"I think," Anna continued, meeting his eyes, "that if I move too forcefully, the backlash will only grow stronger. Nobles already believe I favor commoners. If I push further, they’ll resist openly—and then even the rules won’t be enough."
Her gaze shifted, distant for a moment.
"Change isn’t something that can be forced overnight."
Edin clenched his jaw. "And while you wait, people keep getting hurt."
Neither of them was wrong.
That was the problem.
Listening from the side, I felt an odd discomfort settle in my chest.
This wasn’t a simple good-versus-evil narrative. It wasn’t the clean moral structure I remembered from the webtoon.
It was messy. Complicated. Human.
And for the first time, I realized something unsettling.
Maybe Anna wasn’t maintaining balance just for appearances.
"As expected," Edin sneered. "You’re always like this. Pretty words, no substance. Trying to deceive people with sweet talk that anyone can see through."
"Edin—" Anna tried to interject, but he cut her off without hesitation.
"Do you really think we’re still stupid enough to fall for that?" he continued, his voice rising. "No. Not anymore. Now we know the truth."
"I don’t understand what you’re talking about," Anna said, her brows knitting together. "When did I ever lie—"
"The midterm exams."
The sudden shift made the entire hall go quiet.
Anna blinked. "The... midterms?"
"How do you explain the suspicion that you deliberately excluded us?" Edin demanded.
"What? What are you even—"
"This year’s midterm results," Edin pressed on, his tone sharp and unwavering. "Are you aware that there are unusually few commoner students ranked near the top?"
"That’s..." Anna hesitated. "That’s the first I’ve heard of it."
At her words, my thoughts stirred.
Now that he mentioned it... he wasn’t wrong.
The upper rankings this time were overwhelmingly filled with nobles. Far more than usual. At the time, I’d brushed it off as coincidence—individual effort, resources, tutors—but seeing it framed like this...
Could that really be the spark that ignited this riot?
Edin didn’t miss a beat.
"We demand an explanation from the Academy," he said firmly, "regarding the suspicion of unfair grading in this midterm exam."
"Unfair grading?!" one of the professors shouted. "That’s absurd! We would never—"
"If you’re so confident," Edin interrupted coldly, "then prove it."
The crowd stirred again, tension spiking.
"And conveniently," he added, turning his head slowly, "a key suspect is standing right there."
His arm shot out.
Straight at me.
"What?"
The word slipped out before I could stop it.
Me?
Every gaze in the hall snapped in my direction. Confusion, suspicion, hostility—dozens of eyes weighing me all at once.
Why me?
I stood there, frozen, my mind racing to catch up. I hadn’t graded exams. I wasn’t even involved in administrative work. This accusation made no sense.
But Edin’s expression told a different story.
To him, this wasn’t sudden. This wasn’t emotional.
This was calculated.
"You," he said, locking eyes with me. "A noble with mediocre magic rankings, yet absurdly high written scores. Someone who climbed the rankings in a way that doesn’t add up."
My chest tightened.
So that’s it.
In his mind, I wasn’t just a bystander—I was proof. Evidence that the system favored nobles. A symbol of everything they believed was wrong with the Academy.
And the worst part?
From the outside...
I could see why it looked that way.
I swallowed slowly, feeling the weight of the room settle onto my shoulders.
So this is how it starts, huh?
Not a duel.
Not a monster attack.
But suspicion.
And this time, I was standing right at the center of it.
"Louis? What does he have to do with this?"
Anna asked sharply, her gaze flicking toward me for a brief second before returning to the others.
"I heard that student barely avoided failing the entrance exam," Edin continued coolly. "Yet somehow, he scored exceptionally high on the midterms. High enough to receive a scholarship, no less."
The murmurs around us grew louder. A few skeptical looks were thrown my way.
"That’s the result of his hard work," Anna snapped back without hesitation. "Don’t you dare insult him."
...Ahem.
Pure effort might be a bit of an exaggeration.
Sure, I studied. I trained. I put in work. But with the Dream Orb involved, calling it "pure" felt like stretching the truth. The faint prickle of guilt crawled up my spine at Anna’s fierce defense.
Still—
There’s an old saying: even cheating takes skill.
If you’re confident you won’t get caught, isn’t it only natural to use every tool at your disposal?
...That said, the tiny shred of conscience I still possessed stabbed at me all the same.
"And what about the practical exam?" Edin pressed on. "Why were those scores kept confidential? We deserve a proper explanation."
"That’s—"
Anna hesitated.
For the first time since the argument began, she was at a loss for words. The situation surrounding the practical exam was... complicated. Too complicated to explain openly, especially in front of this many students.
Originally, more than half of the scholarship slots were supposed to go to regular students.
But then the Clarice incident happened.
Because of that unexpected chaos, many students couldn’t perform at their best. Some were injured, others shaken. Scores that should’ve been high plummeted across the board.
And the result?
A sudden reshuffling of rankings.
Unexpected names rising to the top.
Scholarships going to people no one anticipated.
It was only natural that suspicions would arise.
"So you’re saying we should just accept this without question?" someone muttered from the back.
"Yeah, it feels like something’s being hidden."
This is getting troublesome.
I never wanted to stand out. All I wanted was to enjoy academy life quietly and avoid unnecessary flags. Yet here I was, right at the center of a growing controversy.
If this keeps escalating, it won’t just end with rumors.
...And that would be a pain.
I raised my head slightly, eyes narrowing as I assessed the situation.
If I don’t do something soon, this could spiral into something far more annoying than a few suspicious glances.
And unfortunately for me—
It looks like I won’t be able to stay silent for much longer.