CHAPTER 80: DISCIPLE CULTIVATION SYSTEM CH80 RED NIGHT PT3.

Valaria nervously passed through the academy gates, her purse held to her front and her heels echoing from each step.

As timid as a child around strangers, her eyes darted around, searching for at the very least a familiar face to go talk to.

She saw Kurt, hanging out with a few of his friends but...

"It’s better if I avoid him."

She knew when she was wanted and when she wasn’t.

She had made a mistake, and it had cost her a potential friend.

She wouldn’t make that mistake again. But for the friend, she would rather it stayed in the past, as a reminder of consequences.

"Who next."

Taking her eyes off Kurt, she saw Kai, holding a glass of fruit juice and lost in thought.

"This could work."

Just as she took her first steps, a flock of girls ran past her and surrounded the poor youth like fishes to bait.

"Kai... Kai, can I have a photo with you?"

"Kai, I was hoping I could dance!"

"Kai...."

There was so much mention of Kai that Valaria got fed up and turned away—only to see Kiara darting toward the girls with a happy look.

"Girls... girls... now, there isn’t enough of a Kai for everyone."

Her words, quite true, made the girls sad. But Kiara seemed to have a plan as she rubbed her hands together sinisterly and continued.

"So why don’t you lots have a drinking contest? The last one standing gets the prize~."

Pointing at Kai to indicate he was the prize, the girls burst into shrieks as Kiara led them and Kai to the grass field where a table serving wine was set.

She winked at Valaria as she passed by, while Kai merely nodded to acknowledge her presence.

"I guess they’re busy."

Seeing them walk away, Valaria came to that conclusion.

With tensed shoulders, she looked around and found Enko.

The dragon, sitting on a bench, looked at the dark skies with a serene expression—enough for Valaria to know not to disturb her.

"Hey, want some?"

Just as she had lost all hope of starting a conversation, an unexpected voice shattered her nightmare.

"Damian!" Valaria exclaimed in shock at the black-haired, red-eyed, glasses-wearing youth currently in a polished black suit and offering her a cup of apple juice.

"I’m not a child," Val said, shoving the glass back.

She was an eighteen-year-old young woman, old enough to drink, and here Damien was passing her fruit juice.

"I said the same thing."

Cheshire, in a light blue gown, commented as she joined the conversation.

Her black hair, done in a long ponytail, gave her a more mature look as she smiled at Valaria’s presence.

"Oh, is that Miss Champion?"

"Heh!" Val blushed, flustered from the sudden compliment. She was really weak to those.

"You know, Miss Champion, you never struck me as the dress type, but damn, you look smoking hot. I’m just going to come out and say this—if I was a guy, I’d probably ask you out."

"Heh."

Valaria blushed even more, rubbing her elbows in embarrassment.

"Meh, my sister is better," Damien interrupted, his comment gaining heated glares from both Valaria and Cheshire.

"Enough with your sister complex, you freak."

Cheshire whacked him on the head, earning a pained scream from him.

"It’s not my fault... ouch... my sister is so perfect."

Valaria, mad at first, warmed up to their antics before posing a question that had been bugging her.

"Eh... Cheshire, where is Ellie?"

It was strange to see Cheshire and Damien together, but what was even more strange was to see Cheshire without Ellie.

Those two were as glued together as real-life twins, so seeing one without the other felt almost wrong.

"Oh, her... she’s over there."

She said, pointing to a bench occupied by a familiar pink-haired elf dozing off in a beautiful white dress.

She seemed almost like a baby with how pure she looked right now.

"Is she safe?"

Valaria’s question was quickly answered as a duo of social media pranksters, ready to dump water on the sleeping elf, were brutally shot down by a bow and arrow the elf manifested in her sleep.

"Sleep shooting!"

Val smirked, committing the sight to memory.

"By the way Val, how is Instructor Art?"

Changing the topic, Cheshire, slightly concerned for Art’s health, inquired from Valaria.

"...I don’t know!" She shook her head.

"Wait, you haven’t gone to see him?"

Cheshire gasped, shocked at that realization.

She wondered if a fallout had occurred between Art and Valaria, because the last she saw of them, they seemed rather close.

Like a master and pupil.

Valaria, sensing her disappointment, shrieked back.

"I don’t know how to face him."

Valaria responded.

"He’s in a coma, so he probably can’t do the—ouch... what was that for?"

Cheshire interrupted Damien with another whack on his head and intervened.

"That man is a rather shitty person..."

Grabbing Valaria by the hand, Cheshire began in a sour tone.

She was reminded of the thrashing she experienced from Art.

How ruthless he had been and how he tried downgrading her.

What he did back then shattered her every self and it had been overboard, and yet such trauma had been the foundation of her new life.

No longer was she shackled by false expectations, nor was she a coward.

Heck, she even met her best friend because of that incident.

So, as much as she didn’t want to believe it, she had to admit—Art’s treatment of her back then had some positives.

"...I won’t defend that man. I saw it with my own eyes, how he beat you up... heck, I even received a similar kind of abuse. But unlike me, you settled your grudge. You scarred his face once and even managed to kill him in the rank games. You should face him with pride."

Val, feeling her sincerity, grinned and looked down in shame.

"Val..."

Hearing Cheshire call her name, she sighed and raised her head high to bathe in that pride—

but all she saw was a broken girl before her, a spear rammed through her chest, blood pooling down her dress.

Her lips quivered, trying to form one last word.

The sparkle in her eyes, once mischievous, dimmed as her hand slipped away from Valaria’s grip.

The party’s music hummed in the distance, uncaring, while in Valaria’s vision the world turned to silence.

A silence that screamed louder than any sound she had ever heard.