Chapter 200: Back In The Academy Again

The next morning, a new day began once again.

But somehow, the streets that Aisha passed by from inside the shuttle felt different from their usual liveliness.

The morning rush was still there. Hover cars still streamed along the designated lanes, and the shops along the avenue had opened their doors as they always did. Yet the voices that normally drifted up to the shuttle windows had grown quieter.

Aisha rested her chin against her palm and watched them.

Ever since the news broke last night, people had begun to feel restless and heavy.

Small crowds had gathered under the giant screens above the intersections, their faces tilted upward and their arms folded tightly across their chests. A woman at a transit stop kept checking her terminal over and over, while a man beside her stared at nothing at all. Near a medical center, a line of civilians had formed even though it was barely morning, each of them holding their ID cards as though they were afraid of being turned away.

When the shuttle passed over the border gates, several people had already gathered with signs in their hands, as though preparing for a round of protest against the Association. ℯ𝐥.

Fear had settled over the city like a thin layer of dust.

But not everyone was like this.

There were still places and people who acted as though nothing had happened. Most of them were nobles who wore their status like a second skin, so certain that the troubles of the lower streets could never reach them that they didn’t think to look down.

Aisha’s gaze lingered on one of those smiling families before she turned away.

The shuttle soon rose higher, zipping through the air before it slowed and hovered above the platform on the school grounds. The Imperial Star Academy came into view beneath her, the white buildings glinting beneath the morning sun.

Several students had already arrived. She could see them below, crossing the courtyard in small groups or lingering beside the fountain with their bags slung over their shoulders.

Nothing seemed to have changed.

The academy looked exactly the same as it had before the weekend, as though the news hadn’t crossed its gates at all.

The shuttle settled onto the platform, and its door slid open with a soft hiss. Aisha stepped out and walked down several steps, her shoes tapping against the stone.

That was when she began to hear them.

"—no, I’m telling you, I saw it first. It was on my feed at like, six in the morning."

"You’re always saying you saw it first."

"Because I always do!"

Two boys walked past her, one of them waving his terminal around while the other pretended not to care. Aisha thought they might be talking about something unrelated, but then the first boy lowered his voice, and it wasn’t any quieter than before.

"Anyway, so if the Admiral’s really out, do you think they’ll just put someone else in? Like, a new guy? I hope they pick someone cool. Imagine getting a new Admiral who’s actually fun and not someone so cold and stoic like him."

"Fun? Dude, you think being an Admiral is fun, when people get killed and you want the new Admiral to happily enter a zone?"

"I’m just saying! The current one never smiles. My cousin said he once walked past him in the tower and felt like he’d been frozen for an hour."

The second boy laughed, clearly not believing him. "Your cousin also said he saw a ghost in the cafeteria."

Aisha kept walking.

Three girls sat on the edge of a planter, sharing a pastry that they had split into uneven pieces. One of them held her terminal in the other hand, scrolling with her thumb.

"Okay, but if Instructor Valaerion is gone, then who’s teaching combat?" she asked. "Please let it be someone old and tired. I can’t handle another professor who looks at me so coldly."

"Mmm, but he’s so good-looking though." The girl beside her sighed dreamily, licking sugar off her thumb. "It’d be such a waste if he’s not coming back. I only started going to class on time because of him."

They all giggled, and one of them nearly dropped her piece of pastry.

Aisha’s steps slowed slightly.

She glanced their way and recognized their faces. They belonged to her class.

The students of Imperial Star Academy were too young to understand the gravity of the situation.

Still, she couldn’t help feeling something tighten beneath her ribs.

She walked a few more steps and passed a group of boys leaning against the pillar near the east corridor. One of them was loudly complaining about something, and his friends were nodding along without much interest.

"Honestly, I never got why everyone worships him so much," the loud one said, kicking at a loose pebble. "It’s the Association’s whole PR thing, isn’t it? Make one guy look like a god and everybody forgets the rest. Now look at him. Can’t even stay on his feet."

"Maybe he really did abandon that Guide," another boy offered, shrugging. "You hear all kinds of stuff happens inside the zone."

"Yeah, exactly. And if he did, then he deserves to rot in that bed." The loud boy snorted. "Zeke Valaerion isn’t a hero. He’s just a guy who got lucky with his rank."

The pebble skidded across the stone.

And Aisha stopped.

She turned her head toward the boy and stared at him. Although her expression remained calm, her eyes soon turned cold.

It lasted only a moment, but the boy suddenly flinched. His shoulders jerked, and a chill ran from the nape of his neck to his spine, so abruptly that he almost dropped his bag.

"Hey." The friend beside him frowned. "What’s wrong with you?"

"N-nothing." The boy rubbed his arms, glancing over his shoulder at the empty path behind him. There was no one there. Only the fountain and the students walking past. "It’s... It’s nothing. I think it’s just cold today."

"It’s like thirty-one degrees."

"I said it’s nothing!" ⅇℓ.

But Aisha had long since taken her gaze off him.

Because someone had grabbed her wrist and pulled her away.