Reborn Financier-Chapter 60: Missing 3

Each day followed the same rhythm — the trio moving between courtyards, halls, unused classrooms, and forgotten storage rooms. They were thorough. They were disciplined. But they found nothing. No signs of struggle. No mana residue. No eyewitness accounts.

"Is it just me, or is this entire investigation a joke?" Seren snapped on the third day. "They give us no real leads, no resources, and they expect results? This academy—"

"Doesn’t want this solved," Kaidën finished quietly, eyes fixed on a patch of ivy climbing an old stone wall. Something about the curve of the vines felt...wrong. Like space had hiccuped there. But a moment later, it was gone.

Elric, scribbling runes in his notebook, paused and asked, "What did you see?"

Kaidën shook his head. "Nothing worth chasing. Not yet."

Tension simmered not only within their trio, but among the other investigation teams. Class A students accused Class B of incompetence; B-class students whispered suspicions about Kaidën. Some claimed he was cursed. Others — more cynically — thought he was involved in Meng Ji’s disappearance.

Tension simmered not only within their trio, but among the other investigation teams. Class A students accused Class B of incompetence; B-class students whispered suspicions about Kaidën. Some claimed he was cursed. Others — more cynically — thought he was involved in Meng Ji’s disappearance.

On the fifth day, Seren halted mid-step outside the north archives. Her ears twitched.

"Wait."

She closed her eyes and stretched her mana perception outward like a spiderweb. Something brushed her senses — a presence. It flickered. Slipped. And then... vanished.

"I... I swear something was just there," she said, tense.

Elric had frozen too, his shadow unnaturally still.

Kaidën turned toward a seemingly empty stretch of stone wall and narrowed his eyes.

It looked normal. But it wasn’t.

As days passed with no breakthroughs, paranoia bloomed. Whispers drifted through the halls like cold air. Some said Meng Ji was already dead — dissected in the Academy’s hidden labs. Others claimed they saw her reflection in windows at night, screaming.

Even the professors grew quiet.

Elric whispered one evening, "Someone’s watching us. Not just spying. Studying our every move."

Seren scoffed, but Kaidën noticed how she no longer removed her dagger even during lunch.

As kaidën walked the halls at night, eyes still blindfolded, listening to the folds in space.

"It’s like someone’s folding the Academy," he muttered. "Like origami. Bending reality in corners where no one’s looking."

He stopped in front of a hallway that should’ve ended with a door. It didn’t. Just more hallway.

"This isn’t chaos. It’s surgical."

On the eighth day, the Student Council issued a formal statement: "Investigation closed. No evidence. Teams are to return their final reports."

Seren threw her parchment across the room. "We found nothing. Nothing!"

Kaiden said nothing, staring out the window at the moonlit courtyard.

And the faint reflection in the glass that didn’t belong to any of them.

***********************************************

The next morning, the sky was a dull gray, and five new figures stood at the academy gates.

They didn’t wear uniforms. They didn’t smile.

Battle-worn armor. Eyes like steel. Scarred. Silent.

The academy had summoned hunters.

At their front was an aged elf leaning on a blackwood cane. His face was crosshatched with old war wounds. One eye clouded, the other sharp as a dagger.

"Instructor Vayren," murmured a professor. "The Ashblade General."

Inside the headmaster’s office, a closed-door meeting began.

"We have three days until the Bell Trials," the Headmaster said. "If Meng Ji isn’t found by then..."

"She won’t be," Vayren replied coldly. "If she’s still here, she’s been hidden well. If she isn’t—"

He didn’t finish.

Immediately the instructors went to work. Runes embedded in archways. Threads of magical aura drifting like cobwebs across dorm halls. Glyphs hidden behind portraits and under floor tiles.

Every entrance. Every mirror. Every shadowed corner was tagged.

But the spaces didn’t resist. They swallowed the surveillance like it was nothing.

Kaidën wandered the Eastern Courtyard again, alone this time. He felt better alone. Felt less like he was wearing a mask.

Vayren watched from a distance. One of the younger instructors stepped beside him.

"That boy. What do you see?"

Vayren didn’t answer right away. He leaned on his cane and squinted.

"That child... there’s something odd about him. He had this matured vibe around him, compared to the rest of the students."

That same day, Kaidën’s group was reassigned — now under Instructor Vayren’s direct oversight. Seren bristled at the scrutiny, but Elric was calm. Vayren was stern, unflinching.

"I’ll ask once," he said. "Have any of you sensed breaches?"

"Almost," Seren said reluctantly. "But they vanished."

Elric nodded. "Something’s watching us. From inside."

Vayren turned to Kaidën. "And you?"

Kaiden shrugged. "I don’t hunt shadows. I let them hunt me."

Vayren arched a brow. "You give the vibe of a fighter. Were you a mercenary where you came from?"

Kaidën smiled faintly. "Something like that."

At least he wasn’t suspected to be a noble.

**********************************************

Later that day, inside a dead-end hallway on the third floor, Seren paused.

"Something’s wrong with this wall."

She traced her fingers across a smooth brick and pried it loose. Behind it — embedded like a sliver of memory — was a shard of mirror glass. Enchanted. Dimensional reflection magic.

Vayren’s eyes gleamed. "A crack in the illusion."

Kaidën leaned close. The shard didn’t reflect them. It showed somewhere else. Another hall. One filled with darkness.

Seren swallowed. "It’s a clue."

Elric whispered, "Then we’re not alone."

The night before the Bell Trials, an alarm rune flared near the South Garden.

Vayren and Elric raced to the site. A distortion in the air shimmered — then vanished. In its place was a burn mark etched into the ground.

A spiral. Perfect. Precise. As if branded by magic.

Kaidën stood at a distance, unseen.

He stared at the spiral.

"Looks like this case is about to be solved," he murmured.

He turned away before anyone could ask what he meant.

24 hours remained.

And someone was running out of places to hide.

To be continued...