The halls were dead silent as I walked across the empty spaces.
It was Sunday today and all the students were in their own dormitories, which were situated at a little distance from this main building.
Even the staffs weren’t anywhere to be seen. They too like the students had their own dormitory if any of them wished to remain so.
Now that I think of it, it was a bit strange that the rooms of all the council members were in the main building itself...like mine.
Even though none of them stayed here. Each had their own mansions nearby where they lived peacefully.
Even Earl Mordant had a mansion built near the academy premises just so that his son could live there. However, it seems Henry had vehemently rejected to live at the mansion and rather booked his room to be cleaned up.
And now, I am occupying it.
It wasn’t that bad of a choice for now. There must have been a reason why Henry wanted to remain here, and for god’s sake I didn’t want to deal with it until I establish my hold over here.
With that said, I glanced outside. Towards the field. At the distant horizon.
"I need to go out of these walls to see the world... physically. Books can only give me as much knowledge as an average vlogger either making a particular country stand on a pedestal or downplay the entirety of the region creating misleading stereotypes."
"I need the real experience."
Soon I arrived in front of the room where the said exam would be held.
Just as I was about to open it, the door opened and a man came out.
His appearance was immaclate with hardly any specks of dust on his tailored dress.
And to my shock, it was Gideon.
Our eyes met for a moment before a glint appeared in his eyes.
Instinctively his posture straightened and with clasped palms gave me an obnoxious smile.
"Well, well, would you look at that? The Vice Principal for a day has appeared to his final doom."
Heat pooled within my core as anger rushed over my body at his words.
But I kept silent and didn’t answer him. Only my eyes hardened as I stated at him.
Seeing my silence, his smile faded but then smirked.
"Hiding the fact that you no longer have your memories won’t save you."
He slightly patted by back on his way out.
"Prepare to get exposed..."
I followed his form until he disappeared completely. Only then did I sigh, relaxing my clenched jaw.
’Why was he so sure about my memory loss? Could it be that he carried out the attack?’
Though what was Gideon doing in the room...
Rows of benches greeted me. But my eyes darted to another figure sitting at the one of the benches at the farthest corner of the room.
He looked to be around the same age as my body and his face was covered in acnes. His bored eyes gazed at me but soon darted away as if losing interest.
My eyebrows lifted at the gesture.
As I opened my mouth to introduce myself, a voice came from the front of the room.
"Don’t you recognise him, Henry?" You guys met each other few weeks ago, surely you shouldn’t forget him."
My head jerked to the front where Cormac Nightshade sat on a chair, his legs crossed and eyes half-closed.
’Him as well? I didn’t even feel his presence in the room...how did he do that?’
As I saw his open eyes, I knew he had seen my reaction to the boy’s company in the room.
I composed myself quickly.
Met before? That means I know him. Googlᴇ search 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮※𝓷𝓮𝓽
And thus, I opened my mouth and asked in a dismissive manner, "Why is he present? I think that’s the question we need to handle."
Cormac’s gaze seemed to bore deep into me as if scrutinizing something, of which I had a faint idea.
But then his shoulders relaxed and he raised his hand.
"Every choices has a consequence. That day I have you two, one of which you rejected. Consider him as the consequence for taking the second choice..."
My heart drummed in my chest in a bad premonition. And I was right as he said, "You are going to compete with Reinhard for the position of vice-principal. The one who was just behind you in the main examination and also Gideon’s son."
I felt my composed expression crack from the sudden twist. I looked towards Reinhard as a thought entered me, ’Can I even win against him...?’
With great efforts, I gulped down the fear in me and nodded to Cormac.
Seeing me nod my head, Cormac stood up from his seat.
"Well I guess then my presence here is no longer needed. As you both know, this test is divided into two parts - the written one that’s gonna take place now and the combat test, which shall take 30 minutes after this."
Then he paused, letting the words sink into us and added in a conspirational tone, "Again.... remember the number of seat is one and candidates are two."
"Best of luck!" With that, he exited the room leaving me and Reinhard, who suddenly sighed deeply.
His eyes no longer had the bored look and he was watching me, trying to calculate me and my movements.
I asked, "What is true?"
"You aren’t Henry are you? Or what I mean is you no longer have the memories of him. In that case, I am having an easy win in this."
In reply, I donned the cloak of complete silence and sat at the other corner of the room. I didn’t want to be near Reinhard or I might get distracted from these provoking words.
"Haaa you are incredibly boring. Atleast entertain me with some reply until whoever arrives to take our test."
Seeing me still silent, he sighed again. Then he turned back to his own desk and muttered something in annoyance.
Some time later, the examiner entered the room.