I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

The next morning, Emily passed Arthur near the crowded stairwell. Her fingers caught his briefly, hidden by the students moving toward the dining hall.

”Instructor Morwenna summoned Felix and me after classes,” Arthur said.

”Then I will see you when you return,” Emily replied before releasing his hand.

Late that afternoon, Arthur and Felix met Instructor Morwenna near the edge of Lornfell’s southern market.

They followed Garran Holt’s directions behind a long row of heavy dye warehouses until they found the faded bell painted over a set of wide, weathered yard doors. A small transport company now used the front of the property. The rear section had remained closed since part of its loading platform sank into the mud years ago.

Morwenna had already spoken to the current leaseholder and obtained permission to enter.

The leaseholder met them near the back of the active yard. He carried a stack of fresh manifests and quickly unlocked the heavy padlock on the sliding rear doors.

”The previous freight company failed years ago,” the man said, dragging the door open with a harsh scrape of iron. ”They left old papers and broken equipment behind. I never used this rear bay.”

He had taken over the property long after Garran’s shipments occurred and did not know anyone named Marlow. Having provided the keys and the necessary information, he returned to the front yard.

Arthur stepped into the dim interior.

The space matched Garran’s description perfectly. The rear section contained two covered wagon spaces, a raised wooden loading platform, iron canvas hooks bolted along the walls, and a small office built into the corner. There was enough room for two wagons to be loaded beside the platform at the same time.

Arthur checked the edge of the raised platform. Trapped between two warped floorboards, in a narrow gap where ordinary sweeping would never have reached, he found a scattering of dark, fine grit.

He noticed it, but he did not touch it.

Morwenna knelt, scraped a small sample into a glass vial, and held it toward the light. She made no claim about its origin.

Felix opened his ledger and recorded where they had found it.

Beneath the collapsed section of the wooden platform lay a pile of damaged crate boards. Arthur and Felix began shifting through the rotting timber and ordinary scrap wood.

Near the bottom of the pile, Arthur found a solid piece of wood carrying a cleanly painted symbol. It was the same reseller mark they had previously seen on the contaminated crate at the Founders’ Fair.

Arthur turned the board toward the light. Beneath the fresh mark, the wood had been scraped heavily. Part of an older shipping symbol remained beneath the damage, but it was far too gouged to identify.

Felix searched the remaining debris and found two more boards with their older marks scraped away and the reseller symbol painted over them.

”Same reseller mark as the fair crate,” Felix said, holding one up.

”And something else was underneath it,” Arthur added, angling the board toward the light.

Morwenna wrapped the clearest board in canvas to preserve it. ”We record what we found. We do not guess what was removed.”

Felix moved to the small yard office. The room was filled with useless, faded receipts, old wage notes, and damaged shipment tags.

Inside the bottom drawer of the rotting desk, he found a water-stained loading book.

Felix set it on the desk and went directly to Garran’s dates.

”The second hidden shipment,” Felix said, tracing the faded ink.

The entry recorded that the rear bay had been reserved under the name Marlow. The payment came from the reseller account. Garran Holt was listed as the outgoing driver, and the cargo was described only as sealed stone crates.

Felix turned the stiff pages to the date three weeks later.

”The third hidden shipment,” he announced.

The same rear bay had been reserved by Marlow again, with payment from the same reseller account. But this entry booked two wagon spaces for the exact same morning.

One wagon belonged to Garran. The second was listed only as private hire. No driver, no owner, and no destination was recorded.

Felix checked the Thorne toll copies. Only Garran’s wagon had passed through the station. The private wagon appeared nowhere in the toll book.

Felix continued turning the pages, moving months ahead. He compared the reseller account with the copies from the Founders’ Fair investigation.

”Here,” Felix said, stopping his finger near the bottom of a later page.

The same reseller network had used the yard again shortly before the Founders’ Fair shipment reached Lornfell. The entry did not explicitly mention contaminated crystal or the fair. It recorded only a reseller shipment, fees for prepared crates, and a planned delivery to a local exhibition supplier.

Felix placed the Founders’ Fair copy beside the earlier Marlow entries.

”The same account used this yard months later.”

Arthur looked at the relabelled board. ”And sent prepared crates to the fair supplier.”

Morwenna placed the loading book under official hold for the city inspectors. She took the sealed grit, the relabelled board, and Felix’s copied entries.

She turned to Arthur and Felix.

”The city inspectors already have the reseller account,” Morwenna told them clearly. ”Now they have Marlow’s name and the yard records. From here, they handle it.”

Felix adjusted his glasses. ”Are we finished with Grayroot?”

”Unless the inspectors find something that requires you, yes,” Morwenna answered.

Arthur and Felix returned to the academy courtyard near evening.

A large crowd had formed around the central notice board. Leon and Alicia stood near the front of the gathering. Chloe waited a few steps behind them with Elara and Cedric, both recently returned from the exchange exhibition.

”What happened?” Felix asked as they approached the edge of the crowd.

Someone nearby answered. ”The administration finally announced the term break.”

Arthur reached Emily. She handed him the official notice without a word.

The break would begin at the end of the week and last for one month.

Their work on Grayroot was finished. Now they had only a few days before the academy emptied.