TBATE - The Help of a Certain Being

Replacement

The Twins and present Student Council members immediately rushed forward as they grabbed everyone involved excluding Arthur.

"Alright, the fun's over, what's going on here?"

Their once angry faces switched to ones of surprise and grim seriousness.

"Prez!" Arthur noticed me.

"What happened?"

He looked at the 20 students as his gaze stuck on each of them for a moment.

"As far as I know, I can only assume racial tension. Elves and Humans were bickering, one pushed the other, and then it turned into an all-out duel.

I was dragged in to judge thanks to your new rules regarding our levels, and then we ended up like this. I noticed a particularly intense flare of mana coming from... that guy over there."

He pointed to a fairly weak student, a Human with a Light Red core but with mana levels exceeding one.

I kneeled down as I analyzed his core.

"Arthur, you were right about this guy. Actually, there're traces, but I can sense magnified mana signatures in all of these mages. Their cores can hold more mana than mages of the same core stage."

"Mana doping," Cyrus concluded.

"Yep. They've been injecting artificial mana into their bodies. I'd say these Elves would've had the upper hand if they hadn't done so. Naturally, Elves are slightly stronger in terms of raw power."

I looked at all of them as they stared at the floor guiltily, ashamed at their actions.

"So I'm right. Take all of them to Director Goodsky's office while I repair academy grounds. I'll join later," I relayed to the members.

"Yes, President," Tessia responded as she conjured green vines that wrapped around all twenty students and dragged them off, paying a short glance to Arthur.

"You might wanna give her that little present I left in your ring," I whispered into his ear.

"Later, though." I winked mischievously.

___________________________________

"Apologies for my late arrival, Director Goodsky. Have you heard their alibis already?" I asked as I walked into her office.

"Yes, I have, Student Council President Kuro. It seems racial tension was the lead factor here."

"I thought so. And what of the doping? Have you sensed the abnormal mana in their cores?"

She looked at me perplexed.

"Abnormal? What do you mean?"

I conjured some water and created a bowl of Ice, letting the water flow into it.

"If this is a normal Red core mage's reserves, then this," I created the same thing, but about half as much larger.

"This is what our dopers have done. Much like how Lucas Wykes has abnormal amounts of mana even though he's only at the Yellow stage and yet is able to compare to some Silver core mages, these students have done such but on a much smaller scale."

"Interesting..." she grabbed her chin in thought.

"Why'd you do it? No, scratch that, how'd you do it? Elixirs of this degree would cost you at least a few gold."

When nobody spoke, I was even prepared to use Command Magic to get my answers.

But then a hand went into the air. A lanky, blonde student with a 5 on his card.