After a grueling half day of training, one sleepless night, and a particularly awful morning, Friday had finally arrived.
I’d checked the text ssages I received yesterday on my way back from the hospital.
Rowan asked mostly about my well-being, and about what happened regarding Kaito. Song mainly still asked about the skinwalkers, and if the fact that they were currently missing ant they were dealt with. Ayo had been wondering where I was; she still needed my help in eting up with Alice.
I ended up replying what I could to ease their worries. It turned out fine for the most part, besides Song asking to et up.
The final ssage had been from Alice. It mainly explained that the backlash from the nobles regarding the skinwalkers had been dealt with. How she managed to do so? She didn’t say. But I had my guesses. Of course, none of that information had been as important, or as troubling, as the final lines of her ssage.
My actions were finally coming back to bite in the ass.
That final line was why I found myself currently standing on a podium in front of the classroom, filled with a mix of pissed-off cadets, intrigued cadets, and cadets amused by the entire situation.
Simply put, I had to provide so sort of conclusion for my campaign of harassing nobles. Quite a few cadets had reported my rampant abuse of power, and while Alice assured that she’d cover for regardless, I still needed to at least give so sort of closure to them.
The witch that put up to this was sitting peacefully at her desk. Although she had a straight face on, I could tell she found the situation amusing.
’She’s enjoying this...’
I took a deep breath to calm myself.
It was fine. I was fine.
I was nothing if not good at bullshitting.
Clearing my throat a bit, I began.
"As you al—"
"Speak up."
"Yeah, we can’t hear you, shorty."
So fools interrupted , and the rest of the class burst into chuckles. Even Rowan and Shin were trying not to laugh. Song, as I’d expected her to, was laughing very openly.
That was what I imdiately wanted to say, but the look Alice gave shut that down. In the end, I was forced to resort to more... diplomatic ans.
I raised my voice.
"Yes, I am short. Thanks for noticing. Real smart of you there. I believe you can hear now; I don’t think there are any deaf cadets in this class, are there?"
There were murmurs at that, but no loud retorts. It seed they didn’t want to push their luck as well, with Alice sitting nearby.
I continued.
"As I’m sure you are all aware, during the past few days, I, along with a couple of disciplinary students I commanded, went around the Academy conducting impromptu searches."
"Searches? You call those searches?"
"You harassed us!"
"How does sending soone to the clinic count as searching?"
A single clap from Alice silenced the outrage; even then, there were still so cadets murmuring among themselves.
"Right, where was I? Searches. The process went rather smoothly, apart from the few tis we were forced to restrain so uncooperative cadets. For this, I thank you; I also thank the cadets from other classes."
A few scoffs ca from the crowd, and so undistinguishable grumbling from here and there.
I took it as a sign to press on.
"As to what exactly I’ve been searching for, I’m sure most of you already know, but I’ll say it anyway: it was a credit card. My credit card."
They burst out again.
"Is that even legal?"
"How could you use the council for your own benefit?"
"That was the reason you searched us? For a credit card? Really?"
Alice didn’t bother stopping them now; she was too busy enjoying the show to do anything. Sighing, I made a placating gesture to the crowd, barely managing to reduce the noise to a bearable level.
"Settle down, settle down. I know you’re excited, but let finish. There’s a good ending to all of this, I promise."
That further reduced the noise to a level where I could finally hear myself again. I had most of their attention now.
"Good. After extensive searches and a thorough investigation process, we ca up with nothing. So, imagine my surprise when I enter my dorm, and the very first thing I see beneath my bed is this credit card. It’d been there the entire ti; isn’t that crazy?"
I pulled a black credit card out of my sleeve. It was a prop Alice had given when I told her my plan.
If before they had lashed out, now so looked fully ready to get up from their seats, walk up to the podium, and beat the shit out of .
"Are you mad!?"
"So it was all for nothing?"
"How clumsy do you have to be to even make that mistake?"
"No way you aren’t joking!"
But I was dead serious with them. This was the story I chose.
Of course, it wasn’t my hobby to go around rage-baiting cadets, though it was certainly an enjoyable pasti. What I really sought to do in all this was attempt to redirect their wrath to lay solely on .
After all, during my harassnt campaign, I’d relied on Rowan and Alexa, two prominent mbers of Racheal’s faction. Since I targeted mostly nobles, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone that most people thought I joined her faction.
This would hopefully direct most of that rage back at while downplaying the roles anyone apart from played in the operation.
It wasn’t an exquisite fix or anything; those who saw as leaning towards Racheal were unlikely to change their minds. But this would at least help ease tensions a bit.
The sound of noise, argunts, insults, and even a few colorful curses kept increasing at an alarming pace. Luckily, Alice stepped in once again before any overly eager cadet actually made a move for .
A clap was all she needed, and the noise was suppressed once again. There was no power involved in that clap; the entire class rely kept silent due to respect and fear of Alice.
She was a paragon, after all.
I figured it was about ti I put an end to the bullshit now.
"Well then, thanks again. I couldn’t have found it without you. I’ll try to be more mindful of my things from now on. I can’t say for sure, though; I am a pretty short, clumsy guy, after all."
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