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As soon as Ruvian stepped into his class lecture hall, a shift rippled through the steep rows above him. Eyes turned. Dozens of them. So curious, others indifferent, and a few unreadable.
Their stares pressed faintly on his shoulders, but he didn’t care. He moved with the sa natural pace. His eyes swept the hall, looking for a person.
’There he is...’
Near the back, he saw Corwin partially slouched in his seat like soone trying to blend into the shadows.
Ruvian slipped into the row quietly and took the empty seat beside him.
In front of him, the rest of Class E from Hall B filtered in from the main entrance, drawn along by instinct or habit, perhaps unsure if they were following his lead or just looking for a place to sit.
The room beca even more quiet.
But Ruvian’s thoughts had already moved elsewhere.
He thought about Hall A. About the other side of the hall, where the narrative had likely unraveled in a way no one present was prepared for.
It didn’t take a genius to know who the catalyst would’ve been.
’Julian Rozenberg...’
’This must be because of him...’
Ruvian thought, a little worried.
In the novel, Zian Herga had been present in that sa hall. He was ant to be the scholar who cut into Julian’s match when it turned into a prolonged punishnt.
’Back then, Julian had taken things too far.’
Hamring Class E scholars even after their knees gave up. But Zian had stopped him. That small act had beco the turning point of the novel.
Ruvian recollected his mories.
From that mont on, Julian had fixed his attention on Zian like a beast scenting a rival.
But now?
Zian wasn’t here. He hadn’t shown up on day one, nor any day after. It was as if the story itself had folded him up and removed him completely.
That was what bothered Ruvian.
Not the absence itself, but what filled the gap it left behind. The plot had always been malleable. He knew that. Characters slipped in and out, scenes twisted and reford.
But Zian’s role wasn’t sothing minor.
His interference had been a point of divergence. Without him, the story would have had to pick a different pressure valve.
And that was what Ruvian truly wanted to know.
What had taken Zian’s place? What had the narrative offered instead in that hall? What new consequence had it conjured for this branching tiline where the protagonist is missing?
"R-Ruvian... H-hi..."
The voice ca out small.
Corwin sat stiffly, eyes flicking forward but never quite eting him.
Ruvian turned his head slightly, glanced at him, then gave a simple nod. He leaned back in his seat and then he spoke in his usual calm voice.
"What happened on your side, Corwin?"
Ruvian waited in silence, not pressing but not looking away either.
Corwin sat beside him, his body was too tense to relax.
"I... I don’t know where to start," Corwin muttered, not looking at him. "It’s... I’m also trying to make sense of it, to be honest."
He rubbed the edge of his sleeve, as the mory itself hadn’t quite settled yet. Still, Corwin straightened his shoulders a little and he tried.
"There were six matches. Only six and all of them went to Class A. They dominated all of the matches. Most of the participants from our side didn’t last a minute."
"B-before anyone realized what was happening, they were already down. Almost... all of them had to be carried to the infirmary."
Corwin laughed, but it was short and hollow.
"It was... shocking. Terrifying, even. The difference between us and them... it’s not small. It’s not sothing that hard work will fix in a few months. It’s huge." Corwin sighed.
Ruvian didn’t say anything as he absorbed the words carefully. The image painted itself easily enough in his head.
’No wonder the room felt thinner than usual.’
He hadn’t counted the bodies when he ca in, but now, thinking back, there were fewer. Not drastically so, but enough. A few quiet absences, only to be noticed once he started paying attention.
No one had made a fuss, but the missing seats spoke louder.
Behind them, he could hear quiet murmurs.
The rest of Hall B, now seated and settling in, had begun to whisper across rows, trading questions of what had happened in their respective hall.
Ruvian turned his eyes back to Corwin.
"By the way," he said quietly, as if asking about sothing mundane, "what exactly happened during Julian’s match?"
Then, the question made Corwin freeze. His face lost its color. Even without turning around, Ruvian could feel it.
A few students behind them had gone quiet as well. One or two stopped mid-conversation. Others lowered their voices instinctively, glancing their way without saying a word.
’Why are they always overreacting?’
He sighed.
Corwin’s mouth opened, then closed again. He looked down at his knees like the answer was scrawled there.
"Julian didn’t show any rcy. From the mont the match began..."
Corwin stopped, swallowed, and tried again.
"It wasn’t even a fight. It was brutal. Our classmate was already down. Everyone could see he couldn’t go on, but Julian just kept going. Spell after spell. He didn’t stop. It’s crazy."
Corwin held his fingers tightly.
"I don’t understand why Instructor Veliana didn’t stop him. She was right there... just standing."
’Well, I was questioning the sa thing as I read this part of the novel. I an, she was the one who planned this. Why would she want to stop it?’
"But... even crazier, soone did stop him."
’What?’
Corwin suddenly said sothing that contradicted what Ruvian thought wouldn’t happen in this narrative tiline.
That made Ruvian stunned.
His chest tightened, just slightly.
His curiosity, now leaned forward.
’Soone had stepped in? That shouldn’t have been possible. Only nad side characters dare to go toe to toe with Julian. But Silvena, Calyra, and Rosalin were all with . I know that for certain, so none of them were in Hall A.’
That left few options.
’Loden? No. It didn’t fit.’
Ruvian narrowed his eyes slightly.
’He doesn’t interfere with things that bring him trouble. He wouldn’t step into sothing like that... not unless he had sothing to gain. And right now, he doesn’t.’
So then who?
’Don’t tell ... an unnad side character? Soone the story never even gave a proper introduction to? That’s ridiculous. That would an...’
Before he could form the question aloud, soone arrived.
The classroom door opened.
And a girl stepped through.
She moved in confidently, unshakened, as if unaware of the eyes that followed her.
Her beautiful hair was long, almost black at first glance, but in the light, a muted violet sheen traced the edges, catching the color just barely.
Ruvian turned slightly in his seat, his gaze sharp.
Corwin spoke again.
"Ruvian..." he said quietly.
"She’s... she’s the one who stood up to Julian."
Then, with a strange edge to his voice, Corwin spoke:
"I think her na is..."
"Violet." Ruvian finished it for him.
Suddenly, as the girl scanned the rows above her for an empty seat, her gaze caught Ruvian staring at her calmly.
For a few suspended seconds her eyes locked with Ruvian’s. They were athyst, vivid and luminous. Flecks of violet shimred in their depths, delicate yet arresting.
’Those enchanting athyst eyes....’
Ruvian had been trying to uncover which of the scholars in Class E was Violet, the forgotten nad character who vanished from the story after chasing Zian, ever since the first day of orientation.
Still, he hadn’t pressed the matter; there had been little urgency then, and far more imdiate concerns to occupy him.
But even so, it seed his speculation had been right, the girl at the front was Violet. He knew it for sure due to her eyes.
Yet one question crawled on him: why would she risk herself by standing against Julian? What is she trying to gain from that?
’I guess Duchess was right.’
’There must be more to Violet’s story that the author had forgotten about.’
There was no way she was being introduced with a lot of details to just be left behind forgotten.
After all, Violet had one of the most tragic backstories in the novel.
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[Chapter 79: A Different Turn]
Plot Points= 13,640
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