.13
“Professor Pierce, it’s an emergency! Sera’s gone!”
Chapter 2
21:15
On the third day of the trial, just as the feed predicted, Seraphina vanished.
According to the feed, we would face numerous dangers during the trial, but Julian would only ever focus on Seraphina. When danger struck, he would only save her, leaving me and the other students to be injured. I was supposed to be mauled by a beast guarding a cache of materials, scar- ring my face.
This was meant to be my final tipping point. I would become completely unhinged, manipulated by a spy in our group to plant a chemical on Sera- phina that attracted the planet’s deadliest creatures–the Swarm. I would then be tricked into opening a wormhole, unleashing the Swarm in a bid
to kill her.
Of course, it wouldn’t work. Julian would save her, and with her help, they would kill the Swarm and expose the spy. I would be named a traitor, my family would be implicated, and we would be paraded through the streets, reviled by the entire planet.
And all of it–even the spy–was part of Julian’s plan. He had been playing me from the very beginning.
Now that I knew his plan, how could I possibly let him succeed?
This time, I stayed with the other students for the entire trial. I never went near Seraphina. When the guardian beast attacked, I didn’t run. I sum- moned my own mech and stood at the front, holding it back to give the students with weaker combat skills time to escape.
Yes, I had learned to pilot a mech. The reason was simple: if the main characters could do it, so could I. After all, they were both dual–specialists in
the original story.
For three days, every time danger arose, I was the one shielding my classmates. In contrast to Julian, who only ever protected Seraphina, I slowly earned the trust and respect of the other students. Now, during rest periods, they gathered around me. The space around the supposed golden
couple was conspicuously empty.
