It didn't take the students at the academy too long to realise how slightly their lives had been changed by Nathan's newly set laws. Some would assume that the intensity of the Ten Commandments lies in the abolishment of traditional rules that most assumed to be only natural, but somehow in the simple statement of "You shall report anyone who breaks the laws above."
This led to a cascade of vengeful letters being mailed to the Student Council every day, with everyone accusing everyone for the most insignificant and unreasonable reasons, like "Occasionally pointing the wand at another student."
Since everyone was reporting everyone, everyone wanted to drag everyone down with them. At one end of this extreme phenomenon, Secretary Terrast had to look over hundreds of meaningless letters that were redundantly tedious and long. However, the other end did provide meaningful information on the relationship web between most of the students in the academy, as well as who certainly chose their own methods rather than obedience to the Student Council.
To be completely honest with himself, Nathan has come to a point where he doesn't really care about promoting and protecting students' equality itself. After all, those who were under extreme persecution were already under the umbrella of the Salvation Club. As for the major cause behind all this act, apart from the thousands of small benefits that came along, probably nobody apart from Nathan would know, not even Jennifer or Daniel.
Overall, these rules didn't even remotely change anybody's lives, just subtly planting a mindset hinting to everyone that the world was about to transform, even if nothing really did, and possibly never will.
At least to this point, this was what Amy Blanc could summarise from Nathan's intentions in his speech and the establishment of the Ten Commandments. She watched the academy through the windows of her room, seeming nothing like someone who had just lost her position as Vice President.
Even if Nathan did crush her in the battle, it was in a way that preserved her dignity. With something as powerful as that "Personalised Rune Art," nobody expected her to win, and as long as she wasn't bested by Jonathan Schwarz, the Blanc Clan wouldn't blame everything on her. She was still the heir of the main family, who, though far from the position of the next family head, was destined to have a word or two in the kingdom's future.
The position of Vice President was but a title to her, a title that refined her status rather than defined it. Not to mention that the one who succeeded her in this position was someone from her bloodline, her obedient cousin Leo Blanc.
Talking about Leo, he was half lying down on her chair, staring blankly at the light on the ceiling and trying to trace a pattern by aligning his vision with the shadows of the illumination.
"Leo, say, you are the Vice President now." She murmured softly, as if she was always a patient and caring senior of the family, "Don't disgrace our clan's name, but even if you do, do not be controlled by Nathan Modernson's lies. That's all I expect from you from now on."
Leo swallowed and touched his neck, his response lacking his usual stability, and began trailing off after the first few words: "I know how to distinguish between right and wrong, don't worry about it."
"If you really knew how, I wouldn't have done… You know, those things." Amy brushed it off flatly like the calm breeze.
Hearing these words, Leo clenched his fist under the chair. She spoke as if his pain and suffering could just be disregarded with that sentence alone, as if everything she had done was not for her own egoism and sense of superiority, as if he was in the wrong after all. He wasn't unwilling to forgive, but simply chose not to forget the feelings that roared inside him at those moments in his life.
"Leo, your eyes have been blinded by Nathan Modernson's acts of hospitality, or perhaps it was just plain stupidity," Amy continued, "He foolishly believes that the strife between the Blancs and the Schwarz is resolvable, that he could side with and control both. Leo, have you forgotten all of the Clan's teachings?"
Leo mumbled with fear disguised as annoyance, "I'm done with having to listen to those elders criticizing people I haven't even seen. Does it really feel that good to hate someone?"
Amy's features twitched. If her cousin wasn't now the Vice President of the Student Council and couldn't truly damage her reputation in and out of the academy, if he truly wanted to mutually destruct, that is, she would have lashed out with words she was already most familiar with.
She turned around to face Leo, which made Leo uncomfortably sit up with an invisible frown. Walking forward, she sat on her bed gracefully and took Leo's hand, beginning to caress it gently as she explained to him, "It never feels good to hate someone, but responsibilities were never supposed to feel good." She leaned into Leo's ear and whispered viciously, "Leo, let me tell you something you don't know. Jonathan Schwarz was the one who killed your brother."
Leo froze in position, shaking in disbelief, "You are joking…"
"Did you actually believe that Neo's death was caused by a failure on his part?" Amy sneered with malice, "He's a prodigy of the family, certain to become the head of your branch, and one whose strategic mind I even admire. He would never have made a mistake in an operation as easy as that. Everything was Jonathan's scheme, so that you may come to this academy helpless, alone, and without any assistance from a figure he deeply feared."
She paused for a moment, but not enough to allow Leo to fully process his thoughts, "And did you actually believe… William Schwarz, who was his blood brother, knew nothing about this?"
"No, no, wait, hold on." Leo shook his head.
"Did you also believe that any assassin apart from the ones trained by the Sixth Department could kill Neo with such malevolent perfection? And did you also believe… Nathan Modernson, son of the First Seat, heard nothing at all?"
"Joseph Gravekin, Monica Gladius, may the Divine Beings grant my words, do you think those two are just your innocent mates? Do you think they also know nothing about it?"
"Leo, does lying to yourself not put you to shame? Or have you just chosen to forget your brother's death after not even a full year?"
A voice in Leo's head cried out that every word that came out of Amy's mouth was just deception trying to manipulate him back into serving her, but he somehow just couldn't pick out anything wrong with the logic, especially when his brother's death was so mysterious and unreasonable.
"Leo, it's time to get your priorities right. It doesn't matter how good they are to you now, only family's love is everlasting. If you listen to me and take revenge for Neo, I promise you that I will not let your brother die in vain, in disgrace, and in the unknown, with my dignity as a main heir of the Blanc Clan."
Swallowing the nothingness in his mouth for the last time, Leo's vision suddenly zoned in. For a moment, it seemed to Leo that nothing else mattered except for what Amy had just promised. He stared at Amy Blanc with fluctuating emotions within his eyes, and in silence, he nodded with determination.
"Jonathan Schwarz will pay." His voice was so cold that it almost put him in shock.
"That's the spirit." Amy nodded back in appreciation that sounded false even to her own ears. She was clearly too focused on herself to hear Leo's whisper following his sentence.
"And you will be next."
When Leo took the elevator back to the floor that belonged to him, his mind was in a state between complete silence and being broken by the dreadful screams of doubt. At such a late hour, nothing else could be heard except for the roar of this mechanical monster as it plunged down slowly.
Does this world have any hope left? What even is hope anyway?
Will hate ever stop haunting Runalond? No, no one can be freed from the endless cycle of revenge.
For the first time in his life, having too much felt like a burden and not a pride.
Carrying these thoughts, if he could even call them thoughts, Leo realised that he had already reached his destination. As the great door that led him outside opened with a screech, he fell to the ground in a weird sense of weakness.
The moon was bright tonight. Leo got up with difficulty and walked outside, only to fall to his knees again, like strength had been completely extracted from his body. This time, it was as if he gave up, lowering his head to face the concrete on the ground, pain filling his brain like a flood that washed away all the hope he once had.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming towards him.
Lifting his head, a figure whose frame almost blocked the moonlight approached calmly. His windswept hair was down to his shoulders. The only other thing that distinguished him was the light in his eyes. Leo could no longer say whether he was a figment of his imagination.
The figure stood before him like a giant, a giant who deliberately lowered his back to enable the peaceful moonlight to once again brighten the tears running down his face. To Leo at that moment, the figure was the moonlight in this eternal darkness.
Nathan Modernson reached his hand towards Leo without any words, which Leo grabbed like it was the rope to save his life.
And his strength returned.
"Nathan… Nathan… I…"
"We can talk when we get back," Nathan lamented with regret, "Daniel heard it all."
Nathan dragged Leo up from the cold concrete ground and signalled him to follow him towards his dormitory. Inside already sat Daniel Whitedawn and William Schwarz, their expressions tensing up the air around them.
William looked up towards Leo with evasive eyes. After fidgeting for a short moment, all he could come to was a simple nod of greeting. Seeing Leo nod back without hesitation, William felt as if a blade hanging on top of his head had just fallen by his side.
Nathan Modernson sighed and sat down on his bed, rubbing the fatigue from his forehead. This was one of the few times where he truly didn't know how to begin a speech. His plan worked out perfectly, but it now seemed to him that it did more harm than good, and that was even when he tried to ignore the guilt in his heart.
"William," Leo spoke out first, his voice still trembling slightly, "Did you know?"
The tension within William's muscles was instantly released. He closed his eyes in denial and pain, suppressing even his breath like he no longer wanted to continue the process.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Leo's shoulders dropped in disappointment, "Oh well, that's a rather stupid question to ask. It's fine, I understand." He turned to Nathan instead and asked the same question, "Did you know?"
Nathan shook his head in silence. "I didn't even know you had a brother," he added after a short while.
This sentence was hard to believe for anyone but Daniel Whitedawn, but every word was true.
"To be honest, whether you guys knew or not doesn't matter anymore," Leo continued flatly, "But in the future, I hope we can all know."
"We will all know, I will ensure that," Daniel said seriously. This seriousness was especially reassuring on someone like him, who was almost never serious until things actually were.
"Leo, I'm sorry," William shook his head, not to the extent that he was crying, but not that far from it either, "It happened before we…"
"Hey, no need to apologize!" Leo stepped forward and rested his hand on William's shoulder to comfort him, "I don't blame you, really."
"I do," Leo stated, not a sigh, not an exclamation, "If I'm given the opportunity, I would slash him to death with the bluntest knife I can find, until his flesh turns into a disgusting mess. I would drag him out of his grave and piss on his corpse. I would curse him every day and night so that his spirit will never be freed from this nightmare. And I now declare a vow to the Divine Beings, I will kill Jonathan Schwarz, even if you try to stop me."
"But you are not your brother. You are William, my friend, my comrade, and my family."