Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 4-6) ✓

269 | Little Bees

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"THIS ISN'T A REAL school? So all the things I endured here...it meant nothing?" Xander asks in disbelief, trying to stay calm but his heart wouldn't stop beating fast at the painful realization. "I could have left! Do you know that?! I should have told my parents how worthless this all was!" he then shouted, taking a step to approach the Saints but Max immediately stopped him.

    "Calm down," Max says. "I know you're frustrated, and I don't want to take that away from you. But as fucked up as this may be, let's think rationally for a second. Okay?"

    Stefan and Keigo reach out to touch Xander's shoulder, and the poor serf finally takes a deep breath and calms himself down.

    "You bunch better have a fucking good explanation as to why you hid this from all of us," Xander then says, looking at the council officers again who were obviously guilty for keeping this a secret from everyone.

     "As Perseus said, we only learned about this two years ago, just a year after Klyde left. St. George Academy has been running for seven years, and within seven years, thousands of students have already graduated. Thousands of students are out there, finally living their normal lives after the fucked up things they endured here. We couldn't do anything. We were just stuck between doing the right thing and doing what needed to be done. We couldn't...we didn't have the heart to tell everyone the truth. To tell them that they endured all this for nothing. We were just scared," Justice explains, and for the first time, the charming and strong-willed Saints' President looked terrified.

     "And please don't get mad at Justice. I made the final call," Levi then revealed. "Justice initially wanted to do something but I told him to keep quiet. I'm not asking any of you to forgive us, but I hope you can understand why we did what we did," Levi then says.

     Xander and the others didn't say anything anymore either. They're angry and frustrated, but the council was left with the burden of keeping this painful truth. They're just victims too. The real villains are the adults who got away with everything.

     "So that's why when we were making plans, you never said anything about taking down the ministry. It was either implement the White Uniform Protection Code or destroy the Division Program. It was never destroy the Ministry," Max points out, massaging his temple because of how messy everything became. He just wanted to help, and now he's tangled with something as big as this. He's started to doubt if involving himself in their problem was worth it or not, but at the end of the day, he already made up his mind so no point crying over split milk now.

     "Okay, we can think of something," Max says, pacing across the room while touching the brooches in his collar. "There has to be something we can do about this."

     "But if this wasn't a registered school, how is it possible that the Department of Education never questioned it?" Vesper then blurts out, instantly making Max stop walking.

     "We checked their system and saw that St. George was never approved by them. Father Lucas Ivory must have lied to President Janus about it," Levi then adds, making Max furrow his brows in confusion.

     "Then they know? They know this isn't a school at all. That's the only explanation," Stefan says, which the others agree on.

     "Most schools here are non-profitable, and sometimes free of charge. They're also funded by the local authority, or the government directly but..." Max paused, thinking about it for a while, but then his eyes widened in shock; the others somehow realized it now too after connecting the dots.

     "The Department of Education is in on it!" Max and Keigo shouted in unison.

     "St. George Academy has a chance. The Secretary of State for Education, Laurence Chapman, probably knows about what's happening here. They purposely didn't register this house so they can easily exploit the students without any problem," Max explains before looking at his dear friend, Keigo. "Can you check on the Secretary of Education? See if you can find anything about him."