The boy who had spoken had veins popping on his forehead, like it was about to explode.
"You—"
Before he could continue, the three identical red-haired girls behind him cut in, their voices sharp and perfectly synchronized.
The scene was so strange that Elias felt his eyebrow twitch.
"You shouldn't involve yourself in our matters, Nina. The Vangrovas have only extended their hands into business and kept themselves out of our politics. Stay. In. Your. Fucking. Lane."
Nina's eyes turned cold.
She slowly faced them, pink sparks flickering faintly in her gaze.
"Do you dare tell me what to do?"
The three girls' faces twisted in anger, but they stayed silent, teeth grinding as they held themselves back.
Elias raised an eyebrow.
Were they even separate people? They acted so synchronized it was like they shared a single mind.
Honestly… it was a little unsettling.
Nina suddenly grabbed his arm and started dragging him out of the section, pouting.
"Come on, bestie. The presence of these guys is contaminating our friendship."
Elias let himself be pulled along without resistance.
It was probably for the best anyway. He had no idea how strong any of the other Nobles here were, and picking a fight with all of them at once would be pointless.
Plus…
[Mental Strength: 0]
Nina was practically saving his ass. Turns out ranting off to a bunch of guys while beating them up wasn't a very smart life choice.
Eric followed behind them, talking nonstop like he had been the one doing all the fighting.
"And then you held Anthony like—like this, and the guy nearly pissed himself! And then you threw him down like a sack of potatoes—"
As they were leaving, the reality of what had just unfolded finally seemed to sink into the teenagers who had been frozen in shock or disbelief moments earlier.
Then the cabin exploded into noise.
Excited chatter, shocked voices, and frantic speculation all mixed together as they tried to process what they had just witnessed.
Elias even felt a faint swell of pride when he caught two girls he passed whispering.
"Is it me, or is he kind of hot?"
The girl beside her blushed. "Yeah… he did look pretty hot back there."
He could feel a lot of eyes on his back, but he ignored them. Instead, his gaze drifted upward to the screen mounted on the roof, while Nina tightened her grip around his arm and bounced excitedly beside him.
[City: Vertnar Moor]
[Tier: 2]
[Coordinates: 56.2033° N, 16.1173°E]
It seemed his time here was finally over.
***
Elias stood in front of one of the transporters, with both Eric and Nina behind him, coming to bid him goodbye.
Nina had her hands tucked behind her back, her mouth pouting as though she had been wronged. It was the kind of expression you made when something was taken away just when you had it in your grasp.
Elias couldn't quite figure her out. Did she actually have a crush on him and just recently find the courage to admit it to herself?
Beside her, Eric wore a genuinely aggrieved expression—like someone who had lost both a playmate and a partner in crime.
Elias rolled his eyes, watching them both act as though he was either dying or they wouldn't meet at the Academy in a few days.
"I guess I'll give you guys a call?" he said, feeling a little awkward.
"You better!" Nina snapped immediately, as if offended he even suggested otherwise. "As my bestie, that's the minimum I expect from you. Humph!"
"I will ask my aunt to send more of her sausages," Eric said, his eyes lighting up as though he had just had a brilliant idea. "You didn't get to enjoy them last time, so I'll make sure I get enough for the two of us."
"Please don't," Elias replied immediately, already feeling nauseous. Somehow, talking to Eric always managed to be infuriating.
"I guess I'll be leaving now. Goodbye, guys."
"Bye!" Eric waved so enthusiastically it looked like his arms might fly off.
"Don't you dare make me call you first, okay!"
Surprisingly, a few more voices followed from the cabin as others watched him leave.
"Goodbye, dude!"
"Let's meet at the Academy!"
"Have a safe journey home!"
Elias waved back, stepping into the transporter as the doors slid shut.
That familiar sensation returned—the feeling of moving without actually moving—as the transporter carried him forward at blinding speed.
Soon, it stopped.
The doors opened, revealing a section filled with more transporters. A few people were already stepping out, heading toward the exit.
Elias followed, clutching his travel bag slightly tighter.
This was his first time outside Arvenelle. He had no real idea what to expect.
Two guards stood at the exit, scanning each person as they passed. The assessment took less than half a minute before he was cleared through.
Elias climbed the stairs with the others, moving from the underground transit system toward the surface. It was a slow, crowded ascent, but after a minute of it, faint sunlight began filtering in from above.
He was close.
The moment he broke through—
Elias nearly stumbled backward.
He had stepped onto a sidewalk in front of a city so advanced that Arvenelle suddenly felt like a rural village.
Above him, people floated across the sky on hoverboards, leaving trails of golden sparks behind them and a sound like distant chimes.
Hovercars drifted through the air, their speed carving visible gusts through the city streets.
Far above, massive floating islands hung in the sky as though gravity itself had become inexistent.
Elias stared, stunned, at the towering structures around him—buildings so complex and alien they didn't look like they were made by human hands at all. The architecture was so unreal it left him completely speechless.
The City was alive with sound, so alive that Elias felt like his ears were burning
Elyndra appeared on his shoulder, her voice immediately irritated.
"You're gasping a bit too much. It's embarrassing."
Elias coughed, forcing himself to breathe steadily.
This was a Tier 2 city—just one step below the highest classification. A city that housed one of humanity's pillars of progress: the Concordia Labs, responsible for nearly every major technological advancement in existence.
This was Vertnar Moor.