F-Rank Soul Eater-Chapter 137: Finding Clues

"YES!" Polystar yelled, snapping the others from their own worlds.

"What!—What’s going on!?" Pencil sat upright, a piece of white paper plastered to one side of his face, with eyes aching to dive back into sleep.

Cynthia, Bloodshine, and Soren sat cross-legged, sorting out papers with lists of documented likes and dislikes, when they heard Polystar’s scream.

"What did you find?" Soren hurried to him.

Even Vass, sitting at another corner, making paper cranes dove over.

"What is it? What did you find?" They asked.

~Silence

—expectant gazes on him.

However, he suddenly smirked. "Nothing."

Soren’s brows twitched in annoyance.

Vass leapt on Polystar. "You idiot!" Punches rained down on the noble.

Bloodshine sighed.

Pencil simply turned to the pile of papers in one corner, lips slapping as he went back to sleep.

Polystar laughed loudly regardless of the punches.

"You stupid noble. You think I won’t burn you?"

"Stupid?" He smirked, lips bruised. "You know what’s stupid? We’ve been searching for a connection since yesterday. My mind is going bonkers."

"But there is a connection. You said so yourself." Soren argued as he attempted to separate Vass from Polystar.

"That was before. But there has been none, and we have been searching like barn goats on the ectoplasmic barren fields.

At this rate, the only connection they have is attending this godforsaken academy with its godforsaken instructors."

"Asshole..." Vass jumped on him again.

Pencil’s eyes snapped open. "That’s it."

He hurried through the scattered papers, fingers searching for something. He muttered continually as he did.

Cynthia was the first to notice. "Peeenciiil." Steam came from her helmet.

Bloodshine’s eyes shone. "You found something?"

Soren, Vass, and Polystar paused. They looked at each other and then back at Pencil.

They also rushed over, Polystar wiping the blood from the side of his lips.

"Pencil! What did you find?"

"We have been looking at this all wrong." He placed some names side by side. "We have been looking for characteristics and hobbies and all that. But we forgot the most basic thing."

"And what is that?" Vass asked.

Pencil turned to him, eyes brightened. "That they are all students of the Imperial Soulforge Academy."

Vass rolled his eyes. "Fatty, if you are begging for a beating..." He slammed his fist into his palm. "Then just say so."

Pencil raised his hands in surrender. "Please don’t hit me."

Soren pulled Vass away. "Don’t worry, Pencil, he won’t hurt you. Now tell us what you found out," gaze settling on his round friend.

Pencil nodded sheepishly. Regardless, the eyes on him made him a bit shy, and he tapped his fingers together nervously.

"Well... uh... we were looking at individual similarities among the affected cadets, not overall similarities. However, we should have started from top to bottom."

He clicked a button on his wristwatch, and the seventeen individuals appeared mid-air.

He paused to breathe in and out.

"If we group them like this—same school, same school year, same instructors—we get... this."

All eyes fell on the projection. All seventeen people except one person, Tommy, had the same instructor.

Instructor Dorothy Ivory.

The same Ivory with blonde hair and a disarming smile.

The same woman who had tried to kick them off and was the reason Soren had been sent to jail.

Polystar stepped forward, adjusting his glasses with one hand and with the other tracing the connection between the projected cadets.

"All of these cadets had Ivory either as personal tutors or proxies." He turned to Soren, "just like we did."

Those words settled in.

"So what are we looking at?" Vass asked. "Are you saying the Shade Stealer has a vendetta against the late Ivory and is now hunting all her students?"

That question hit even harder than it should have.

But it made everyone think deeply.

And then Soren’s eyes shone. He turned to Polystar.

"We were also taught by Ivory back on the train."

Polystar nodded. "It was when we needed to achieve our First Form technique."

Vass stepped forward. "The D–rank that was attacked at my party was also taught by Ivory on the train." He pointed at a picture of a girl with a horn on one cheek.

Soren’s mind flashed. He remembered her.

He remembered that she was the sister of the boy, similarly with a horn on his face, who had delivered his clothes the day he was attacked.

His mind spun. He was sure that the puzzle pieces were more now.

He just needed a few clues to see the full picture.

"If the Shade Stealer is attacking all of Ivory’s students, then it would nøt make sense that my husband was nøt attacked in his room."

Bloodshine’s point made sense.

However, Polystar looked at the projections again.

The images reflected off his glasses. He shook his head.

"No. That’s not right."

Pencil nodded in agreement. "Tommy was attacked in the detention center. Why did the Shade Stealer not attack Polystar and Soren?"

Polystar nodded. "We had lost connection to our Shades then. It would have been the best time to get us. Two birds, one stone."

"You mean three birds, one stone?" He pointed at Tommy.

"Unless we were not." Polystar’s eyes brightened. He pointed forward, at Tommy’s picture, and everything made sense.

"That would also explain why Soren and the other kid were attacked in the morning."

Soren sighed. "His hunger for knowledge got him in trouble."

Vass looked around. Everybody had that sparkle in their eyes as if a divine revelation had settled in the room.

Even Cynthia nodded slowly.

Everyone had understood except him.

"We have to move now," Soren added. They nodded.

Pencil began packing up the papers. Bloodshine helped, and Polystar looked like he was stretching, preparing for a battle.

Vass paused.

"Will someone just tell me what is happening!?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

They froze—then realized Vass was out of the loop.

Soren decided to explain.

Tommy was the only person who was never tutored by Ivory but was still attacked.

The reason was a simple one.

Tommy had discovered the identity of the Shade Stealer.

At the time, no one, including the instructors, knew who it was for three weeks, and Tommy had figured it out.

The boy’s ever pursuit of knowledge had been his undoing.

He always wanted to know something about everything and, with his brilliant mind, figured out secrets he should not have known.

Tommy had figured out not only the identity of the Shade Stealer but also possibly itheir plan.

"If that is the case, why are all of you packing?" Vass asked.

"We are going back to the detention center." Polystar replied.

Soren nodded. "Instructor Eagle-wing eyebrows said that some writtings were left in Tommy’s cell.

We believe Tommy left valuable information there."

Vass cracked a faint smirk. "But you can’t. That is a yellow zone. The only times cadets are allowed into that place is when they disobey the rules and..." His smile froze—realization dawning on him.

These guys were getting ready to commit crimes in the school.

"Wait... wait. How are you guys even sure the bald-head was not just counting his days on the wall of his cell?"

Polystar paused. He frowned.

However, Soren spoke up. "Trust me. I know Tommy. He did leave valuable information behind."

Soren could not help but remember Tommy—that winter they had spent together.

Back then, they’d do anything to find entertainment. They invented new games and even a sign language to communicate.

It was such a fun time.

It was also the time of his life when he realised that Tommy’s mind was fundamentally different.

Throughout that winter, there wasn’t a game they came up with that Soren actually won.

No matter how he tried.

Soren could proudly say that there was no one who knew Tommy more than him, and that was counting Pencil.

If there is a writing on the wall somewhere in that detention cell, then that was information Tommy intentionally left behind.

What’s more, Soren had a feeling that he had finally discovered what it was—inside the cadet’s body.

Still, this trip would confirm a lot of things.

They had not slept all night. But no one complained. This was more important.

However, the moment Soren opened his door into the hallway, he was met with the last person he wanted to see.

Goldsworth.

He was smartly dressed in his black tunic, with blond hair falling on the sides in curls, and his bird was sitting on his shoulder.

"Are you ready, Commoner?"

Soren froze. Then it hit him. Today was the day.

His watch Beeped...

[Cadet Soren, First Year, please report to Arena C3 for your gauntlet match with Cadet Goldsworth.]

"I am coming back for my room." Goldsworth flicked his hair as he turned and walked away.

Soren frowned.

Of all the time in the world for such a thing to happen, it just had to be now?

(Author’s note: Sigh... no super gift till now."