Chapter 368:just go and get admitted.

Chapter 368: 368:just go and get admitted.

The afternoon came and with that, the enormous crowds slowly became smaller. Examination candidates had mostly disappeared into designated areas and the special-admission line also shortened.

One o’clock passed... two... then three.

Ravenna checked her phone, nothing. She called Silver again but he was still unavailable.

She closed her eyes.

Mallory sat beside her on one of the benches outside the processing area.

"You can’t miss your own admission."

"I know."

"You’ve waited most of the day."

"I know."

"Silver would probably be angry."

Ravenna smiled faintly.

"He would lecture me about wasting an opportunity while completely ignoring the fact that he spent days fighting monsters underground."

"That sounds accurate."

She looked toward the entrance one more time, still nothing.

By the time the clock approached four in the afternoon, the special-admission area looked completely different from the morning.

The huge crowd was gone and only a dwindling number of candidates remained. Staff members were already reorganizing some of the outer barriers.

Ravenna stood. Mallory stood with her. She tightened her grip around the folder.

"I have to go."

Mallory nodded.

"You waited as long as you could."

"He’ll understand."

"He will."

She looked toward the road one last time, swallowed, then turned toward the remaining special-admission line.

She only took several steps before someone called her name.

"Ravenna!"

She stopped.

The voice was distant, and hoarse but familiar. Ravenna didn’t turn immediately, her heart seemed to forget what it was supposed to do.

Mallory looked behind them, her eyes widening.

"Ravenna..."

She slowly turned.

A taxi was pulling away from the academy entrance. Standing beside the road, wearing unfamiliar clothes with visible bandages and looking like he’d spent the better part of a week fighting an entire mountain, was Silver.

He had one hand raised. He also looked exhausted, bruised, and dirty but alive.

And he was smiling directly at her.

For several seconds, Ravenna couldn’t move. People continued walking around her.

The remaining special-admission candidates shifted forward, academy representatives spoke with parents near the barriers, another taxi pulled toward the roadside, and somewhere behind her one of the staff members called for the next applicant, but all of it became distant noise the moment Ravenna saw Silver standing near the entrance.

He looked terrible.

Even from where she stood, she could see the bandages. There was one partly visible beneath the collar of the shirt he had somehow changed into, another around one forearm, and a small dressing along the side of his face.

His hair had been cleaned and somewhat fixed, but there was no hiding how exhausted he looked.

His face was thinner than she remembered, dark circles remained beneath his eyes, and even the way he stood was slightly different, as though his body had recovered enough to move but hadn’t forgotten what had happened to it.

There was no sword on his side and his usual equipment was gone. He didn’t even have his phone in his hand.

But he was there.

Silver lowered the hand he’d raised and looked at her. The smile on his face widened slightly.

"I was starting to think I had the wrong gate. You have no idea how many entrances this place has, and apparently telling someone I’m looking for a white-haired woman isn’t particularly useful when half the people around here are dressed strangely enough that nobody even considers white hair unusual."

Ravenna heard him and understood the words but she still didn’t move.

His smile slowly faded.

"Ravenna?"

Her lips parted but nothing came out. She had imagined this moment too many times.

At the observation center, she had imagined Silver suddenly walking through the doors.

During the drive to Alpha Three, she’d imagined seeing his car behind them.

At Mallory’s house, she’d woken from sleep convinced she’d heard him.

Yesterday, when his second message arrived, she’d imagined him reaching the surface and immediately calling her.

All morning she’d watched the academy entrance until strangers started looking like him from a distance.

Now he was actually standing there; she couldn’t make her body believe it.

Mallory was the first one to move. She stepped closer and touched Ravenna’s arm.

"Ravenna, look at me for a second."

She didn’t, her eyes remained fixed on Silver. Mallory followed her gaze before squeezing her arm.

"You’re not imagining him. I can see him too, and unless both of us have somehow started seeing the exact same thing, Silver is really standing over there."

That broke something.

The folder slipped, Mallory caught it before it hit the ground.

Ravenna ran fast towards him. Silver barely had time to understand what was happening.

"Ravenna, wait, I’m still..."

She jumped into his arms. It was not a careful embrace or the restrained hug Silver’s injured body desperately needed; she threw both arms around his neck and jumped completely off the ground.

Her caught her instinctively, his body immediately protesting. Pain shot through his ribs and shoulder. His legs nearly failed beneath the sudden weight.

[Primal Strength Lv3 Activated.]

The skill surged through his exhausted muscles. He staggered backward two steps but kept her off the ground.

"Okay, that hurt considerably more than I expected."

Ravenna didn’t answer but her legs wrapped around him and her arms tightened around his neck.

He was about to open his mouth when he felt something warm against his shoulder.

She was crying.

The first sob escaped against his neck, and after that she seemed to lose whatever control she’d been holding onto and broke into full on sobs.

His expression changed completely and he stopped thinking about his ribs. One arm moved firmly around her waist while the other came across her back.

Ravenna buried her face against him.

"I... hic...hic...I... I... thought you were dead."

The words were broken by another sob.

Silver closed his eyes.

"I know."

"You don’t know anything, you don’t get to say that... it’s totally unfair."

Her grip tightened, she didn’t give him a chance to answer before she continued.