Rise looked deeply at the youth sitting in a bed next to him. Everybody, Noel included, looked at the tv with varying levels of interested gazes. Noel was one of them – but it was clear at a glance that he was currently forcing himself to pretend to be interested.

After all, anything was better than speaking with Rise – the only other person he could tell that didn’t wanna watch Harvey’s last match!

Despite Rhys also not wanting to participate in this little act of ‘tv gazing’ that Elijah and his dad indulged themselves in, he’d rather pretend he was actually interested than meet his father for a ‘private discussion’. If he wasn’t careful, his dad could easily take him out of this room with a thought. He had to make sure he kept himself busy! Surely, there was no chance his dad would purposely cut the other students off from talking to him, right?! If he was careful enough, he could hang out with these guys until it was his turn to perform in the matches. With proper timing, he could avoid his father completely! And all it required was keeping himself busy in here for about an hour or two!

…

Ugh. An hour feels so long in comparison.

Rise: “Hey. Pssst. Hey, Noel.”

Noel: “…”

Rise: “Pssst! Hey, Noel!”

Noel: “I’m not talking to you. Harvey’s match is on right now, and I want to see how he’s going to perform. That means SHHH!! Don’t bother me!”

Rise: “Grr. Don’t ignore me you dumb piss-ant! As if I’m about to start believing that a brat like you; a little shit who would actually be willing to go as far as to not only denounce several members of this school’s freshman hierarchy with sheer disdain, but wholeheartedly label that muscle – headed ‘King’ Harvey as ‘weak’ right to his face, has suddenly done a 180 and now has a sudden interest in his match? Pffft – Ahaha! How fucking ridiculous!”

Noel: “...It’s NOT ridiculous – you just don’t understand the subtle pleasure one can find in a bully’s down-”

Rise: “Hey.”

Noel: “...What?”

Rise: “Earlier, what did you mean by what you said? the part where-”

Noel: “Ah? You’ll have to be specific Rise. I said quite a lot today.”

Rise: “Grrr, I was ABOUT to be specific! Don’t interrupt me!

…

The part where you mentioned earlier on, that we both were the only casualties back there. I wanna know why you lied about that.”

Noel: “*Shrugs* Hey, it’s no use calling the messenger a despicable liar. I only delivered the message to you, as per the message that I myself was given by the nurses.”

Rise: “...Really?”

Mr. Abrams: “What are you two talking about?”

Obviously eavesdropping on his students’ conversation, as they’re both so close to him, Mr. Abrams chooses a moment to chime in. Right as Rise is beginning to doubt Noel’s wordy attempt to brush the wild – child off.

After Rise explained in detail once more about the bloody head of ‘Leos’ being casually thrown at him back in the forest, Mr. Abrams comes to understand something he completely overlooked.

Mr. Abrams: “Rise. Noel. Did either of you two notice a bright light at some point during your ba—err, *Cough Cough* I mean, during your attempt at distracting him until I managed to find your location in time?”

He didn’t have any hopes. He knew that in order for Rise to not know anything about the miracle that saved Class 3 – C, it could only mean that their battles collected his entire attention, and also Mr. Abrams was very privy to the fact that the two’s respective confrontations weren’t settled until shortly AFTER the light miracle transpired. Meaning from beginning to end, it’s ability to ‘save’ them would never have kicked in. Rise should've been in a deadly confrontation against 4, the killer mercenary One’s adoptive son. Though it was generally one – sided, this of course could be understood by their respective bodies’ injury discrepancy but still! Even still… Rise wouldn’t have had the time to spare to examine an already befallen head.

And if Rise hadn’t noticed the head vanishing from nearby, before he was teleported, poisoned and nearly killed by the vicious mercenary mission leader: One’s blade, then there was even LESS to say about the boy who actually fought against One the entire time, and would have successfully killed him, had Mr. Abrams himself not intervened. Alas, a hero cannot ‘unsee’ such a thing. And due to this fact, he had no choice, but to put the kid to sleep. There was probably a zero percent chance the kid noticed anything.

Surprisingly, however... Noel exclaimed a gasp of realization!

Noel: “That light!!”

Hearing this, the two waited for him to continue. his shocked face clearly gave away the fact that he only just now put certain details together pertaining to that light. Did he notice anything strange…? Perhaps injuries healing, or…

.

.

.

Rise: “…!”

Rhys: “!!(This feeling...)”

Without word of warning, a dense and heavy pressure rolled out from Noel’s deadly gaze – a gaze that coupled itself along with the boy’s clenching fists. It lasted for a split second; and was promptly extinguished along with his exposed, now – bleeding palms. But the depth of it’s hidden rage, of his desire to wash away his former shame and his clear-cut temptation to kill, surfaced forth for an instant.

Most of the visiting students didn’t react to it, whatsoever. Li shun did, due to his experience against villains, but he only shivered for a bit, before continuing to watch tv along with the others. He couldn’t exactly tell what it was or if anything was going on. Alyandrea almost responded by turning her head, however a loud noise from the tv caught her attention again. She didn’t notice the murderous intent, but she did intuitively feel something was ‘off’ behind her. The others didn’t have such lucky instincts or intuition, nor such engraved experience. Well, they did NOW, but it was just starting to bud, and they were trying hard to move past it by forgetting about the experience. They didn’t notice anything at all.

Elijah had the necessary experience, but lacked attentiveness. He was busy mulling over the ‘Kings visitations’ and put everything else out of his mind.

Rhys noticed. He was swiftly woken up from his daydreaming daze and hurried his gaze in its direction.

Only to find it vanished as quickly as it came.

And the origin… was that chihuahua boy his father kept focusing on!

Rise glanced at him and tensed up. It was habitual, thanks to his dark childhood. Being in the presence of killing intent, one must always stay vigilant. Although he wasn’t foolish enough to mix his own killing intent here right now, with their teacher present, his claws already begun to grow, underneath the covers.

Yes. That momentary gaze filled with such palpitating killing intent, it was instantaneous and far too short for these younger generation folk to take precautionary measures against. Yet, to the experts overseeing these kids’ visitation from afar – such as Mr. Abrams, such as Borg Ericson, such as Aeron, and such as the soon-to-be next security leader watching the entire dome for strange happenings, a mysterious blonde haired female Ericson: That instant filled with blood lust was far too long. If it wasn’t for that cheeky Malierano, Aeron, taunting them right now with his smug smirk, the pair of Ericson siblings would have taught him a lesson in manners already.

They wouldn’t have killed him, due to the ‘Twelve Old Families’ treaty, but they definitely would have initiated ‘punishment’ for acting with blood lust inside of their school – their family’s territory.

But, Mr. Onareilam wasn’t the only one helping Noel this time around.

Mr. Abrams noticed everybody’s reactions one by one and was inwardly surprised. Did this kid plan on blowing his cover after only four days of school? Three of which, he was absent for?!

He was just about to ask for an explanation when he heard the boy’s following words.

Noel: “That stupid light… I remember now. It was that dumb, damned light that almost got me killed!”

Mr. Abrams: “…What? But…your other classmates said it brought forth miracles to them all…”

Noel: “Pfff! Miracles? Ahahahahahaha! What kind of miracle blinds somebody long enough for the killer to inject his weird… bio - nanite things into the victim’s blood stream, thereby making it easier to control their every move? What kind of miracle leaves the victim exposed, but acts as cover for the killer’s next actions? If not for that light… If not for that light…! I would never have been caught off guard and injured!”

{That dumb old man would never have gotten a hold of me if it wasn’t for that weird and strange light that blinded me! What miracle? I almost died!

...Sort of. Well, I wouldn’t have died to that level of skill, but still! I can’t count this as a win – it would bring way too much shame back home If father knew I was bragging over such an embarrassing fight!}

Mr. Abrams: “…(Now I understand. This foolish kid is feeling embarrassed, huh? For the Malieranos that value perfection, his fight isn’t anything extraordinary – in fact, it might even be deemed as a failure, or a blemish on his record. Losing is not an option. In fact, ‘draws’ are even worse than losing in most cases, since the Malieranos only ever act when they’re feeling particularly confident! So for him to get caught off guard and blunder over a particularly bright flash of light… granted, I heard from Ophelia that the light even penetrated through her eyelids… it seems that unknowingly, the ‘miracle’ for others was nothing more than an obstacle for this guy. An unlucky bane that reminds him of his ‘loss’. Haah…

…

Those perfectionist bastards. Just be glad that you’re alive, you stupid brat. Your classmates weren’t blessed with your training!)”

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