Help! I'm just an extra yet the Heroines and Villainesses want me! Chapter 154: Opening (III)

The session, Morris had confird, had been delayed under security protocols.

The observers had been briefed in broad terms, active threat, ongoing investigation, delay until security situation was resolved.

They had agreed without resistance, which suggested they understood that proceeding over a known threat was not sothing they wanted attached to any decision they made.

The delay was confird. The session would not happen today.

Which ant the window the organization had been building toward had closed.

William stood in the student section with Kai on his left and Seraphina on his right and Liam sowhere behind him talking to Marcus about sothing at normal volu, and watched the ceremony begin.

Headmaster Volr spoke first — welcoming remarks, acknowledgnt of the other academies, the expected institutional language that competitions produced.

He spoke well, which William had co to expect. Whatever Volr’s failures in anticipating the crisis, he was good at the public-facing parts of administration.

The other headmasters and headmistresses spoke in turn.

The wind-affinity girl from Ironveil who William had identified as the individual combat favorite stood with her team with the easy readiness of soone who had done this before.

William watched the ceremony and watched the crowd and watched the council observer section and watched the positions of the security personnel Morris had repositioned.

At so point during the third speech, Kai said very quietly, without turning his head, "Three o’clock. The pillar."

William didn’t look imdiately. He adjusted his posture as though settling his weight and let his gaze move naturally across the crowd.

At the pillar on the right side of the main platform, partially obscured by the positioning of a torch bracket, a figure stood in academy groundskeeper’s clothing.

The clothing was correct.

The posture was not. The posture was the posture of soone who was watching the crowd rather than the ceremony, and watching it with the specific quality of professional surveillance.

Not a groundskeeper.

William kept his gaze moving, not pausing, not signaling that he’d seen anything.

"How many," he said, at the sa low volu.

"I’ve identified two," Kai said. "The pillar and the eastern entrance. Both in staff clothing. Both with the wrong attention pattern for their apparent roles."

"Morris," Seraphina said, without moving her lips significantly. "She needs to know."

"She’s seen them," Kai said. "Watch her security team."

William watched. And after a mont saw what Kai was pointing to — subtle repositioning.

Two of Morris’s plainclothes security personnel, moving through the crowd with the natural drift of people shifting for comfort, ending in positions that bracketed both figures Kai had identified.

Morris had seen them.

Morris was already moving.

The ceremony continued.

Volr finished his remarks.

The four academy flags were raised in sequence, which produced genuine cheering from each respective section.

The competition schedule was announced, individual brackets beginning tomorrow at nine, team events Saturday, survival scenarios and theory demonstrations across both days, final results Sunday evening.

Normal. All of it normal.

The figure at the pillar hadn’t moved.

The figure at the eastern entrance had adjusted their position slightly — toward the target’s section of the stands, William noted, a slow drift that was almost imperceptible.

Morris’s people moved with them.

The ceremony was winding toward its conclusion. Final remarks, the traditional lighting of the competition torch, applause from four academies that mixed into a sound that was larger than its parts.

William kept himself still and present and visible and ready, which was what Morris had asked for and also what the situation required and also, simply, what he was.

The torch was lit.

Applause.

And in the movent of thousands of students beginning to disperse from the stands, Morris made her move.

It was quiet. William almost missed it — two of her people converging on the figure at the eastern entrance with the practiced ease of people who had done this kind of thing before, and the figure coming with them without visible resistance.

Which ant either they had assessed that resistance was not viable or they had been waiting to be taken and were a deliberate sacrifice to test the response.

The pillar figure had already gone.

William scanned the dispersing crowd. Couldn’t find them.

"The pillar," he said quietly.

"Gone at the torch lighting," Kai said. "Used the applause and the movent."

"Did they get to the target."

"No. The target left the stands two minutes before the torch lighting with one of Morris’s people beside them, which looked like a student and a friend leaving together." Kai’s voice was level. "They’re out of the venue."

Seraphina exhaled slowly beside him. Not a sigh — a controlled release of held tension.

"One detained," she said. "One gone."

"Yes," Kai said.

"Is it over."

Kai was quiet for a mont.

"The session was delayed. The imdiate window closed. The legal inquiry is in motion." He watched the dispersing crowd. "The organization will assess. They’ll receive the news about the inquiry tonight or tomorrow. They’ll calculate whether continuing serves their interests or creates unacceptable exposure."

"And if they calculate that continuing is worth the exposure," William said.

"Then tomorrow is when they try again," Kai said. "During the competition itself. When security attention is divided across multiple venues and the target is in a public space where a chaotic approach is harder to attribute."

The courtyard was still clearing. Torches burning. The competition torch bright at the center of the platform, officially open, officially started.

Four academies. Twelve events. Three days.

Whatever else it was, it was also that.

William looked at Seraphina. She was watching the crowd with the focused attention she brought to everything, her competition schedule already in her hand, her mind already in tomorrow.

She glanced at him.

"We compete," she said. "We stay alert. We trust Morris with the parts that are Morris’s."

"Yes," he said.

"And we win."

He held her gaze for a mont.

"Yes," he said again.

She nodded once, with finality, and turned toward the dormitory path, and he fell into step beside her, and Kai ca behind them, and the three of them walked through the dispersing crowd of students from four academies who were talking about brackets and event formats and which dining hall would have the best breakfast tomorrow.

Normal things.

Real things.

The competition was open.

Tomorrow it began in earnest, and whatever ca with it, they were ready.