Head Mortlock and the various Deans of the university were gathered together. Heated discussions over the coming ranking compet.i.tion placed a heavy burden on these old men and women as they felt as though the fate of their careers was hanging in the balance.

Although none of them would admit it, they suddenly missed the arrogant, condescending smile that was almost perpetually plastered onto Ci-ci's handsome features.

Just weeks earlier when more than 80% of them had pressured Head Mortlock into forcibly revoking Ci-ci's tenure, they hadn't thought this far ahead. Or, rather, these old fogies who only cared about their image and how much money they could make didn't have an accurate understanding of the students beneath them, and thus overestimated themselves, and underestimated the genius of Ci-ci.

Now that the ranking compet.i.tion was coming up, Grandbell was in danger of being embarra.s.sed by the other universities.

It wasn't that they didn't have other talented and intelligent students, because they did. The problem was that all of the students they could have labeled with the t.i.tle of 'Prodigy' was either Ci-ci himself, or the students under him. Even the number one university couldn't have an endless supply of prodigies, which painted them all into a corner. Now that four of them refused to partic.i.p.ate, and one of them couldn't partic.i.p.ate for the sake of their face, what the h.e.l.l were they supposed to do?

Head Mortlock quietly watched the Deans all but ripped each other's throats out. Spittle flew through the air as the debate heated up, yet the Head of the university said and did nothing. It was as though none of this had the slightest bit to do with him.

Frae stood silently behind her father's back. A slight mocking smile coated her beautiful features, but she too said nothing.

Her demeanor was just as elegant as ever. She wore a tight business suit with a matching skirt that wrapped firmly around her knees. The dark stockings that covered her long legs could hardly hide the enticement her figure held. Yet, she played her role as secretary with a quiet grace.

Truth be told, education wasn't something Frae had any interest in. She only followed this path to stay by Ci-ci's side. But, now that Ci-ci was gone, she was starting to question her purpose here. Sticking by her father wasn't something she wanted to do.

Obviously, as one of the eight pillar families of West Continent, the Mortlock family's roots weren't singular. Frae was already thinking about taking over their various businesses to put her genius in administrative matters to the forefront.

The only problem was that the hierarchy of a pillar family was complex. Although Frae and her father were high ranking members of one of their three main bloodlines, they were just that.

After her father's prestige took a hit due to Ci-ci, Frae's rank in the family also took its own tumble. Her father nearly lost his Patriarch position to the inner struggle, leading to her becoming a p.a.w.n for marriage.

It was clear to her and her father that almost ten years after destroying the Grandbell family, those seven snake-like families had set their sights on them. But, clearly, their two cousin bloodlines either didn't care in their pursuit of power, or were too stupid to understand. Either way, it wouldn't be easy for Frae to bite off her own piece of the family businesses now.

Still, she was very confident in making her prowess known to those fools. It just had to be done delicately or else the seven families might realize too soon that the Mortlock family had another dragon in their bloodline aside from her father.

With all of these things in her mind, how could Frae care about a mere ranking compet.i.tion? In fact, it was better if they slipped. That way they would seem like even less of a threat.

"How could they refuse to partic.i.p.ate?! They are students of Grandbell!" An old man with a thick mustache harrumphed. He was the Dean of the English department.

Unfortunately, his background didn't help the fact his argument was terrible. There was no mandate that said students must partic.i.p.ate in the ranking compet.i.tion. Plus, Ci-ci's students had even threatened to drop out and join another university. If it wasn't for the legacy of their teacher, they would have done so already.

The Dean of the Math department, an old woman with sharply shaped red gla.s.ses raged in agreement. "To think, the amount of resources we've wasted on them. For them to respond to our kindness like this?!"

After being snapped out of her thoughts, Frae almost couldn't refrain from rolling her eyes.

These Deans hadn't taught a cla.s.s in decades. To top it off, they were constantly voting for the cutting of funding all to funnel it into their own selfish research.

The only reason that this wasn't noticed was because donors had flooded Grandbell University with resources, each scrambling to have their names attached to the genius of Ci-ci. But, for obvious reasons, this flood had slowed to a trickle, making the corruption of Grandbell's Deans come to the forefront, especially with the start of the new year coming so soon.

In addition to all of that, they didn't even give normal students a proper chance to join their research teams to gain experience. If Frae remembered correctly, Ci-ci's four students only became his students because they were rejected by these very deans sitting here bloviating about how much they had done for them.

To make matters worse, their practice was rife with nepotism. They hadn't rejected Ci-ci's students because they were unqualified, but rather because they never gave them a real chance to begin with.

Any slight bit of attention would inform anyone that 80% of their research teams were made of either their own family members, or the family members of their close friends.

These Deans were nothing more than leeches to Grandbell University, yet they pretended to be its G.o.dsend.

Suddenly, the discussion was caught off by a loud knocking of the door, followed by an unknown young man strolling in and past a panicking secretary trying her best to stop him.

"h.e.l.lo!" The young man's voice boomed, stopping the Deans who planned on telling him off in their tracks. He commanded too much presence. "You all can call me Student Number Five, or Five for short. My Teacher is none other than the great Ci-ci Bell. I'm here to save your a.s.ses."