Chapter 51: First Place

Confusion rippled through the rows. Everybody were either shocked, surprised or both...

Even Aria’s eyes widened.

Crane repeated spoke again, continuing over the noise. "His group has a total of four Chambers cleared, six sacs of Aetherite, one sac of Brimstone, and killed one Devil class monster."

She tapped on the tablet once and the information appeared on the projector.

On it was the third highest group, and as Aria read through it she read the one at the top more than twice...

~~~~~

{1st — Group: Shaw / Kane / Voss}

{Chambers cleared: 4}

{Aetherite recovered: 6 sacs}

{Additional recovery: 1 sac of Brimstone}

{Confirmed kill: Devil-class — Rank B}

~~~~~

When the figures showed on the screen, the lecture hall went still for a long moment...

Then the noise hit.

Not applause, no sign that they were impressed. Nothing.

Just an overlapping surge of disbelief, questions, and the particular kind of outrage that looked like a hierarchy had been rearranged in public.

Students turned in their seats. Someone near the middle said "four chambers" like the words weren’t real. Someone else repeated "Devil-class" so loudly that he got shushed by three people at once.

Professor Crane did not raise her voice. She waited until the noise settled— well, almost settled, then spoke over the rest.

"Before anyone wastes time on the obvious accusation: this result was not produced by error, favoritism, or any form of interference." Her eyes moved across the room. "The logs were intact, recovery was verified at extraction, and the threat designation was confirmed against the academy’s classification index. If you are looking for a scandal, you’re in the wrong place."

The silence that fell after it was so dense that some of the students forgot to breathe...

Lila sat up straight beside Ethan with her jaw tight. Nora’s expression had not changed much, but her gaze was fixed on Crane as if she was expecting something... Ethan on the other hand, kept his face neutral—with his chin resting on his hands and let the students look at them.

He scoffed. He couldn’t react even if he wanted to.

A chair scraped violently backwards, and Ethan turned his head to see Marcus standing.

He stayed silent for a while with his expression contorted in disbelief...

"With all due respect, Professor," he said, in a tone that carried very little of it, "Aria’s group cleared three chambers and pulled five sacs on a clean run. You’re telling us a group with two restricted classes outpaced that with four chambers, six sacs, and a B-rank Devil kill?" His expression tightned. "That doesn’t make any sense. Someone was have miscalculated or something."

A few students made approving noises. Others looked less certain now that the numbers were on the wall and staring them dead in the eyes...

Crane looked at him. He was more like those new recruits who often talked before speaking...

"Sit down, Hale."

"I’m asking for a fair—"

She cut him off. "You are asking whether the academy’s scoring system is incompetent," she said. "It is not. Chamber progression was logged, your group’s two-chamber clear is on the same system. Reed’s three-chamber clear is also on the same system. And Shaw’s group crossed into a fourth operational zone during engagement with the Devil-class Wolf Alpha. The kill was confirmed by residual signature, where through corpse examination, it was noted that Nora was responsible for the finishing blow. The Brimstone was found in the same chamber as well."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Brimstone? And what is that supposed to be?"

"You will learn about that in another lesson," Crane said. "What you need to understand today is that the results are final. Challenging it because it offends you in any way is a waste of time and an insult to the academy."

Aria didn’t say a word. She didn’t even look at Marcus. She watched the projection with her eyes narrowed, then glanced toward Ethan and when his eyes met hers, she pulled away.

Around her, the students who had assumed that her taking first place was some kind of inevitable a law of nature went quiet, trying to understand what was happening.

Marcus remained on his feet a second longer, his pride not allowing him to just take it silently.

When he couldn’t find another angle to attack from, he finally sat and rubbed a hand over his face.

Professor Crane spoke again after he sat. "Keep in mind that there is no way these results have been forged. Both Shaw and Voss were operating under monitoring, no matter how light. They had the best performance in the class. The results stays. It’s reality."

The weight of what had happened finally landed on the students totally as the hall went dead silent.

First place. Devil kill. Four chambers. Brimstone recovery...

Ethan sighed. There was no way he would have imagined things turning out like this.

It was one of those "better than expected, but in a bad way" moments.

Nora lowered her head spoke under the cover of the residual murmur. "They will watch us harder after this."

Ethan exhaled. "Yeah, I know..."

Crane closed the projection and turned to the class again. "Scores for all other groups will be posted to your devices by end of day. Individual contribution summaries remain kept to instructor review until the full evaluation cycle closes. If you have questions, feel free to walk over to my office to ask them. If you have complaints about the scores, save them. They will not change. Don’t waste your time."

She picked up the tablet.

"Class dismissed."

Chairs moved, voices rose in a second wave of noisy disbelief as students walked towards each other to discuss what had just happened.

Marcus’ group left angrily and Aria departed without looking back.

Ethan stayed in his chairs staring back at the set of eyes that was locked onto him— curiosity, fear, envy, and admiration...?

He exhaled again and buried his face in his hands. It seems his days of living in peace were numbered...