We exit the Revolutionary Room, that's what I am calling it now.
The magical entrance closes itself off, revealing only a solid wall to be seen.
We weave our way through the variety of tunnels, and passageways back to the main basement floor. We then ascend the steps to get out of the basement.
To be honest, I do not know how to find the place again without Justus.
"How do we find the Revolutionary Room again in case you aren't always around?" I ask him.
Justus pauses, walking up the stairs. He wants to make sure nobody is around us before speaking. He turns toward me. "Summon a small dark flame from the tip of your wand. When you do so, you will feel a magical sensation drawing your flame somewhere."
"I made a magical device that detects dark magic and draws it toward the room. The eradicators can't use dark magic and they despise it, so it works out. This way, HLH can find you if need be," he says as he continues up the steps.
By the time we reach the first floor of the academy again, it feels like the atmosphere is too bland. The amount of mana down below in the basement is incredible. I fixate my eyes on Justus as he looks around to make sure the coast is clear.
I have a new respect for him because it must have taken him years to protect and build such a room for our purposes; I think to myself as we walk back toward his office.
When Justus is sure nobody is within earshot, he tells me, "Once we are back in the office, I am going to use the magical intercom to contact your friends to join me in my office, but only one at a time. I know how to make a private channel so it doesn't have to be blasted to everyone. Then we will explain everything to them."
We arrive at his office, and I slump into one of the chairs at the desk. My feet feel like they are going to have blisters from the amount of walking around I did today. Justus contacts each one of my close friends privately and they arrive one by one.
The first one to arrive is Leena. The second is Zephyr. Third is Ivy. They keep coming in one by one until Leena, Zephyr, Ivy, Neve, Matteo, and Ignis are all in the room. They all sit or stand around the room in anticipation. I feel bad for making Leena and Zephyr leave their dorms again.
They seem unbothered by it, though.
"Thank you all for coming so quickly here," Justus says in a gracious tone.
"Leena and Zephyr already know about the topic I am about to bring up. To some of you, I am about to say something that may seem radical, but you have to have trust in me and your other friends." Justus makes sure they are all taking this seriously.
"The Keepers you know are known as Eradicators," Justus states before continuing his announcement.
"The Eradicators are not the people who you think they are. When you were just young children, the Eradicators took you all and made you think they were the guardians of the world."
"The Eradicators are just posing as the righteous Keepers of the past. They transformed into complete light magic monsters. You can see it by how they run the school, how they use students to fight for their own goals despite some students dying, and how they get rid of the weak."
"There is an organization made up of all humans that are fighting them called HLH, also known as Humanity's Last Hope. Nico here can explain more from here." Justus gestures toward me.
To be honest, I do not feel like explaining it at all, but I do it anyway.
Justus is smart and has a reason for every action he does. If I explain it, it must sound more convincing than if he just says it as someone they barely know. Since I don't want to make you all bored by explaining the entire scenario again, I will skip towards the end of my long dramatic monologue.
"That's everything we know so far and why we must recruit so many people. We need to change the world for humanity soon or else the Keepers will become impatient and start being a lot more aggressive with the students."
"Are you guys in? If not, that's okay. Just please keep this a secret, okay?" I say, my voice trembling slightly.
They all nod in agreement to keep it a secret. Zephyr is the first one to speak up by saying, "You already know Leena and I are down for it. After all, we were the first ones to wake up and experience HLH firsthand. I feel like I can be a lot more free down there." Leena nods in agreement and speaks up as well.
"Of course, we are down to support you and, of course, take down those Eradicators. Even if the Keepers were still themselves, if they kept acting like they were superior, the noble houses would have taken action, anyway."
"At least the noble houses that aren't loyal to the Keepers such as the House of Frost, House of Uracain, and the House of Grey would have made change happen," Leena says with determination.
"I don't like how they treated you from the very first day you arrived. I didn't like how they restricted people from entering the noble class because their status wasn't higher. Even if they had the Noble Placement Exams, that mostly acted as just entertainment for them," Ivy says, folding her arms with a dark tone unusual for her personality.
My body finally feels lighter as the weight of my back disappears for a moment.
These people care a lot about me and believe what Justus and I have to say. After talking more about what we have in store, Justus briefly describes the Revolutionary Room and our current short-term goal.
With our team in place, we know what has to be done. It is time to build and mobilize our army to take back humanity. First, though, I need some good sleep before then; I think to myself as I yawn.
All of us agree to meet tomorrow at the cafe for breakfast.
We then promptly leave the room and fall asleep in our dorms.