The crowd thinned as students moved away from the grand hall in uneven streams, their conversations spilling into the open walkways while the tension from the announcement followed them without losing its weight.
After managing to extract herself from the connection seeking students crowding her.
Elara walked ahead without slowing, her pace steady and her posture unchanged, as though nothing that had just happened required her attention beyond what had already been decided.
Mira and Heliose followed a few steps behind her. As for Selene... Well she's just Selene, she seems pissed off by the fact that Elara was made a cadret mentor.
Heliose let out a quiet breath and glanced back over her shoulder toward the hall.
"…I didn't expect that," she said, her voice low but clear. "I mean, I knew they were supposed to be strong, but… that guy actually feels like what they call him."
Mira tilted her head slightly. "Which one?"
Heliose gave her a look. "Lirien. Who else?"
She hesitated for a second, then added, "I thought 'Ice Prince' was just a title people exaggerated, but no… he really feels cold. Not just personality. Like… actually cold."
Mira gave a small, knowing smile.
"That part isn't even the interesting thing about him," she said.
Heliose frowned slightly. "There's more?"
"There's always more," Mira replied, then lowered her voice just a little. "His main bloodline is from the Ashveil line—spacetime affinity, rare even among the great houses. That's already enough to make him stand out."
She paused briefly, then continued.
"But his mother's side is from a high-tier ice fae lineage. Not the usual elemental type—something older and more refined. That's where the 'cold' you're feeling comes from."
Heliose blinked. "Wait… so he has two bloodlines?"
Mira nodded.
"Two strong ones," she said. "And both are stable."
Heliose slowed slightly, her expression shifting as she processed that.
"I thought that wasn't possible," she said.
"It usually isn't," Mira answered. "When someone inherits multiple bloodlines, the body doesn't keep all of them active. It chooses one. The stronger or more compatible one takes over, and the others fade or stay dormant."
She folded her arms loosely as she walked.
"If two powerful ones try to manifest at the same time, they clash. The body can't handle it. Energy pathways conflict, control breaks down, and in some cases… the person doesn't even survive the awakening."
Heliose went quiet for a moment.
"…So the body just picks one and suppresses the rest," she said.
"Exactly," Mira replied. "It's a kind of atavism. Old traits resurface, but only the ones the body can actually support."
She glanced ahead briefly.
"For Lirien to awaken both—and keep them stable—that means his body didn't reject either. That level of compatibility is rare enough on its own. Having it with two high-tier bloodlines…" she shook her head slightly. "That's why people call him a genius."
Heliose let out a soft breath.
"…That's not just genius," she muttered. "That's unfair."
Mira huffed lightly. "You're only realizing that now?"
Heliose didn't respond immediately. Her gaze drifted forward again, this time quieter than before.
"…And we're supposed to compete in the same system as that," she said.
Mira didn't answer that.
Elara walked a few steps in silence after Mira finished speaking, her gaze fixed forward while the rhythm of her steps remained unchanged, yet the conversation settled somewhere beneath that stillness rather than passing through it.
"If he really is as renowned as people claim," she said at last, her voice even and unhurried, "then why would the academy place him that low in the rankings?"
Heliose lifted her head slightly at that, as if the question had been sitting at the edge of her own thoughts but had not yet taken shape.
"…I was wondering about that too," she admitted, her tone less certain now than before. "It doesn't match what we just saw. Even without doing anything, he already feels… above most of them."
She hesitated briefly, then continued, more thoughtfully this time.
"Maybe the rankings aren't measuring strength the way we think they are," she said. "If it was just raw power, someone like him wouldn't be outside the top ten. So either they're factoring something else in… or they're deliberately placing people where they don't 'fit.'"
Mira glanced at her, then forward again, her expression sharpening slightly as she picked up on that line of thought.
"It's not just power," she said. "It can't be. The Vice Principal already implied that much."
She adjusted her pace slightly so she remained level with Elara, her voice lowering just enough to keep the conversation contained between them.
"If the ranking system really accounts for things like stability, adaptability, and growth potential, then someone like Lirien having two strong bloodlines might actually work against him in certain evaluations."
Heliose frowned. "How?"
"Because stability doesn't just mean 'he can use both,'" Mira replied. "It means how consistent that control is under different conditions. Two high-tier bloodlines don't just coexist quietly. Even if they're stable now, there's always a risk of fluctuation when pressure increases."
She paused briefly, then added,
"And if the system is predictive—if it's trying to calculate long-term progression rather than immediate output—then any variable that introduces uncertainty lowers your placement."
Heliose processed that slowly, her brows drawing together.
"…So you're saying he might actually be ranked lower because he's harder to predict?"
"Exactly," Mira said. "Not weaker. Just… less stable on paper."
The words settled between them for a moment, not entirely comfortable, but not easily dismissed either.
Elara's gaze shifted slightly, not toward them, but downward for the briefest moment, as if aligning the pieces of the conversation against something internal.
"…That makes some sense," she said.
Her voice did not change, but there was a subtle shift in how the words carried, less dismissive now, more deliberate.
"If the system values what someone will become rather than what they are now, then it wouldn't reward something that introduces risk, no matter how powerful it looks."
She lifted her gaze again, steady as before.
"And if that's the case… then what they felt isn't wrong."
Heliose blinked. "What do you mean?"
Elara did not slow, but her next words came with quiet clarity.
"They felt pressure from him," she said. "That part is real. But pressure isn't the same as placement."
Mira's eyes flickered briefly, as if that distinction had landed more cleanly than she expected.
Elara continued without pause.
"If the rankings account for factors beyond what people can see, then relying on what something 'feels like' will always lead to the wrong conclusion."
Heliose exhaled softly, her earlier certainty replaced with something more measured.
"…So the system isn't wrong," she said. "We just don't understand it properly yet."
Elara did not respond immediately, but the absence of contradiction was answer enough.
The three of them continued forward, their steps falling back into quiet rhythm as the flow of students thinned further along the path, the earlier noise fading into scattered fragments of conversation carried by distance.
Behind them, the academy grounds still buzzed with speculation, with names being weighed and reweighed against impressions that refused to settle neatly into place.
The flow of students shifted again as the main path split toward the residential wings, and within that movement, Kael walked alongside Ian, Darius, and Rosa, their pace neither hurried nor slow, yet steady enough that no one tried to cut across them, as though the space around their group had settled into a quiet boundary of its own.
Darius walked with his usual upright posture, his expression composed but not unreadable, the slight tension in his shoulders suggesting that his thoughts had not entirely left the hall behind; Rosa, on the other hand, carried herself with a more visible ease, though the way her eyes moved occasionally toward Kael made it clear that her attention had not drifted far from him.
Ian, however, was something else entirely.
He held his chin slightly higher than usual, his expression pulled into an exaggerated stillness that did not quite fit his face, his gaze forward in what was very clearly an attempt at indifference, though the effect leaned more toward deliberate performance than anything natural.
Rosa noticed it first.
She slowed just slightly, tilting her head as she studied him for a second before speaking.
"…Ian," she said, her tone edged with curiosity she did not bother to hide, "what exactly are you doing with your face?"
Ian did not respond immediately.
He maintained the same expression for a moment longer, as if committing to the act, before finally letting out a slow breath through his nose.
"I'm adjusting," he said.
Rosa blinked. "Adjusting to what?"
Ian finally turned his head slightly toward her, though he kept the same stiff composure.
"To the new standard," he replied. "Did you not see them? Calm, distant, untouchable… that kind of presence doesn't just happen, you have to cultivate it."
Rosa stared at him for a second.
"…You're serious."
"I am extremely serious," Ian said, his voice lowering as if he were revealing something important. "From this moment onward, I will carry myself like one of the ten esteemed Cadre Leaders. Cold, unreadable… a figure of quiet authority."
He paused, then added with complete sincerity,
"If I maintain this long enough, people might start to feel pressured just by standing near me."
There was a brief silence.
Then Rosa broke first.
A laugh slipped out of her before she could stop it, sharp and sudden, her shoulders shaking as she tried and failed to hold it back.
"…No—no, stop," she said between breaths, "you look like you're constipated, not intimidating."
Darius let out a low chuckle beside them, the sound restrained but unmistakable, his head turning slightly away as if to hide it, though the curve at the corner of his mouth gave him away.
Even Kael—
The corner of his lips twitched before he could stop it.
Scoundrel.
The thought came easily, carrying with it a faint warmth that cut through the lingering tension far more effectively than anything spoken aloud.
A quiet breath left him, lighter than the ones he had taken earlier, and for a brief moment, the weight he had been carrying shifted, not gone, but no longer pressing in quite the same way.
Ian noticed.
Of course he did.
His expression broke almost immediately, the forced composure dropping as he glanced toward Kael, his eyes flickering with something closer to relief than amusement.
"There it is," Ian said, his tone returning to normal. "I was starting to think you'd stay like that all day."
Rosa glanced between them, then huffed softly, her earlier laughter settling into a small smile.
"…You did that on purpose."
Ian shrugged lightly. "Someone had to."
Kael did not respond out loud.
But he understood.
He always does something like this when things get too heavy.
The realization settled quietly, not surprising, but still… noted.
Ian stretched his arms slightly as he walked, his posture relaxing now that the act had been dropped.
"Look," he continued, his voice more casual now, though the intent beneath it remained steady, "don't overthink the cadre thing. You don't need to rush around trying to prove anything to anyone."
Darius nodded once.
"He's right," he said. "People will choose based on what they believe benefits them. You don't need to force that."
Rosa glanced at Kael again, then added,
"And even if no one shows up, that doesn't really change anything."
She paused briefly.
"…We'll join."
Kael's gaze shifted slightly toward them.
Ian grinned. "Obviously. Did you think we'd go somewhere else?"
Darius folded his arms loosely. "That would be inefficient."
Rosa rolled her eyes. "He means yes."
A small silence followed, not awkward, but steady in a way that didn't demand a response.
Kael let out a quiet breath.
He felt grateful but he also knew that with an upcoming trial choosing a mentor that could efficiently lead was most important, while he does not consider himself incompetent. just the fact alone that they would still willing pick him over the other mentors who were also acclaimed geniuses, made him feel warm inside. Nevertheless, he knew in this moment he had indeed made some real friends. However, he should also reciprocate their kind intentions, from experience he also knows that human say somethings they really do not mean just for courtesy, give them the chance and they would not hesitate to do what they really want.
"…You don't have to," he said.
Ian snorted. "We know."
Darius added, "That's not why we said it."
Rosa simply nodded.
The words settled without pressure, without insistence, yet they carried a weight that did not need to be emphasized.
Kael did not speak again immediately.
But the tightness in his shoulders eased, just slightly.
Then Darius spoke again, his tone shifting, not heavier, but more focused.
"There's something else you should consider," he said.
Kael glanced at him.
Darius continued.
"The ones outside the top ten won't ignore this for long," he said. "Some of them will try to climb back up by challenging those already placed."
Ian's expression sharpened slightly. "You mean the seven?"
"Not all of them," Darius replied. "Someone like Lirien doesn't need to prove anything by targeting lower placements. If anything, he'll aim higher."
Rosa nodded faintly. "That makes sense."
Darius's gaze remained steady.
"But others might not think the same way," he added. "Cassian… Thorne… even Rael, depending on how he takes it."
Ian clicked his tongue softly. "So basically, the ones with something to prove."
"Or the ones who don't like uncertainty," Darius corrected.
The implication lingered.
Kael understood it immediately.
If they can't accept the ranking as it is… then they'll try to correct it themselves.
His gaze lowered slightly, not in avoidance, but in thought.
The earlier tension returned—but different now.
Less scattered.
More… defined.
"…I know," he said quietly.
Ian glanced at him again, but this time he didn't interrupt.
Because there was nothing to ease.
Only something to face.
The path ahead stretched forward, the academy grounds gradually thinning as the flow of students dispersed into smaller groups, conversations breaking apart into quieter fragments— students moving into their residential dorm wings.