The door opens and Leon enters the meeting room. All the staffs focus on him, waiting for him to say something.
"Everyone, I called you here to tell you the truth," he said.
Everyone started looking at each other, thinking what truth he's talking about.
"Which truth are you talking about?" asked Arthur, his eyes narrowed.
"The truth behind Trails."
"The truth behind Trails?" Everyone repeated in low voices, confused.
"Say clearly," said Dr. Smith.
"The truth is that, Trails aren't official..." said Leon. Everyone started whispering among themselves.
"What you mean?" said Arthur, sweat forming on his forehead.
"These Trails were announced to kidnap students and make them test subjects for some experiment."
"What?!" Everyone shouted, all of them shocked after hearing that.
One staff slammed his hand on the table and said, "Don't spit nonsense! Trails are unofficial and connected to kidnapping? Don't be oversmart, Trails are announced by EHO!"
"Ohh, so how will you justify this?" Leon projected pictures in the hologram.
Those pictures shocked all the staffs—headmaster's jaw dropped, Alexia's eyes widened. Lucas, who was watching from behind, couldn't even form a word. The pictures were of a place with glowing lights and metal walls. In the center, a huge glass tank filled with bright green liquid stands tall. Around it, large test tubes hold orange liquid with blurry human shapes floating inside. Robotic arms can be seen in picture as scanning and adjusting things. Holographic screens float everywhere, showing brainwaves and strange codes.
"What is this place?" asked Alexia.
"This is the laboratory where experiments are being run. I don't know what the experiments are for… but I do know who's behind it," said Leon.
All the staff started murmuring.
Then Dr. Smith asked, "Who… is behind this?"
Leon looked straight at Arthur.
"Do you have anything to say in your favour, headmaster?"
"What?! Headmaster?!" everyone shouted.
"How can you say that? Do you have any proof?" asked Alexia, staying calm.
Leon looked at her, then said,
"I hacked the EHHS database and found the place where all meeting records with higher ups were saved as text. But.....There was nothing—no info about Trails, not there and not anywhere in the system. Trails don't exist in the eyes of EHO. But they do in EHHS. That means higher ups aren't involved… the only one who could organize this is the headmaster. You get it now?"
Alexia processed his words and looked at Arthur.
"Headmaster, is this true?! Are you behind all this?"
Everyone started demanding answers.
Arthur looked down… and then smirked.
"So you figured it out. Yeah, I'm behind this. But I'm curious—how'd you find out, Leon? And where'd you get all these pictures?"
Everyone froze in shock. Couldn't say a thing.
"You want to know how I found it out? Then listen carefully," said Leon.
"Trails were a long-forgotten tradition but suddenly bringing them back made me suspicious. In the first Trail, we didn't find even one other squad… except Ren, who was an outcast. That made me think maybe we weren't in the same labyrinth. So I made a theory: each labyrinth had two squads—one strong, one weak. That way, when they cross paths, they wouldn't think something's off. A psychological trick.
Then in the second Trail, I saw kidnappings happen right in front of me. Your elite squads were targeting specific students. I trapped one of your squad's member, messed with other's memories and also hacked the database—changed my info to say I'm from Squad 35 in these Trails."
"So how'd you convince them to make you Acting President?" Arthur asked, still smirking.
"First of all, they didn't made me acting president, i became myself. I asked those goons who their master was. They said their master never revealed anything but mentioned he was controlling Arthur Gravestone, the headmaster. That's when I realized you are using headmaster. But then I also found that because of your control, not headmaster himself and even you have 24-hour contact with headmaster's body, so I manipulated his mind and made him appoint me as Acting President. Lucky me—his mind was so weaken by your control, it worked."
Pause...
"Then the real game started. I myself spread rumors around school—about the 0 mana boy getting president-level position. The protests, the baton charges, the broken student council windows and me beating up those students—it was all a set-up drama. I created chaos on purpose to keep weakening headmaster's mind. Even the students who triggered others—I was controlling them too. The weaker his mind got, the more I could learn about the missing students by reading his mind.
Then something unexpected happened on the day I became Acting President—I met a girl after the meeting. I gave her some school info because she was interested. I Thought I'd never see her again… but I met her later in the city. I asked her to investigate the school because she has a unique ability of passing through walls, so she can find any hidden room. I got successful on the first night of the third Trail when she sent me these photos. that's all what I want to say and also,
I don't know your real identity… but I'm asking you to leave headmaster's body."
Arthur gave a small laugh.
"Hmm... You really are smart but so sad, you will never be able to find me as I will disappear."
He waved his hand and leaves headmaster's body. Then headmaster collapsed, unconscious. The staff rushed to carry headmaster's body and took him to the hospital.