Chapter 63: Paid Back

“Are you going to tell me who that corpse was that you left in the gorge?” Yari asks Solomon as they walk back to the school.

He is surprised to hear her speak after such a long silence has passed between them.

“Do you care?”

“Not particularly. I simply figured that the story of how you ended up down here, in the form of a monster, must have been quite an interesting tale.”

Solomon begins climbing up a ledge.

Yari, on the other hand, simply clicks her heels together and floats behind him.

“He was an Ostego.”

The name initially does not mean anything to Yari. But then she remembers exactly where she has heard it.

“Oh, that’s… surprising.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t think you cared about what happened to your people enough to want revenge. You gave me the impression that you were indifferent to the thought or mention of them.”

Yari keeps ascending, but Solomon pauses mid-climb; a realization strikes him squarely in the jaw.

He truly had been indifferent to the fate that befell his people. He was aware of that at one point, so what had changed?

What was it about Declan that had filled him with such anger that he needed to see him dead?

Was it because he saw what all of his upperclassmen had done to the other cadets from his year…?

Or maybe because he was attacked first…?

Solomon considers the possibility, but he dismisses it not long after.

He knows that the real reason why he wanted Declan dead so badly was that Declan assumed that Solomon wouldn’t dare to harm him.

When he thought about how Declan had behaved, Solomon felt a surge of fire in his chest. He wished that he could have killed him a second time.

Yari stopped before she could get too far above Solomon.

“Are you comfortable on that wall?”

He starts to retort, but quickly averts his gaze and returns to climbing.

“What?” Yari notices his odd behavior.

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying. Your face is strange.”

“Just drop it, please, Instructor…”

Yari’s brow crinkles.

It takes her a few more seconds than she would have liked to admit, but she realizes the problem soon enough.

With her face and ears as hot as fire, she descends slightly so that she is beside Solomon instead of above him.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Hey, at least we’re even now-”

“Shut. Up.”

Solomon snickers, prompting Yari to kick him in the back.

“You saw nothing! If you dare remember anything, I will rip every drop of water from your being!”

Now, it is Solomon’s turn to mock. “Oh, I’m sure. And the contract you signed stating you can’t harm me?”

Yari grits her teeth so hard that Solomon swears they are going to crack. The dangerous situation only becomes funnier as a result.

“…It is good that you remember our contract. Now that you are speaking to me again, I hope that you will hold up your end of it.” She finally says.

“You mean the part where I let you experiment on me?”

“Quite.”

Solomon snorts.

He quickly scales the wall and pulls himself over it with ease.

As he sits on the edge, dusting off his hands, he comes face to face with Yari. For the first time ever, her eyes are not arrogant. Nor are they calculating. They are desperate.

“…I am aware that my personality is… abrasive, and we may not have gotten off on the best foot. But I hope that you will not hold that against me. I truly do believe your assistance can help me return my sister to life. Your immortal body will be an invaluable key.”

Solomon is aptly caught off guard by the sincere plea of the former noble.

Unconsciously, he thinks back to the day when he saw her true face, and his blood warms at the memory. Something he immediately tells himself is nothing more than an aftereffect of his body spontaneously taking on a strange new form.

“…Very well.” He concedes. “When I visit your class next, we shall begin the study then.”

Yari is visibly elated, though she tries to suppress it.

She offers Solomon a well-practiced curtsy. “I thank you for your favor, my lord.”

“I change my mind.”

“Oh come on, I was just being polite!” Yari laughs again. The sound is every bit as beautiful as the first time he heard it.

“I liked you better when you were cantankerous and haughty.”

“Oh? I will make a note of that for all future interactions.”

“See to it that you do.”

“Whatever you say, Little Lord.”

Solomon can only roll his eyes. But a smile is not very far from his lips.

Suddenly, there is a rustling in the trees.

Raizel leaps from the sky and lands upon the soil just in front of Solomon.

“Brother, what happened?? The school is abuzz, and they’re saying there was a fight!”

Raizel notes Solomon’s choice of garments, and his eyes widen. “..Did you..?”

Solomon tells his brother about everything that had happened in under forty-five seconds.

Subsequently, Raizel spends another forty-five seconds switching his focus between Solomon and Yari.

“…The fuck do you mean ’she guessed’ !?”

–

Solomon spends the next day sleeping in.

It is past midday when he opens his eyes for the first time and finds Bansha sleeping close to him.

After yesterday, the pup seems to have become a bit better at listening to him. As long as he didn’t put his armor on, Bansha didn’t seem to have much issue sitting near him either.

Solomon hadn’t expected the end of his first week of school to have been so peaceful.

He starts to close his eyes and return to rest when suddenly he turns his head towards his living room and the front door.

After becoming a yellow core, Solomon’s senses have expanded nearly fivefold.

It is almost an impediment. If he doesn’t focus on blocking his mind out, then he becomes startled every time a bird passes by his window.

This time, Solomon can sense multiple people coming to his doorway.

He curses as he rolls out of bed, careful not to wake the sleeping pooch.

Pulling on a pair of clean pants, he stumbles toward the door while rubbing the grit out of his eyes.

When he turns the handle and peers outside, he finds four individuals standing there, nearly about to knock.

Everett is surprised to see him, almost comically so. “Did you… kill Declan..?”

Solomon continues rubbing his eyes. “What do you think?”

The four individuals he saved just last night are all in shock. Everett chief among them.

“W-When neither of you came back, everyone just kind of thought…” He murmurs.

Solomon climbed in through his window last night because he didn’t want to be seen walking around the school half-naked.

He could see how it would lead to everyone thinking he’d perished.

And yet, he was still slightly annoyed by the assumption.

“As if I would die at the hands of that prick. Don’t piss me off this early.”

It wasn’t early, but no one wanted to tell him that.

Solomon starts to close his door. “Now if that’s all you lot want, then..”

A hand grabbed the doorframe to prevent him from closing it. He raised his brow at Everett’s effort.

“…Do you truly not have anything better to do with your time than irk me?”

“L-Look, man, I just…” Everett grips the doorframe until his knuckles turn white. “I needed to offer you my thanks. And my apologies.”

“Neither of which I have asked you for.”

“I-I know you didn’t, but… He swallows. “I still needed to say that… I appreciate what you have done for me, and I shan’t soon forget it. A-Also, about what Declan said before-”

“You got peed on by a bunch of nobles. I’d feel a little shameful breaking your nose after something like that. Just don’t drag the group down and stop harassing Nila and I won’t make it an issue.”

“Y-Yes…” Everett nods.

Solomon turns towards the golden prince, Andros. He is staring at Solomon with an expression that is harder to read than the rest.

“You also have something to say?”

Andros doesn’t. His eyes continue to stare into Solomon without displaying even a single readable emotion.

Solomon is surprised when the giant holds out his arm instead. Nothing more and nothing less.

Truthfully, the young albazian isn’t one for what he considers a needless gesture, but he does feel it would be rude of him to overlook his goodwill in this particular moment.

But after the shake, the moment is over. Andros stalks off first without waiting for any of the others to follow him.

One of the girls is next to shake Solomon’s hand. The one who had her leg broken the night before.

Her eyes are a bit dark and puffy. She appeared to be a very fragile person, and the gentle way she took Solomon’s hand only confirmed that.

“I won’t forget what you’ve done for me. Honest.”

“I would prefer you did.”

“…That’s too bad.”

The girl hobbles away on a pair of crutches.

Solomon watches her go with a small, amused smirk on his face. He finds her funny, at least.

“U-Umm… this is for you.”

Solomon looks down at the last girl. She holds out a white note card between her bruised fingers.

As he takes it, she grins happily as she backs away. “I hope to hear of your reply…!”

Their classmate dashes away like an excited schoolgirl. Something even Everett can’t believe.

“Wow… guess your popular arc is starting. How do you feel about-”

When Everett looks at Solomon again, he finds that his eyes are deeply troubled.

“…You okay??”

Solomon swallows. “I feel bad rejecting her, but… she’s just too young for me.”

“…Are you not twenty years old?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

Everett starts to say something, but decides against it.

“…Nothing. Nothing at all.”

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