Chapter 564: Chapter 564: An Ordinary Evening

The dining hall felt different that evening.

The tension that had hovered over the academy for days had finally dissolved, replaced by something looser, almost weightless. Conversations flowed more freely. Laughter rose without restraint. Plates clinked against wooden tables, and the air carried the mixed scent of warm food and quiet relief.

Exams were over.

Noel sat with the others at one of the long tables near the side of the hall. He leaned back slightly in his chair, watching more than speaking at first.

Clara sat a few seats down, and the change in her was now impossible to ignore. The curve of her belly was visible even beneath her uniform, subtle but unmistakable. The way she rested one hand over it absentmindedly when she laughed made it even clearer.

Charlotte was the first to lean toward her.

“Are you feeling alright?” she asked, eyes bright but genuinely concerned. “You didn’t push yourself too hard today, did you?”

Clara smiled softly. “I’m fine. The written exam wasn’t exactly dangerous.”

Elyra nodded, studying her carefully anyway. “Still. If you feel tired, say it. We can carry you.”

Garron snorted lightly. “You won’t need to carry her. She’s tougher than half of us.”

His girlfriend, seated beside him, gave him a calm look.

He straightened immediately. “I mean… she should still rest if she needs to.”

Clara laughed quietly at that.

Across the table, Marcus dropped his head into his hands.

“I swear they made the theory section harder just to punish us,” he muttered. “Half of those questions weren’t even practical.”

Charlotte gasped dramatically. “I almost failed.”

Everyone looked at her.

“You did not,” Elyra said flatly.

Charlotte placed a hand to her chest. “Emotionally, I did.”

Noel let out a quiet huff of amusement.

Elyra’s gaze shifted toward him. “You look very relaxed for someone who didn’t have to suffer through any of that.”

Noel shrugged.

“Occupational privilege.”

Marcus lifted his head slowly, narrowing his eyes.

“Don’t you feel even a little useless? Everyone stressing over exams and you just… existing?”

Noel leaned his elbow on the table, expression calm.

“I’ve been training gravity under Daemar’s supervision,” he replied. “I’d take your written exam over that any day.”

Marcus blinked.

“…Fair.”

Marcus squinted at him for a second longer, then leaned back in his chair with a crooked grin.

“Are you sure about that? Written exams were never exactly your strongest area.” Noel stared at him for a heartbeat. Then he laughed.

“You make a very good point,” he admitted, lifting his hands slightly in surrender. “Alright, maybe I don’t want your written exams either.”

Charlotte covered her mouth to hide a laugh.

Elyra shook her head, smiling despite herself. “I still remember that strategy theory paper…”

“No,” Noel cut in immediately. “We are not revisiting that.”

Marcus grinned wider. “You mean the one where you skipped half the formal structure and just wrote what you’d actually do?”

“It worked,” Noel replied defensively.

“It barely worked,” Marcus corrected.

Noel leaned back in his chair, shrugging lightly.

“Fine. Then I definitely prefer what I’m doing now.”

That earned a small burst of laughter around the table.

Even Selene’s expression softened again, the faintest upward curve at the corner of her lips as she glanced at him. She didn’t say anything, but her look said enough.

Clara smiled warmly, one hand still resting over her belly.

“It’s strange,” she said quietly. “Hearing all of this and knowing we’re just… here. Eating. Complaining about exams.”

Laziel, seated at the end of the table, let out a soft breath through his nose.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” he said calmly, though not ominously.

No one argued.

But no one let the mood darken either.

The conversation drifted back to lighter things—who did worst in practical formations, which professor looked the most exhausted, whether Garron would survive another round of theory classes without falling asleep.

His girlfriend gave him a quiet look again when that came up.

“I was awake,” Garron insisted immediately.

“You were snoring,” Marcus replied without hesitation.

More laughter followed.

The dining hall slowly emptied as students drifted away in small groups, conversations fading into the corridors. Noel stepped outside not long after, needing air more than anything else.

The night was clear.

Above the academy, the sky stretched wide and deep, scattered with stars that seemed sharper now that the tension of exams had lifted from everyone’s shoulders. The pathways were quieter than usual, only a few distant voices lingering near the dormitories.

He didn’t hear Elena approach.

He felt her first.

A faint warmth, subtle but steady, contrasting the cool air.

“You always leave first,” she said softly as she reached his side.

Noel glanced at her, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.

“I like it when it’s quiet.”

Elena fell into step beside him without asking where they were going. She wore her usual attire, simple but elegant, her long hair catching faint reflections of the lamplight as they walked. There was a gentleness to her presence that balanced the stillness of the night.

They walked without speaking for a few moments, their pace unhurried.

“So,” she said eventually, tilting her head slightly toward him, “are you going to keep training during the break?”

Noel exhaled softly.

“Yes. But not like before.”

She looked at him more directly.

“Not obsessively?”

He gave a small shrug.

“I don’t need to chase every hour anymore. I’ll train. I’ll improve. But I don’t feel like I’m running against something right now.”

Elena’s gaze softened.

“That’s good.”

They continued along the stone path that curved around one of the quieter gardens. The faint scent of night-blooming flowers lingered in the air, subtle but present.

“You’ve grown,” she said after a moment.

Noel glanced at her again. “That sounds ominous.”

She smiled faintly. “It isn’t. You just… don’t look like you’re carrying the world alone all the time now.”

They slowed near the edge of the garden, where the academy walls gave way to a quiet overlook of the lower courtyards.

Elena’s steps softened.

“Noel,” she said gently, “what do you think about having children?”

He didn’t answer immediately. The question didn’t catch him off guard because of its meaning. It caught him because of its timing.

“Like Marcus?” she added quietly.

Noel’s gaze drifted forward, unfocused for a moment.

He had thought about it before.

But thinking about it and answering out loud were two different things.

Roberto’s name surfaced in his mind without being invited.

There was still that unresolved thread. That eventual confrontation. He didn’t know whether it would be a one-on-one battle or something larger. He had already considered asking Seraphina for support, maybe even involving the other continents if things escalated. He didn’t know if he could trust Roberto fully. He didn’t know what form that clash would take.

And in the middle of all that…

Children.

He inhaled slowly.

“I want to be a father,” he said at last, voice steady but honest. “If it happens, it happens. I won’t run from it. I’d be proud. Genuinely proud.”

Elena stopped walking.

He turned toward her.

She wasn’t looking at the stars anymore.

She was looking at him.

There was something different in her expression now.

Emotion.

“Noel,” she said softly, and her voice trembled just enough to make his pulse shift, “I have something to tell you.”

He froze. Not visibly. But he knew.

They had never been careless, but neither had they kept their distance. What they shared had never been impulsive or temporary; it had grown slowly, over time, with confidence, with conscious choice. And choices like that always carried weight.

Noel felt his throat tighten slightly.

“Are you serious?” he asked, not because he doubted her, but because he needed to hear it clearly.

Elena didn’t answer with words. Her eyes filled slowly, the emotion visible before the tears ever had the chance to fall, and she nodded once, steady despite the tremor in her breath.

That single movement was enough.

Noel stood there for a moment longer than necessary, his mind racing without order. The thought didn’t arrive in pieces; it arrived whole. He was going to be a father. Not someday in the abstract. Not in some distant possibility. Now.

Fear brushed against him first, sharp and immediate, followed closely by responsibility, then by something warmer that surprised him in its intensity. Pride. A quiet, overwhelming pride that settled deeper than the fear.

He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her without thinking, holding her firmly against him as if grounding himself in the reality of it. A second later he realized he might be squeezing too hard and loosened his grip, his hands shifting instinctively to her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” he asked quickly. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Elena let out a soft laugh through her tears and shook her head.

“I’m fine,” she whispered, her voice steadier now. “You’re the one who looks like he just faced a final boss.”

He exhaled, a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and rested his forehead briefly against hers.

For a few seconds, nothing else mattered.

The night air, the academy walls, the distant lights in the courtyard below—all of it faded into the background while he held her there, anchoring himself in something far more real than any battlefield he had faced.

A soft shuffle of steps behind them broke the quiet.

Noel lifted his head slowly.

Selene stood a few meters away, arms folded but not tense, her cyan eyes steady and calm as always. Elyra was beside her, hands lightly clasped in front of her, silver hair catching the faint glow of the lamps. Charlotte stood slightly ahead of them, unable to hide the brightness in her expression no matter how hard she tried.

They had heard.

Of course they had.

Noel looked from one to the other, then back at Elena, then again at them.

“You knew?” he asked.

Charlotte pressed her lips together, trying—and failing—to look innocent.

“We did,” she admitted first. “She told us earlier.”

Elyra nodded gently. “We didn’t want to ruin the moment. It was hers to tell.”

Selene didn’t speak immediately, but her gaze softened almost imperceptibly as it rested on Noel.

“It was meant to be a surprise,” she said simply.

Noel let out a quiet breath, something between disbelief and reluctant amusement. “Alright.”

He glanced at them again, something else crossing his mind.

“Wait,” he said, narrowing his eyes slightly. “Is it just Elena… or is there something I should know?”

Charlotte immediately lifted her hands in surrender, unable to hide the smile on her face.

“Not me.”

Selene shook her head once, calm as ever.

“No.”

Elyra didn’t hesitate.

“It’s just Elena,” she said plainly, without dramatics. Then she looked at him directly, her tone firm but not harsh. “But we’ll have to catch up too, Noel.”

He blinked.

“Catch up?”

Elyra held his gaze without flinching.

“If you’re going to become a father, don’t think you’re doing this alone.”

Charlotte nodded enthusiastically.

“Exactly.”

Selene didn’t add anything, but the quiet steadiness in her expression made her agreement clear enough.

Noel stood there for a moment, still processing everything that had shifted in the span of minutes. His final mission still existed. Roberto was still unresolved. The future was anything but simple.

And now—

He looked at the four of them again.

A father.

Possibly more than once.

A faint, incredulous thought slipped through his mind.

’They’re going to drain me dry.’

The absurdity of it almost made him laugh out loud, and that tiny spark of humor grounded him more than anything else could have.

Under the quiet night sky, with Elena beside him and the others standing close, the feeling that settled in his chest wasn’t fear.

It was life.

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