Cyrus Solaris
A few days had passed since I told Mira my plan. Tonight, I was going through with it. I had been waiting by the cosmic bridge for thirty minutes longer than I wanted to.
Did she get cold feet?
I should have known. With the cold wind nipping my cheeks, I got up off the ground and started to walk across the bridge.
In the dark of the night, the bridge was haunting. It reminded me of the dark maze in my first rift. My body remembered the feeling, being on edge, wondering what might jump out from the shadows and attack me. I crept across the bridge, maintaining a low profile, but halfway across, my watch dinged, its bright light giving away my position.
I hoped it was a message from Mira, explaining why she was running late. But when I looked at my communicator, I saw a message from our house group chat.
"Of course," I whispered to myself as I turned off my watch and threw it in my dimensional storage. Knowing that I would remain by myself, I let Gravisense take over. I crossed the bridge quickly and quietly.
My goal was to find the main buildings of their house. Without Gravisense, finding them in the dark would be difficult. But as I traversed the Isle of House Obalex, I couldn't help but get this eerie feeling. It was too quiet. I just chalked that up to having strict governing professors.
After minutes sprinting through the isle, I made it to the center, where I was met with numerous statues of men and women I could barely make out. The statues led to a large building supported with columns like the Solarian temples back home.
Just the place I wanted to be.
Before I walked into the building, I pulled a spray can Mira had given me from my dimensional storage. From the research Mira and I did, we found no known surveillance on this isle. The nobles and heirs of great families were too cocky to think anyone would actually challenge them.
Perfect for me.
Now inside the building, a large metallic sign hung from the ceiling; it read War Room.
Tables and projectors were stationed everywhere. There was a digital leaderboard projected on the wall to my left, near the entrance of the room, with a large bugle horn resting next to it. Of course, Stravos's name was at the top, with Bogdan and Sora following behind him.
Taking my spray can, I wrote weak prince next to Stravos and the poor prince next to Bogdan. I paused when I got to Sora's name.
She hadn't done anything wrong to me, besides yell at me in the cafeteria, something I could look past; tensions were high at that point after the Totem game.
But the rest of the room was fair game. I wrote the word Scum all over their classroom in large, bolded letters, going from floor to ceiling. Afterward, I felt a little relief.
"Who said revenge wasn't the answer?" But my job wasn't done.
Exiting the War Room, I dashed to their laundry room. No one was present.
Three large pipes led to the washing machines. I cut small holes in the pipes and dropped different colored dyes into the water supply. If there was one thing I knew about nobles and the great families, it was that they hated not looking their best.
So I was going to make them look like clowns.
After the laundry room, I moved on to the restrooms. I clogged every toilet and sink, snapped the knobs, and did the same to the showers. Water began pooling across the tiled floors.
"Their perfumes won't mask how bad they're going to smell." I chuckled to myself as I left the ladies' side.
But just as I was leaving, I felt an odd distortion. Something was moving fast.
I quickly jumped into the brush and concealed my cosmic energy as much as possible.
As the object drew closer, I realized it was only a small rodent.
A sigh of relief left my chest, and my heart rate slowed.
At least I hadn't been caught by another student. I couldn't afford trouble this soon after speaking with Headmaster Naga.
I waited a few more moments before I jumped out of the brush. The isle was still too quiet, but I wasn't going to complain.
The mission was smooth sailing, but I still felt like I needed to do one last thing…
Then it hit me.
I remembered there was a bugle horn resting on a stand next to their leader board.
I wondered if there was any significance to the object. Making me wonder if it would cause a lot of internal conflict in the house if the horn went missing. I know the Headmaster wouldn't approve outwardly, but I felt like this was what he meant by being strategic.
If they fought over who they thought had it, they wouldn't try to terrorize the rest of the houses. I put the horn into my dimensional storage and made my way toward the cosmic bridge.
Running through the isle, I was in a constant state of unease, but I pushed past it. I've been through worse.
As I reached the bridge, my eyes kept drifting down and away from it, and my shoulders slouched against my will. The thought: why did I do that? Kept replaying in my head. I tried to shake this invasive feeling, but it was persistent like a signal I couldn't turn off.
I stared at the bridge, ready to leave this isle, but my body wouldn't move the way I wanted it to.
Then a stern but familiar voice filled the silence, "Is there a reason you were in the girls' bathroom?"