Just as Alaric was about to get up from his seat, an amused voice drifted over from below.
"Well, well. Isn’t it our dear cousin?"
An auburn-haired boy approached Elina’s row, flanked by two others who shared his lazy confidence and expensive accessories.
His tone carried that particular brand of casual cruelty that ca naturally to certain types of nobility.
Elina didn’t even look up from gathering her notes.
Her dark-haired companion followed her lead, both of them acting like the newcors were invisible.
"Ah, so we playing the silent treatnt, I see," the boy continued, clearly enjoying himself.
"Though I suppose that’s easier than explaining how you ended up here despite everyone’s... expectations."
His friends snickered at the barbed comnt.
Elina’s hand paused for just a mont over her quill before resuming its task.
"Co on, Leo," one of his companions said. "We’ll be late for our next lecture."
"Of course." Leo gave Elina a mocking half-bow. "Enjoy your studies, cousin. I’m sure you’ll find them... illuminating."
The group moved toward the exit, their laughter echoing off the lecture hall’s walls. Only after they’d completely disappeared did Elina allow her shoulders to drop slightly.
She sighed.
And finally stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder with perhaps more force than necessary.
Her companion rose as well, shooting a concerned glance her way.
"You alright?"
"Fine," Elina replied, though her voice was tighter than usual. "Just don’t mind them, they are just lousy bunch of fools."
Then they both headed for the exit, leaving Alaric alone in the rapidly emptying lecture hall.
Eventually, he stood up and headed toward the exit, joining the flow of students leaving the lecture hall.
Just as he reached the doorway, a familiar translucent window materialized in front of his eyes.
[Ding!]
[New Quest: Maintain the Honor!]
Alaric blinked.
That was it?
No explanation, no objectives, no reward information. Just four fucking words floating in front of his face.
He narrowed his eyes at the useless notification.
"What the fuck? You playing pranks on , or what—?"
A snicker from his left interrupted his cursing.
"Look at that, the prick’s lost his mind. Talking to the air like so village lunatic."
Hmm?
Alaric turned and saw a group of students lounging against the corridor wall.
Their features were sharp, perfect. Though too perfect.
Pointy ears, that were barely visible beneath carefully arranged hair, movents that held an otherworldly fluidity that marked them as distinctly non-human.
Their uniforms bore two silver stripes on the shoulders.
One of them, a silver-haired boy with amber eyes, was studying Alaric with obvious amusent.
"What?" the elf boy continued, tilting his head with predatory grace.
"Got sothing to say, or are you going to keep having conversations with invisible friends?"
His companions chuckled, the sound carrying an edge that suggested they were hoping for a reaction.
Alaric’s jaw twitched.
Just great, he thought.
The system’s bullshit had made him look like he was talking to himself in front of these bunch of fools who clearly had nothing better to do than cause trouble.
The silver-haired elf boy pushed off from the wall, taking a step closer.
"Cat got your tongue? Or maybe the voices in your head are giving you new instructions?"
Alaric shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and gave them a sidelong glance.
"Don’t you have better things to do than stick your noses in other people’s business?"
The silver-haired elf’s amber eyes flashed.
"Listen here, you arrogant little shit. This is our corridor, and we don’t appreciate monkey-brained humans muttering to themselves like escaped asylum patients."
"Then maybe you should find a different corridor," Alaric replied, his tone matching the elf’s crudeness.
"One that suits oversized children with pointed ears and fragile egos."
Silver-haired boy’s smirked vanished and replaced by a darkened expression.
Their exchange drew attention from passing students, who slowed their pace to watch the brewing confrontation.
Conversations died as a small crowd began to form around the edges of the corridor.
A larger elf stepped forward, cracking his knuckles with deliberate nace.
His build suggested he spent considerable ti in training yards, and his smile held no warmth.
"Sounds like this one’s eager for a little life lesson. What do you say we accommodate him?"
Alaric shrugged, not moving from his position.
"I don’t have ti to waste on playground bullies. Find soone else to impress."
He turned to leave, but the silver-haired elf’s hand shot out and clamped around his upper arm.
"Not so fast, you pathetic human whelp."
The mont those fingers made contact, sothing visceral surged through Alaric.
His glowing crimson eyes narrowed to slits as he looked down at the restraining hand, then back up at the elf’s face.
"Take your hands off , germling."
His voice dropped to a low, dangerous tone that carried further than it should have.
The word escaped before he could stop it, carrying a venom that even surprised him.
The silver-haired elf’s grip tightened, his amber eyes blazing with sudden fury.
"What did you just call ?"
Around them, the other elves bristled and growled, their earlier amusent replaced by genuine hostility.
The corridor had gone completely silent except for the sound of students backing away from what was clearly about to beco sothing more serious than simple casual bickering.
Alaric didn’t move from his position, his voice dropping even colder, each word deliberately spaced. "I said. Take. Your hands. Off ."
The bigger elf stepped forward, muscles coiling for action.
But then...
A voice cut through the commotion.
"Don’t you have anything better to do than bully a junior?"
Everyone turned.
From the down the corridor, another group of students approached.
There were seven of them, moving with predatory grace that made the elves’ fluid movents seem clumsy by comparison.
Their uniforms bore sa two silver stripes on the shoulders, marking them as second years.
But it was their features that drew attention.
Pale skin that seed to glow in the corridor’s lamplight, eyes that held colors too vivid to be entirely natural, and an otherworldly beauty that felt slightly wrong.
A bit too sharp, like looking at sothing that might cut you if you stared too long.
The lead figure was tall and lean, with dark hair and eyes like polished obsidian.
When he smiled, his teeth seed just a fraction too white.
"Well?" he continued, studying the elves with lazy interest.
"Or are you going to pretend this is so kind of fair match?"
The silver-haired elf’s grip on Alaric’s arm tightened.
"Mind your own business, bloodsucker. This doesn’t concern your kind."
"Four seniors against one junior?" The dark-haired boy’s smile widened, and his companions spread out slightly behind him.
"That seems like our kind of business."
The elves found themselves outnumbered now.
The newcors had positioned themselves with casual efficiency, not aggressive, but ready to move at a mont’s notice. Their stance suggested they wouldn’t just intervene, they’d enjoy it.
Seeing that things will not end up well if they kept this on, the silver-haired boy clicked his tounge.
"This isn’t over," he hissed as he released Alaric’s arm and stepped back.
"Find better company, human. These leeches aren’t doing you any favors."
And with that he turned down the corridor, other of his n followed him.
Alaric flexed his freed arm, working feeling back into where the grip had been.
The disgust he’d felt at the elf’s touch was fading, leaving him puzzled by his own reaction.
The dark-haired boy looked him up and down with those too bright eyes, then nodded once, acknowledgnt without friendliness.
"Watch yourself, junior. The academy has bigger predators than playground bullies."
With that single warning, he and his companions walked away down a different corridor, leaving Alaric alone with his confusion and a crowd of other first year students who were still processing what they’d witnessed.
What the fuck was that?
The thought buzzed through his mind as he stood in the corridor, still processing what had just happened.
The crowd of students continued their excited murmuring around him, but their voices felt distant, muffled by his own confusion.
He took a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to relax.
Alaric pushed through the lingering crowd, ignoring their curious stares and whispered speculations about the confrontation.
His footsteps echoed against stone as he made his way down the corridor, putting distance between himself and the scene.
But the questions followed him.
Why had he reacted that way? The disgust when the elf grabbed his arm had felt almost... instinctual.
He ran a hand through his black hair, trying to piece together the whatever had occurred to him.
None of it fit together into anything that make sense.
This isn’t the ti for this, he told himself firmly.
"What are you daydreaming about?"
Then suddenly a lodic voice ca from behind him. He turned to find himself facing a young woman whose beauty was imdiately striking, not in the warm, approachable way, but with the kind of ethereal perfection that seed almost untouchable.
Her sapphire-blue eyes held flecks of silver that caught the corridor’s lamplight, while her hair fell in elegant waves of pure silver with streaks of blue that seed to shift color depending on the angle. The combination was alluring, though her expression remained carefully neutral.
"Ah, Lady Verelia."
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