"My dear cadets. Gather up."
The cadets looked at each other as their instructor approached them. They froze, nutrition paste still hanging from their faces, listening in complete silence.
"The past six days have pressed you. All of you traversed the plains of Viablentis. You have transformed like coal under pressure. But that is not enough."
Her voice was light. Almost casual. That was what terrified them.
"The duty of Troy is not to make diamonds. It is to press coals until they become stars. The assessment is not over. The final part remains. Survive me. As I said before."
They grimaced. The little hope in their eyes dimmed.
"But before I explain further, there is one vital fact Troy kept from you. When you assembled in the atrium, you passed through what you thought were simulation gates. They were not. They were teleportation gates."
She paused. Let it settle.
"This was never a simulation. You are on Viablentis. In real time."
A smile formed onto her face. Gentle and warm yet what the cadets felt was the completeopposite.
Their faces grimaced further until they turned pale. In that moment some puked, some pissed in their pants while some stared ahead at the instructor with visible signs of a heart that had plunged into an inevitable darkness.
The cadets had made friends… the cadets had fought together, some sacrificed themselves for their cohorts and some had murdered for a few extra food supplies.
Now when they were finally out of the dark… a realisation crept into their bones.
'This was never a simulation. You are on Viablentis. In real time.'
It made sense. It made all the sense in the world.
The bodies not disappearing.
The blood that rot.
And the otherworldly sense of real danger that they felt.
The simulation was a lie.
This was reality.
And everything that happened was not a cleverly crafted illusion.
When they'd go back home… their friends wouldn't be lying in wait for them with a smile on their face.
They were long dead on the cold floor of the moon… probably long eaten by a hungry beast.
In the midst of all a chuckle sounded in the silence of the epiphany. All eyes turned toward the source of the laughter.
It was Vesper.
That mad public enemy.
"Hihihihi… hahahaha…. Oh my god… this is hilarious."
A cadet stepped up, rage in his eye as he stared down at Vesper. The same blonde haired elvish ancestry boy that had once threatened Vesper in front of the class.
"You! You vile scum! Why are you laughing? People have died and you have the audacity to laugh, you fucking rapist!"
Vesper's chuckles did not stop there… hearing the boy's words they only increased. He clutched his stomach and rolled the ground, if he could cry… tears would creep out of his eyes.
"Oh my god… oh my…"
Olleufa was silent. She observed the boy rolling on the ground laughing like a madman and the blonde cadet that was getting increasingly more angry. The other cadets too were starting to step up… to vent all of their new emotions on the public enemy.
However before it could escalate, Olleufa first asked.
"Cadet Vesper. What is so funny? Kindly enlighten the rest of us as well. Maybe we could understand too and have a laugh or two without disrespecting the dead."
Finally, Vesper's cackles lessened. He stood up from the rock that he was sitting on. He looked Olleufa dead in the eyes and then the rest of the cadets.
His gaze was unbearably cold, colder than the air of Viablentis and colder than the depths of the darkness the cadets held in their heart.
"It is funny. Very funny. All of you… scions of humanity… it's hard to believe… no shouldn't it be obvious? How could this ever be a simulation? If you thought so… aren't you a fool? Would Troy ever make it so simple? Didn't nobody see the way Ullysen Pual used his aura to kick out twenty percent of the students before they could enroll into Troy as official students? Then why would any of you believe that this assessment would be so simple and not a test? I find that funny… it's hilarious to see the expressions on all of your faces. Moping in your pain, crying for the dead when you should simply be grateful that you are not. Pathetic. If these are the future students of this great academy and scions of humanity… then maybe you should have died along with them."
The cadets were silent now. Some of them sat down, some broke down in hysteria but most of them stared at the ground and at Vesper completely lost.
The blonde cadet too froze. He wanted to say something but really no words came to his mouth, he opened and closed it a few times before finally whispering a…
"Sorry."
With a sigh as he fell on his knees, equally lost like the others.
At that moment a few claps resounded across the Viablentis air. The cadets turned around to look at their instructor that was clapping like a mad woman similar to Vesper's laughter.
She nodded her head a few times with a grinetched upon her face. She looked at the other cadets and pointed at Vesper.
"Very well said. Cadets listen up because he is right. Although it is no laughing matter, he is right. The expressions on your faces are too hypocritical. Do all of you have such low ambition that you came to Troy and you'll weep for a stranger you barely knew for six days. I get it… seeing death and killing is something you haven't experienced in your life enough but you need to get used to it… especially to the fact… that you mustn't weep for the living… nor must you weep for the alive. If you must weep then weep for what you can change when you are alive. Thankfully all of you possess a lifetime to learn. The soldiers out there on the battlefield, they risk their lives every day to fight the enemy. They do not weep for the dead because they know that even a moment of weakness can cost a Great War."
Oleufa's grin faded. She turned to Vesper. Her crystalline blue eyes were still. Her voice was light. Almost casual. That was what made it terrifying.
"You. Cadet Vesper."
He looked at her. His red eyes did not waver.
"You spoke the truth. I do not disagree with your words. The cadets here are fools if they believed this was a simulation. They are fools if they thought Troy would be kind. They are fools if they weep for strangers they barely knew."
She stepped closer.
"But you are also a fool. You laughed at their grief. You mocked their pain. You told them they should have died with their friends."
She stopped before him. Her snowy hair caught the pale light. Her hand rested on the hilt of Silence.
"Truth without compassion is cruelty. You are not wrong. You are just cruel. And cruelty does not belong in Troy. Troy produces heroes. Heroes are not cruel. Heroes are efficient. There is a difference."
Vesper's face did not change. His red eyes did not waver.
"Do you understand the difference, Cadet?"
A long silence. The other cadets watched. Some were still on their knees. Some were standing. All were waiting.
Vesper's gaze dropped. Just slightly. Just enough.
"I understand."
"And?"
He was silent for a moment. Then he said.
"I apologize. To the cadets. For laughing. Formocking. For saying they should have died."
He looked up at Oleufa.
"I was not wrong. But I was cruel. That is not what Troy needs."
Oleufa studied him. Her grey eyes did not move. Then she nodded. Once. Small. Almost imperceptible.
"Good."
She turned to the other cadets.
"He apologizes. You may accept it or not. It does not matter. What matters is what comes next."
She walked back to the center of the clearing. Her voice carried across the silence.
"The final assessment begins now."