Chapter 238 238:Council's Trial
TAP! TAP! TAP!
Lucas hurried his way towards the Trial room which was rarely used unless there was a grave situation.
On his way, he thought of countless possibilities for why he was being called while coming up with a way to avoid the crisis.
The most plausible reason he might be called for was either someone managed to find out what he did yesterday or Issac moved to trouble him.
As per the specifics, he didn't know anything. He tried to look for Miss Ami but her phone was unreachable. Meanwhile, the other heads of the Council didn't know anything. Even Dead Eye Ian who was responsible for Security had no clue.
"If worse comes to worst, I can drag it down or I can just leave the Academy."
Lucas' eyes shone with stern determination. Unlike before he wasn't going to give in to unjust blame pinned on him.
Near the Trial room, a guard led Lucas inside.
Taking a deep breath, Lucas stepped in through the door that opened wide showcasing the interior.
It was a big spacious room with large blocks of higher seats where many people were seated.
Lucas raised his chin to take a look at the people.
Each year had 100 professors and 20 Instructors to assist. But out of all of them, only the Professors of Class A had some presence.
In the first year, besides Ami, and Donald, Lokov held a major chunk of power.
All the influential professors were present here; however, to make it worse, most of the people under Julian's faction were absent.
An ill forbidding welled up in his heart as he saw Issac in the middle who maintained a generous benevolent smile capable of charming any woman.
Behind him sat many 2nd year and 3rd Year professors which hinted that the situation might be way worse than he imagined as people with the majority of powers were assembled here.
It seems like the trial holds a crucial significance for the entire Horizon.
'What the fuck! All of them are looking at me as if I have committed a grave sin.'
"Lucas!"
Lucas snapped out of his thoughts and glanced at the source of voice only to find a familiar person with a pale expression filled with guilt.
"Senior Linda!"
Seeing her, it didn't take long for Lucas to figure out.
"Lucas, that...."
CLAP!CLAP!
Linda was halted by a reverberating clap followed by a sharp voice.
"Sorry, but we don't have time to witness a touching reunion." Issac stood up from his seat and walked down from his seat.
Ignoring Lucas' sharp glare, he coughed to draw everyone's attention.
"Proceed things as per the rules. Issac, please relay your investigation." Lokov urged Issac sternly but anyone with a brain could sense that he was supporting Issac.
Donald raised his brows while his gaze interchanged between Issac and Lucas.
Donald who knew about the inside information felt all this was bullshit over rivalry for love and Issac being jealous.
And Issac made a move at the worst time, as Ami and the Princess's support were absent now.
'I can only delay things for a bit if it gets worse.'
Donald sighed inwardly.
"Since we already have many things going around, I won't waste your time and will get straight to the point."
"Lucas Bright, a student in 1st Year had violated one of the laws of Academies."
With an authoritative tone, Issac walked towards a Podium and started his speech.
"According to article 21(A), anything that is developed within the Academy using Academy resources would be part of the Academy and the patent of any such product will solely belong to the Academy. The inventor would only be provided with the profit of sales after a thorough negotiation.'
"Also, according to Article 23(C), the indigenous products developed in the Academy can't be sold through outside means."
Issac paused a bit, staring around at everyone.
His gaze, rotating all around, fell on Lucas.
"However, my fellow junior who might be unaware of certain clauses, had violated them. An indigenous potion Calming Potion along with the Super Sensory Potion has now been listed in public and is sold by the Company named Salus."
"We don't know whether Lucas is acting as the middleman or has some ties with it. But we can't exclude the fact that Lucas was involved with it and forced Linda to research potions for him."
"He didn't force me." Linda refuted with an anxious expression trying to stand up for Lucas which made Issac's expression distorted.
"That just means, you are also an accomplice that sold yourself for some meager money and used the benevolence of the Academy for your own personal gains." Isaac sneered.
'I gave you an opportunity but you didn't cherish it. Good, now you can drown with him as well.'
"There is something I want to say to the jury." Lucas raised his request humbly to rely on his opinion.
"Who asked you to talk?!" Lokov screamed trying to assert his dominance.
"Let him speak. Everyone has the right to voice out their opinion." Donal interfered with a calm expression.
"Thanks, Professor Donald." Lucas bowed his head respectfully and proceeded while marking Lokov's name on the death list.
"I don't know if Sir Issac knows about this but all the funding for the research was done by the organization named Salus. From arranging materials to providing financial aid to Senior Linda, it had all been funded by Salus and we had not used a single penny of the Academy nor did we use academy materials or resources.
"So what, you still had used the Horizon facility. Didn't Linda experiment in the Lab facility and use the instruments? This proves that without the Academy facility, you couldn't have developed this potion." Isaac added.
"Everyone knows how expensive the equipment is. Without such a world-class facility, do you think you could have developed it easily?"
As Issac laid out his allegations, Lucas clapped for Issac inwardly.
'This man hides his fangs well. I am sure he knew about this quite before but decided to strike when a favourable opportunity arose.'
Lucas had to admire this guy's patience.
It had been two days when Salus began its sale and Issac struck him.
This time it wasn't his fault nor he was careless.
When he came to know about this from Linda, he asked her about this and she assured him that as long as they didn't use Horizon money there would be no problem. Linda hadn't used the academy facility much except for the testing phase.
As Lucas thought about this, he could hear two men mocking behind him with that familiar meme and blaming him for believing her.
'Woman!'
'Hahaha!'
However, despite all this, he didn't blame Linda.
Lucas raised his gaze and met with Linda who was trembling with moist eyes feeling guilty.
Lucas looked at her as if trying to assure her that everything was alright. There was no need to panic.
He didn't know if Linda got the signal but she seemed to calm down a bit.
The Professors present in the jury started to discuss among themselves.
"We need to punish him harshly and make an example out of him so that others wouldn't dare."
"I don't think we should do that. Moreover, we don't know about Salus and the support behind it. Let's think about it calmly." A professor spoke in Lucas' favour.
"So, what if those Salus had a background? Do we need to fear them? Don't you forget that we are Teachers of the Institute of Horizon. We don't need to bow before anyone else."
"Well said!"
"That's the spirit."
Hearing those proud arrogant words, Donald suppressed his urge to hit them.
'You know, you are the Teachers of a prestigious institute who don't need to bow before others yet you go around licking under toes and ass. I had never ever in my life heard of such sophisticated hypocritical words.
"We need to punish him for this crime.This isn't a simple issue. Some try to sabotage the Academy's goodwill for business purposes. We can't let this slide with a simple warning or punishment. We need to be strict."Lokov rubbed his chin with a profound expression while looking at Issac from the corner of his eyes, like a dog hungry for praise.
Donald's expression turned worse. Out of 36 present out here, 22 of them seemed to make things difficult for Lucas.
'If it comes to voting, things might become worse.'
"All of you, please keep quiet. The first thing is, that the formula of new-found potions might be in the company's hands to tempt these students to find them excellent. I don't think they were too much at fault. At most, we can give them a slight representation, cut their points or suspend them for a few days. Let's not make the matter worse as we don't have full authority in this and Vice Principal Josh is absent." Final intervened trying to tilt the things.
''Bullshit.''
"We can't do this."
"I agree, we can't be lax in this matter. The reputation of the academy is at stake."
Taking a deep breath, Lucas sighed seeing the Professors quarreling and then he seized Issac.
'So, you want to play politics and mind games, huh?'
Issac, who was also observing Lucas, felt a bad premonition seeing Lucas' lips curling upwards.
"Sir, before you can relay your judgment. I want to tell you something."
The jury which had been discussing things suddenly turned silent and stared at Lucas.
"You dared to interfere again?!" Lokov along with others screamed at Lucas.
"Don't you have minimal courtesy?"
"I have," Lucas said with a smile,"I raised my hand and Sir Donald permitted me to speak."
"Yes, I did, any problems? Let him voice his opinion first. You can't ignore his words and give judgment." Donald spoke looking around.
"I can infer that most probably you are going to ask me to hand over the patents and then punish me for all the stuff. But before we go into that, I wanted to inform you of something important."
"As far as I know, the patent of potions was reviewed and approved by Duke Frost and Duke Warren. And both of them also had a part in the profit." Lucas spoke slowly yet steadily but his words struck like thunder startling everyone in the room.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦