The Imperial Academy was still bustling.
It was a quarter to midnight. Hundreds of cadets lingered around the half-dismantled booths. They were chatting, laughing, packing up displays, and winding down under the warm glow of the magical lanterns.
It was a picture of perfect, mundane security.
At the Gourmet & Ecology Exploration booth, the atmosphere was entirely different.
Ariana sat at the central wooden table. The scratch of her quill was the only consistent sound as she tallied the exhibition receipts under a single mana lamp. Bordon slouched on the leather sofa, snoring loudly with his tower shield against his knee. Elisha sat cross-legged on a desk, methodically waxing her bowstring. Mariella dozed in a chair.
Kael paced.
His armored boots clicked rhythmically against the stone floor. Back and forth. Five steps to the chalkboard, five steps back to the door.
