Chapter 524: Chapter 524: Plan for a Small Celebration
Above the hall, the projection still held the top three in pale blue light.
Zafira du Zar’khael.
Alfons au Vaelion.
Trafalgar du Morgain.
No one rushed to speak at first. Hundreds of first year students remained where they were, so still staring up at the projection, others staring directly at Trafalgar as if the ranking had altered the outline of him in real ti. It had, in a way. A na at the top did not change the person standing beneath it, but it changed how the room arranged itself around that person. The glances ca from every direction now, carrying a different kind of weight than before. Curiosity had been there all year. So had rumor. What filled the hall now was certainty.
Trafalgar stood under it all without much change in posture. His head remained slightly tilted upward, as if he were still checking whether his own na really had settled in first place.
’So I really ended up there.’
He had wanted it. Of course he had wanted it. There was no point lying to himself about that. He simply had not expected the feeling to be this quiet once it happened.
Around him, the rest of the hall slowly began to breathe again.
Murmurs started first, low and uneven, spreading from row to row. A few students were still talking about Alfons walking out. Others were already looking back at the top three, reassessing the order like it might sohow rearrange itself if they stared long enough. It did not.
Xavier was the one who finally broke the stillness inside their group.
He looked at Trafalgar, let out a short breath through his nose, and said, "What exactly did you hunt to make sure you took first place? It had to be sothing big."
Trafalgar lowered his head from the projection and answered without drama.
"A sand worm," he said. "I went into the desert looking for it."
That made Xavier go quiet.
The reaction was imdiate and genuine. His expression did not turn theatrical, and he did not jump straight into noise the way he had with Bartholow earlier. He simply went still for a beat, asuring the words properly. He knew enough to understand what a sand worm ant inside an exam like this. Not an annoying target. Not a flashy one. A serious one. The sort of thing that swallowed carelessness whole.
When he spoke again, his tone had changed.
"Have you reached Pri Core?" he asked.
Trafalgar glanced at him. "Not yet. But I’m close."
Xavier’s mouth stayed shut after that.
There was no need for him to say the rest out loud. The answer carried it for him. Trafalgar had killed a monster that belonged above his current Core. However anyone wanted to dress it up, the conclusion stayed the sa. It was an absurd result.
Cynthia understood it imdiately too. So did Zafira. Bartholow looked slightly lost at first, more because he was still processing everything around them than because he lacked the knowledge, but even he caught the shape of it a mont later.
Xavier was the first one to recover his usual tone.
"Don’t think this ans I’m intimidated," he said. "I still want our sparring match."
That got the faintest shift out of Trafalgar, not quite a smile, but close enough.
"Yeah, yeah, don’t worry," he replied. "We’ve got plenty of ti now. One of these days I’ll have to put you in your place."
He said it in a light tone, but Xavier caught it at once and answered in kind.
"Oh, I think you’re getting confused here," he said. "Do you not rember how the last sparring ended?"
Trafalgar stared at him for half a heartbeat.
"No," he said. "I don’t rember. Doesn’t matter either way. I’ll put you in your place so properly you won’t ask
for another one."
That made Xavier laugh.
"Good, good. Keep talking like that." He shifted slightly, glanced at the others, and added, "By the way, I think we can celebrate a little, can’t we? We finished the exams. That deserves sothing."
A celebration.
The word caught Trafalgar more than he expected.
’Celebration...’
For the briefest mont, his mind moved elsewhere, not to another place in this world, but to another life entirely. Finals. Relief. Going out with friends after surviving a brutal exam period. Cheap food, loud talk, the kind of stupid conversations that only felt brilliant when the pressure had finally broken and everyone could breathe again.
The mory ca and went quietly.
’That actually doesn’t sound bad.’
But another thought followed right after.
’If I go anywhere now, I’ll drag attention with .’
Trafalgar exhaled lightly and said, "There’s a small problem, Xavier."
Xavier raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"
Trafalgar answered dryly, "I’m ."
Xavier blinked once. "I don’t get it."
Trafalgar gave him a look that made Cynthia almost snort before she stopped herself.
"I’m Trafalgar du Morgain," he said. "At the mont, I’m the topic people are most interested in. If I go sowhere public, I’ll have eyes on
the whole ti. I’m not in the mood to deal with that."
That made Xavier pause. It was not a bad point, and from the way his expression shifted, he knew it.
"Hm," Xavier said. "But the place I had in mind only lets Academy students in. It’s not in Velkaris either, so you don’t need to worry about turning it into a circus. And honestly..." He glanced toward the hall around them. "Everyone here already knows who you are."
Trafalgar could not argue with that.
He looked briefly around the room. Xavier was right. There was no escaping recognition inside the Academy, not now, and maybe not ever again. Whatever distance had once existed between him and the rest of the first years had been burned away in public.
"That’s true," he admitted.
Xavier took that as enough ground to keep going. He turned toward the others.
"Do you all want to go?"
Bartholow looked uncertain imdiately, not because he disliked the idea, but because he always looked uncertain when anything outside his routine tried to claim him. Cynthia glanced at him, understood that hesitation at once, and decided for both of them without needing a long exchange.
"We’ll go," she said.
Bartholow turned to her. "We will?"
"Yes," Cynthia replied. "You look like you need food, sowhere to sit, and a break from your own head. So yes, we will."
Bartholow opened his mouth, thought better of it, and accepted his fate.
Zafira gave a small shrug. "I’ll go too."
That left only Trafalgar.
Xavier looked back at him with the expression of soone who already knew he had nearly won.
"That makes everyone except you," he said. "And frankly, I think you’ve earned a break. You’re still a living person, Trafalgar. People need rest."
That line almost made Trafalgar laugh.
The bastard was annoyingly persuasive when he wanted to be.
He stayed quiet for a mont, long enough to make Xavier wait, long enough for the others to watch him with varying levels of patience. In the end, the answer ca simpler than the debate in his head.
"Fine," Trafalgar said.
Xavier grinned at once. "Good. Then we have a plan."
He clapped Bartholow on the shoulder, which nearly made the poor boy fold on himself, and continued, "We’ve got a few hours to prepare. et
at the station in three hours."
The plan was decided just like that.
And with the projection of the rankings still glowing faintly above the hall, the first real step beyond the exams quietly began.
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