Chapter 278: Surprise!
The message I sent to the rest of the first-year batch was received loud and clear.
Following the demolition of Julian Vance, a heavy, cautious silence settled over the entire Academy. Nobody tried to challenge me again. In fact, they didn’t even attempt to take on any of the top ten for the time being.
Whenever I walked through the corridors or entered the mess hall, the aggressive glares were replaced by hushed, anxious whispers.
"Did you see what he did to Vance?"
"He didn’t even break a sweat..."
"If the difference between the eleventh rank and the second rank is that vast... then how terrifying are the top five?"
Well, I had successfully bought myself the one resource I desperately needed: time.
Just like that, a couple of weeks slipped by, and I fell back into a regular, peaceful routine. Attend classes.
Currently, the sun had already set, and the cool evening air brushed against the large windows of my top-floor dorm room.
I was sitting on the edge of my bed, the room illuminated only by the soft, ambient glow of a mana-lamp. In my hands, I held a freshly delivered letter.
It was from Tessa.
I scanned the neatly penned lines one last time. It was a status report on the business. Everything was moving like clockwork.
With a brief thought, I channeled a microscopic pulse of mana into my spatial ring. The letter vanished from my fingers, safely stored inside the ring’s expanded, high-security inventory space.
I leaned back, letting my body sink heavily into the plush mattress, and stared up at the high ceiling.
"Well. Good thing everything’s going well there," I murmured to the quiet room, a genuine sense of relief washing over me.
A faint, uncharacteristic smile spread across my lips as I pictured the chaotic, bustling scenarios Tessa had described in her letter.
But my smile softened even more as my mind drifted to the second piece of parchment that had arrived in the same parcel.
Agnes had sent a letter this time, too.
It was short, written in her characteristically careful, quiet handwriting, asking if I was eating well and reminding me not to push past my limits.
I closed my eyes, letting the quiet warmth of the moment linger in my chest, a rare moment of absolute peace in a viper’s nest like this Academy.
The hours passed by, the evening bled into the night.
The loud, rhythmic pounding against the thick oak of my door violently shattered the quiet of the room.
"Jin! Jin, hurry up! Open the door!"
I jolted awake, my heart instantly hammering against my ribs. I rolled out of bed, my feet hitting the cold floor as the sheer panic in Sira’s voice drove away the last remnants of sleep. I threw the heavy latch open and swung the door wide.
"What happened?!"
Sira was standing in the corridor, her face pale, her breathing shallow and frantic.
"I-it’s Emma. Emma..."
A cold spike of dread shot straight down my spine. My muscles tensed as a flurry of worst-case scenarios flashed through my brain.
"What happened to her? Is she hurt?"
"I don’t know, she’s just... just come quickly!" Sira stammered, her hands trembling as she aggressively grabbed my wrist, yanked me out of my room, and practically dragged me down the hallway.
Instead of heading down toward the common lounge or the medical wing, she pulled me straight toward the reinforced iron doors that led up to the dormitory rooftop.
"Sira, talk to me," I demanded, my voice dropping into a harsh, focused clip as we sprinted up the winding stone stairs.
"What’s going on?"
"We were just... she suddenly went up, and then she—" Sira’s voice cracked, completely distressed, unable to form a coherent sentence as she pushed open the final stairwell door.
My heart was beating violently in my chest, a suffocating weight of sheer panic pressing down on me. I didn’t wait for her to finish. I bolted past her, my hand slamming into the heavy rooftop door, forcing it open with enough kinetic force to rattle the hinges, and burst out into the open air.
"Emma—! ...Huh?"
The frantic shout died instantly in my throat.
There was no blood. There was no enemy squad. There was no magical anomaly.
Instead, a gentle, cool night breeze swept across the open stone rooftop, carrying the faint, rhythmic chirping of hidden insects. The entire expanse was bathed in the soft, ethereal silver glow of the moonlight.
And right in the dead center of the roof stood a massive, beautifully decorated table. It was absolutely loaded to the brim with high-end dishes, a towering, perfectly iced chocolate cake, and rows of sparkling beverages.
Standing right behind it, her pristine uniform catching the silver moonlight, was Emma. Her brown hair swayed slightly in the wind, and bright blue eyes were locked directly onto my face, a soft, incredibly warm smile gracing her lips.
Before my short-circuiting brain could even formulate a single word, the space behind me violently erupted.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROOO!"
A massive, heavy weight crashed directly into my back. The sheer, unbridled momentum of the surprise tackle caught me completely off guard, instantly sending me face-first onto the stone floor.
I let out a rough, breathless groan, shaking my head as I rolled over onto my back. Kyle was kneeling right next to me, a massive, idiotically proud grin plastered across his face as he gave me a heavy thumbs-up.
"Oh my god, Kyle, you weren’t supposed to actually tackle him!" Sira laughed, her previous panic completely vanishing into thin air as she stepped forward, offering me a hand to help me stand up. "Happy birthday, Jin! Sorry about the scare, it was Emma’s idea to make it dramatic."
I took Sira’s hand, pushing myself back to my feet while brushing the dust off my clothes, my head spinning from the absolute whiplash of the situation.
From the shadow of the rooftop conservatory, Tobias stepped out, carrying a stack of elegant crystal glasses. He pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up his nose, a rare, faint smirk touching his lips. "An untraditional method of celebration, certainly, but statistically effective at ensuring your attendance. Happy birthday, Raith."
Finally, Emma walked out from behind the massive table. She approached me with slow, deliberate steps, her hands neatly clasped behind her back. She stopped just a foot away, looking up at me through her lashes, her eyes sparkling with absolute, unadulterated delight.
"Happy birthday, Jin," Emma said softly, her voice sweet and entirely satisfied as she leaned in slightly.
"Did we surprise you?"