Chapter 58: Proof of the Truth
From the moment Shani stepped into the classroom and saw Nora becoming the center of attention, she was already on guard.
Even though they had no relationship beyond knowing each other’s names in this life, Shani wasn’t going to let her guard down.
Sure enough, Nora immediately made Shani her scapegoat. Shani knew exactly what was going through Nora’s mind.
Nora’s manipulation could turn a murderer into a saint and an innocent person into a villain. But that only worked on people who didn’t know how rotten she really was.
Shani coldly stared at the staggering Nora.
For a brief moment, Shani caught the hatred in Nora’s eyes. It quickly changed into a look of disappointment.
"Shani, I didn’t know you hated me so much that you’d try to destroy me like this. Is this because you heard that I’m staying at my cousin’s house and now you look down on me?"
Tears streamed down Nora’s face as if someone had given it a cue. They seemed endless.
Seeing this, Shani smiled. It wasn’t a mocking smile, but an amused one.
’It wouldn’t be Nora if she didn’t use every pretentious-bitch trick in the book.’
Shani folded her arms across her chest and looked down at Nora, who was shorter than her.
"Hmm, I have no intention of destroying you. Everything I’ve said and shown is the truth, after all. Or are you saying that what I said was a lie?"
Nora looked sorrowful on the outside, but her mind was working furiously. She was thinking about the possibility that Shani had even stronger evidence.
Beside her, Orin was more like a short fuse, immediately snapping at Shani.
"Yes, you’re a liar! Nora is the victim here. Don’t be so arrogant!"
Shani casually nodded before turning toward the other students. "Do you all agree with him?"
The students collectively shut their mouths. None of them dared to look at Shani.
"You were all insulting me earlier, weren’t you? Why are you silent now?" Shani asked as if she had nothing to do with the situation.
Several students who felt awkward tried to step back, intending to leave without drawing attention.
Shani shook her head. Then she turned to Slater.
"Instructor, could you show us the surveillance footage from this classroom?"
The moment the word surveillance was mentioned, everyone seemed to have a sudden revelation.
Right. This wouldn’t have become so complicated if they had checked the surveillance from the beginning.
Shani gave a small smile when she saw the panic Nora could no longer hide.
She had deliberately not mentioned the surveillance earlier. She wanted everyone to see Nora’s pretentious act for themselves.
Shani had already been patient enough with Nora. Now Nora had made her a scapegoat just like Nora had in her previous life. She wasn’t going to let Nora off easily.
The other students could clearly see the difference between Shani and Nora’s expressions.
With all the evidence Shani had shown them, they would have to be incredibly foolish to still believe Nora.
"Nora, just admit your mistake and apologize to Shani," said one of the more peaceful students.
"Tch. Is an apology enough after ruining another student’s reputation and lying to all of us?" another student snapped, clearly annoyed at being fooled by Nora’s manipulation.
"She should’ve gone to an acting academy instead of beast academy. She must have buckets full of crocodile tears by now," another student muttered, equally irritated.
"Who knows how many times she’s pulled something like this? She really has no shame!"
One after another, the students threw their own "warm" words at Nora.
Shani had no intention of agreeing with any of her classmates. She knew they weren’t defending her. They were simply venting their anger after being fooled by Nora.
Seeing that it was finally time to end the drama, Slater stopped his students from speaking and said, "I’ve already downloaded the surveillance footage. Now—"
"I..." Nora suddenly interrupted.
With tears still streaming down her face, she pointed at her smartwatch. "My cousin is calling me. I have to go."
Everyone stared at Nora, dumbfounded.
"After getting caught, instead of apologizing, you’re trying to run away?" Shani remarked.
Nora was already almost at the door. Taking advantage of the other students still being stunned by her actions, she didn’t stop walking.
"Nora Clay, your grade is automatically an F. You don’t need to come back to this class anymore," Slater declared.
Nora was already at the doorway. She chose not to turn around and simply kept walking.
"Nora, don’t go!" Orin shouted toward the door. "I know you must have a reason!"
The other students, and even Slater, could only look at Orin with pity. The very definition of a lost cause.
Slater then showed them the surveillance footage.
There had been no swap. Instead, they could see that Nora had always been late to feed her bloodworms. There were even several times when she didn’t feed them at all.
At the end of the footage, they found the bloodworms that had escaped Nora’s container.
One was still alive, though barely, underneath an empty table at the back of the classroom. The other was already dead in the corner.
Shani asked for the dying bloodworm. Slater had no reason to refuse.
"Your cultivation method has made this bloodworm look like a premium one. Good job," Slater praised.
Shani thanked him in return.
If not for the Red Worm Jelly, which had made her study bloodworms in greater detail, her own bloodworms probably wouldn’t have been this healthy.
When Shani was about to leave the classroom, one student apologized to her for saying those nasty things earlier.
Meanwhile, the other students had already left the classroom as if nothing had happened.
...
Shani headed to the library.
This time, it no longer felt like her private library. Besides Shani and her friends, other students who had already finished their resonance were also filling the library.
Shani sat beside Jeryon and tried to focus on reading tips and tricks for bloodworm cultivation when she suddenly remembered that she hadn’t given Jeryon his gift for this week yet.
’If there’s a total value limit, I should give him something expensive so I can reach the limit faster.’
’But if I randomly give him an expensive gift and he rejects it because it’s useless to him or he doesn’t like it, I’ll lose even more.’
Then, Shani opened the search engine and typed: "What does Prince Jeryon of Argenor like?"
...