Path to Transcendence-Chapter 285: Already Getting Interrogated

He wasn't the only one to notice, either. All six of them forgot about what they were discussing and focused on the door. They wondered the same thing: who it could be and how they had entered the room without their permission.

However, they all soon released their tense shoulders when they saw the Goldencrest uniform on the person. It was a tall, clean-shaven man with a pair of thick glasses. The man scanned the room and finally laid his eyes upon Julius.

“Hello, Mr. Snow. My name is Travis Gulkan, and I am a professor. Would you please follow me? I have some questions regarding your recent disappearance.”

Although the man worded it like a request, his tone and demeanor would imply that it was anything but that.

That being said, Julius could understand where the school was coming from. He had been expecting this after all. He only wished that he had more time to catch up with the others before it happened.

With an acknowledging nod, he headed over to the man but was pulled back by Aubrey.

“Why does he have to go with you right now? We are just in the middle of reuniting with our friend,” she said to the professor with some attitude.

“When someone who goes missing with the princess suddenly shows up out of the blue without any communication, people are obviously going to want some answers,” Travis said to Aubrey.

“Well, if you want him to come along, then we are coming too.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Crysalia, but this is a sensitive matter, and you are still a mere student. I can’t allow you to accompany Mr. Snow until we have had the chance to question him.”

Aubrey was about to argue further, but Julius sensed Derek step forward before she could.

“We understand you wish to question him and we have no problems with that. However, if you wish to do so, you will allow us or one of my family’s retainers to accompany him. He is still a child and since he doesn’t have any parents or guardians, one of our families will take up that role,” Derek said firmly.

The man hid the frown that came to his face pretty well, but Julius spotted it. “We are not going to be asking anything too personal. We are merely trying to get a report of what happened during the incident from Mr. Snow's point of view.”

“Then there should not be any problems with having someone to come along with Julius.”

The man seemed to understand that it was a pointless battle and sighed. “Fine, you can join him if you wish.”

Travis looked away from Derek and waved his arm at Julius. “Come along Mr. Snow, we have much to discuss. We have already made contact with the Princess and have plans to question her as well at a later date.”

Julius shrugged his shoulders, thinking it would be nice if the others came along. He wasn’t planning on sharing anything too personal with the school anyway. He had already decided with Reinera that they would tell them about the teleportation circle and that they were trapped inside a rift before being able to sneak out after a while.

They had also chosen to tell others that they were hiding in a city near the rift, not wanting to involve House Easten or anyone else.

He just reminded himself to stay calm and not give them too much information, as long as he did that, they would be fine.

***

They followed Travis to the campus area where all the administration buildings were. Julius had not been in this direction since his first days at Goldencrest.

However, he was pleasantly surprised to see both Marcus and Stella waiting outside for them already. He looked over at Derek and Lily questioningly.

Lily shrugged at him. “We contacted them on our way over. They were already close by anyhow.”

It wasn’t just them who noticed the two Tier 5s. It would appear that Travis also saw them, and not only that, but he also seemed to recognize who they were. Seeing that the man became noticeably more uncomfortable with their appearance was a little amusing.

It was hard to tell how strong Travis was. The man was wearing an item that did a really good job at shrouding his aura. Although, as usual, having an item to help with aura control was an indication on its own. But Julius wanted to assume that the man wasn’t anything less than Tier 4 especially since most professors were either high Tier 3 or Tier 4.

However, the man likely had a more logistical role within the school, so it was possible.

Julius wasn’t getting any dangerous vibes from the man anyway. Even if he was a Tier 4, he didn’t think the man was combat-oriented.

“What are you two doing here?” Travis asked, showing some anxiousness.

“We were told that young Julius needed someone to supervise the questioning you plan on giving him,” Marcus said simply while staring at Travis with intense eyes.

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Travis chuckled nervously. “I don’t think there’s a need for that. We aren’t planning to interrogate him; we only wish to ask him some simple questions about what happened and where he and the Princess have been these past several months.”

“Then I don’t see a problem if we come along as well,” Stella said brightly, repeating the same argument Derek had said earlier.

Travis opened his mouth to respond but must have thought better. He sagged his shoulders and nodded, directing them into the building.

They walked down the hallways and ended up in front of a set of large doors. Julius couldn’t sense anything beyond these doors, as a separate layer of enchantments was placed around the room.

He was only able to see what was inside once Travis opened the doors and guided them inside. What he saw upon entering kind of surprised him.

Based on how the man had described it, there would only be him and possibly a few others questioning him. Instead, there were a lot more than just a few people.

The room was set up like a large conference room, with a huge table at the center and an equally large number of chairs. Many staff members, all in uniform, sat in each chair, probably close to two dozen people in total.

He noticed only a few people not wearing uniforms, and he recognized one of them right away.

He smiled and nodded softly toward Gabriel, who was relaxing in his chair and wearing nothing but a pair of training pants and a t-shirt.

The others, who weren't in uniform, were all sitting toward the head of the table. There were two men and a woman.

The man in the center had a very crisp suit but looked like he would have been much more comfortable in a set of armor. He was a tall and muscular man, whose suit was barely fitting around his shoulders and glasses that didn’t detract from his intense look. Julius was certain of one thing, this man was strong.

The other man was slightly younger-looking, but looks can be deceiving when it comes to people of advanced tiers.

The woman seemed to be around the same age but had a severe look to her. He had a feeling she was a no-nonsense type of person.

He glanced at Travis, who was walking to an empty seat. Julius took another look around and spotted a lone chair at the foot of the table.

“You can take that seat there, Julius,” Gabriel said to him with a reassuring nod.

“What about them?” He asked, pointing at the others who had accompanied him.

Gabriel glanced at them and pointed over to the side where a number of other chairs were laid out. “Sorry about that. We weren’t really expecting you to bring so many with you,” he said with a curious look at Travis. “But they can take a seat over there if they are fine with that.”

The others all seemed fine with that and headed on over to take a seat as well.

The only person who hadn’t followed them was Lily, who remained by his side. He gave her a curious look to which she responded by smiling at him and removing something from her storage ring.

He almost laughed out loud when he saw her remove an entire chair and scoot his chair to the side, placing hers right next to his. She then challenged everyone around the table, as if daring them to speak up against her actions before sitting down, and Julius immediately followed suit.

He did notice that the man at the very center gave her an exasperated look for her behavior.

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After a few moments, when nobody seemed to be saying anything, he felt the need to speak up.

“I was told that I would be asked a few simple questions and not an interrogation. I don’t know what this is, but this doesn’t seem to be very simple and it kind of feels like an interrogation,” he said, directing a dark look over at Travis who was in the middle of avoiding his gaze.

He saw Gabriel stifle a laugh off to the side.

“I see your attitude hasn’t changed,” an older woman scoffed.

He shifted his attention to the woman and he could have sworn he had seen her before. He racked his brain trying to jog his memory.

She seems so familiar, why does it feel like I know her? Perhaps, I have- ah, now I remember, he realized with a sigh.

“Aren’t you that examiner? Your name is like Sandy, Sally, or something?”

“It’s Sonia, boy,” the woman said impatiently.

“Well, I see you are just as rude as you were during my interview,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, getting a mental jab from Lily in response, letting him know to cut it out.

Thankfully, Gabriel interjected before the woman could respond. “Julius, we wanted to call you here because we have some questions about the incident. When we were notified about your reappearance, we all quickly got together. Would you be alright with answering some things for us?”

“As long as it only pertains to the actual incident and not anything outside of its purview,” Lily answered for him.

He heard a couple of the staff members start to say something as if they didn’t like hearing that answer. But Gabriel was very swift to cut them off before they could say something that would cause any issues.

He looked over at Lily. “I am glad to see you have already reunited with your friends. Of course, if you don’t wish to answer all of our questions, that is quite fine. We would appreciate any answers as long as they are truthful. We don’t need to pry into your personal life, we simply need to figure out how someone was able to set up a complex runic circle in the middle of a highly secured rift.”

He smiled gratefully at the man, appreciating that he was going for the more gentle route and not the one where they pressured him. He could tell that many of the others, including that rude lady from his exams, wanted to bully him into telling them everything.

“Thank you. I am willing to answer as much as I can on that front,” he said with a smile.

Gabriel clapped his hands together happily. “Perfect! Vice-Headmaster Lucien will be the one asking you some questions,” he said, nodding at the man sitting at the head of the table.

Ah, so this is the Vice-Headmaster, huh? He thought to himself with a curious tilt of his head, wondering what kind of questions the scary-looking man would ask him.

“Excuse me, sir, but I thought we were going to have the boy give us his memories of the incident,” the woman to the Vice-Headmaster's left commented.

“Yes, Kelsa, that was the plan. But I have a feeling that this young boy will not be very welcome to that idea, something that Gabriel seems to have realized too,” Vice-Headmaster Lucien said patiently while giving Julius a questioning look.

Julius gave a laugh of disbelief and genuine mirth. “Yeah, that’s not happening. I will not be consenting to anyone putting their gross little fingers in my head.”

He saw people around the table grind their teeth at his words but he didn’t care. There was no way in hell he was going to accept something like that. If they forced him to, he would fight tooth and nail to make sure they didn’t.

Luckily, it seems the head honcho already realized this, making him feel better. However, he would have to be on guard to make sure they didn’t try to pry too much from him. This is also why he was glad Lily was here; she would help ensure he did just that.

He looked around at the table with a confident smile. "We can begin whenever you like."