Chapter 134: Graduation Final Part
"..." The graduation ceremony began, and as the days passed, Zenith practically stopped giving classes, allowing her students to prepare and have time to themselves so they wouldn’t get stressed out. After several students went up on stage to be congratulated, the "Special Class" was finally called, and Zenith’s students went up on stage.
But as they went up, looking out at the hundreds of people in the audience, most of them searched for Zenith among the crowd or among the teachers. They hadn’t seen her at the beginning of the ceremony or in the middle of it, and now that it was their turn, they still couldn’t find her.
’She...isn’t coming? Is she really not coming? But...this is our graduation...she should come see us graduate...’ Eirwen looks deeply disappointed at not seeing her teacher. She would have loved for her father to see her graduate, and since he couldn’t, she wanted her teacher to take his place. She had a speech prepared for her.
"..." Ashlyn is the most disappointed. Since Zenith is the only one who can make her sleep, Ashlyn ended up developing a certain dependence on her, trying very hard to earn Zenith’s trust and please her. Seeing that she isn’t in the audience leaves her shaken, making her practically hide among the others.
"...Looks like she’s not coming..." Rouge’s reaction is colder as she murmurs while climbing the stairs to the stage. She didn’t expect her teacher to come in the first place, although she did want her to be here.
’I wonder if it’s because of that...the teacher hates being around too many people...’ Tanya thinks that must be the reason, not being as hurt by her absence because during one of the activities the two of them went on together, she noticed how Zenith seemed to hate being in places crowded with ordinary people.
And the ceremony hall is packed. It’s a place that is physically and mentally exhausting for Zenith for several practical reasons, so she prefers it this way. If her teacher doesn’t feel comfortable in a crowded place, it’s probably better that she didn’t come, which shows a slight bit of maturity on her part, as she has learned to care more about other people’s wishes.
"Hey, do you think Professor Zenith is going to show up at the last minute? I’d like to take a picture with her," Edith asks, more interested in the teacher than the ceremony. The question directed at Charlotte makes Charlotte stay silent for a few seconds before shrugging.
"We have no way of knowing...the teacher is a weird person. I wouldn’t put it past her to completely ignore the ceremony. It wouldn’t be surprising at all. Actually, I think it would be more surprising if she showed up," Charlotte says to Edith as the first to go is Eirwen.
A microphone is handed to her along with a certificate and a small box containing a few gifts. She begins giving her speech, and despite messing up some lines, getting nervous, and even tripping over her dress, she manages to finish the speech without any more accidents after cutting out a few parts.
She quickly leaves the stage, trying to hide her face from embarrassment over not even giving the speech the way she wanted to.
"...Are you okay? It wasn’t that bad, I think, although I didn’t really understand what your speech was supposed to mean," Tanya asks Eirwen, who leaves the stage looking like she’s about to cry. Even though Tanya is trying to be nice, the way she says it is discouraging for Eirwen.
"I-I’m fine...it was nothing...I-I just messed up a few lines, but it’s okay." She lies to hide how her disappointment turned into sadness over messing up the tribute. She had honestly expected more from Zenith when it came to them. This graduation only happens once, and Eirwen’s speech felt empty without the person it had been written for being there.
Next is Ashlyn. Her speech is even more unstable than Eirwen’s. She messes up many words and repeats sentences she’s already said, creating something disjointed. The silence in the room is uncomfortable while all the attention sends her into a panic. She finishes quickly and practically runs toward her classmates, tripping on the stairs and falling on top of Edith.
"S-Sorry...I-I didn’t mean to s-slip." She apologizes to Edith while Edith notices that the hem of her dress has torn a little, revealing part of her thigh.
"It’s fine. I actually kind of like it. You can see the garter belt I put underneath. It’s much more seductive this way. The teachers are going to go crazy when they see this, and I have the perfect excuse, hehe," Edith says with a little giggle as Charlotte goes up on stage.
She simply takes what was meant for her and doesn’t give a speech at all. Rouge does the same, while Tanya goes up on stage and begins giving a speech that sounds pretty arrogant.
"...Why are you crying?" Eirwen hears the question and looks back, about to say that she isn’t crying when she sees Zenith.
"P-Professor Zenith!!" She becomes embarrassed, trying to hide her face while the others look at her in surprise, soon noticing that she’s wearing a dark navy-blue dress with white gloves and long white stockings that conceal most of her metallic parts.
"Professor, where were you?" Charlotte asks while Zenith gives her a strange look.
"What are you talking about? Are you blind? Isn’t it enough to be idiots, now you’re blind too? What the hell is this? Why are you so nervous over some stupid speech when you face monsters? Anyway, I’ve literally been here the whole time. Did you forget I’m a teacher? I was right over there." Zenith points toward a part of the stage that, from their angle, is completely hidden by the curtain. There are several teachers there who are barely visible.
Whether you’re coming in or looking for someone, you’d only be able to see them if you went up on stage and looked directly into the area behind the curtains. The line gradually gets shorter as the teachers leave with their students, but it’s still long, so Zenith is near the back. Still, she watched everything and heard everything.
"Oh...that...makes more sense..." Eirwen murmurs, embarrassed by what she showed, and Ashlyn becomes immensely embarrassed by how badly her speech went. But before they can say anything, Edith wraps an arm around Zenith’s waist while raising a cellphone.
"Professor, you look gorgeous. Let’s take a picture for the memories. I’ll send you all the pictures I took of all of us afterward." Edith squeezes Zenith’s ass with the hand around her waist, causing Zenith’s tail to wrap around Edith’s leg and squeeze until she lets go.
"A-Ah...y-you don’t have to break my leg, Professor!! Sorry!! I won’t squeeze your ass anymore!!" Edith quickly says as she takes the picture and backs away, then runs toward the stage since Tanya finishes her speech and comes down toward Zenith with a pompous expression.
"You girls are really so troublesome. Speeches done wrong and in a hurry, crying, and those clothes, ugh. Honestly, I wonder if you’ll really be able to survive on the battlefield." Zenith rolls her eyes at them as she goes back to her place.
"..." Even though only a short time has passed between them, Zenith’s mere presence calms the students down, which doesn’t help much now that most of them have already given their speeches or taken what they needed.
’I can’t believe I cried...how embarrassing...and she heard everything...’ Eirwen realizes that now that she knows Zenith heard her, she really would rather Zenith hadn’t been there and hadn’t seen the embarrassing speech she gave.
"Looks like in the end, Professor saw all of your speeches. That’s great, right?" Charlotte says to Eirwen, who still nods even though she doesn’t like that fact nearly as much anymore. If she had known Zenith was listening, she could have done better.
"At least she came!! It would have been annoying if she wasn’t here. She’s always so harsh and strict with us, and she’d still skip our graduation? That’s simply outrageous!! Outrageous!! She has no right to skip it. I would’ve complained to her if she’d been absent!!" Tanya says very loudly.
"..." Ashlyn lets out a tired sigh, feeling exhausted from everything that happened, especially being recorded and photographed while giving her careless speech.
"Guys, I...I’m going home..." Ashlyn murmurs, almost too quietly to hear, as she walks toward the hallway to leave. The others wave goodbye as they focus on Edith’s speech.
"..."
"[Something wrong?]" Mycena asks Ashlyn as she walks through the academy’s hallways.
"No...it’s just...it was really uncomfortable, all those cameras and pictures...I ruined everything...I-I thought she hadn’t come and I got nervous."
"[That’s kind of pathetic, but whatever. Your teacher didn’t seem to care much. Actually, she seemed more offended that you didn’t notice her than by the fact that you gave some pretty half-assed speeches.]"
"I-I hope so...starting today, we’re graduates...I-I guess it’ll be hard for her to help me sleep now, right?...damn it...I-I’d already gotten used to sleeping every two days..." She sighs in disappointment.
While for most people the end of classes and the beginning of life in the military is the start of something new, the beginning of building their future, for Ashlyn it’s the worst thing that could happen, because she won’t have any way to sleep. Only Zenith knows the "trick" that makes her sleep.
’I hope things aren’t too bad in the army...’