It was around midnight to be exact. We all were sitting down in chairs in auditorium . And probably the first time that students didn't complain as much after being called suddenly at this hour. The sleeping pills don't work if the vibration is too strong to break the rest . That is the reason that all were able to wake up . Well! It was for the best.  If only first and second floor students in senior wing had been late , then it would have probably caused some kind of figures to suspect that there was a third figure i.e. me here behind this.

I was sitting on a chair alone exactly in middle with one empty seat which Selica took after seeing me .

"Hey ! Do you know why we are called here ?" Selica asked me . Since she resided in junior wing like me , it was quite reasonable question. Though to not attract attention of others right now towards our conversation, I should act just as ignorant as others and shook my head at which she sighed wondering why .

"Students ! I am sure you are wondering why we called you ! Some students especially those in senior wing must have heard a blast . We  sent our guards outside to inspect the scene and ....found dead bodies of police with destroyed vehicles "  The whole auditorium which was noisy one moment ago fell silent.

Selica grabbed her hands together as she looked just as thrown in loop like others. The only one who had no reaction to it was me , Agnes Carthage, Several guys from senior wing and two girls from senior wing.  It was not hard to figure out as all were reacting in some way so it was a simple process of elimination.

But then unexpected happen.

"So..is the school shutting down or what? Is that why you bothered us all ?" A guy sitting in last row shouted. Everyone except few looked at him with contempt.

It looked like he Vice Principal wanted to reply but he just couldn't believe...the mentality of that student. To manage the student, the idol of school Agnes Carthage stood up and raised his hand .

Principal looked at him before allowing him to come on to stage to manage the situation.

"My fellow peers and juniors and seniors , I do understand the situation may seem undisturbing to most even if in certain regard. But I must implore you to look at things rationally. We are all saddened by these deaths but it has only been few minutes since school was able to know this so we must not rush them especially in this dire situation . I advise you to stay calm and stay together right now here as we are still ascertaining possible threats. Look at Magnus , our senior but he has managed to remain calm and collected . Look at Max Ryder, a first year and yet he is watching patiently."  He suddenly pointed everyone 's attention towards me . Agnes Carthage! What are you doing? ...you would use this situation to mark me as inescapable prey from attention won't you ? Damn perfectionist.

"Oh no ! I am not calm at all . It is just I have trouble expressing my deep distraught to all ." I said after being looked with inquisitive eyes . I don't know if I sound convincing but I tried at least.

While some lost interest in me , others kept watching, even more after they saw Selica sitting besides me .

"Max ! Are you truly anxious  though?" Selica looked at me with her hazel eyes. I don't think I would lie to you...after all , it would only corrode sense of trust between us in future and I would need you.

"No! I am indifferent to everything." I bluntly stated . Not all but that would sound like a lame excuse to gain morality.

"I don't think so ." She said quietly holding my hand as I was taken aback.  But Selica... how can you possibly know? Alright! I know . If I have already drawn attention towards me , then I better use it . I stood up as Principal looked at me along with students as to what I was planning to do.

"I was wondering if I could go for water break...it seems I feel the need to drink  at night. " I asked as contempt shrouded me from all sides . But it was no trouble. I couldn't care less.

"Of course. But as a protective measure , I would accompany you since two students have a better chance of safety."

"Of course. After all, it would be incessant to die as of now." I put my hands in my pocket as I crossed carefully through the chairs that were aligned. I was well aware of how the senior students were watching me . Selena must have been pleased at fact that I was one of the most hated student in school right now .

We quickly treaded down the stairs as the breeze calmed my spirit.

"Let's cut to chase. You aren't interested in sympathy or sadness too right ?" I stated.

"Huh! I wasn't sure you would ever openly admit and ask me out ?"  He chuckled.

"Don't make it sound like I am asking you on a date. I just meant since you already know what kind of student I am so I thought best to clear things up ." I told him . This was a risky venture but so far none of my plans had been without risks but I knew that getting Student Council President on my side would be good for me .

"So what is the plan , Max ? What do you want from me? I must return soon after all I must take perfect amount of time to go and return with my junior to raise etiquette." Hypocritical! The man who remained unfazed at understanding the tension in air. But then I was no better myself. I knew I could form a deep understanding of human nature and yet I had no desire to be part of it or at least was trying to eliminate that from myself to view it objectively. Two persons on path to become more than simple human to understand deepest natures of humans

20 minutes later

Agnes Carthage's Pov

I ..was sure that doing this to someone would be far from being Perfect President but seeing Max , it was just hard to refuse at prospect. I am sure he must have some strong reason to do that to someone.

After he sat down in his chair calmly carefree about looks given to him , I went to the Principal and suggested that it should be best to check senior wings so as to find if someone was hiding in those dorms under guise of this troubling situation to which he agreed.

1 hour later.

Max's Pov

I smiled internally as there was murmur among teachers who called a sixth year girl abruptly . Students remained confused as to what was happening?

"Students! You can go back to dorms now lead by your teachers ." Vice Principal said at last as Selica tugged on my hand. But it was not uncomfortable feeling so I just let her be. Everything went as planned.

Flashback

"I want you to help me expel someone ." I rolled my eyes as he sighed.

"Selena Arias ! I suppose."  He turned to look at me. Well you know already .

" So you don't need to do much except put this in her dorm right now . " I gave him a vital which he quickly set out to do so . Really! It was a pain to do all this but it comes in handy at times like these.

After I was kidnapped by Selena Arias , I had already thought that if catching her in act doesn't work , then all I would need to so is frame her for thing she is actually doing but no one has been to catch on .

In original timeline, I had to use Mike to force her to use her vial containing nerve gas . It was quite unlikely that Selena would ever take it out of her pocket. She would keep it to herself so as to avoid getting caught but that was the flaw in her plan .

Since she always used to keep it in pocket , it was easy to use Mike as diversion to spill water on her yesterday and pick pocket the vial replacing it with a vial of ammonia  in her pocket. Since both were unsealed, she couldn't tell by look they are distinct and Mike was not connected to me in least so it was possible for me to steal and replace here .

Then I simply had to wait for what eventuality will happen. I knew that if Isla caught on , police died , I would definitely be able to scramble through free at Axis library later but also convince Agnes possibly to implant her own evidence on her .

Once that is done , Agnes will suggest to search for intruder in dorms and as he had already planned , he went with teacher to search Selena's dorm pointing out existence of a suspicious vial .

The fact that she had another suspicious chemical in her pocket when she was called and asked to shown her belongings just fortified charges against her along with footage of her activities past week and all based on conjecture that Agnes provided on my sharing that she was using it to fix horse races and nerve gas was going to be used in final race in October. Of course , me and Agnes managed to avoid leading them to footage of tonight which they had no reason to once they found implications on Selena.

That way the school's attention was diverted from existence of intruder to a sixth year girl who was part of several felonies. The fact that no one had attacked them in this time and footage of someone leaving through Principal's estate calmed school enough to send us back to dorm while calling police to see to situation.

So basically now Selena was neutralized and eventuality of Wonavilla shutting down reduced due to gambit I set in motion. But ...art was yet to be finished.

Now

Thoth's Pov

Everyone had more or less a restless sleep after 2 am when they were sent back to beds. Max told Selica not to be distraught and try to stay calm as all students including friends comforted each other. But Max had actually other reason behind sleeping restlessly that night.

By morning, reporters were swarming in the hostel eager to report about situation. He looked at Agnes who nodded as we moved together towards the main gate while teachers were trying to appease the situation.

Carthage asked them whether they could try to give them scoop and then swarm them outside as soon as possible. Teachers were skeptical about Max as he wasn't anyone significant in Wonavilla student body but agreed seeing that President allowed Max to come with him.

"Hey ! Just why is student council President allowing that despicable guy like Max to come with him?" One of the Kate's fangirl said . Obviously many students were of same opinion as they conjectured him to not caring about death of those men . Kate had heard his thoughts  from Max himself but she wasn't sure whether he was lying or saying truthfully.

Though Axel reprimanded some students heavily as he knew Max wasn't like that . As he believed so.

Selica just kept quiet to herself observing the situation. What was Max planning ? Why would he go reporters? Why did he ask her to do that..? Even though she wasn't sure , she agreed to help more because of gratitude than obligation.

"My name is Max Ryder. I want to tell you all that at midnight when some students heard the blast , they were pretty shook . School authorities were quite attentive and quick to react and asked us all to assemble in Auditorium . Later we were able to discover that there was an intruder as suspected who had already left . But more importantly , we found..." He looked at Agnes Carthage who nodded.

"I am Student Council President of this hostel . I can definitely confirm this junior's word . After all this, when we searched the student dorms , we found that a student was carrying suspectible substances possibly used in rigging horse matches . So we called the police here for both reason first to take her in and second to find out more about the intruder who escaped our grounds and possibly behind the blast . At which you came rushing in hearing police are arriving here in large numbers." Agnes finished as reporters absorbed everything .

Max knew that if only investigation had to happen, then reporters could definitely get scoop from police itself but if an arrest had to made along with this dire situation, then there was 100% chance of them arriving here for interview. That is why Max had to ensure that Selena is expelled exactly at this moment in time.

"So you first year, what can you tell about that student going to be arrested by police?"  One fired a question at me .

"The name is Selena Arias . Threads of her deceit might have not been known if not for this unfortunate incident. Need was certainly there to stop her . I mean . Destruction caused today wasn't a joke . So we can't have more of such complications . Compromise with  safety has never been school's policy after all . You can understand right." Max told them as they walked our way back without giving anything else.

"Max ! You know..what you just did .. don't you ?" Carthage asked him . After all Agnes was shrewd and sharp in intellect enough to understand his intentions.

"I know..and I am prepared."  Max just smiled as the sun turned bright yellow from red and wind fluttered his hair over his face. Now his art is finished after all.

One day later

No one's POV

"Max! You play deeper and deeper don't you ?" Isla chuckled seeing Max's interview in paper.

Message was quite clear

"The Threads Need Destruction So Compromise. You understand right?"

It seemed like Max had already made a deal . There was just a simple compromise. She had to silence those organisation guys permanently in exchange for Max who probably used Selica to tamper with footage of her running out to hide her figure as much as possible.

So it seems like he took care of someone using the situation he expected her to cause through the consequence of that expulsion, he was able to achieve two things at end ; one ! Max even if just as mention had reached the lips of organization in place and second, he doesn't have to worry about getting framed by organization guys as they will be eliminated by then.

She couldn't help but smile internally..."Max! You turned all this just as you wanted at end, didn't you ? A perfect artistry from you .Guess we are on equal footing now . I wonder now... just how I will break you ... because when I figure it out , it will truly be exhilarating.

Au revoir readers! Keep posted for the next chapter.