The intense hatred seeping out of Xander only lasts for a moment before disappearing. If judged by his appearance alone, one may not notice a fluctuation in his emotion at all. Eleanor narrows her eyes at him. The taste of hatred she felt is like an appetizer stimulating her cravings. She wants more—and she knows where to get it. Eleanor captures Xander in her eyes like a lioness eyeing her prey.

The boy who should be around Carter’s age sits down and goes back to sleeping on his desk. Professor Oak tells the other students to introduce themselves. When they’re all done, Oak gives a brief introduction about himself and what he’ll be teaching during the school year. The gist of it is he researches the Central Node and the technology that can be harnessed from it.

“This room was actually a project I worked on during my final year as a student here. Well, as you can see, I never left Umber Tower so I’ve been improving the functionality of it, bit by bit ever since.”

Professor Oak snaps his fingers and suddenly two giant hands holding cymbals materialize behind the sleeping Xander.

“Clank!”

They clap their metallic plates together, creating a loud sound that makes Xander jump in surprise. The entire class laughs at the sight and starts creating different objects of their own. Eleanor, however, appears uneasy about the whole thing.

“Shit, they’re worsening the crack!”

One student raises his hand.

“Professor, is every room in Umber Tower like this?”

“Sadly, no. The other professors are still unconvinced about its long term viability. That's why I’m demonstrating how truly amazing my invention is by sharing it with you, my cute students!”

“W-wait… Does that mean we’re guinea pigs!?”

“Relax. I’ve taught here for the past twelve years. Absolutely nothing went wrong so far. No glitch. No hiccups. Nobody died from abusing the materialization functionality yet. And believe me, your predecessors definitely tried.” He chuckles. “Give me a couple more years and I’ll be able to push it past the safety council. Then I’ll introduce this whole bay to the greatest scientific achievement since the invention of the transport point. Just think, the ability to create objects out of thin air and bend space to our will. This region will become the capital of the Kingdom—no! Of the world itself!”

The class claps and cheers at the professor’s vision for the future. Only Eleanor looks like she’s about to have a panic attack.

“No, no, no! They’re going to break it! They’re totally going to burst space open and invite the GateKeepers in! Shit! What am I going to do!? What am I going to do!? Should I try fixing it? No. No, I don’t have enough energy to fix a dimensional crack of that size. Even if I use up everything I’ve collected so far, it’ll only put a bandage on it.”

Those words again. Dimensional crack and GateKeepers…

And now she’s saying her power is effective against a mysterious and all powerful five centuries old powersource? How does she know that? Did we skip something?

I don’t think so.

At lunch, Princess Grace comes to pick up Eleanor as promised but Carter is held up by his instructor. The girls plus Joanna and the rest of Eleanor’s new entourage have lunch together. Eleanor goes back to the lecture hall for one more class and the first school day is done.

“Hey, Elle, will you be joining a club or are you too sick for that?” Joanna asks. “Well, you’re on a wheelchair so you can’t do much right? And daddy said you can’t use magic without his help so there’s that. Oh, how does it work by the way? I only heard about your miracle healing from the rumors and I kinda wanna see it for realsies. It’s not that I don’t believe you’re a priestess or anything but it’d be cool and…”

“Joanna dear, here’s the rest of the cookies I baked, please take them all.”

“Really, all this for me?! You’re so sweet! Oh, Elle, I promise we’ll be the bestest besties ever!”

Eleanor rolls her eyes and glances to the back row where Xander is sleeping. The man has slept through the entire day, even now that the class is done. Eleanor licks her lips. There’s a naughty spark in her eyes.

“Joanna, can you hand me a bucket of water? A bottle is fine as well.”

“Sure thing, bestie! Here, if you close your eyes and think real hard you can make a faucet pop right out of the ground, see? Isn’t that amazing!?”

Eleanor’s eyelid twitches when she sees Joanna using the power of the Center Node willy-nilly.

“Huh...If you’re already abusing the crack, you might as well add ice cubes in there too.”

“Sure thing!”

Eleanor accepts the ice bucket from Joanna and goes behind Xander. She then proceeds to dump the cold water on the sleeping boy!

Xander jumps on his feet. His head and torso is drenched in water. He turns around to glare at Eleanor. And for a split second, his lazy eyes turn to that of a raging beast. Eleanor smirks as she feels his rage feeding her.

This Xander, is he actually Xerxes’s kid?

Prince Xander Xenos, eighth son of King Xerxes the Benevolent.

Eighth!?

Xanxus took many wives during the unification of the desert tribes. He had twelve sons and fourteen daughters.

Whew! Lucky bastard. And now the boy is out to get revenge for his dear old dad?

Most likely. Let’s see how he responds to a direct confrontation from Eleanor.

“What are you doing!?”

A sharp voice comes from a third party—it’s not Joanna as she is happily eating the cookies—but a plain looking girl with strawberry blonde hair and freckles on her cheeks. She runs up to Xander with a dry towel she conjured up from the magical room.

“Mister, are you okay? Here, let me help warm you up.”

She quickly picks the ice cube off him and uses a warm wind spell to dry his wet clothes. The girl looks at Eleanor like a teacher reprimanding a naughty child.

“Why on earth did you pour cold water on him, miss? What has he ever done to you?”

“Nothing.” Eleanor shrugs. “He was sleeping. I woke him up. What’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big deal? You could make him sick. That’s what the big deal is! People die of sickness everyday and here you are picking on this poor man. Do you even know him?”

Eleanor lifts her chin and looks down at the silent Xander.

“Why should someone like me bother knowing a waste of space such as this one? Or if he lives or dies, at all?”

“How could you say such a thing? Who do you think you are!?” the girl says.

“Me? You don’t even know who I am? Ha! I am Lady Eleanor Ambrose, daughter of Duke Ambrose, one of the Elders of Man. I’m also the famous Silver Angel of Ivory City who has saved countless lives thanks to my… selfless generosity. The question is, who do you think you are to speak with me with that tone, you wretched girl?”

“The Silver Angel?! You? B-but how can that be…” The girl looks at the water dripping down Xander’s hair and bites her lips. “It doesn’t matter who you are. People should treat each other with respect.”

“Respect? Ha! Don’t make me laugh. This dog doesn’t even have the self respect to defend himself from a girl in a wheelchair. He even hides behind the skirt of another little girl. Does that sound like someone who deserves a shred of respect?”

“You shouldn’t say that!”

Eleanor sneers at Xander who stands silently without saying a word. The hate energy he leaked out has dissipated.

“What’s wrong, cat got your tongue? Don’t you know how to bark, mutt?”

Eleanor says a few more insults at Xander to get a rise out of him but he’s as calm as a river so in the end she departs while making the most annoying laughter she can possibly conjure up.

“Ohohohoho! Ohohohohoho!”

Yikes! What is that? Does that even count as laughing?

Hey, who’s the girl that’s just argued with Eleanor? Is she someone important?

Ehh… if memory serves, that’s… uh… Huh, I have absolutely no idea. What about you guys?

Nope.

Not a clue.

Neither do I.

Probably just a regular classmate. I do like her character though. That unyielding sense of right and wrong is pretty refreshing after following a psychopath with twisted morality for so long. I mean, her good will is misplaced but still…

Right? Bitch got us cheering for her to act like an actual villain. Who does that?

Don’t call her a bitch! And my mama isn’t a psychopath! She’s… different, is all.

That’s correct. My daughter can do no wrong!

I murdered your wife, old man!

I don’t believe you.

I pierced my sword though her heart and snuffed the life out of her!

I don’t believe you.

I betrayed her trust and gutted her like a pig for the sin of standing in the way of my evil scheme!

Amelia, baby, why are you so afraid of the truth? What are you still hiding?

The devil bites her lips and tells Professor Declan to serve her another cup of tea. She gulps it down and watches the memories on display with a quiet anger… and sadness.

…Nobody needs the truth, old man. Least of all… you.