Adrian quickly threw another fierce punch at the punching bag, the sound of his fist striking the heavy material echoing through the empty training room. Each blow beca a release for his pent-up frustration as he imagined it was Ezekiel’s face he was hitting.
He took a deep breath and stepped back, wiping sweat from his brow as he reached for his phone, the sudden beep of a new ssage pulling him from his thoughts.
{I need updates ASAP. Can you do your mission or not?}
His boss’s grumpy ssage flashed on the screen as Adrian’s jaw tightened. The mission he had been assigned—to injure or weaken Ezekiel—was supposed to be a straightforward job. Just enough to make Ezekiel take a break from his perfect life, to shake him out of his routine. With the cooperation of the Rogues acting as spies in the Academy, he had been confident it would be simple. Or at least it would have been if that annoying witch, Remillia, hadn’t been constantly hovering around him.
"Should I just kidnap her and confine her in my room?" he muttered to himself, frustrated by the image of her infuriating smile.
It felt like Remillia always appears the mont he tried to execute any part of his plan, derailing him ti after ti. Before class, she’d be there sharing a talk with Ezekiel. During class, she’d be sitting next to him, teaching him sothing and after class, they would stroll out together.
"Can’t she know her place?" he spat out as he shook his head, trying to concentrate on the punching bag again, but her face kept invading his thoughts. He had done his howork—literally. The girl had no family background worth noting and no ties to any influential supporters. So what made her think she could compete for the affection of soone like Ezekiel?
But that’s when understanding hit him. "...Wait." A flash of understanding sparked in his head, illuminating the dark corners of his increasingly frustrated mind.
Remillia was so obviously into Ezekiel—That much was evident from the way she looked at him; it was almost pathetic. It all made sense now. But more importantly, although Ezekiel didn’t openly react to her advances, Adrian could see the discomfort simring beneath the surface.
Adrian couldn’t suppress a smirk at the thought. ’It was a one-sided love after all.’
There were countless ways to sow discord and chaos. He could whisper rumors, twist perceptions, all while maintaining his innocence. Why go for complicated sches when he could simply just say things as he saw them and exaggerate things a bit?
To do that... he would have to first get close to Remillia and Ezekiel.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Friday’s lecture class – Domain Anomaly Analysis II.
"Starting next week, every squad will act as Conquerors and select a small-scale dungeon and do a presentation on the best way to conquer it."
As the professor laid out the details, a series of groans echoed through the classroom. It was as if the weight of the project had imdiately settled on everyone’s shoulders. But despite the general unease, Hannah and Alena, sitting in front of , turned around with smiles brighter than the fluorescent lights above.
"We believe in you Remillia," Hannah said, looking at as if I was her savior.
"You can do this!" Alena chid in.
They weren’t the only one who looked at . Other cadets were also looking this way, especially , with envious eyes.
"Have a good weekend," the professor concluded, and with that, the class was dismissed.
As we packed up our things, I gazed over at Ezekiel, who was thodically putting his notes away. The mont our eyes t, I was about to say sothing when Christian loudly shouted.
"Guys, there’s a squad leader eting next Wednesday. Don’t forget to co to the auditorium if you’re a squad leader," and with that he left with Cypher and their squad..
I walked up to Ezekiel, "Zeke let’s go to the café first and discuss about what do with our project," I suggested.
But before Ezekiel could respond, soone spoke up, "Alright." I turned my gaze to the side. It was Adrian.
"Let’s go to the café," he continued, however there’s sothing different with him today.
He was really acting strange. He was almost... unnaturally cheerful compared to how he had been acting the last few days. I glanced sideways at him, noting the brightness on his face, and a flicker of suspicion sparked in .
"Joshua... Did sothing happen to you?" I asked, tilting my head in curiosity.
He blinked, looking at like I had just spoken in another language. "What are you talking about?" His gaze quickly shifted to Ezekiel, whose brow had creased slightly in confusion as well. "We don’t have ti, Ezekiel, so let’s go before all the seats are taken there."
Before I could process his response, Adrian had stepped in energetically, herding the squad mbers like sheep eager for their shepherd.
What is he up to this ti again? Did he set up a ti bomb inside the cafe? Planning to blow us all to pieces?
Ten minutes later.
We finally arrived at the cafe so I quickly took a quick scan around our surroundings. From the rooftop seating to the students seated inside, it felt surprisingly normal. Yet a nagging sense of suspicion lingered in my mind as we stepped through the door.
We ordered our drinks and chose a table away from the crowd then started brainstorming our ideas. Once we finished, I questioned them again.
"So, you already know what your tasks are, right?" I asked, my fingers flying over the keyboard.
"Yup! and Alena will be in charge of gathering data such as the overview of the dungeon," Hannah chirped, her usual enthusiasm bubbling over.
I turned to Ezekiel, ready to hear what he had to say. But before he could utter a word, Adrian interjected him. " and Ezekiel are in charge of finding the mana composition of the dungeon."
"Great! Once you’re done, submit your findings to so I can double-check and finalize it for our presentation. Any more questions?" I looked around the table, and they all shook their heads in unison.
"Send the files to before our presentation," I added as they rose to leave, each bidding goodbye.
Just as I was getting my things together, ready to head out, Ezekiel stopped .
"Hey Remillia, can I talk to you for a second?" he said.
"Sure. What do you want to talk about?" I replied, curiosity piqued.
"Did the Gilded Sword contact you?" he asked, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Contact? ?" I replied, blinking in surprise.
At that mont, Ezekiel slightly furrowed his brows.
Ezekiel hesitated, as if weighing his words carefully. "Um, a mail about the Gilded Sword Guild..." he replied.
"Wait, let check," I said, tilting my head as I unlocked my phone and navigated to my emails. Countless notifications flooded my inbox; recruitnt offers, invitations, and interviews flowed in like a torrent.
As I searched for the phrase ’Gilded Sword,’ I spotted an email nestled among dozen others and promptly deleted the irrelevant ones.
"There is an email sent to . Sorry, I don’t check my email that often," I explained.
"They... emailed you?" Ezekiel’s voice contained an edge, an undercurrent of sothing I couldn’t entirely place—was it anger?
"Try reading it when you go ho," he suggested, and that’s when I felt an odd tension in the air.
"I’ll just read it now,"I replied, curiosity filling . I opened the email without waiting for his reply.
The contents didn’t sit well with , especially the list of conditions. It was about a pre-contract offering a salary of one hundred thousand Glacium with additional benefits.
"Can I take a look?" Ezekiel asked, inching closer as he caught sight of my reaction.
"Sure," I replied, shifting my phone slightly so he could see the screen. As he leaned in from behind , his breath brushed against my shoulders and checked the content of the email.
His eyes scanned the contents quickly, but his reaction was imdiate. "What kind of contract is... never mind, you can delete this," he said, his tone clipped.
Before I could respond, he was already retreating, rushing out of the café without even a proper goodbye. The abruptness of his departure left staring at the door, stunned.
This was a side of Ezekiel I hadn’t seen before since I entered the Academy—a rare flash of anger darting across his features.
"...What, why is he so mad?" I whispered to myself, confusion swirling in my mind. Was it about the email?
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Sunday Night.
After an afternoon of studying and working on the dungeon presentation. I decided to take a break and indulge in sothing I loved: gaming. I settled into my comfortable seat, made a clubhouse sandwich, and settled in to watch Ezekiel’s gaming stream.
I had watched him play before, but I never got tired of it. Sotis, I would comnt in the live chat, offering advice or guiding him through challenging puzzles. The chat would erupt into a frenzy of comnts, with so viewers begging to stop and others defending Ezekiel as if he was their own child.
I smiled to myself as I scrolled through the comnts, knowing that I was probably the reason for the commotion. So viewers would get frustrated that I was "ruining" the ga, while others appreciated my insights. I left the stream open as I went to take a shower, eager to co back and see how it ended.
However, when I erged from my room, I found that the live stream had already ended. I sighed, feeling slightly disappointed that I had missed the conclusion. I decided to close my laptop and get into bed, cuddled Macaron for a bit and watched Dual Leveling for a bit.
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