Alex entered through the gate, and following the others who streamed in alongside him, guided by the directions of guards and knights stationed at the entrance, he soon found himself standing inside the grand auditorium hall.
Its ceiling was a vast white dome that permitted the sunlight to pour in freely, filling the enormous space with a brightness that rivaled the open day outside. The walls were plain and unadorned, carrying the murky warmth of aged wood, and the floor was of white marble that twinkled and shimmered wherever the sun's rays touched it.
Before him rose a high platform, so immense that it consumed nearly one tenth of the entire hall, and the hall itself was so staggeringly large that Alex imagined it could swallow thousands of people at once without feeling the least bit crowded.
Students bearing the same lapel color as his own and wearing single stars on their shoulder boards mingled freely among themselves nearby, while scattered throughout the hall were older students bearing different lapel colors and varying numbers of stars on their shoulder boards, which Alex had by now come to understand represented the year of study each student belonged to.
Yet for all their differences in rank and seniority, the uniform itself remained consistent across everyone present: white suits all around, distinguished only by the color of the lapel and the number of stars that hung from the shoulder.
As he swept his gaze across the hall, familiar faces soon caught his eye. Lara Chronveil, the girl who had saved him during the final battle royal more times than he could honestly count, was engaged in an animated conversation with Thalia Veilcaster, the very same girl who had looked through Alex as though he did not exist the moment the crystal had revealed his level.
It was a strange scene to witness, because Thalia had seemed perfectly normal at first, right up until that moment when the crystal declared him level one, after which a look cold enough to freeze water had settled over her face, one that said very plainly: do not come near me. And yet here she stood beside Lara, listening with quiet restraint while Lara carried the conversation almost entirely on her own.
As though sensing a gaze upon them, both girls turned in his direction at the same time.
Alex found his eyes settling first on Lara, whom he had not forgotten to thank before leaving for home after the exam. He had seen how her body shook with tremors as she lay in the recovery bed, so badly injured from the battle that genuine pity had welled up in him, and he had thanked her again and again while she smiled warmly at his gratitude.
But he had never managed to ask her why she had helped him in the first place. The question had lingered in him ever since, a curiosity he could not quite put down, yet with the nurse glaring at him with barely concealed impatience the entire time while he thanked her, he had thought it better to simply bid her farewell and he had returned home with his parents. So, the question remained unanswered.
He was still drifting somewhere inside his mind, he saw Lara come running toward him, her long purple hair swaying freely behind her as she moved. She had Thalia's wrist gripped firmly in her hand and was practically dragging Thalia along with her, and Thalia, who seemed visibly the least interested, had no choice but to follow given how tightly she was held.
"Congratulations on placing first in the final exam, Alex!" Lara announced at full volume, drawing every nearby eye toward him, though truth be told most eyes had already been drifting his way.
Now, however, the attention sharpened and doubled, and students gradually formed a loose and uneven circle around the three of them, as though they had gathered to watch something worth watching.
"Thanks," Alex replied, his voice carrying just a little more weight than usual under the weight of so many stares. The gazes pressing in from all sides felt less like curiosity and more like something pointed.
"How did he even place first with zero kills?" someone behind him whispered, the disbelief in their voice unmistakable, and Alex found himself agreeing with the sentiment more than he probably should have.
Alex was still slowly absorbing the reality of his ranking. With everything that had happened after the exam, with the shock of his broken engagement and the chaos of everything else pressing on his mind, he had not given much thought to the fact that he had somehow placed first in the final battle royal. It continued to feel faintly unjust to him, knowing that other students had kill count reaching double and even triple digits while his own count sat at a perfectly round zero.
"Well, to be fair, he did not place first alone. He tied with Lucian for the top position," another voice corrected in a quieter whisper, threading through the murmur of the crowd.
"Alex, what are you thinking so hard about?" Lara nudged him, pulling him out of his thoughts. He looked at her and found her green eyes bright and searching, her brows drawn together as she studied him with her hands settled firmly on her hips.
"Nothing, really. I just still can't quite believe that I tied for first place," Alex admitted, the scepticism in his voice entirely genuine. Had his parents not told him the results themselves, face to face, he would not have believed it for a single moment.
"I also cannot believe how a level one managed to tie for first." Thalia's voice entered the exchange for the first time, and from the very first word it carried the chill of deep winter in it. Her white eyes, pale as snow and seemingly emptied of all warmth, settled on Alex with undisguised irritation, as though his existence at the top of the rankings was something close to an offense.
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting, Thalia? Why do I get the feeling you actually dislike Alex?" Lara asked, turning to face her with crossed arms and a tone that left little room for argument.
"I am only stating what is true," Thalia replied without flinching. "He is weak, so weak that by all reasonable measures he should not belong in this academy at all. And yet here he stands tied with Lucian, who earned points in the triple digits, while he earned none. Everything about this is wrong."
"You and your facts," Lara muttered under her breath with a slight shake of her head. "There is no use in thinking so deeply. We all come from grand ducal houses and it would do us far more good to become friends and support one another."
"You actually want to be friends with someone like him?" A mocking voice broke through from somewhere behind Alex, followed by laughter that made no effort to be subtle.
Alex turned and his azure eyes met the black, amused gaze of Eldric Sealborne, the same boy who had hunted both him and Lara through the battle royal with such relentless pursuit that almost bordered on obsession. "How far has House Chronveil truly fallen that you would lower yourself to befriend a level one?"
***
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