Chapter 5: Welcoming Ceremony [1]
Alden took a step back.
His eyes stayed on Darius and his body stayed tense while his brain ran the numbers.
’They must’ve followed me from the academy. Then found me in the forest. Knocked me unconscious and built a fake cabin around me. All this to test what?’
’Am I done? do I still have a chance to prove myself?’
He kept his guard up anyway.
"What exactly was this test for?" he said. "What were you actually looking for?"
Claire waved one hand. "Relax. You’re not in danger. You’re safe."
He didn’t move.
She sighed. "Sierra’s accusation spread through the entire academy within an hour. Every student, every professor, everyone believed her. But she’s my twin sister. I’ve known her my whole life. When she wants something to go her way and it doesn’t, she lies. She’s always done it." Claire looked at him steadily.
"So instead of just taking her word for it, Grandfather and I decided to find the truth ourselves."
"Everything that happened tonight," she said. "The cabin. The forest. Me being late. The wolves." Her eyes met his. "All of it was staged."
’I knew it’
Alden’s mind went blank for a second. He replayed the night. The old man trembling on the ground, the desperate fear in his voice calling for help, the wolves surrounding Claire at the spring.
All of it staged.
Darius chuckled, apparently reading his expression without difficulty.
"After I heard about the incident, I tracked you into the forest when you were running away from the academy. When I found you I knocked you unconscious before you noticed me. The cabin you woke up in doesn’t actually exist, I created it temporarily." He gestured at himself with both hands. "As for this appearance, that’s my Shapeshifter skill. I can alter how I look freely."
’I know,’ Alden thought. ’I’m the one who wrote it into the story.’
He kept that particular thought firmly inside his head.
Darius continued. "Sierra is also my granddaughter." A small, tired exhale. "That child has been spoiled since she was very young. She knows how to lie convincingly when she wants something, and I’ve watched her do it for years. I wasn’t willing to judge you based only on what she said. So we designed a situation where your real character would show itself." He looked at Alden. "You saved Claire. You didn’t try anything funny or take advantage of her, even though you had the perfect chance."
"Okay, way too much detail, please!" Claire cut in quickly, her face turning bright red.
"Alright." Darius put both hands up.
Alden let the tension go out of his shoulders.
"So you’re not taking me in chains."
"Of course not." Darius laughed properly this time. "You’ve proven what I needed to see."
Alden breathed out slowly. Then he looked at Claire. She was still holding a sword.
"...Why do you have that?"
She looked down at it, then at Darius.
"It’s not for you," she said to Alden. "It’s for him."
"...What?"
"He made me act," she said, her grip tightening on the sword. "He made me get naked in that freezing spring water. Coming out of it was—" She stopped and pressed her lips together. "It was humiliating. And he thought it was fine because it made everything look convincing."
She pointed the blade at Darius.
"One day," she said clearly, "I will end you."
"Hahaha!" Darius’s laugh bounced off the surrounding trees. "My little Claire, I am deeply sorry. I promise this is the absolute last time I ask something like that of you."
"You’ve said that before."
"This time I mean it sincerely."
"You’ve said that too."
Alden stood between the two of them.
After a moment he turned back to Darius.
"So you’re going back to the academy to clear my name? As the new Headmaster?"
Darius nodded. "Yes. I’ll make sure the—" He stopped.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"...How did you know I’m becoming the next Headmaster?" His voice was careful. "That appointment hasn’t been made public yet."
Alden’s smile locked in place.
"I, uh." He scratched the back of his neck. "Lucky guess?"
Darius looked at him without blinking for several seconds.
"A lucky guess."
"I mean, since you came all this way to check on me before making a decision, I just took a wild guess."
"...I see."
He kept looking at Alden for another second. Then he let it go.
Alden made a mental note: I SHOULD NOT say things I shouldn’t know. I wrote this world. Nobody else knows that I wrote it. Stop talking about plot points.
_____
Back at Astral Academy, the morning had turned into a production.
The former Headmaster had stepped down at sunrise, and the farewell had stretched longer than scheduled because apparently the man had spent forty years at the academy and people had feelings about that.
Older students had wet eyes. A few professors had excused themselves to compose themselves before the ceremony for the incoming Headmaster began.
The Student Council had been running since before breakfast.
Nicholas stood at the academy entrance checking the banner placement.
"Move that one two feet left," he said. "And the academy flag needs to be higher, it’s supposed to be above the stage, not level with it."
The students scrambling up the ladder adjusted without question.
Roselle walked over from the side courtyard, clasping her hands behind her back. "Everything on the east side is ready."
Nicholas checked the entrance one more time and let out a small satisfied breath.
Then he glanced around to confirm nobody was looking directly at them and turned toward her.
"I’d work twice as hard just to see you smile," he said, reaching up to touch her cheek.
Roselle stepped back immediately, color rising in her face. "Nico." She kept her voice low. "Not here. People are watching."
"Right, right." He pulled his hand back. "Later then."
"Later," she said, still slightly flushed. She pointed at him. "And you’d better not forget."
"I never forget anything important."
She made a sound that was somewhere between pleased and unconvinced and turned back toward the decoration she’d been overseeing.
"Mind if I help with something?"
Both of them went completely still at the same moment.
’That voice..’ Roselle turned around first.
Alden stood at the edge of the courtyard, hands relaxed at his sides, looking at the decorations like he was genuinely considering which task needed an extra person.
"So," he said, "where do you need me?"
For one full second the entire courtyard was silent.
Roselle’s hands dropped from their clasped position.
"...You." The word came out flat and cold.
Mana gathered around her body fast, wind wrapping her in a tight spiral as her eyes locked on Alden with fury.
"You actually came back here."
The surge of mana did what surges of mana do in a courtyard full of people, catching attention of other students. Heads turned. Students who had been hanging banners and moving chairs and carrying flags stopped what they were doing and looked toward the source.
One student dropped the flag he had been carrying.
"...Alden?"
Then they saw who was standing there.
Everything exploded.
"He’s HERE—?!"
"That bastard actually showed his face!"
"He dares to show his face after what he did?"
The crowd moved fast. dozens from every part of the courtyard, dropping whatever they were holding and moving toward him.
"Don’t let him run this time!"
"Catch him!"
"He doesn’t get to just walk back in—"
Alden stood exactly where he was.
He didn’t step back. He didn’t raise his hands. He watched the crowd coming at him from every direction with complete calm and let them come.