CHAPTER 283: 283-PUNISHED YET AGAIN

Clementine:

"Ah, be careful!" Oriana almost squeaked when the lurker snatched the uniform out of her hands after making her change back into her own clothes.

The lurker walked away, leaving us in our separate cells. These were the same cells I had been thrown into countless times before.

I sat comfortably in my cell, watching Oriana go through all sorts of emotions.

"Ew! What is that?" she screamed, pointing toward another cell where blood stains covered the wall.

It wasn’t anything new to me. When I was kept here in the beginning, the others and I were tortured into submission. But this spoiled princess clearly hadn’t seen a place like this before, so she reacted to everything with panic.

"How can you sit there so calmly, as if you belong in these cells?" she hissed, speaking directly to me.

I turned my face away, ignoring her.

"Come on, Clementine, you can’t keep giving me this silent treatment," she complained, stepping closer and gripping the cell bars with both hands.

"Do you still not see it? they were laughing at you with me," she continued.

I rolled my eyes at her attempts to still stir pot when there was nothing left.

"What do you want from me?" I finally asked.

"You wanted a team of your own. You got it. Now leave me alone, because I don’t fucking care what you or the others are doing anymore," I said bluntly, watching her shake her head, almost in disapproval.

"I’m not nearly done, Clementine," she said, her voice sharp. "Because I just realized, after getting your squadmate’s support, that I want to be the center of attention. I want to be Clementine."

There was a strange spark in her eyes as she spoke, one that gave me goosebumps.

"I want to be the only one they care about," she went on, her eyes gleaming with greed. "And for that, I have to make them let you go. I mean, Haiden will reject you, right? If you ask him."

As soon as she said that, I realized she didn’t know the truth—that the others were my mates. They must have told her I was only asking Haiden to reject me. Maybe that was the story they fed her, since she had been too far away to hear us.

"I think once you’re back in the North, your mind will open up again," I said calmly. "You’ll realize that these kinds of games don’t suit someone who constantly has to fight to survive."

I leaned back, watching her black eye as a reminder of the damage I had already done.

"Next time I go to the North, I won’t have to worry about anything, Clementine," she declared with a wide smirk. "Those three strong, beastly alphas will take care of me. Worry about yourself. Because remember Matthew? We almost forgot about him, didn’t we? That will be fun. Not only will you have no one on your side, but someone will be fighting against you."

She laughed, shaking her head and clicking her tongue. "Ah," she groaned. "And they had to put us in these filthy cages. Couldn’t they have locked us in a luxury suite instead?"

She kept complaining, touching everything and grimacing as if she might vomit. I looked up at her, realizing again how untouched by reality she really was.

"Can you please bring me something to sit on? I’m not going to sit on the ground!" she complained, shouting for the lurkers.

"Ugh, I have never been disrespected like this," she hissed, kicking the bars.

"Don’t lie. We all saw you getting dragged to the academy like a trash bag last time," I taunted.

She turned her head and glared at me.

"Don’t say things that’ll get you in trouble," she warned. "Because next time we’re out of here, I’ll make my squadmates attack you."

She laughed, mocking me as if to remind me, in her twisted way, that my squadmates were now hers.

I didn’t understand why she was so obsessed with needing people to take care of her—or with teams in general.

"You must be very insecure to think you need someone else to survive. I don’t," I said. "I’ve survived my whole life without anyone. So if you think you’re hurting me, you’re wrong. I’ll be fine, honey. I can survive even on my own."

As she narrowed her eyes at me, the lurkers arrived and opened the cages. I guessed it was time for us to be taken before the headmaster.

Seeing me again would probably remind him that I was still a troublemaker.

We were led out and told to follow the lurkers, two of them, one for me and one for her. They took us to the headmaster’s office.

Once we sat down, the headmaster turned his chair around and sighed.

"You again?" His tone was cold as he looked at me.

"She attacked me! I was just joking," Oriana complained right away, pointing her finger at me while I sat silently.

The headmaster’s gaze shifted to her, and he slammed his hand on the desk. She instantly stopped.

"Speak when you’re asked to," he hissed. Oriana went quiet.

"I thought you were the best crusader ever, Clementine. What happened?" he asked in his usual cold tone.

"I never imagined myself as the best one. I didn’t even accept the medal, did I?" I reminded him of that day when he handed out awards. "And I don’t want to be the best crusader. I’d rather be out there in the mainland, living my life. I’ve realized that no one in this world is worth fighting for."

I leaned back in the chair, speaking softly but firmly.

The headmaster nodded slightly.

"She’s crazy," Oriana muttered in her usual annoying tone, but the moment the headmaster turned his head toward her, she mouthed an apology and looked down.

"Somebody hurt you?" the headmaster asked.

I shrugged, refusing to answer. Why would he care? He never did. All they cared about was sending us into the North.

"Attacking each other on academy grounds, especially after so many incidents of crusaders killing one another, has led me to believe that there must be strict consequences," the headmaster continued, sounding like he was inventing rules on the spot.

Every time, their rules were different, sometimes they’d forgive someone for bullying or abandoning a teammate in the North, and other times they’d punish a person just for glaring too hard.

"With that being said," he concluded, "your punishment will be a task in the North. Alone."

Oriana gasped loudly.