OldBegginings:[Sorry about this being late. WriTE introduced me to Town of Salem, and with my very addictive personality, that's what I've been playing for the last two days straight. Yeah, I get addicted to things really easily, so sorry for missing my schedule. By the time I realized this mistake, I had about 15 minutes to finish a chapter. So I instead slept on it, and worked on it today. I hope this chapter is good enough to warrant the schedule error, and I hope it doesn't happen again.

Well, I might as well say something relatively important during this time, basically after chapter 8, I'm going to have an authors notes. Explaining some of my motives in writing the series and answering question I feel are important to you, like how I'm going to structure the story, how an Englishmen such as myself is so bad at the English language. (it's incompetence and the fact I'm into science not languages btw.) You know, basic stuff. So here's my warning to all of you, if you have any questions about the series so far, or what the future has in store. Please ask them in the comments to this chapter, or the next.]

The door creaked open, clearly being too heavy for even the maid to open alone. Time seemed to slow, the mumbles from inside gradually became audible, the sliver of light from inside grew as the doors parted and Silence's anxiety grew with it.

'Um... Shit, what should I do? what should I say? Will they even care?' more questions popped into her head. In a mixed state of confusion and being scared, Silence seemed powerless to do anything as the haunting door opened. She felt like she would pass out from this sickly feeling.

Eventually, the door fully opened, showing Silence the insides. It was similar to the layout from yesterday, but it was way more scarce. Only about twenty of the one hundred plus chairs were filled, even less bothered to look around at the opened door.

'Oka-ay... breathe in and out. Only four people have noticed me...' She thought, bombarding her own thoughts with shaky optimism.

Silence wobbled into the room, her knees still shaking, as she somehow kept up with her maid. The maid at a counter, beaconing Silence to join her.

The atmosphere around Silence was thick as she continued to go through the maze of tables and chairs. More people started to stare at her, probably discussing her and what happened last night...

She was too scared to look any of them in the eye, maintaining focused on where she needed to go. She could have saved herself grief by making the room silent to her, but she was probably going to be told what was being served, so she deemed it pointless.

As she got further across the room, she noticed the mumbling came to near silence. assuming she was now the center of attention; becoming so anxious she became disorientated. To get to grips, she looked around the room in a panic.

'Wait. What? Where's the scorn, the mockery?! What the hell is going on?!' she started questioning herself, darting her gaze from group to group. She assumed to see groups with scornful expressions, outright mocking her or at least groups being apathetic. She didn't though, she saw groups talking in mumbled voices about her, picking random tones of pity and empathy for them.

Whilst thinking, she didn't move. She felt weak, probably a mixture of hunger and anxiety.

"Silence?" a familiar voice broke her trance. It was the, now inpatient, maids.

Silence was speechless, now continuing to try and catch up with her maid.

A few minutes of awkward wobbling later, and she reached the counter, being handed a menu by the person behind it. As she looked at the pictured meals, her stomach growled again, leading to the person behind the counter and her maid both giggling at her.

Silence ignored those two, and everyone one else in the room, as she preoccupied herself on ordering. Whether they were actually scorning her, or not, if she embarrassed herself by her stomach growling, she would probably lose control and say something stupid again. She bit her tongue to cement this into her mind.

'So there's cod fillets? I wonder how many I can have, they're bound to be tasty.' She thought, almost drooling as she instantly decided on her order, Cod fillets with rice and vegetables.

"I..." she said softly, pushed herself to order. Her anxiety stopped her soon after starting. She did manage to piece the other two's laughter, so both looked upon her with patience.

After about a while of forcing herself, more words eventually followed after her stomach reminded her about her extreme hunger. "I... I would... I would like the cod fillets with rice!"

This caused the staff member to immediately turn around, dashing about the kitchen to fulfill Silence's order. An apologetic Rebecca patted her head, proceeding to get on her knees to get on eye level with Silence.

"Sorry for pushing you, but it's better than anything you would have done alone. After you left, everyone decided to ignore the whole villain thing. Of course, you'll probably need proof before you believe me, but please try to get over it." Rebecca whispered.

Silence froze, again.

'T-they did? Did they?" Even more questions poured into her mind as she tried to translate Rebecca's testimony as factual or not. Her voice, facial expression... they all screamed truth. It also explained the reason for the pity and awe from the others...

-

The more Silence thought about it, Rebecca seemed correct. Eventually giving into the same conclusion, she sighed deeply. Relaxing her muscles and tired brain. At this point, all of her anxiety left her. She decided to trust Rebecca's advice to make her

Her conclusion was just in time, as she saw the staff member return with a massive plate. On it were two cod fillets, rice and a selection of vegetables on the side. She slightly drooled upon seeing it, and her stomach went out of control.

She impatiently grabbed for the cutlery but was beaten to it by Rebecca.

"You can't eat here, find a seat, then eat. There's no seating order today, so just sit anywhere." she taunted, making gestures to the entire room.

Looking around, she found the closest seat and sat there. The maid gave her cutlery back, and she started to dig in.

As she cut through the batter, a ball of steam mixed with the smell of freshly cooked fish was released, making her stomach growl loudly again.

"Ha ha ha. Did ya swallow a monster?" a male voice said nearby said, surprising Silence enough to immediately drop her knife and fork.

Silence couldn't find the words to reply, following Rebecca's words, assumed everyone around her weren't accusing her of being a villain. She looked around, noticing three other people at the table she was on.

Immediately following the voice, she saw a brunette male sitting opposite to her. He was definitely in a higher year, but Silence felt he was older than her due to his elegance. He was almost done with his meal, likely getting interrupted by her arrival. She now felt bad for bothering them.

Next to him, sat a voluptuous girl trying to stop her giggling who was the only one laughing at the joke told. She too was a brunette, with a long pony-tail which trailed down the back of her chair. Although she seemed to be mocking her, the waving of her hand in a friendly way dismissed any offense. She didn't have any food. It looked like she waiting for the formerly mention person to finish.

The last of the three was a black haired male, who was sitting next to Silence. His muscles were visible, even thought the suit he was wearing didn't really emphasize them. He seemed out of place sitting with the other two, not indicating any care to the other two people. He joined them with Silence and had no food to eat with him. He didn't seem cold, just stressed for time.

The latter's appearance made Silence panic. Her muscles tensed as she blurted out an introduction. "S-s... Sorry! I-I'm Silence... Yes-yesterday I..." Her stammered introduction was cut short.

The voluptuous girl smiled lightly, waving her hand in dismissal as she replied. "Don't worry... 'Silence' was it? All the elite decided to ignore that rant of yours yesterday, we were told to ignore your name and such too. To have such a large group of powerful, scary people put you in a corner like that. Your reaction wasn't that surprising. Your ability to mute everyone without a chant, though... that was surprising."

There was a moment of silence as Silence reacted to her words. A mixture of this and the other two giving off the same smiles made her finally relax again.

"Oh." The voluptuous girl interrupted Silence's trance. When she gave her attention, the girl continued. "By the way, I'm 'Scalpel'. Ranked seventy. I'm a second-year in the medical course with my brother 'Sanitize' over there." she pointed at the brunette guy next to him, causing him to bow his head to her.

'Oh boy... Introductions. I'm not planning on making friends, so I wasn't paying attention. That should be the end of it, right?' She thought, not paying attention. She wanted to eat but bore with acting interested in seeming polite. She didn't want any hassle from annoying them.

Thinking the introductions were over, she turned back to her food. Only to be interrupted again.

The black haired guy coughed, making Silence look his way. He then introduced himself. "I'm 'Spire', a mage in the military course ranked 23rd in the school. I'm here because I like interesting people, and you are piquing my interest Silence. Considering you're one of only three first-years and the only person in the espionage course currently in the elite. Your duel with Lunar and how effective your ability was on us yesterday put you on most of our radars."

Silence shuddered, assuming her peaceful life was now going to be ruined by this guy. It was easy to 'forget' other people's introductions, so she didn't mind 'listening' to them. It was people like Spire, who seemed to be a bit too interested in her, that she actually feared...

He paused. Realizing he sounded too much like a stalker, he shook his hands in dismissal. "Not like that... I'm not going to stalk you, just to welcome you. With members like you, I think the tournament will be fun for once. I'm in charge of organizing the teams for the tournaments and organize the training sessions accordingly. I won't force you to pick your events right now, just read up the events and make your mind up by next week please."

He stood up, bowed to Silence, handed her a little booklet and went to leave. She acknowledged what he said, knowing it was something she had to do, and tried to eat again, just to be interrupted one last time.

Turning back swiftly, he told her one last thing in an apologetic tone. "Oh, I didn't tell you where you could run into me, did I? Try to bump into me around the dorms, or just tell the student council you've made a decision. The tournament's a very high priority for everyone, so don't worry about bothering them for this." With that, he left the room.

Silence, on the brink of fainting, finally started to eat. She ate relatively scruffily but maintained some etiquette as to not coat herself in food. It was worth the wait, for now, she felt truly at peace. The fish was cooked perfectly, and the rice and vegetables complimented it perfectly. She didn't even try to stop a big sloppy smile appearing on her face, as she continued to eat all of it. The other two just sat there, her aura of bliss encapsulating them.

-

When she was finally done, she finally noticed the other two staring at her. She really wanted to go to her room, since she was so fatigued after being here, but still wanted to seem likable. She remembered she had the handout from Spire, so used it as her excuse.

"Sorry, I really want to study the events for now. I have no idea what they are since I didn't know I had to join it. So bye. It was nice meeting you, thanks for welcoming me." She quickly said before rushing out of the room.

Scalpel and Sanitize both waved saying their farewells as they saw Silence dart off. They exchanged a look of confusion after she left.

"An interesting gal, huh? The Student Council sure weren't kiddin'." Sanitize said, Scalpel nodding in agreement.