79 Plans

Lost in thoughts, Foo did not realize that they had stopped before the massive doors. Looking around he noticed that there was only a few students left in the group.

When they left, everyone was following, so the others must be standing outside. Which made sense; they were too many to fit inside.

Not sweating the small stuff, Foo then opened the doors and entered.

The room was equally splendid as the last time he was there. The most obvious difference was that all the seats for the warriors were filled, and the section head seat for the wizards was empty.

Bringing his group to the center of the room, he then inspected the elders. It was as lively as it was the last time. The only exception was that there were elders from the warriors involved this time.

They all stood up and was pointing and yelling in a cacophony of noises. They all shouted till the spittle flew, making it impossible to make head or tails of anything.

Marveling at the sight, Foo wondered if they had all developed a heightened mental ability to distinguish what all parties was yelling, or if they just tried to sound the most...

As Foo was not planning to stay for long, he decided to not take his seat. And it might be disliked by the elders. Not that he really cared, but pointless extra conflict was unnecessary.

The matter of Foo's standing in the academy was quite interesting. Theoretically, he had the highest standing as the section head for the `Magic Warriors`. But their section had later plummeted in reputation, leaving it as nothing more than a laughstock.

And he had only taken the position recently, which made the other section heads have seniority. The matter of age did also give the seniority to the elders. And his dubious ways to clear the exam did make his status even more shaky.

All things combined made his position lower than even the regular students of their sections. But then again, on paper and by traditions, he held the highest position, as long as there was no principal selected.

Of course, that fact made the elders uncomfortable, and they would as such make sure that they reinforced their superiority at any opportunity that they found.

An elder that was out of breath by shouting suddenly noticed Foo's group as he was gathering new energy for another bout. Trying a few times to inform his fellow elders, he then realized that it was pointless, everything he said was drowned in the tumult.

Resorting to tapping the others on their shoulders and pointing towards the group, he finally brought back a dignified calm to the room as they silently took their seats.

However, their ruffled appearances instantly broke the illusion of dignity.

Taking it on himself to greet the group, the section head of the warrior section remained standing. He was after all the one with the highest authority in the room, if one ignored the unclear status that Foo possesed.

"Ah, I see that you decided to turn up... It was not really necessary. As you are new to the academy, you should let us seniors handle this matter. You can just focus on taking care of the trash... *cough* I mean students in your section."

Ignoring the section head's taunting, Foo started to execute the plan that he had thought up.

"Ah, greetings esteemed elders. I have heard the saddening news that one section head have betrayed us. As a section head myself, I can't do nothing as our academy is suffering!"

His opening stunning the elders. This dubious sham that they used as a garbageman actually sounded so upright and sincere!

Not giving them any chance to interrupt, Foo then continued, "I heard that there was an confrontation between him and a inquisitor. For The Inquisition to hunt him, he must surely be connected to the evil faction! The fact that such a powerful man was plotting in our very own academy worries me!"

Looking around to check that they were all indeed listening, Foo reached the important parts of his speech, "I fear that he might have planned to do something with the portal in the third section! The gatekeeper there said that he was acting suspicious there, and mentioned that it might concern The Abyss. But at the time he had full faith in the section head, and would as such disregard it as paranoia."

Quite good attention grabber, if he was to say it himself. Of course, he had to make sure to threaten... er... remind the gatekeeper's foggy memory of what had actually happened. A mention about a nice little offering should do the job.

Channeling in the elders' sense of impending doom that he just created, Foo continued, "As such I will take on the tedious task to learn more about the complex matter of scripting! Only by fully understanding the functions of the portal can we protect ourselves from such tragic events! I fear that it is just a matter of time before something familiar happens again!"

``Alright. Heat up the mood with subtle references to the end of the world, check. Putting up the matter of me learning scripting as the only hope of survival, check. Painting up the action as a huge sacrifice on my end, check. World domination, on hold. Wait! Scratch that last one...``

"As such, If anyone have any information about scripting, or information about how I can find out more about the subject, please help me out! I am willing to sacrifice myself in the pursuit of this knowledge. Although it is hard and almost impossible to achieve, a pointless struggle. All in order to ensure the safety of our beloved academy and its values!"

As silence fell after his words, the elders then started to quietly discuss with each other.

"Shit! I think he have more integrity than we thought! He seems very loyal to the values of the academy!"

"Yes! I fear that we will not be able to coerce him to drive out the trash!"

"That would indeed go against the values that he seems to hold so high!"

"We have to get rid of him then! He might become a obstacle instead!"

"Indeed! He seems quite headstrong!"

"And the matter with The Abyss is indeed threatening..."

"Why do we not support his pursuit of scripting?"

"That subject is taboo! And even if it was not, many have tried and all have failed to understand it."

"But that is just perfect! We just send him on a wild goose chase, and if he manage to figure it out, we can snatch it from him! This task can distract him from interfering with the cleanup plan."

"Brilliant!"

"But we have to trick him into picking a section head replacement that we can control!"

Following the discussion with his unexpectedly sharp hearing, Foo judged that it was time for the next phase.

"Great elders, as I am to set out on this tedious task, I will pick a suitable stand-in. My time here have been short, but on my way to the academy, I met a nice apprentice from the warrior section. Although he later joined my section, he should still have relations with his old teacher. And as such, he would be able to ask for help, were he to encounter any troubles."

Motioning for Abner to join him, Foo introduced him to the elders.

Hearing this, the elders' eyes lit up. A former apprentice of the warrior section? Trash like that should be easy to control. Not to mention that he had a teacher that could exert his influence on him too.

Now they could manipulate this man to clean out the trash. There should basically be no problems with that. If Foo then managed to figure out scripting, they could steal the knowledge. And afterwards they could kick him out due to the stand-in's actions.

The plan was perfect. What could possibly go wrong?