Chapter 128: Tricked and Punished!

The entire hall instantly erupted.

"What?!"

"We’ve been deceived!"

"They tricked us!"

Students who had been sitting only moments ago suddenly shot to their feet and rushed toward the doors.

Several of them reached the entrance almost immediately, only to find that the massive doors had already been sealed.

"Open the doors!"

"This isn’t fair!"

"You can’t do this!"

A wave of frustrated shouting swept through the hall as students crowded around the locked entrance, some banging their hands against the doors while others turned toward the raised platform with furious expressions.

Principal Ronan remained completely calm.

"You think this isn’t fair?"

His voice carried clearly through the uproar.

"You caused a disturbance, created a massive rukus, and damaged the academy’s reputation in front of the Empire Association. After everything you did, you still have the nerve to complain about fairness?"

The students gradually quieted.

Ronan’s expression hardened.

"Return to your positions."

Nobody moved.

"Now."

The command immediately sent everyone scrambling back toward their seats.

Ronan waited until the students were settled before continuing.

"And if you refuse to cooperate, your punishment will be tripled."

That was enough.

Every student immediately returned to their position.

Serving the academy’s punishment was already bad enough.

Serving a punishment that had been tripled was an entirely different matter.

The hall quickly became much quieter as everyone settled down, clearly deciding that whatever punishment was waiting for them was better than making it worse.

Ethan sighed as he sat back down.

"We’ve been deceived."

Jake, sitting nearby, gave a small shrug.

"I already guessed something like this would happen."

Ethan looked at him.

"You did?"

Jake nodded.

"The academy is too cocky. There was no way they were going to let everyone who caused that mess simply walk away after calling us all here."

Lara immediately groaned.

"If you guessed something like this was going to happen, why didn’t you tell us? We could have left before they locked the doors, or at least not come here!"

Jake looked at her.

"First, I wasn’t ninety percent sure. I just had a feeling."

"That isn’t an answer."

"Second, even if we had left, do you really think the academy wouldn’t have found another way to make us serve the punishment?"

Lara opened her mouth.

Jake continued before she could respond.

"We would have had to serve it one way or another, so what was the point?"

Lara groaned again.

"I hate how reasonable that sounds."

Ethan couldn’t help smiling slightly.

Before they could continue talking, the lights in the hall dimmed.

A large screen suddenly lit up at the front of the room.

Every student’s attention immediately shifted toward it.

The first image appeared.

Ethan’s expression changed.

It was CCTV footage.

The screen showed the academy grounds from the day of the incident.

Then another angle appeared.

And another.

The footage had been recorded from multiple cameras positioned throughout the academy, capturing the events from almost every possible direction.

There was nowhere to hide.

Faces appeared clearly on the screen one after another.

Students who had been hoping that their faces had somehow escaped the cameras immediately began sinking into their seats.

Some covered their faces with their hands.

Others stared at the screen in horror.

A few looked toward their friends with desperate expressions, silently hoping they had somehow been missed.

Ethan watched as the footage continued playing.

The cameras had captured almost everything.

Every angle.

Every movement.

Every student who had been involved.

There was no blurry footage to save anyone.

No convenient blind spot.

No way to claim they had not been there.

The academy had clearly been prepared for this.

Ronan turned toward the students.

"Those whose faces have been identified in the footage will step forward."

The hall immediately filled with uneasy murmurs.

Ronan continued.

"You will receive your punishment according to the academy’s disciplinary regulations."

A few students groaned.

Others exchanged worried looks.

Ethan slowly looked around.

He already knew his face was going to be there.

He had been there.

There was no point pretending otherwise.

Beside him, Rin also remained quiet.

Jake and Lara exchanged a glance.

They both knew it too.

Ronan looked toward the screen.

"The list has already been updated in real time."

Almost immediately, phones began vibrating throughout the hall.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

One notification after another sounded across the room.

Every student reached for their phone.

Ethan pulled his out as well.

A notification from the academy had appeared.

[Academy Disciplinary Notice: The official punishment list has been updated.]

Students immediately opened it.

The hall became strangely quiet as everyone began scrolling through the list.

Some students were searching their names with nervous expressions.

Others were scrolling slowly, desperately hoping they would somehow be missing.

One student near the back whispered, "Please don’t be there."

Another muttered, "Maybe they didn’t get my face."

A few students sighed in relief when they couldn’t immediately find their names.

Then they checked again.

And again.

Nobody seemed willing to trust the first glance.

Ethan carefully went through the list.

Rin was doing the same beside him.

Jake and Lara also checked their phones.

Their names were there.

Of course they were.

The four of them had been captured clearly by the academy’s cameras.

Ethan let out a quiet sigh.

At least there was no point pretending anymore.

The punishment was coming.

One student, however, seemed determined to make sure nobody escaped.

He was scrolling through the list with far more intensity than everyone else, checking the names one by one.

He was not satisfied with simply finding his own name.

If he had to serve the punishment, then everyone else who deserved it had better serve it too.

He carefully checked the list again, comparing the names against the faces he remembered seeing during the incident.

One by one.

Name after name.

Face after face.

Then his expression slowly changed.

He stopped scrolling.

His eyes narrowed.

He looked at the screen again.

Then he raised his head and began looking around the hall, carefully studying the faces of the students sitting around him.

Something was wrong.

He counted again.

The number of students identified in the footage did not match the number of names on the official punishment list.

One person was missing.

His eyes widened slightly as the realization finally settled in.

He looked back down at his phone.

Then toward the crowd.

Then back at the list.

"Wait..."

The hall immediately quieted.

The student looked toward the front.

"There is one student who wasn’t added to the official punishment list."