Dale’s eyes flickered from Ream’s literal accusing finger to the dying body below him. It was all far too coincidental to be just that.

Someone — most likely Ream himself had stabbed another recruit just to frame him and get him in trouble or worse, prison.

But there were still a lot of pieces that had yet to fit. Firstly, how had he known that he would be leaving soon or passing the corridor at that exact moment?

Not only had he left class earlier than normal, but Ream had already been bringing the teacher.

His eyebrows furrowed, ’What if I hadn’t walked out. The recruit was clearly stabbed with a saber, so sooner or later I would’ve been a suspect.’ It seemed as though his early arrival only sped up the chain of events that was bound to occur.

Secondly, how had he known that he had left for his special training class? His mind immediately went to Austin — even if accidentally, he must have let something slip, and that something got to Ream, allowing him to plan this fiasco.

Dale wanted nothing more at the moment than to directly challenge Ream but he was smart enough to know that it would immediately backfire.

If he said something along the lines of: ’Really Ream, just because I took your seat?’, it would make it seem as though he had committed the crime and was angry that the other reported.

He had to admit that it was a well-thought-out plan.

’I knew he’d try to get revenge but using another recruit’s life was way out of my expectations. Just how much did I hurt his pride?’

Little did Dale know that his stunt with Ream had done more than publicly embarrass him. Most of his friends abandoned him and tried to make friends with Dale — the latter ignored them, naturally.

Nonetheless, the shame and anger fueled him till he became obsessed with Dale to the point that his girlfriend dumped him. Needless to say, he had more than one reason to actively seek revenge.

’Trying to calm the situation will worsen things...’ An idea quickly formed in his head.

’I know what to do.’

Despite what he had told Austin about devaluing your opponent’s words, he couldn’t use that here. No, it could and will quickly be turned against him.

Luckily for him, he had already been about to run when Ream brought in the teacher. Panic was still written on his face so why not already use it?

Dale ran towards the two, stumbling a little. "Please you need to help him!!" He screamed with so much emotion that he almost found himself convinced he felt it.

Ream’s eyes widened for a second but he quickly regained composure... it didn’t go unnoticed by him.

The teacher quickly moved to the boy on the floor and lifted him, all without saying a word.

His eyes landed on Dale. "Follow me."

The latter wiped off the tears streaming down his face and followed. From behind, Ream could barely hold his jaw from dropping.

He followed as he clenched his fists until they turned white and his nails pierced his palm.

Dale’s plan was simple: play the distraught, confused person. Which wasn’t as hard as one would expect.

Sure he might’ve gotten a rough idea of how the student got stabbed but his lack of involvement in it allowed him to pull off the award-winning performance.

’Maybe I should become an actor.’ He humored himself.

Being seemingly confused and alarmed would only serve to pay off either way. Naturally, he could always use his possession of Decay and Blight as an alibi for weapons.

And in the slim possibility that Ream had planted traces of him there, he could always be honest and say he didn’t remember — a perfectly normal trauma response.

During his time in the slums, he had seen it happen numerous times to a large number of people.

They quickly approached the clinic and the teacher kicked open the door.

Doctor Edmond was about to tell them off for barging in but as soon as he spotted the recruit, he swallowed his words.

He pushed his computer and all items off the top of his table. "Place him here. Now!"

Dale had never seen the doctor this panicked... he seemed really eager to try to save the recruit. Somehow that was reassuring.

As Doctor Edmond attended to the dying recruit, the teacher turned to him. "Follow me." And walked out of the clinic.

Dale slowly followed behind the man, his thoughts racing. ’Where are we going? To a prison cell?’ He shook his head, no that wouldn’t be logical.

Then the memory of all his lessons in the boot camp flashed in his head: the Utra nation military was quite illogical.

Ream, on the other hand, seemed to have regained a pep in his step. He must have reached the same conclusions as Dale.

The latter slowed his pace until the two were side by side, "Oh wow. Crazy, huh? I mean a dying recruit must have been traumatizing especially since the wound was so fresh."

Ream almost didn’t seem to hear Dale as he continued walking unperturbed... he chuckled.

"I can’t imagine though what will happen to the person when they’re found."

Dale would’ve loved to directly mock Ream but he wouldn’t take the chance that the teacher heard him.

No matter how good he was at faking emotions, no one could justify a statement like: ’You think you got me? I’ll come for you next time.’

Heck, it would probably cement a terrible fate for him.

Dale stared at Ream from the corner of his eye. At the very least, if he wasn’t the assailant, he knew who was. Maybe he pioneered the attack.

Nothing was outside the realm of possibility.

Ream only stared ahead even as the teacher stopped walking.

They stood in front of a normal door. The teacher opened it and on the other side was General Todd.