Sage wasn’t concerned with the others who’d been brought along with him. The Discipline Keeper would be paying close attention to them and had the advantage of openly using his Spiritual Sense without any obstruction. Sage was in no position to be trying to put into this investigation so he could only obediently follow instructions.

At least, that was the appearance he was trying to give off. In actuality he was looking down at the body laying upon the ground in front of them and trying to pick out any unusual details. After a few long moments he could only inwardly shrug. He was no expert of forensic science, nor did he have access to anything but a cursory visual inspection. On the Inner World, a few experts in the field were being consulted, but Sage didn’t see anything unusual, so he didn’t think the ‘experts’ could find much. Even if they did, how could he share their results? He was a suspect in this case, not an investigator.

The Discipline Keeper stared at them for an exceedingly long moment of silence and then his gaze moved to the person to the far right, “What is your name, and what were you doing here?”

The student that Sage was unfamiliar with was the unlucky person under question and stammered under the pressure, “S.. s… sir, I was here studying with Teacher Gray. Ma ma my name is Lin Bao.”

The next person in line was the teacher that Sage was unfamiliar with. The Discipline Keeper stared at Lin Bao for a few long moments, but didn’t ask any further questions from her. Instead he asked the same question of the teacher who responded with a deadpan tone, “Teacher Gray. Here to help tutor my student Lin Bao.”

Next was the librarian who didn’t have anything interesting to say. She was just doing her job. The three golden haired students were a little more interesting, but they had been studying within sight of the librarian for the whole day so there was little suspicion cast their way.

Unlike the interview of these first six, the one for the last three people were far more intensive. The first of which was Keeper Deng, the man that Sage had just completed a job for. This old yet strong man was now standing next to Sage, which made him extremely curious why the man had found his way to the library.

“I’m Beast Keeper Deng. I had just given my authorization to this man here, Lang Sheng, a few hours ago. I was coming here to make sure he was aware of all the rules.”

“You just gave him authorization? Who is he? I don’t see a staff badge, yet you’ve allowed him into the restricted area?”

“He completed a very important task for my Beast department, one that I thought would take years to find a solution to.”

“What problem?”

“A Sunset Rain Snake randomly appeared in the forest lands, so I enacted the proper emergency measures and put up a mission reward of the highest tier for anyone that could help capture it.”

Upon hearing the name of the best, the Discipline Keeper’s eyebrows lifted slightly. Then he turned to look at Sage, while Beast Keeper Deng continued to talk, “Over the first few days two fools tried to undertake the mission and only one was lucky enough to keep their life. That taught the frivolous people a lesson and there was calm for a few weeks until Lang Sheng showed up and handled the Sunset Rain Snake quite easily.”

After finishing the story, every eye in the room had fallen upon Sage. Aside from himself, only the teacher who had led them over here had remained unquestioned, but they were all looking at Sage at this moment. When the Discipline Keeper stared at him for a few seconds, he took it as his turn to answer.

“My name is Lang Sheng. I am here to learn, and I was reading Jade Tablets.”

The answers that Beast Keeper Deng gave were somewhat unusual, but Sage had nothing to do with this death, so he didn’t bother to speak any nonsense. He was here for a plain and simple reason. He’d paid dues and performed a service for the Clear Sky Academy, and now he was receiving some knowledge in return. It was now time to see how unreasonable this place was. Would they live up to their reputation?

The Discipline Keeper continued to look at Sage for a few long moments, and then he turned to the last person, the teacher who had been charged with leading them over here. The Discipline Keeper stared the older man down, “Teacher Zhou, repeat to me the events of the last few hours.”

The teacher nodded, “I have been showing the son of our esteemed patron, Lu Tai, around the Clear Sky Academy for the last week. Today, Lu Ju, wanted to spend the day in the library and insisted that his guards were not necessary.”

“Why were they not needed?”

The Discipline Keeper questioned the obvious fallacy, given the current state of this Lu Ju.

Teacher Zhou looked down and coughed into his fist, “Lu Ju said they were too smelly and ugly. They would hamper his attempts to… make friends.”

As he spoke, Teacher Zhou looked over towards the trio of golden haired students. When thought of in this regard, it was hard not to notice three girls could be considered quite attractive. They could all understand this sentiment and the idea that this boy, Lu Ju, would send his bodyguards away so he could try to impress some girls.

“Continue.”

“After leaving his guards outside the library, I escorted Lu Ju inside. I noticed the prospective ‘friends’ he wished to make. He asked me to stay out of sight, to keep from hampering him, and so I went to a table of my own by the door so I would notice Lu Ju when he was leaving. I stepped in to check on him every half hour. At the two hour mark, he was no longer talking to his new friends so I went to look for him and found,” Teacher Zhou stops abruptly to look down at the ground and his face goes pale, “We have to find out who did this!”

The Discipline Keeper studied Teacher Zhou’s face for a moment and then turned his attention to the three golden haired girls.

“You girls didn’t mention that you were talking to Lu Ju.”

The three girls had barely been able to look down at the body. They’d also been fearfully backing away so they wouldn’t have to see it as clearly. One of them had tears in her eyes, another was cowering, while the third tried to be brave as she spoke, “We had no idea that was Lu Ju,” she looked at the other two girls, “I didn’t even remember his name. We only met him once before a few days ago. He was just walking around us and posing for a while. Then he came up to ask us questions. We wanted to get back to studying so after a while we told him to go ask the librarian and he walked away.”

“Is this true?”

The other two girls nodded their heads like pecking hens, and the Discipline Keeper turned to the librarian, “Did Lu Ju come to you?”

Suddenly under the fierce gaze of the Discipline Keeper, the old woman blanched. Her eyes widened and then darted around.