired.

"Dim!" Dim Dim nodded.

Alex and Dim Dim both smiled evilly as their eyes gleamed with mischief. They had expected to be bullied, but they hadn’t expected that the Lionheart Society would resort to kidnapping!

The two then headed to the Staff Room to look for Professor Gareth.

After Alex saved Lucius from the Chrono Maze, the professor promised that the young man could ask him for a favor any time. And now, it was time to cash that in.

When they arrived, Professor Gareth was fortunately present. Alex and Dim Dim went straight to the point and explained their situation.

"I see..." Professor Gareth frowned. "But unless you have evidence, this might devolve into a you-say-they-say situation. In that case, it will be difficult to punish the attackers."

Alex smiled and took out his pocket watch.

This made Professor Gareth chuckle. He nearly forgot about the pocketwatch that allowed Alex to view any scenes that had happened in the past.

With the pocket watch, the Professor accompanied the two to the location where Dim Dim had been attacked.

However, before they even arrived, Dim Dim spotted the two Fourth Years who had attacked it. This time, they were accompanied by three more people!

One of them happened to be Chuck’s brother, Caspian, who immediately furrowed his brow when he realized that Alex was with Professor Gareth.

"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim pointed out the two culprits to Alex and Professor Gareth.

Alex, who now understood the situation, whispered something in the Professor’s ear. The older man nodded before turning his attention to the other students.

"You five, come over here," Professor Gareth ordered, leaving no room for discussion.

Caspian gave his club members the "let me handle this" gaze. They quickly—too quickly, perhaps—agreed to let him take charge and deal with the situation.

"What can we do for you, Professor?" Caspian asked politely.

"We have received a report that those two individuals that are part of your group attempted a kidnapping," Professor Gareth said. "This is a serious offense, which can result in them being kicked out of the academy."

Professor Gareth recognized the two since they had been his students in the past.

Hearing the Professor’s reply, the complexion of the two Fourth Years paled. If they were expelled just before graduation, they would definitely become the shame of their families for generations!

They had not acted voluntarily. If it weren’t for Caspian’s order, they wouldn’t have attempted to kidnap Dim Dim.

Since they were merely children of Baron Families—and hence lower in rank—they had thought they could build connections with Caspian, the son of a Ducal Family, by following his command.

However, Caspian remained calm and even thought of a way to get them out of trouble.

"Professor, that is a serious accusation," Caspian stated. "Even if you are a Professor of the Academy, you cannot punish students without evidence."

"That’s right," Professor Gareth agreed. "And that is why we are going to the scene of the crime. However, if we find evidence, I will also punish you, Mr. Rizz, for being their accomplice."

"Accomplice?" Caspian frowned. After all, he had been the one responsible for ordering the two Fourth Years to kidnap Dim Dim. "Isn’t that going a bit too far, Professor?"

"Follow me, Mr. Rizz," Professor Gareth instruction. "The rest of you, follow me as well."

Who was Professor Gareth?

He was one of the Guardians of the Academy, meaning he had a higher position than most Professors.

The Headmaster also trusted him completely. This was one of the reasons the Demon Worshipers had targeted his son, Lucius—with the professor as his father, he would’ve been a powerful pawn in the board, capable of pulling off underhanded things in the academy.

Unfortunately for them, Alex had foiled their plans and inadvertently discovered the plan to attack the students during the Battle Royale.

Left with no choice, Caspian and his cronies trailed behind Alex and the Professor as they headed to the scene of the crime.

A few minutes later...

"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim pointed at the spot where it had been attacked.

"I will now use an artifact that will show what happened in the past," Professor Gareth said. "I borrowed this from the Headmaster just to solve this case."

"If the two of you are really innocent, you will not receive any punishment from the academy. I will even award you academy points to make up for wrongfully accusing you. But if you are indeed guilty..."

The Professor didn’t bother finishing his sentence. He simply smiled at the two Fourth Years who looked like they were about to cry.

Since the pocket watch was a precious treasure, Alex had asked the Professor to pretend that the power that he was about to demonstrate came from the Headmaster.

Meanwhile, Alex activated the pocket watch without taking it out of his pocket so no one else would notice.

Soon, the scene of what had happened earlier materialized in front of everyone.

It showed how Daisy and Dim Dim were patrolling this part of the academy when the two Fourth Years appeared and tried to capture the little bun.

Caspian’s eyes widened so much they almost fell out of his sockets. Never in his wildest dream would he expect that the Headmaster had such an ability!

Confronted with irrefutable proof, the two Fourth Years immediately apologized and begged Professor Gareth not to expel them.

Caspian’s face also lost some colour. If the two were interrogated and ended up confessing everything, he would be punished as well.

But just as Professor was about to announce his verdict, Alex coughed lightly to catch his attention.

"Professor, can you let me handle this?" Alex asked. "After all, they tried to attack my precious friend, Dim Dim."

"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim took out a handkerchief out of thin air and started to wipe its eyes like a melodramatic opera actress.

It wanted everyone to know how hurt, how indignant, how wronged it felt for being attacked out of nowhere!

"I will allow it." Professor Gareth let the younger man take charge since he still owed him a debt of gratitude.

However, he was also curious what kind of punishment Alex would give to the offenders.

"Don’t worry, I will not ask for much," Alex said with a kind smile, but Caspian wasn’t fooled.

"Since those responsible for the attack on Dim Dim belong to the Lionheart Society, how about the club compensate us with 50,000 Academy Points?" Alex suggested. "10,000 Academy Points for each culprit. I’m a very forgetful person, you see, and Dim Dim’s memory isn’t very good either. 50,000 Academy Points might just be enough for us to forget this ever happened."

Caspian almost coughed out blood because even he didn’t have 50,000 Academy Points.

Even if the Club had amassed over a million points over the years, and 50,000 Academy Points was not a big deal to them, why would they pay for the actions of members who had acted independently?

Unfortunately, one of the guys in Caspian’s entourage was actually an officer of the Lionheart Society. He had accompanied Caspian to intimidate Alex just in case the latter was planning to file a complaint to the Staff of the academy.

They had acted quickly as soon as they heard the news, but Alex was one step faster than them.

The Lionheart Society Officer made a face, realizing that they were now in a bind.

As much as possible, he needed to do damage control before things spiraled out of their control.