Advancing the Grand Scheme

A couple of days later Aayla and Chris shut themselves into the back office. Matcha babbled on while pointing at various pictures laid out on the table. Most of them were people shots, but a suspicious amount was of the sweets found across campus.

That's right, Aayla had recruited hundreds of the perfect spies: the gremlins. If they got caught, they just looked cute, tried to steal something and dash away. No one ever thought that the gremlins were recording them. Dormi never would have allowed that.

With sweets, they were easily bribed into 'returning' tiny recording artifacts after a day. These artifacts were 'stolen' from a tiny pile that Chris left in his room. Of course, these artifacts had 'accidentally' gotten images, sound and video recordings. Aayla and Chris had to 'inspect' these recordings for deletion.

The duo expected to get some little tidbits of information from students' dorm rooms, but they got so much more than that. They managed to sneak around much farther and much stealthier than Aayla anticipated.

Over the first day, the gremlins had run around with tiny recording artifacts. They took pictures and recordings of several designated targets, especially Vanessa and her group. Aayla never knew that they ran around on campus as well. Gremlins were never supposed to set foot outside of the residence hall grounds.

The discoveries unearthed forced Chris to extend the time for the investigation. Vanessa was an idiot, but she had some very clever helpers. Vanessa's attendants, Marc Lupton and Enid Heriot, were much more capable than Chris initially thought. Corrine Bilton was also highly suspicious and often met with Marc and Professor Foryl in secret.

To Chris's horror, the rumors surrounding Daren had changed drastically yet the Forolan family's allies in the university were none the wiser. Instead of just dating Vanessa, Daren had now become her fiancé and joined the inner circle of the conservative students. Chris was now just a ditched watchdog.

Enid had skillfully spread the rumors and either bought off or threatened other students to keep the new rumors from him. For the past few weeks Daren had exclusively mingled with conservative students. None of his former acquaintances were allowed to even get near him.

To make matters worse, the professors started grouping him with the conservatives even more. Most of the professors who wouldn't have believed these rumors were gone on sudden missions. The majority of the professors remaining in the school were conservative or weak-willed neutral and progressive teachers.

When the conservative professors claimed that Daren was now in their faction, the rest didn't think twice. Since the professors treated Daren like a conservative, then Daren was now a conservative. This ultimately reinforced the rumors to everyone else.

Enid's bribery and threats were much more convincing. All that she had to do was claim that Chris was stalking Daren. Either her targets would gladly take her bribe to keep Daren 'safe' or would be too scared to say anything to Chris in case they were held responsible if someone harmed Daren.

Many considering the conservative faction decided to follow this example. Even many of the staunchest neutral students leaned in favor of the conservatives. Daren was the heir of the Forolan family, and if he joined then the family probably was as well. That would cause tremors in noble society.

That's not all that the gremlins uncovered. While following Marc, the gremlins had found some clues that Marc was the one creating the factional conflicts among the students. Corrine had only been sabotaging Vanessa while Enid was busy, but Chris was still suspicious about her since she was secretly meeting with Marc and Professor Foryl.

Professor Foryl had probably planned out this entire event. He was a key figure in the conservative faction on campus. He had the power and connections to mess with Daren's schedule and arrange for the professors to leave campus. Normally, he was quiet and aloof of factional conflicts. Who knew that he was such a deep schemer?

Chris couldn't believe that this had happened. He had let such a huge incident happen. Daren was basically in the conservative faction's clutches by now. If Chris tried to force his way in now, the professors could easily intervene to stop him.

He immediately sent a message to the Forolan family, but they couldn't do anything outside of the school. As a last-ditch resort, City Lord Forolan could pull his nephew from the university, but even Daren might not be let back in. That could ruin his formal education, and seriously delay his debut in the wizard community.

The university did not take kindly to students withdrawing in the middle of a semester without a serious reason. Neither did the wizard community. The Forolan family couldn't announce that they were removing Daren from the school due to rumors that he had joined the conservative faction.

"Void take those annoying b**tards!"

Chris slammed his hand down on the table. He shook in fury. Before this, he had never encountered a major setback like this before. Daren was always safe and sound under his watch until today. Aayla was a bit smug that she was right, but also a bit scared for Daren and frightened of Chris. She had never seen him so angry before.

"What are we going to do now?"

"I don't know. Let me think for a minute. Anyways, you're not part of the Forolan family or an ally. You should just stay out of this, Ms. Glowery."

Aayla snorted. "Do you think Vanessa will let me just stay out of this?"

The gremlins nodded. They had heard and recorded several of Vanessa's tirades and tantrums. She did not like Aayla at all and was anxious to 'put that filthy bumpkin back in the trash heap that she came from'.

"I'd rather strike first this time and just get rid of the trouble. Hey, can your artifact communicate with the headmaster or Deputy Heston? Corrine and Marc seemed particularly nervous this morning. Do you think that some of professors are coming back soon?"

Chris thought for a few minutes. He reached for his communication artifact.

"That's entirely possible. I'll see if I can reach them. Their current missions have taken a lot of time already. If Marc's getting anxious, then the conservatives' plan must be behind schedule. He might do something big to get that plan back on track. Can you trap them in the residence hall or something?"

"No, but I can get Daren some protectors with a penchant for chaos. Oh, darling Matcha, would you like a yum yum cookie~? No, I'll bake you something completely new! An entire variety of donuts! Glazed, chocolate glazed, powdered, crème filled, lemon crème filled, strawberry filled! Chocolate bar, maple bar, bear claws, cinnamon rolls!"

\(>A<)>* -- Ready for the mission! --

"All you have to do is protect the stupid glowy hooman as best as you can until the scary wrinkly hooman gets back, okay? There will be lots to share, so bring lots of friends."

\(^o^)/ -- Okay! New sugar! New sugar! Yay! --

**********

Vanessa nervously fidgeted with her obscenely expensive gown while glancing anxiously at Marc. They stood in the middle of a crowded plaza with other prominent conservative students around them. Students from other factions stood nearby. Enid had sent out invitations requesting their presences to witness a historic moment.

"Are you sure that this will work?"

"Of course! Even if he doesn't love you completely, you will have more time to conquer his heart, Lady Landrienne. The Forolan family would have no way to refuse you. However, there's no way that he isn't already love with such a marvelous, fantastic lady such as yourself."

Marc's face has a bright smile, but he inwardly sneered at her foolishness. Even if she somehow succeeded, Vanessa would be hated. The Forolans could easily make her life miserable or have her suffer an 'accident'.

This wasn't Marc's problem though. This foolish girl could throw herself into the fire pit all she wanted. Success would bring him one step closer to his goal, while failure could be blamed completely on her. He wasn't allowed to refuse that idiot after all. Not that there was any chance of failure.

"We don't have much time. If the headmaster returns, then he could easily interfere and undo all our hard work. Fight for your love my lady! You must succeed!"

Suddenly, Daren walked into the plaza while being escorted by other conservative students. The crowd moved to form a path leading directly to the blinding Vanessa. A few students took out recording artifacts. Daren's heart nearly stopped. What is that horrid woman scheming now?

Vanessa happily squealed and jumped into Daren's arms.

"My love, you kept me waiting!"

"Lady Landrienne, please maintain your composure and your distance."

Daren tried to gently push her off, but Vanessa clung tightly to him. Daren's obvious dislike of her touch made the scene not as romantic to other's as it was in Vanessa's mind. Is this how lovebirds behaved?

His face paled and body stiffened. To Daren's horror, one of his childhood nightmares began to play out right in front of his face.

"Darling, you are my most precious person! I couldn't possibly live without you, and I know that you love me, too! So, let's get married as soon as possible!"