Chapter 33: Resolve
Alden turned toward them.
"Yes? What is it?"
One of the first-year students stepped forward.
She was holding a bouquet of flowers with both hands, gripping it carefully like she’d been carrying it for a while and didn’t want to drop it now.
She held it out and bowed her head.
"Senior Alden. Please accept this. It’s an apology from all of us."
Alden looked at the bouquet. Then at the student. Then at himself.
’What in the world is happening right now.’
He accepted the flowers with both hands, somewhat mechanically.
"Thank you. But what are you apologizing for?"
Awkward glances moved through the group.
Then one of the boys stepped forward. "We treated you badly."
Another lowered his head. "We believed everything we heard about you."
A girl to the side added quietly, "We said things about you that we shouldn’t have."
Alden looked at all of them.
’So they came around on their own.’
A faint smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
’At least some people in this academy can admit when they were wrong. That’s more than I can say for the upper years.’
He looked down at the bouquet for a moment.
"It’s fine." His smile became something more genuine. "You don’t have to apologize anymore."
He looked back up. "And thank you for this."
The tension in the group broke immediately. Several of them smiled. One actually let out a relieved breath loud enough to hear.
Then one student shifted on his feet and spoke again.
"Senior Alden... there’s actually something else we wanted to ask."
"What is it?"
"Well, since you’re banish—" The student abruptly shut his mouth. "I mean. Since you’re not in any club right now."
He scratched the back of his head. "Would you consider joining ours?"
Alden blinked. "Your club?"
"Y-yes." The student kept going before he lost momentum. "I know we’re probably one of the weakest clubs in the academy as we are just first years. But after watching you during the attack, we thought..." He trailed off.
Another student quickly added: "You don’t have to if you don’t want to!"
"Sure," Alden said. "I’ll join."
Complete silence. Every single one of them stared at him.
"...Really?"
"Why not?"
That was apparently all it took. The group exploded.
"Senior Alden, please teach me how to use magic like you!"
"Me too! I want to learn how to control mana properly!"
"That fighting style during the attack, please show me how you move like that!"
"How were you so fast?! Can you teach us the thread technique?!"
Alden stood in the middle of the sudden crowd and looked around slowly.
’What exactly did I just agree to.’
Behind him, Seris watched all of it with the particular amusement of someone who has seen something play out exactly as expected.
’Looks like he gained some followers.’
She smiled faintly.
’How amusing.’
"I’m sorry everyone." Her voice carried without effort, landing clean across the corridor. "I’m afraid now isn’t the time for your Senior to stay and chat."
Every head turned.
A few of the male students went visibly red.
"Wait — Vice-President Seris was here? I didn’t even notice—"
"How does someone just appear like that—"
Alden looked at the group. Then at Seris. Then back at the group, who had completely forgotten what they were doing two seconds ago.
’She stole the spotlight without moving a single step.’
He stepped back from the cluster. "Just like Seris said, I have somewhere to be. Let’s talk again later."
He turned and started walking, Seris fell into step behind him.
The first-year students watched them go.
Then one student’s eyes narrowed.
"...Did he just call Vice-President Seris by her name?"
Another student blinked. "Not even ’Senior’..."
"Wait." Someone else lowered their voice. "Isn’t Vice-President Seris publicly engaged to Prince Augustus?"
The students looked at each other. Then the look started spreading.
"Don’t tell me—"
"Are they secretly—"
"NO WAY."
The whispers built into something considerably less quiet as the group began constructing a completely unverified theory with remarkable speed and commitment.
Further down the corridor, Alden narrowed his eyes at the woman walking beside him.
"Why are you following me?"
Seris tilted her head. "Pretty sure that’s my line, Alden. You’re the one walking in my direction."
His eyebrow moved.
She smiled. "I’m the head of the search party assigned to the southern section."
Alden’s expression shifted.
’She must’ve heard me tell Professor Vincent I was going south and decided to lead the search party there herself.’
He clicked his tongue internally.
’What kind of stalker behavior is this?’
Seris glanced sideways at him. "Are you complaining about me in your head right now?"
"No." The answer came out immediately.
"So you were." Her lips curved.
"Anyway." He pushed past it. "The south search party is already formed?"
"Five members. Including you."
"Who are the others?"
_________
He saw the answer before he finished asking.
Leon was there, which was fine. The other two were not fine.
Nicholas and Roselle stood at the assembly point, silently tolerating the group they’d been stuck with.
Leon noticed Alden first and walked over.
"Glad we’re on the same team." He put a hand on Alden’s shoulder. "I’m looking forward to it."
Alden glanced at him.
’Leon I have no problem with.’ His eyes moved to the other two.
’Those two are going to be a problem.’
Seris stepped forward.
"Nicholas, Roselle." She looked at both of them without much warmth, but without any particular coldness either. "You’ll cooperate with Alden. Understood?"
"Yes, Senior Seris." Roselle answered first, clean and clear.
"Sure, Vice-President." Nicholas followed.
Both of them had nearly identical expressions, the look of people following an instruction they weren’t going to argue with and were going to quietly be uncomfortable about for the entire duration.
Alden’s expression wasn’t doing anything different.
Leon looked around at all three of them.
’This is going to be a long search.’
Seris sighed internally.
’I have a very bad feeling about putting these specific people in one group.’
She looked at the South Gate.
"Shall we begin?"
"Yeah."
Everyone answered.
The gate opened. The academy grounds fell behind them as the group moved out into the southern paths, the stone of the academy walls giving way to open air and the damaged outer perimeter.
Nicholas and Roselle walked together ahead, keeping a gap between themselves and Alden.
Alden kept the same gap.
Leon walked beside him without caring about any of it, which was the only reason the group had a functional shape at all.
Alden kept his eyes forward.
The search moved quietly through the southern perimeter.
Alden’s thoughts ran elsewhere.
’When I first arrived here, I didn’t have any ambition.’
He stepped over a piece of collapsed stone.
’I didn’t even know what I was supposed to want. I just wanted to survive. Clear my name. Not get expelled before I figured out what was happening.’
His hand tightened slightly at his side.
’That’s different now.’
His eyes moved ahead to the path.
’These characters don’t act like the people I wrote. Half the time they don’t even think. Nicholas, who I designed with strong instincts and good judgment. And Roselle, whom I wrote as a sharp, perceptive strategist who notices what others miss and acts on it brilliantly.’
He exhaled slowly.
’I’ve been spending my energy worrying about them. About how they see me. About clearing my name in their eyes. About proving something to people I literally invented.’
His steps didn’t slow.
’I’m done with that.’
The southern path stretched ahead, the academy’s outer boundary running along one side, the open terrain of the surrounding area on the other.
Alden looked out at it.
’I came into this world with nothing. No memory of this body, no allies, no reputation, no plan. An extra in a story I didn’t finish writing. A character who shouldn’t exist.’
His eyes sharpened.
’But I’m still here.’
Every obstacle he’d hit since the first evening. Every accusation. Everything which has happened to him till now.
’I don’t know how this story ends. I never finished writing it. Which means nobody does.’
Something settled in his expression.
’I’m going to grow stronger, master Soul Rendering and going to survive everything this world throws at me whether it be the ones I wrote and the ones I didn’t.’
’And I’m going to finish this story. That’s my goal now.’
The South Gate disappeared behind the group.
The path ahead was open and wide and entirely unknown.
Alden’s eyes gleamed.
’If this world insists on having a protagonist...’
He looked toward the distant horizon.
’Then I’ll become the second protagonist.’
_______________
Author’s note:
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