Gordon's Announcement

"Don't you think she's uncanny?" Aaron blurted out. Unable to shake the eerie aura that he feels toward Violet.

The eight s-class students looked at him. They were sitting on the circular sofa that was placed in the reception area of their floor. They're almost complete if it wasn't for Violet who was currently with the four Rioden.

It was a coincidence to suddenly gather up unless it was a discussion academic-related topics or about playing board games altogether.

"What do you mean by that, Aaron?" Lily's eyebrows met as she thinks that Aaron isn't trusting their new classmate as well as her new friend.

"Don't you find it weird? A student suddenly climbed up to s-class without starting off from B or A-class?" The stoic and cold face of Aaron was firm and indestructible just like his sudden proclamation that took everyone's attention.

"I heard that she got in because of Gordon himself," Neodelle said and sipped some juice that he got from the table placed with snacks and beverages. "Where did just the headmaster pick a mummy? In a pyramid that popped out of nowhere?

"The headmaster Gordon does know a lot of powerful people." Vantel said. "Just look at Brian, Theodore, and Virgo." He mentioned the three who have those big grins on their faces after being complemented by Vantel implicitly.

"I don't see anything wrong about her." Vezkud said.

"You're too laid-back." Vantel said.

"Thanks bro."

"It's not a compliment."

"Still, thanks bro."

"Whatever."

Some of them giggled at the exchange that the cousins just did but Lily stayed serious because of Aaron's words.

It really bothered her. She might be inconsiderate but she trusts her friends way too much which is one of her weaknesses according to the three mean men named Vantel, Aaron, and Neodelle.

"There were also four more students who came in with her. All of them have the same surnames." Aaron added and the disgusted face (in his perspective) of Jirile popped in his head. It made his eye twitch.

"What's the surname?" Lily seriously asked and the latter looked at her.

"They have the same surname, Lily." Delora said to her.

"I heard him, Delora. That's why I'm asking him what's the surname?" They all went silent. "So, what's her surname?" She continued asking with her serious face.

"Rioden?" Theodor answered unsure.

Lily held her chin and leaned back. "I see." She nodded. "They really have the same surname as her."

Delora scratched her head from the secondhand embarrassment that she felt.

'Of course, it was Rioden. They have the same surnames, right?' She said in her mind. But even though she wanted correct and inform Lily, she chose not to do it instead.

Her friend looked pissed at the proclamation made by Aaron so she chose to delay it and tell it to her after she cools down.

"Are they siblings?" Vezkud asked but Aaron shook his head, answering a no to him.

"I doubt that. They don't even look alike." Aaron said. "Plus, the other one is too blind to see anything." He mumbled as he referred to Jirile. With their first meeting, her image was already distorted in Aaron's mind. "I think she had that from genes."

"The orcs suddenly attacked us. Don't you think that's related to her?" Brian asked bringing up a topic that just happened recently.

"Can you give us an acceptable theory or reasons to believe your nonsense?" Lily asked in a spiteful and mean way and Brian who gone speechless at her unnatural response.

"You know that I'm not that smart..." He said as he became uncomfortable with Lily all of a sudden.

"Exactly!" Lily exclaimed, raising her hands like she made her point clear. "So, don't you ever spout nonsense again!"

Neodelle tapped Brian's shoulder who didn't said a thing after Lily. He decided to shut up since he knows that it really doesn't make sense for him to theorize but fortunately for him, Neodelle's there to give him condolences for his dignity which was stepped on by Lily.

"Don't you think the bandages that she wore meant something dangerous?" All of them looked at Neodelle. They were hooked on his question as he focused on the topic that was the origin of Violet's mystery. "She uses gravity, right? I don't think it's harmful to her body to the point she needs to wear those bandages like her life depended on it."

"Ah!" Virgo clapped her hands once. "What if it's to keep her body intact? I mean, she can put a center of gravity in the center of a monster until it explodes, right? What if it is the opposite thing that was happening to her body? Like her body is already undergoing the process of exploding out but her bandages stop it from happening?"

Her long explanation made the other think. "It can be the reason." Neodelle nodded as he accepts her explanation as a reason why Violet wore her bandages every day.

After seeing how the orcs exploded by her powers, he acknowledges the reason Virgo just said. "But we won't know if it's really the reason without it coming out from her."

"Yeah, you have a point." Virgo shrugged and leaned back. Feeling defeated after she realizes the question won't be answered without Violet.

"Where is she, by the way?" Theodore asked, just realizing that Violet was out and not with them at the moment.

"I saw her with some weirdo staying on the top of the tree," Vantel said. "I thought it was a monkey but surprisingly, it was a girl. I think she was with the other Rioden since she was with four girls earlier."

Delora covered her mouth to stop her laughter, amused and entertained by his choice of words. "You can't call some girl a 'monkey', Vantel."

But Vantel was unamused and wore an irritated expression after being told by Delora. "You can't blame me. She just came down from a tree." He reasoned out.

The group was brought to a new topic about their past, completely drifting away from their topic which was Violet when suddenly, the door for the reception area swung open.

The students didn't notice the foot that stepped in their territory since they were preoccupied with the ridiculous past they all shared from the past years that they stayed in Althea.

The person took another step, followed by another one, and followed again by another one while maintaining the silence around the person until the person was one foot away from the sofa that they were sitting on.

The person stood still while listening to the things that they were saying. No one ever recognized the presence of the person nor realize that they were having a new person in the area.

They were laughing their ass off until Brian glanced behind Vantel and finally noticed and realized that there was another person in the area. He stopped laughing and his eyes slowly widened at the sight of the person.

Suddenly, the rest stopped laughing and jumped far away from the person behind them when they felt another energy that wasn't from their classmates.

They finally realized that there was someone new in the room. It wasn't Violet who was their new classmate but...

"Who are you?!" Brian became serious and a big axe suddenly appeared in his palm. He pointed it at the person but the trespasser just laughed it off like Brian did something hilarious.

"Calm down, rough Brian. You're flattering me." The old man with a clean physical appearance said.

"Rough Brian?" Brian mumbled as she slowly put his weapon down. The adjective after his name was familiar to him since he is called like that by someone well-known in the institute. "Headmaster Gordon?" His face crumpled as he looked at the headmaster who finally shaved his beard. He looked clean and he looked presentable with the fine suit that he is now wearing.

"Headmaster?" The latter asked Brian and looked at the man in his 60's.

They have always known Gordon as a man who doesn't dress up nicely. It's quite a shock to see a rather cool and fresh appearance of him.

"Good day, s-class. I hope you're doing fine." Gordon calmly said and sat on the sofa. The students were still frozen in their places as they still process the sudden glow-up of their headmaster.

"Is he getting married or something?" Virgo asked Theodore who was near her, wearing the same confused expression.

"Don't ask me. I don't know a thing." Theodore responded.

"Headmaster? Why are you looking like that?" Brian stood for his classmates and asked the question that they want to ask. "Did you fall and cracked your head?"

Gordon awkwardly laughed at his idea. 'Is it that surprising to see me like this?' He thought. "I just decided to go with a new look. Is something wrong with that?" The students shook their heads. He looked at all of their faces and realized that someone was absent and missing from the pack. "Where's Violet?" He asked.

"She's out. No one knows where she went." Delora answered.

"Is that so? And thank you for answering my question, princess Delora." Gordon smiled at Delora who became awkward after calling her princess.

"You don't need to call me princess though." Delora murmured, slightly embarrassed after being called princess.

"Why did you suddenly visit us, headmaster? You should have informed us so we could dress up quite nicely." Brian said.

Almost all of them are wearing indoor clothes like tank tops, loose shirts, shorts, and tracksuits except for Vantel who wore something nice since he went out earlier that day.

"Oh. I didn't want to make a surprise visit because I knew something like this would happen." Gordon sighed and shook his head. "One of the school's policy is to dress up nicely in front of the superiors but I'll make an exception for today."

"You'll go that far? Making an exception in the policies requires punishment, right?" Lily asked worriedly, she was feeling afraid of what might happen to the headmaster.

"No one will know that I made an exception if no one will leak what I excepted right?" Gordon playfully grinned at the latter who sweatdropped.

'Now I'm quite hesitant on him being the headmaster.' Vezkud thought.

"Wait, back to our question. Why are you here, headmaster?" Lily asked and the worried expression that she had earlier faded.

"About that..." Gordon looked at them one-by-one and each of them became more curious because of the pause. "Why don't we take a sit first?"

All their shoulders dropped that made Gordon laugh. He knew that they were attentive and stiff for his answer. The students sighed and followed Gordon. They sat on the remaining spaces but no one dared to sit beside Gordon.

Gordon blinked at the space beside him. 'No one wants to sit beside me?' He thought and looked at them. "Do I stink?" He asked the students.

It was like they were hit by a flash of lightning as some of them has their eyes widened from being surprised. 'He knows that he stinks?!' They said in each of their thoughts in unison.

'Man, I still can't forget the time when I had to sit beside him for an hour. That was tough.' Theodore sighed.

"Maybe you just feel uncomfortable to sit beside me? Is that so? Okay then, but you don't have to." He flashed a smile at them all who looked away.

They were forced to stay silent in their seat just to save their headmaster's dignity, unlike Brian.

"The reason I am here is to give you two pieces of news. First is, I'm gonna visit every kingdom which is connected to us to report about their representative's well-being and of course talk about some things affecting our institute."

Delora immediately looked at him. "You'll visit our kingdoms?"

Gordon nodded. "I'll be gone for about two or three months."

Brian's eyebrows furrowed. "That long?"

"Yes."

"How about the school?"

"You still have the higher ups and someone will carry my leftover works."

"But it is you who comes up with the decision, right? What if they'll make a wrong one?"

"No. They wouldn't..."

Neodelle's ears stopped listening to the conversation between his classmates with the headmaster when he realized that there was someone who went in silently in the reception area.

All the conversations they had about Violet came back in his mind as he follows every movement of Violet as she walked toward their direction.

"And Scarlet will be meeting you all soon."

Neodelle froze at what he heard from the headmaster but his eyes didn't leave Violet who stopped in her tracks. She slowly took back her foot from taking another step and stood there.

Neodelle thinks that Violet was looking at the headmaster but little did he know, Violet's attention was batted at no one, staring directly at nothing with her head empty at what she suddenly heard.

All that's in her mind is now full of Scarlet's name.

'So, she'll show up soon, huh?' Violet said in her mind.

She turned her heel and went into their hallway that leads towards the rooms.

Meanwhile, Neodelle's eyes are still following her until she disappeared from his vision.

'What's with that reaction?' Neodelle asked, confused about the actions that Violet made. As time goes by and she's getting weirder and weirder in his eyes. 'She's making many questions in my mind. What is she, really?'