"HAHAHAHAHA! YOU LOT! IT'S NICE TO SEE YOUR FACES AFTER A FEW LONG MONTHS! THINGS MAY HAVE GOTTEN HECTIC WITH ALL THE INCIDENTS HAPPENING, BUT REST ASSURED-WE'VE MADE SURE NO REMAINING ISSUES WILL RUIN TODAY'S GRAND FESTIVAL! HAHAHAHAHA!"
With his usual loud, booming voice and hearty laughter, Professor Ferdinand filled the classroom with a sense of both excitent and relief.
The man had a knack for making light of even the most dire of situations, his unshakable confidence and energy radiating outward, as if nothing could break the atmosphere he built.
Despite his jovial deanor, I could see a hint of sothing else behind his eyes- a flicker of concern that wasn't lost on anyone paying attention.
His gaze swept across the room, making sure to et each of our eyes.
It was as if he were silently gauging our ntal states, perhaps wondering how we were coping amidst the chaos that had plagued the academy recently.
The man might have been loud and carefree on the surface, but he wasn't a fool.
He knew what we'd been through.
Even if he tried to downplay the seriousness of the events, pretending everything was under control, everyone probably knew better.
'You would have to live under a rock to not see the hidden tension behind the students.'
Behind the scenes, the professors, staff, and even the student council were probably running around in a frenzy trying to patch up the ss that had unfolded over the last few months.
Incident after incident, scandal after scandal-the academy had barely been able to keep its head above water.
The second sester was finally coming to an end, but the damage had already been done. The sheer number of crises we'd faced was enough to make anyone on the outside question whether the academy was still a safe place to learn.
"YOU LOT HAVE GOTTEN STRONGER AND PROVEN YOURSELVES WORTHY OF YOUR RANKS AND POSITIONS! ONCE YOU BECO SECOND YEARS, I TRUST THAT YOU WILL HOLD ONTO THE POWER YOU'VE GAINED NOW!"
Professor Ferdinand's voice thundered through the room, the weight of his words sinking into us.
His ssage was clear-encouraging us to stay the course, to not falter, and, more subtly, to not leave the academy.
It was almost like he was reminding us of our potential while indirectly urging us not to abandon ship.
After everything the academy had endured, it was no secret that so students had been shaken, questioning their safety and future here.
But as far as I could tell, no one here was planning to quit. If anything, those of us left were more determined than ever to make it to graduation-if the world didn't fall apart before then.
I glanced around the classroom, taking in the familiar faces of my classmates.
Seo, Lucas, Janica, Kagami, Theo, Susan, Gilbert...
The whole A-class knight departnt was present, each one lost in their own thoughts as they listened to Professor Ferdinand and Professor Yuki, who had taken over to explain the flow of the upcoming events.
Though I wasn't paying much attention to the details of Yuki's speech-it was the sa rundown we'd heard last year-I couldn't help but notice the weight on everyone's expressions.
The tension was palpable.
Even Seo, usually composed and cold, had a distant look in her eyes.
But my gaze lingered the longest on Theo and Susan.
They both looked... off. Depressed, even.
They had been like this ever since the incident with President Dorothy. It wasn't like I hadn't noticed before, but I hadn't had the chance to talk to them properly.
Or maybe it was more accurate to say I hadn't been able to.
They had been avoiding ever since, keeping their distance, probably not wanting to dredge up the painful mories of what happened.
To be honest, I hadn't pushed the issue. In my mind, they were side characters-people with little importance to the main scenarios that would unfold in the future.
In the grand sche of things, their paths and mine wouldn't intersect in any major way.
And yet...
For so reason, a small knot of guilt twisted in my chest when I looked at them.
'I failed to save Dorothy.'
I hadn't been able to change the outco of that day.
And while it was easy to brush off the bla, telling myself that things had played out according to the world's script, I couldn't entirely shake the feeling that I owed Theo and Susan sothing.
If I recalled correctly, these two would soon start popping in and out of Rose's scenarios. Theo even dies in one of them, for so unknown reason... but was it truly unknown?
The more I thought about it, the more I suspected their connection to Dorothy might have played a bigger role than I initially believed.
They cared too deeply about her for it to be a coincidence.
Had they known about Dorothy's secret?
Was that the reason they were so devastated after her death?
It wouldn't be far-fetched to think that they were trying to fulfill so of Dorothy's wishes, carrying her burdens even after she was gone.
In that case, it wasn't just their grief that had weighed them down-it was their sense of responsibility, a duty left behind by soone they couldn't save.
I sighed.
The more I learned about this world, the more I realized just how little I truly understood its characters.
Despite all the knowledge I had from the ga, there were still so many mysteries left unsolved.
Though I can't do much for the two right now.... I'll at least make sure they survive in the future.
"Don't you get bothered by all the stares?" Kagami asked, his mouth half-full as he worked his way through his third plate of steak.
We were seated at one of the corner tables in the Academy Cafeteria, a bit out of the way but still well within view of most of the other students.
Kagami's appetite seed insatiable, and as he began munching on his fourth plate of steak, his curiosity flickered my way.
"Trust , it bothers a lot," I muttered.
Kagami raised an eyebrow. "Even if you say that, your actions say otherwise." He shrugged and grinned. "Well, Seo is quite the beauty. Even I wouldn't deny such opportunities."
I sighed, trying not to roll my eyes as he shoveled more steak into his mouth. My situation with Seo was complicated-definitely not sothing I had full control over. Technically, I was the reason she kept acting the way she did around . In a strange way, I was taking advantage of her awkwardness and social ineptness without aning to. Seo wasn't exactly subtle about her affection, and she had a habit of doing things that attracted attention-like the way she constantly insisted on holding hands or how she pressed her body closer to mine than was probably appropriate.
It wasn't that I disliked it, but I could feel the heat of the glares burning into my back whenever we were together.
The other male students didn't take too kindly to seeing Seo by my side so often, and the red glares they shot my way were becoming impossible to ignore.
Even now, with Seo having left the cafeteria after being called by Dean Gale, I could still feel
the lingering resentnt in the air.
The other guys around us were clearly not happy about it.
And why would they be?
Seo was strikingly beautiful, and her affection toward was anything but subtle.
To everyone else, it must have looked like I was taking advantage of her or worse, that I was
deliberately showing her off.
I knew Seo's behavior was partly due to her awkwardness. Physical affection ca more naturally to her than words ever did, but I couldn't help feeling like I should be doing more to restrain her from ti to ti.
"Princess Snow, Seo, Rose, Clara, and even our famous upperclassman, Senior Alice... if you keep collecting all the beautiful girls in the academy, you'll probably lose your head in more ways than one. Hahaha!" Kagami teased, his laughter booming across the cafeteria.
"I'm not collecting them..."
"Well, that's not how most people see it! Hahaha." Kagami was relentless, flashing a knowing
grin.
"I've even heard rumors that you're secretly going out with the princess. Isn't that the case?"
"No."
"Really? Well, I've also heard harems are quite common in your empire. Is that what's going
on here?"
"No"
"Hahaha, is that so?"
I leaned back against my chair, exhaling deeply as I shot him an irritated look.
His laughter filled the room, and I could feel the eyes of other boys on , the mixture of envy
and resentnt radiating off them.
To them, it must have looked like I was hoarding the academy's most coveted girls, and
Kagami's teasing certainly wasn't helping.
While I didn't care much about what others thought, it was still annoying having to deal with
their silent accusations.
"Enough of this," I said with a slight edge in my voice. "Why don't we get back on topic
now?"
Kagami, sensing the shift in my tone, quickly swallowed the last bite of his steak. His playful expression softened as he washed it down with a glass of water.
"Sure, sure," he replied, his smile fading as he wiped his mouth.
He wasn't a fool-he knew when to stop pushing.
As the atmosphere between us grew more serious, I straightened up in my seat, ready to shift
the conversation toward sothing more productive.
I've noticed this recently but this guy....
Ever since we got closer.
He beca more annoying.
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