The first day passed without much happening.
It was night ti.
Students had dealt with a few monsters here and there, but nothing major. More importantly, Noah’s class had managed to locate where Class B-1 was staying.
Damien had given the order to hold their current position for the night.
There was also no movent from enemies side.
Guards were posted in rotating shifts around the base, twenty students on duty at a ti, switching out with a fresh group of twenty-five every two hours. So were positioned on rooftops.
Others stood on balconies or building terraces, watching from above. A few were posted on the roads at ground level, forming a wide ring around the base.
"Yawn~"
It was Noah’s turn to guard.
He was sitting on a large piece of broken concrete, his eyes heavy, looking out at the empty road ahead of him.
"I’m seriously getting sleepy," he muttered to himself, blinking slowly. "This VR is sothing else. Even the tiredness feels completely real."
"Tch."
Soone clicked their tongue nearby.
Noah already knew exactly who it was without turning around.
He looked over anyway.
Standing two or three ters away from him, her back leaning against the wall of a broken building, was Ophelia.
His ex-fiancée.
Just the two of them on this stretch of road. How had that worked out? Well, the night guard wasn’t organized by unit. Five people from across the different units had been grouped together for this shift. Noah and Ophelia happened to be two of the five. The other three were posted further along the periter, leaving the two of them alone in this particular spot.
Noah didn’t have any feelings about it either way.
Ophelia clearly did.
Her midnight blue hair fell freely around her shoulders. She wasn’t looking at hi, her eyes had flicked his way for a brief mont and then moved off to the side, her expression tight with barely concealed annoyance.
Noah tilted his head slightly with a lazy expression.
"Hey, Ophelia. Why do you look so annoyed?"
She turned to look at him with disbelief written plainly on her face. "Are you seriously asking that? Of course I’m annoyed. I have to stand guard with you."
Noah shrugged, unbothered. "You should feel lucky. Not many people get to spend the night with soone as handso as ."
Her expression curdled instantly. "Handso?" she said flatly. "What’s the point of a handso face when you’re ugly on the inside?"
That one landed.
Noah felt a flicker of genuine irritation move through him. His eyes sharpened slightly. How could she say sothing like that when he was one of the most kind human.
"What do you an by that?" His voice went up a notch. "How can you call ugly? Tell exactly what I’ve done to deserve that."
Ophelia raised one eyebrow, looking almost amused by his reaction.
Then she straightened up from the wall and stepped toward him, her own voice rising.
"Are you serious right now?" Her expression hardened. "Why are you acting like you have no idea what you did? You know exactly what I’m talking about. You know exactly what disgusting thing you did!"
Noah held her gaze. He was sitting on the debris with his arms folded, and a slow smirk crossed his face.
"So," he said, his voice calm and deliberate, "you an the night I tried to assault you. Not just assault but sexually assault."
"Yes, obviously, you bastard." Her voice was sharp with disgust. "You are a truly awful person. And you’re sitting there smirking like you did sothing worth being proud of."
Noah didn’t drop the smirk. "What? You think what happened that night was entirely on ?" He tilted his head slightly. "But didn’t you want it to happen?"
"What did you just say?!" Her eyes went wide. "Why on earth would I want sothing like that?"
"Co on, Ophelia. Stop pretending." His tone stayed even, unhurried. "I didn’t rember that night clearly before. But I do now. Every detail."
He continued, his voice steady.
"Yes, it’s true. I tried to do sothing terrible to you. There was a small gathering at your house. Several noble families were present, including mine. As usual, I had been drinking heavily. Your father told you to take to a room to rest."
He paused for a mont, then went on.
"And then I was completely drunk saw beautiful you then pushed you down onto the bed. I climbed on top of you, pinned you down, hold your hands on both sides and said..." he recited it without any sha , " ’My dear Ophelia, I really love you. I can’t control myself. Let’s do it, baby.’ Then I tried to kiss you. You scread loudly. The nobles in your manor heard it and ca running. Afterall they were strong...strong enough to hear that scream. They found us exactly like that. You underneath , my weight on top of you, your face full of terror."
The smirk faded into sothing more serious.
"That was nearly eight months ago. After that, I was thrown out of my family. Our engagent was broken."
He looked at her directly.
"And that’s exactly what you wanted."
Ophelia said nothing. Her jaw tightened.
The she spoke. But her voice slightly nervous. "So why would I ever want that?"
Noah kept going, his voice quiet but firm.
"Yes, I did that terrible thing. I won’t deny it. But you were completely sober. You were stronger than at that ti. You could have pushed off without effort. You could have avoided entirely before it even got that far." He held her gaze. "But you didn’t. You let pin you down. And then you scread at exactly the right mont, with exactly the right people close enough to hear."
He leaned forward slightly.
"You wanted a reason to break our engagent. So you let it happen. And then you played the victim."
His expression didn’t waver.
"Even your father and my parents understood what actually happened. But it had occurred in front of other noble families. There was no way to handle it quietly. So the engagent was broken to protect the dignity of both families."
Silence.
Ophelia stood completely still, her eyes fixed on him. She hadn’t said a single word. Her expression was unreadable.
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