Jax approached the front desk and imdiately recognized the keeper’s type. The man looked exactly like one of those sleazy con artists back on Earth who would sweet-talk you into selling your kidneys and sohow make you thank them for the experience.
"Can I get these appraised?" Jax placed the boots on the counter.
The keeper flashed a smile so practiced it could have been patented. "Of course! It would be my absolute honor to assist a noble knight of the Silver Vanguard!"
He picked up the boots and the mont his fingers touched them his eyes caught the magic runes embedded into the material. The practiced smile quietly upgraded itself into a genuine one because these were worth real money.
He told Jax. "Give five minutes." Then bowed and disappeared into the back room calling out. "Mariam! We got so good-grade items to appraise!"
While Jax waited Delphine planted herself beside him radiating anger. "Don’t you dare try to ignore ! Just answer my damn questions already!"
Jax finally turned his head toward her and said. "Listen to carefully. I am in a terrible mood right now and as for your questions this isn’t my scheduled class ti. I have absolutely zero obligation to entertain you so you can co find with your doubts tomorrow morning."
He added with genuine fear creeping into his voice. "Don’t waste my limited window of freedom here because God knows what will happen to if I ss up or if that crazy girl cos back and catches you standing next to ."
Delphine folded her arms and planted her feet. "I am not moving a single inch from this spot until you answer ."
Jax gave her a deadpan look. "Don’t co crying to later saying I didn’t warn you when she completely destroys you without a single ounce of rcy." He let out a defeated sigh. "Alright. What is it you want to know?"
Delphine got straight to the point. "Don’t even try to act smart because you know exactly what I am talking about. The class rankings for the dungeon trial we just took. You handed full marks and secured the top spot while you left the other three girls sitting right at the absolute bottom."
The whole situation had started earlier today when the students were busy plotting how to enjoy their free ti since they knew Jax was injured and surely wouldn’t show up.
But then Jax suddenly walked into the classroom like one of those terrifying math teachers who would crawl out of their deathbed just to make sure nobody missed a lecture during the apocalypse.
He delivered a strict lesson on proper battle mindset and then vanished right before the brutal afternoon revelation of the class rankings as if he had tid his exit specifically to avoid witnessing the carnage.
Delphine honestly never even wanted to check the board. She was completely certain she would be rotting at the dead bottom because her entire grade rested in the hands of the very man she had openly antagonized throughout the dungeon and even before that. And she knew exactly how soone like him punished his enemies.
The final marks were a combination of the initial written test and the dungeon practical but since the practical held eighty percent of the weight, her perfect written score was utterly useless against his judgnt.
She actually had no real complaints because she knew she was entirely at fault and Jax’s completely incomprehensible plans were the only reason any of them made it out alive.
The only thing truly eating away at her was losing the special privileges that ca with the rankings. Things like premium dorm allotnts, private practice areas, high-grade library access, shop discounts, and a much larger monthly cash allowance were all on the line.
So she was walking away from the board without even peeking because she had fully accepted her fate and simply planned to grind her way back up the ranks later.
But then she spotted Lavinia bawling her eyes out dramatically. "Big Sis is going to kill after she sees my last-place rank!"
Delphine had sighed in relief knowing that at least she wasn’t the one sitting at the very bottom. But then she noticed the stares coming from the other students aid in her direction and the curiosity got the better of her.
She started reading the projected board from the bottom. Lavinia was parked at rank 120. Just above her sat Athanasia at 119. And on top of that was Evangeline at 118. But the expected spot for Delphine at 117 had no na at all. Her stomach dropped as she realized sothing had gone terribly wrong.
She frantically scanned the corners for so kind of notice like "one student perford so poorly she has been evicted from the academy" but found nothing.
So she refocused and started reading from the bottom all the way up. Amidst growing panic she climbed through rank after rank until she reached the very top of the board and found her own na sitting there staring back at her.
That made her even more panicked. She was convinced it had to be a rune error or so twisted way for Jax to mock her. Sothing like "oops the system glitched and accidentally placed you at the top but don’t worry you are still garbage."
Back in the present Jax said while leaning on the counter. "Well, coming after a professor over their marking sche is highly inappropriate. And honestly you are the very first person I have ever t in my life who is genuinely furious about receiving a perfect score."
Delphine fired back with frustration. "Don’t you dare try to fool right now. I know there is absolutely no way you would just hand a perfect score like that. I am completely sure this is just your twisted way of mocking or you are scheming sothing much worse behind it because it makes zero sense that I am sohow ranked above Evangeline or Athanasia."
Jax slowly slid open the visor of his heavy helt so he could look at her directly and said. "And what exactly makes you so sure of that?"
She twitched under his gaze that was silently demanding a perfect reason from her. So she said. "Because both of them are obviously better than in actual combat."
Jax tilted his head back in clear annoyance as if hearing those words made him suddenly despise the sight of her. He leaned against the counter with a heavy sigh and said. "Then you are a fool who willingly locks herself inside a cage built from her own self-doubt. And this pathetic mindset of yours is making bitterly regret handing you those full marks."
His voice carried a weight that shut down every retort forming in her head. "That was a flawless score I withheld from every other student in your class and even from the senior classes because none of them possessed what you possessed. Or let put it differently. What I saw you possess."
-x-X-x-
[A/N: Ordici_T, Alliyah_Dohrn, tony_adams_4787 and Damiso_7866 with the golden tickets, thank you 🙏🔥
(👍🏻ᴗ _ᴗ)👍🏻]
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