Nemo didn’t understand what prompted him to call out to Tilo, to tell him to stop. 

It wasn’t out of pity for the Overbeast. As terrible as it might be, there was a sort of sick satisfaction that came from watching its destruction.

The best explanation that came to mind was that he wanted to stop Tilo from doing something he might regret. If there was one conclusion that Nemo had come to, it was that Tilo was a battle junky: someone at their happiest in a situation in which the threat they faced was death. The issue was, Tilo seemed to be doing his best to not act like a battle junky, even if he had eventually succumbed to those feelings. The moment the Overbeast died, it would cement something - Nemo couldn’t guess what - in place that Tilo was trying his best to avoid. 

The instant that guillotine hand fell, Nemo failed. 

Useless.

Tilo sent him a look of guilt as he called Nemo’s name, only reinforcing Nemo’s failure. 

Nemo turned away in shame. 

He could only leave the arena.

Even so, he still teemed with questions. Unable to face Tilo, he turned to the one person he knew would have answers. 

Professor Rantha Krylin.

………………………….

Despite the chaos that had occurred, Nemo found Krylin in the place most expected: her office. 

She seemed to be simultaneously aware and disinterested in the day’s events, working diligently on paperwork. He subtly slammed a hand down on her desk, wanting to rouse her from her work.

“Do you need something?” She didn’t even bother looking up.

“I want an explanation.” 

“I can provide you with explanations over a variety of topics. You should be a bit more specific.” Professor Krylin’s tone was distracted, a teacher preoccupied more so by her current thoughts than the person standing before her.

“About Tilo.”

Krylin set down her pen, removing her glasses. “Okay. You have my attention.”

The expression she bore on her face told Nemo one thing: 

Finally.

She leaned back in her chair. “What do you want to know?”

………………………….

“You’re here!”

Rayden entered the ring of candlelight surrounding Chisi, taking in the walls of clutter that sat around her. Aside from her little haven of light, the rest of the library was pitch black and eerily silent.

“I’m supposed to be resting.” Rayden declared.

“That sucks, but you’re here, aren’t you? I knew I would pique your interest.”

Chisi flipped through a book, settling on a page Rayden couldn’t make out from his angle, setting a bookmark in it. He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it. Winning an argument against Chisi was impossible.

Especially when she was right.

She had set a note where he knew he would find it, well aware that he would want to know what she had found. Especially given that his curiosity had only grown after what he had witnessed. 

“You would be interested too, if you had been at class today. Where were you, anyways?”

She gestured to the books and papers at her feet. “Looking through this. Speaking of class, how’s Silos?”

“I don’t know much, just that he’ll live.”

Chisi breathed a facsimile of a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. No one would tell me anything. I thought I would have to interrogate someone for news.”

Rayden crossed his arms. “Chisi, it’s past midnight and I know you’re already aware Silos will be fine. Can we skip the small talk?”

“Alright. I took Tilo’s advice and looked for his name in these with Wren.” 

She took one of the books from the floor, rifling through it to a previously bookmarked page. She spun it around so that Rayden could see. Rayden knelt so that he could see it better.

“This is one of the ledgers for expeditions. There’s a giant compilation of expeditions in each, but every ledger is specific to the lead coordinator. I ran through every last one with Wren, but I couldn’t find Tilo’s name in any of them.” 

She took another book and opened it to a bookmarked page, again turning it to face Rayden. 

“It turns out, the ledgers that are available to students only include members of expeditions that are doing research. There are separate ledgers for individuals in any other position, including the lead coordinator - those are in the restricted section. I went to Professor Krylin for permission, but when I went to get the ledgers, the ones led by Rivulo had all been checked out, so I had to wait. I would have tried to borrow them from the professor, but the professor who had them was Professor Iral, darn him.”

She shook her fist at the air.

“So it took extra time to get them, and by the time they were returned, I had to ask for a second-”

“Chisi.”

“Sorry, right. As I suspected, Tilo’s name was in them. This is where it starts getting crazy. He was only in the Rivulo expeditions. Not as an assistant or anything, but as the lead coordinator of the expedition.”

She pointed to the top line in the ledger in front of her. 

“His full name is Tilo Rivulo.”

“That explains why he never took notes. The lead coordinator doesn't do any of the research, they just act as protection for the researchers, as well as the first person on the scene when exploring a site. He’s someone who scopes a place out and keeps everyone safe.”

Chisi pulled a stack of papers from her side, skimming until she found the paper she was looking for. “All of these expeditions took place in his third year. He was expelled during his last year. After all of his success, there was no way he’d be expelled for no reason. He even fought a dragon, though I don’t know much else - what I did find was that everyone else on that expedition never came back. That brought me to this.”

Rayden leaned down, trying to make sense of what was on the paper.

“It’s another list of names. There’s a lot of big names on here. Is that… is that the captain of the royal guard?”

“It’s a list of people Tilo challenged to a duel.”

“Was he insane? Actually, scratch that. After today, I can see it.”

Chisi bit her lip. “You would not believe the lengths I had to go through to get this list. It’s a miracle I even managed to obtain it in the first place, though that was mostly thanks to Wren.”

“Why?”

“If that list got out, Stonehall would be a disgrace.” 

“That doesn’t make sense. If he was expelled, doesn’t that mean he lost?”

“...”

Rayden furrowed his brows. “Chisi?”

“He won. Every last one.”

“You can’t be serious?!”

Rayden’s voice reverberated around the library and Chisi shuddered, shushing him loudly.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“This isn’t even the start of it. It gets bigger. Do you recognize this name?”

She pointed at the third name on the list.

Rayden raised an eyebrow. “No? Wait-” 

Chisi lifted the rest of her papers and books, revealing the first ledger she opened. She pointed to the same name. 

“This name was repeated in every one of the ledgers under Rivulo. Which wouldn’t be odd if this person had any relation to Tilo, but I checked it - no relation, whatsoever. On top of that, they don’t appear in a single one of the ledgers under another lead.”

“And?”

“And it’s a professor. A professor fired less than a week after Tilo’s expulsion, along with a handful of others on this list of challenged teachers. Which is already suspicious, but what makes it more suspicious is that there’s a Rivulo ledger that’s missing. A ledger that was last checked out to this professor, mere days before he was fired. Guess which expedition it was.”

“How would I know?”

“The only expedition that had only one survivor. The expedition where Tilo supposedly fought a dragon. And won, I might add, though he didn’t beat it alone, I’m sure. I think you know what this means.”

Rayden looked up at Chisi.

The candlelight glinted in her eyes.

“It means we have a conspiracy on our hands.”