Chapter 87: Breadcrumbs

Adam had made a few interesting discoveries during his time in cyberspace.

He had initially believed the surveillance footage of his drive back to the dormitory had been altered. But that had not been the case at all. There was no surveillance to begin with, or rather, a manufactured one had been reproduced on the live cameras, showing him driving speedily.

Following that discovered trail, Adam found traces linking several students and outside individuals. The most shocking of his discoveries was a vice-principal who had orchestrated everything.

For whatever reason, this vice-principal — Raphael Coleman — despised seeing him at the top of the academy’s student hierarchy. This man wanted him out of the academy for good, and sought the help of others to achieve it.

The problem here was that the setup had been done so well that there was almost no trace left behind. Anyone willing to take the time and resources to dig deeply could discover something.

But that was another problem.

No one would be looking too deeply.

With this realisation, Adam got to setting his own pieces in place. There was no need to disprove anything at a hearing. All he had to do was leave breadcrumbs, and the investigation team would find them. The case would be smooth sailing afterwards.

And unlike his perpetrators, he was incapable of leaving a trace to follow.

Over the course of the next two days, Adam remained in cultivation while a piece of his consciousness worked in cyberspace. To his observers, he looked relaxed and unworried about the events transpiring in the outside world.

"Is it just me, or is Adam too calm about the entire issue?" One of the students monitoring Adam remarked.

"Probably... But he could just be really good at staying calm under pressure."

"Well, whatever it is, it won’t matter once the investigations are over."

"Speaking of the investigations, do you know what they’ve found?"

"I’m not sure. I’ve only heard of bits and pieces of the interviews conducted. Those from the Microbiology Department mostly spoke about his character and how that was unlikely given his status."

"Yeah, I’ll say... I mean, why try to force yourself on a girl when most of them would throw themselves at him? Also, that girl is not all that pretty."

"Frustration can make people do things they usually won’t do, you know? Maybe he has some hidden issues behind all that brilliance."

"Whatever... The truth will come out in a few days, anyway."

"Yeah..."

The Student Council’s Disciplinary Division brought their investigations to a close on the second day after the incident. When they took their findings to the academy’s Disciplinary Board for review and approval, however, the shocking revelations left the board hesitant to act.

"Are you sure these findings are legitimate?" the Dean of Student Affairs asked incredulously, unable to believe what he read.

"Absolutely." The Commander of the Disciplinary Division of the Student Council replied affirmatively. "When we discovered it, we had initially thought tampering. However, there had been no trace of tampering whatsoever."

"I refuse to believe someone like a vice-principal would leave such obvious breadcrumbs even if he was the mastermind. Something doesn’t feel right," another board member commented.

"You make a fine point, Student Council Advisor. But the facts presented here are real. And you know as well as I do that our systems aren’t so easily breached."

"That is correct, sir." The commander chipped in again. "What led to the findings you see in the report was as a result of something one of those involved overlooked. Adam had claimed he had stepped in to stop a group of boys harassing the victim.

"When we looked into the dormitory’s surveillance records, no student had been around that place at the time of the incident, and the security officers who had arrived at the scene sensed no other presence around."

"Get to the point, Commander."

"Right..." The commander exhaled and added. "What Adam had seen had not been a group of academy boys, but a sophisticated piece of holographic data."

"The boys weren’t real."

"Exactly... or rather, Adam had thought they were real. The drive logs from his car also revealed that the surveillance footage that followed his route to the dormitory was fake."

Naturally, the schemers had tapped into Adam’s car to change the data, but Adam had restored everything, and even included the link that revealed the holographic device and where it had been hidden.

Though they did not find the device, the traces it left behind led them to the manufacturer and money trail. The Disciplinary Division would not have found that trace had Adam not pointed them in the right direction.

From there on, more pieces began revealing themselves, leaving the Council’s investigation team a clear trail to follow. It was like a can of worms got opened the moment the holographic device came into play.

"Ha... how did it come to this?"

The board was still in disbelief. The traces were so obvious that even a rookie would not make such mistakes. They could not cover the setup even if they wanted to.

With so many students involved in the investigations, word would have already spread. Had they known someone like a vice-principal was behind this, the academy would have handled the investigations themselves.

"You’re dismissed, Commander."

"What about Adam?" ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Let him go for now." The Dean sighed. "With this much evidence, there is no need for a hearing."

"Understood."

The commander left shortly after, leaving the board sitting in silence. A moment later, the Dean broke the silence.

"This has to be the laziest setup scheme I’ve seen all my life. How did such a moron become a vice-principal in the first place?"

"That’s hardly the issue here. I think someone interfered with the investigations. No one would be dumb enough to leave breadcrumbs so easily found."

"You’re not thinking of Asher, are you? That man may be capable, but I doubt he could pull something like this off without leaving a trace."

"Be that as it may, the facts are real. The audit team did not find any trace of tampering. Raphael had been complacent."

"What do we do about this?"

"There’s nothing to do except follow protocol. With the student body practically aware, we can’t simply push the case under the rug. Raphael would have to be brought to trial and be dismissed along with everyone involved. This is going to be a headache."

"It has to be done regardless. The academy has a reputation to uphold."

"Haha. To think Raphael would bring about his own ruin for the sake of upholding the status quo."