Chapter 29: A Nexian Academy

"No."

The Boss replied calmly.

"If she were, she wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of researching his background and sending his files to me. She’s serious about this."

"Are you trying to ask me to interfere?" the woman asked.

The Boss shook his head.

"No. The only thing I ask you to do is make sure he doesn’t die. I’m uncertain how his death would affect Morgaret."

"I need more time to fully understand their relationship, and until then, you simply make sure he survives."

"Anything else, leave to his fate."

_____________

Meanwhile, having rushed inside, Declan nearly stumbled over himself, but his quick reflexes allowed him to catch his balance before he could fall.

The building’s interior opened into a massive entrance hall filled with people, most of them adults, though there were also a few individuals around his age.

They wore blue-and-white uniforms, with most of them stationed behind desks, leading Declan to assume they were members of the academy’s staff.

After glancing around the room, he soon spotted a staff member who appeared to be idle and made his way toward him.

The man had features oddly similar to Declan’s, particularly their striking green eyes.

Seeing Declan approach, he paused for a moment before turning his full attention toward him.

"Quite the nice eye color you’ve got there, mate," he said.

Declan smiled.

"I could say the same for you."

"You wouldn’t be wrong, haha. What can I help you with?"

"Just trying to get into the academy."

"Oh, nice. You passed the recruit test?"

Declan reached into his pocket and brought out the card The Boss had given him.

"Not sure about that, but I think I’ve got something that’ll do."

He handed the card over.

The man took it, his brows immediately furrowing at the only thing displayed upon its surface.

It was a simple symbol.

An X.

Yet the moment he recognized what it represented, his expression changed.

The Boss.

"Whoa," the man muttered, staring at the card. "You got this from The Boss!? Like, the real The Boss!?"

He asked in shock before quickly realizing his outburst and composing himself.

"I’m sorry about that."

"It’s fine," Declan said, waving it off with a shrug.

The man swiped the card across a nearby device before turning toward a holographic keyboard and beginning to type.

Soft mechanical sounds from the card-processing system soon filled the space, and after roughly forty-five seconds, a different card emerged from the machine.

Declan took it when the man handed it over.

"Look, that elevator labeled 7th World," the man said, pointing toward one of the elevators at the far end of the hall.

Declan followed his gesture and nodded.

"Just go inside and swipe the card on the reader. You’ll find a person waiting for you."

"Tell her, Borin Wants You Attended."

"Oh, okay. Appreciate it, man."

"No worries. You cool, mate."

Declan stepped away and made his way toward the elevator.

Once inside, he found that there were no buttons to press.

Instead, a card sensor awaited him, and as instructed, he glided the card across it.

BEEEP!

BEEEP!

BEEEP!

The sound rang through the elevator, and a moment later, the doors gently shut as a mild reverberation passed beneath Declan’s feet.

As for whether he was going up or down, he had no idea.

The elevator was simply that smooth.

The journey wasn’t particularly long, and soon enough, it came to a gentle stop before the doors slid open.

Declan stepped out, glancing around as he found himself standing inside what appeared to be another room.

A room with many doors stretched out before him, and at its center stood a large desk where a woman wearing spectacles sat.

Declan walked forward but paused when he was still about two meters away.

His hand reached out, only for his fingers to meet a glass barrier blocking him from coming any closer.

The moment his hand touched the glass, a red light spread throughout the room, causing the woman to raise her gaze and turn toward him.

Declan spoke.

"Borion wants me attended."

A glint crossed the woman’s eyes, and in the next moment, she lightly tapped a button on the side of her desk.

The glass barrier immediately disappeared into the ground, allowing Declan to step forward.

He approached the desk and handed her the golden card he had used for the elevator.

She placed it on another scanner at the side before quickly typing something into the keyboard.

"A minute, please," she said.

Declan nodded and waited as she rose from her seat and walked toward one of the many doors lining the room.

A couple of seconds later, she stepped out again, only to enter another room.

Seventeen seconds passed before she emerged once more and disappeared through another door.

Declan watched in silence as the process continued, the woman moving through roughly seven different rooms before she finally returned to her desk for good.

When she did, she pulled out a total of five cards before opening several drawers and rummaging through them.

A moment later, she placed a number of items before Declan: a device still inside its box, a single book, a memory card sealed inside a tiny nylon bag, and two cards, one purple and the other green.

She packed everything except the purple card into a golden crossbody bag before passing it to him.

"Just get back in the elevator and swipe the purple card. You’ll be sent into the academy."

She pointed toward the card before continuing.

"And don’t worry about the sensor not returning it. That’s simply protocol."

Declan nodded.

"When you get to the academy grounds, bring out the green card. You’ll feel a force pulling on it."

She tapped the green card with a finger.

"It’s straightforward enough. It should lead you directly to the doorstep of your dorm room."

Declan nodded again as he listened.

"And the personal device... when you get to your dorm room, take it out and insert the memory card."

"The first thing you should read is the academy rules. After that, check the maps and familiarize yourself with them."

"It’ll save you a lot..." she began, but she trailed off, apparently deciding that there was no need to explain further.

Declan simply took the items.

"Thank you."

He turned back toward the elevator, and just as instructed, placed the purple card inside the sensor.

This time, the sensor didn’t push the card back out.

Instead, it swallowed the card, and the elevator doors slid shut.

The last thing Declan saw was the woman staring at him with her eyebrows faintly creased, as though there was something about him she still couldn’t quite understand.

The doors closed completely, and Declan once again felt the mild reverberation beneath his feet.

This time, however, the journey took considerably longer.

Almost a minute passed before the elevator finally came to a stop and opened again.

Declan stepped out and immediately found himself staring at something he hadn’t expected.

The elevator had opened into an open-ended section of the building, and beyond it stretched what looked almost like another miniature city.

The place was filled to the brim with people around his age.

Students walked around in groups of two and three, while others blitzed through the air on hoverboards, weaving effortlessly between the towering structures.

Declan looked down and found a board already waiting to carry him toward the ground, but he didn’t immediately step onto it.

Instead, he stood there for a moment, staring out at the vast world before him.

This was an academy.

A Nexian academy.

Ahhhh.

Huuuu.

After drawing in a deep breath and releasing an even longer exhale, Declan finally took his first step onto the board.

It immediately carried him down the elliptical curve, gradually lowering him toward the bustling grounds until he disappeared among the hundreds of Nexian students moving through the academy.

"Dorm room, dorm room..." Declan muttered beneath his breath as he continued along the pedestrian pavement.

WHOOSH!

His hair constantly whipped around his head as hoverboards blitzed through the air above him, but he paid them no attention, just like the dozens of other students walking alongside him.

In X Guard, the ground wasn’t the only place filled with people. The air was just as crowded, with students riding hoverboards barely a meter above the ground.

What surprised Declan most was the complete absence of collisions.

They moved at incredible speeds, yet somehow, not a single person crashed into another.

At first, Declan instinctively ducked his head into his shoulders whenever one of them whooshed past him.

But after noticing that nobody else seemed bothered by the constant traffic above them, he eventually stopped worrying as well, figuring that either the riders possessed incredible reflexes or the hoverboards themselves were intelligent enough to prevent accidents.

He diverted his attention back to the green card in his hand.

Just as the woman had said, there was indeed a force pulling on it.

The problem was that the card had been pulling him around for nearly five minutes now, leading him through one path after another and seemingly taking him around in circles.

The entire situation made Declan question whether the thing was actually working.

Still, he refused to give up, and eventually, his patience paid off.

Another five minutes later, he finally arrived before his destination.

The entrance to a large glass building shaped somewhat like a lowercase letter n stood before him.

There were no guards stationed at the entrance, nor were there any staff members checking the students.

Everyone simply walked toward one of the scanners positioned along the gate, swiped their cards across them, and continued inside without any trouble.

Declan watched a few students go through before joining them.

He silently swiped his own card across the scanner.

BEEP!