Chapter 64: Keeping appearances Part 2

'My son finally rebelled against me?'

A woman walked down the streets of the academy, with her daughter in toe. 

"Mom, why do you look happy?" The daughter asked very calculatedly.

There was another girl following them around- Marg.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Her mother stuttered. "I'm just too mad!"

'Yeah, no matter how I see it, you look happy.' Of course, the little girl- Elsa didn't say it out loud. 

With a sigh, Elsa just kept on walking. 

Marg didn't say a word. To her, all of this was a luxury. She never experienced the joy of a family and in her family rebelling meant death. So this really was a luxury. 

And yet, she couldn't help but be a little jealous. 

The woman however concealed her emotions. Though she appeared to be mad outside, she was gushing with excitement inside. At least she thought she was concealing them, but no matter how hard she tried, her emotions leaked nevertheless.

'My son has finally grown up!'

Needless to say, she might have been a bit too excited. 

***

"Now, I'd like to address these three first-year students." A prefect turned on the Holo monitor. 

There were at least thirteen other people present in the room, along with the leader- Rose. 

"All three of them have special powers. But I think only one is causing trouble." 

There was a hierarchy among the prefects. The top three were Rose, the vice leader- Danial, and the secretary- Raea.

And among the three, Danial was the most notorious for taking controversial actions. Raea however liked to maintain a perfect image of herself amongst all. 

"How about we expel him?" Danial suggested. 

"We cannot do that. At least not until the headmaster says so," Rose rejected the idea upfront. 

Rose never liked Danial but she made sure to not leak a single drop of irritation. She was the leader and she couldn't afford to show such weakness. 

"How about you leave him to me? I'll be sure to make him understand." Raea brushed her fingertips and smiled. Her hair floated like butterflies. It was like an intricate piece of art, initially green in color but gradually changing to orange and pure red near the edges. She had relatively shorter hair compared to Rose, but everyone in the academy regarded her as the most beautiful, at least among the prefects. "I think I can manage him." She winked. 

Some of the male prefects were visibly fawning over Raea.

Rose sighed. "It would be better for everyone if he doesn't get corrupted by you."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Raea glared. The air in the room suddenly got heavier. 

"Exactly what I said. How many first years did you break already?" Rose glared back. "Not to mention you even slept with most of the seniors."

Raea clicked her tongue and just looked out the window, focusing on nothing. "What would you know, virgin." Her voice was like sharp blades.

"Ah yes, our lovely ladies arguing over crap. Just perfect." Danial chuckled and ignited the fumes some more. He put both of his legs on the table. This was more like a game to him.

It always went like this. Though the meeting consisted of fourteen people, these three were the only ones who argued like this. And because of this, they never got the job done. This committee was new and they already held three meetings in this short span of one week and all three ended like this. 

Rose wanted to make the academy a better place, but if things kept up like this, she wasn't going to be able to do anything. 'Maybe I should have just listened to Lady Sylvia."

"Then how about." A voice spoke from the corner. He was sleepy. Actually, he was asleep this whole time and just woke up. His head still rested on the table, eyes closed. "We just leave him alone. This academy preaches freedom after all. And if we just keep on making more and more rules the students will get fed up. Besides-" His eyes opened wide, not a trace of fatigue. "This new kid might actually be the strongest from his generation."

Danial broke into laughter. "Sorry to break it to you Mike, but I think Angelmen is the best his generation has to offer, but I do agree with your point. We don't have the geezer's permission to expel anyone: making rules just sounds cumbersome. And we can't give him detention for no reason at all. So for now, leaving him alone would be best. After all, why should we poke the hornet's nest for no reason?"

Raea started giggling. "You..." Her giggling intensified. "You of all people." She kept on giggling until tears streamed. She caught her breath and calmed down a little. "Never expected you to say that."

Danial didn't say anything. He just sat there, looking all pretty. This was rare, very rare in fact. 

'Looks like we at least have a decision made.' Rose felt a bit relieved. "Alright, to the next topic then." She nodded at the prefect controlling the Holo.

"The prelims would start from next week. And the headmaster would be away for two weeks due to his usual routine. Meanwhile, lady Sylvia would take over as the temporary headmaster and she personally ordered us to be more vigilant."

All of the prefects exchanged glances. 

Every year the headmaster left the academy for two weeks. No one knew why. But these two weeks were the perfect opportunity to attack this academy, while the strongest man was away. 

Meaning, this was a serious matter. 

However, one of them, Danial to be specific had something else on his mind. 'Now that all the drama's over. Prepare for your doom Romswell. I'll ruin you before you even…." A vulgar smile shrouded his face. 

The other prefects could guess his motives, but everyone just ignored him.

The reason?

He was too weak and he didn't even know it. 

***

Meanwhile, a storm was going through the clubhouse of the lightsaber club. 

"What do you mean he's immeasurable! Have you rechecked! Did you confirm if it's an equipment failure!" The captain was back and he was very excited, there was no doubt about it. 

"Yes, I did recheck, and I checked the equipment too… it's all good." Amie's voice was low and she couldn't really think. This was a nightmare. "We can't measure the depth."

It was a small room but there were a lot of people in here. And in the middle of all these people, one boy just stood there, looking all dumbfounded and blunt. 

'What the hell is wrong with these people.' He thought. 

Everyone started to gossip among themselves. 

"So doesn't that mean he can use all sabers?"

"Don't be ridiculous. It could mean he can't use any of them!"

"It's possible he can use the newest model S too!"

There were a lot of thoughts floating around. 

"Umm, people!" The bored boy in the center raised his hands, still looking blunt. "Can we move on? I don't have all day you know."

The sun had set only minutes ago but the clubhouse was pretty lively if nothing else. 

He hadn't sneezed in the last couple of hours but as the temperature came down, his fever started to rise again. He needed rest and he needed it fast. 

The captain cleared his throat and the chatter quieted down. 

There were a lot of other members peeking through the door. The hallway was full. 

"How about you take a hike with me tomorrow to the district club." The captain stood right in front of the bored boy- Helio.

"What's a district club?"

"It's one of the subsidiaries of the International Lightsaber Federation. Normally the federation only has subsidiaries in large cities but since our school is so popular, they opened one last year in the city."

'Wait, this island has a city?'

Helio already knew that this island had at least something on the other side, but a full city? That was just ludicrous, at least to him. 

Helio cleared his throat. "I don't know. I mean if I'm still alive-" He stopped. He'd almost forgotten about how he was about to be tormented by his mother later on, but his subconscious had not.  "How about I tell you tomorrow. It's our day off anyway. So the curfew probably doesn't apply right?" He tried to calm himself down. 'And hopefully, I can use my cold as an excuse.'

"Well, technically the curfew still applies but tomorrow it starts from 12 AM instead. Anyway, contact me before 2 pm and we'll head to the district in the afternoon. Sounds good?"

"Yeah sure. But what for? What is going on here?"

"Our machine here isn't equipped to measure powers like yours. Of course, we've seen this before and the district clubhouse has better machines. Moreover, we can give our order at the same time." The captain flashed a smile. "So, more efficient."

Though the captain knew about immeasurable members from past experience, he also knew, a complete blank wasn't a good sign. 'This guy might just be even more of a prodigy than I thought!' Of course, he didn't say it out loud. 

"Sounds good enough to me." Helio looked back and the crowd still looked at him, blinking in unison. He sighed. "Do you mind doing something about that? I want to leave."

The captain glared back and the whole crowd parted. The hallway was already packed but now that the members tried to make room for Helio, some were pressing against the wooden wall a bit more than necessary. It wasn't easy. 

Helio sighed again and headed out, oozing through the crowd.

But one girl followed him. 

The moment the two got out of the club building, Helio just stood there, not glancing back. "What do you want?"

He was getting a very bad case of Deja vu. 

"You were marvelous." The girl replied, almost stars in her eyes.