The after mission noodles just didn’t hit the same. Viviana was disappointed, and it showed. She was hoping to at least farm some more experience points, and create that recruitment video. But Selenne showed up halfway though the footage, styled on her, and then left. What sort of recruitment video had some random third party show up and outshine everyone?

  Not to mention that Adam prevented them from investigating the murders. Viviana had an inkling of a suspicion, but she could have confirmed it if she was allowed to investigate. At this point there wasn’t any progress in their investigations. Mizuki would be disappointed.

  They ate in silence, slurping the noodles. The mood was down not just for the mission, but also the news that came out. The academy confirmed it. A double murder. A student belonging to Team A of Ophidian, and a student belonging to FM, both dead.

  The news came with the names of the victims. The Ferric Meridian student was called Orie. The Ophidian Pact student was named Rhea. Orie was part of Fortuna’s squad. Rhea was part of Adam’s knights, on loan to Selenne’s team for that one mission.

  In a way, the Landsknecht knew these people. Although Viviana didn’t learn their names until now, technically they were people they once fought with, or against. All the other murders were people the Landsknecht have never interacted with, but this felt more personal. More real.

  “Orie was the guy that hit on Viviana, wasn’t he?” Thomas asked.

  Bena just flicked her head down in acknowledgement.

  “The internet is going crazy. People are commenting that the academy guilds aren’t competent enough,” Lucian said.

  “I’m getting news from outside of the academy,” Thomas said. “Rumours are going about that the Central guilds are putting pressure on their academy counterparts…”

  Bena checked her phone as she ate, atypically quiet. She spoke up a second later, pulling up an article. “Look at this, guys.”

  She projected the screen to the table. A simple title and description. “It’s got half a million views and rising.”

  [The Revolutionary: An Analysis of the Academy Killer]

  [Discourse through this forum has focused on the methods of murder. But the missing link is simple: what is the motive?]

  [An analysis done on the victims of the murder quickly shows a pattern. All of the victims are connected to high profile members of one of the guild, whether former or current. I’ll let you be the judge.]

  [Calum Casval. Student of FM. Son of Eric Casval, district manager of district fourteen. He’s been named heir of Ward 2A.]

  [Isaac Armstrong. Student of Pact. Knight in training. Son of Reynard Armstrong. Reynard Armstrong withdrew from his campaign for leadership of Ward 3B immediately after Isaac’s death.

  [Orie Ezeanya. Student of FM. Son of Gaius Ezeanya, who is administrator of all of Ward 2. Named heir.]

  [Rhea Ashford. Student of Pact. Daughter of Phillipa Ashford. Captain of the enforcer knights of Ward 3.]

  [Let me make the explanation clear for you. All of these people are connected to district managers in places with large amounts of civil unrest. Wards 2A and 3 all contained the worst of the rebel uprisings, the worst of the anti-guild sentiment.]

  [Just yesterday, a small bandit group infiltrated a guild base while Eric Casval was away to mourn his son. They succeeded, causing the deaths of three patrol knights and the leakage of resources to the unaffiliated population. This was covered up by the guilds to no avail.]

  [I imagine that more uprisings like this will continue as the murders resolve into political gain.]

  [Now, here is my second piece of evidence. None of the guilds have claimed responsibility. If they did kill, they would take advantage. The murder of these academy students has indirectly led to the weakening of the current Central authority, but no guilds have stepped forward in attempts to start war. They’re flabbergasted, blindsided. This slow action means it can’t be them.]

  [With some idea of a motive in mind, we can finally look at the method of murder. The bodies all contain two similar traits. One: they all have been killed in precise, clean cuts, pointing to the use of stealth… or an extremely skilled individual.]

  [Two, the bloody circle carved in the ground.]

  [A similar circle has appeared within ward A. A circular symbol shaped like a wagon wheel. This is the banner of ‘The Revolving Wheel’.]

  [Although the symbol isn’t the exact same, it can probably be because the murderer didn’t have enough time to carve the spokes into the ground.]

  [However, almost all revolutionary symbols that circulated around Central have circle motifs. This circle carved into the ground at the murder sites could mean the same thing.]

  [All this leads me to believe one thing– that the murder is a revolutionary, trying to stir up the clans. If I’m right, the guild crackdown will be immense… we’d do well to lay low until the murderer is found.]

  [I’ll be updating this article as more information comes up. In the meantime, monitor the news within the unaffiliated communities. I’m willing to bet that another ‘Revolving Wheel’ attack will occur in Ward 2 or 3 soon.]

  Viviana read through the entire article, slowly absorbing the details. Much of what was described was the same information Thomas brought her. Yet a lot of it was new– the information on the Revolving Wheel group, whoever they were.

  It was suspicious to her. How did this person find out what the guilds couldn’t? Not to mention, there was something about guild coverups. How did this person have access to guild sensitive information?

  Despite her suspicion viviana had to acknowledge the possibility that the author was on to something. The Revolutionary, huh?

  Bena’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “Check out the comments. They’re insane.”

  [Yo, my dad’s place is in ward 2. He basically confirmed a rebel group attacked.]

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  >[holy shit, are we onto something?]

  [here’s my theory. Revolutionary. Strong. Can't be affiliated with any of the guilds. How many people do we know like that in the academy? Only one. One group….]

  >[nah there’s no way, they’ve got the adler-stern girl, adler-stern wouldn’t involve themselves in academy murders]

  >>[she aint adler-stern tho]

  >>>[Lowkey, I think that she has a motive. Remember back then? The guard knight incident? Maybe she's anti-guild because of that.]

  >>>>[you might be onto something… landsknecht was there for every murder except the last one]

  >>>>>[nah this guys tripping theres no way]

  >>>>>[can any1 confirm this? Might be massive if true]

  >>>>>[yo the montage video was released on the day the body was found… if the recording lines up, they were right there]

  [This theory sucks. You missed one thing– no one from VAC has died. It’s obvious its them. The guilds have been putting pressure on VAC for a while now. VAC can’t keep denying it for long.]

  Bena swallowed and voiced the obvious. “Some of them think it’s us.”

  The members of the Landsknecht looked at each other. Thomas and Lucian had worried expressions. Bena found no solace in their faces, turning to Viviana instead.

  Viviana thought for a second. “There’s nothing we can do. It’s just some internet rumor. If we acknowledge it they’ll latch onto our every move. For now, the only thing we can do is find the true murderer.”

  In the coming days Viviana decided to do a couple things. Despite Selenne’s warnings, Viviana still wanted to participate in the upcoming VAC job. She had agreed on the contract way before she had fought Selenne, and the Landsknecht had accepted it even before their first war job. She was determined to at least complete that job no matter what.

  Then, true to her promise, she would withdraw Landsknecht from the war.

  The job was in a couple days, and Landksnecht weren’t accepting any more war related work, so the amount of valid contracts coming in were few and far between. Landsknecht ended up going on ‘jobs’ of their own— exploring the dungeons and various terrariums, staying clear from the war effort. Viviana had made a promise to Selenne, and she slowly understood that the rest of Landsknecht didn’t mind this new direction.

  The guilds were getting feisty. There was tension in the air. People didn’t ask to take selfies with the Landsknecht anymore. Viviana could walk around without her mask, [Scareye], equipped, and people wouldn’t approach her. Turns out there was more to these ‘internet rumours’ than I thought.

  Today, though, they had a break day. A day where no one had any plans, so they ended up chilling on the couch in the client-lounge-turned-living room, watching a show together. At some point Bena went upstairs to work on a new business card design.

  Thomas left as well, and so did Lucian, leaving Viviana alone, not really paying attention to the show. Viviana pulled out her phone. She navigated to her messaging app.

  She heard the thud of footsteps as Bena raced down the stairs.

  “Hey, Vivi, we’re heading out!” Bena asked, walking by as Viviana texted.

  Viviana shook her head up and down, muttered an uninvested ‘have fun’, and switched her phone to show some stupid video instead of her messages. She couldn’t let Landsknecht know about this. If she was wrong, then whatever. But if she was right?

  Bena sulked a little as she walked away, instead grabbing Thomas and Lucian. They left, closing the front door behind them. Viviana let out a soft sigh, finally sending the message. [can you look into selenne kerzenlied?]

  Mizuki replied quickly, not even giving her time to set her phone down. [will do.]

  Viviana processed the words, placing her phone down. It was time to do some training. Perhaps I’ll head into a terrarium and jump some people. Haven’t fought people in a while.

  Viviana moved to grab her gear and change into more combat suitable clothes when the front door opened. Thomas, Bena, and Lucian. They were back already?

  “Happy birthday!” they said. Thomas and Lucian twisted confetti launchers, shooting streams of color all over the living room.

  Viviana blinked, unsure what to think of the colorful assault of paper streamers. It’s my birthday today?

  She checked her phone. [22/01/XX]. I guess it is. “How’d you guys know it’s my birthday today?”

  “We uh, looked it up. Academy’s got information,” Thoms said.

  “Yeah! We wanted to celebrate, cause, well…” Bena said, trailing off at the end.

  “Bena felt guilty that you bought all our gear for us with your own money, so she came up with the idea.”

  “Oh?” Viviana said, placing a hand on Bena’s head. “Good job, Bena.”

  Bena grinned, but then slid out of Viviana’s grasp. “We couldn’t afford a cake, but we did get you this!”

  Bena stepped sideways, pointing at a cloth draped over a human sized lump. “Go on, open it!”

  Viviana stepped forward, doing as told, placing a hand on the black cloth. It was rough and thick to the touch, clearly water absorbent on one side and water repellent on the other. Is this what I think it is?

  Without further hesitation, Viviana pulled off the black cloth cover, unveiling the object underneath. Shiny white caught her eyes.

  Breach armor.

  Viviana walked around the object, marvelling at the technology. It wasn’t the latest and greatest, and at a careful glance parts were clearly hacked together, borrowing different guild technologies, but it looked good.

  Clean, functional. White and gold, the Landsknecht colors. Spots for grapple pack and jumpboot integration. Motors and mechanical muscles in all the right places, aiding the user’s movements when off skill and adapting when using one.

  Viviana could just tell from the parts that this armor was nearly the top of the line. It was evidently the best someone unaffiliated could ever get.

  “How’d… how’d you guys get this? This is clearly more expensive than a cake,” Viviana asked, dumbstruck. She didn’t expect to own one of these in a long, long time.

  “We… pooled a bunch of our personal funds, pulled some odds and ends, and uh… used some of the company funds.”

  Viviana nodded. It was what she expected. Even if they used all their personal funds, and then promised IOUs to a bunch of people, there was no way something of this quality was affordable. “Still, this is incorrigibly expensive, for something I might break in like two days.”

  No matter how well made armor was, if it wasn’t system-recognized, it folded like paper all the same to soulbound attacks. Breach armor was made for attack and utility enhancement, not protection.

  Lucian shrugged. “Just try not to. I spent a lot of money.”

  Viviana paused, and Bena and Lucian and Thomas looked at her then, waiting for something. “Thanks, everyone. It’s amazing.”

  Bena smiled. “I’m glad you like it! Now let’s get some noodles to celebrate!”

  So they went to the noodle restaurant in the middle of nowhere, tucked away in the corner of the campus, walking and talking about their missions and their lives and everything else.

  Viviana allowed herself a bittersweet smile. She wondered about her plan. How she would use all the strength and power she amassed to destroy Adler-Stern. How many people she’d affect, possibly kill.

  She wondered if she could do that to Landsknecht. Expose them to all the dangers of going against the greatest guild of Central.

  No, it wasn’t her fault. If they got hurt, it was their fault for following her. She simply wanted power and influence, like everyone else in the academy. They were adults. They could make their own choices. Even if Viviana didn’t tell them what all of this was for, and just how far she was willing to go.

  She realized it was already too late.