CHAPTER 90: CH 91: SESSION.

"There you have it. Those are our six suspects." Ren said smoothly. "Actually it’s five since Zara wasn’t there during the Adept Trial."

"Ng." Aegon groaned as he forced himself off the bed, his feet swaying on the edge before he stepped up. "You expect me to blame my friends for what’s going on right now?"

"No." Ren crossed one leg over the other. "I expect you to be logical and detached in handling this."

Aegon rubbed his temple. "Look dude—

~TO TOK!~

The door eased open to three familiar faces; Claire, Cara and Eli.

Claire, on sight, runs towards Aegon and wraps her hands around him, ignoring everyone else in the room.

"Kheum!" Eli cleared his throat loudly. "There are other people here too."

But she refused to let go, completely burying her head in his chest. Aegon, baffled, chose to ignore her. "How you doing guys?"

"We’re good." Eli said as Cara just waved back. "How about you? Mr Omniblade killer." She said playfully.

He rolled his eyes. "I just got lucky." He answered honestly.

"I think that part was obvious."

Ren interjected, completely unprovoked.

And all stares turned to him. Why was the person who’s tried to murder Aegon twice now sitting in his chair like they were best friends.

"That’s my cue to leave." Ren said as he skirted past Eli and exited the room.

"What the hell was he doing here?" Cara asked, hands on her waist. "Didn’t he try to kill you doing the simulation training?"

"And another time before that."

Eli added.

Aegon, with Claire still on him. "Y- Yeah." He stuttered. "We were burying the hatchet..." He couldn’t ignore Claire anymore. "Claire?"

"Mmh?"

She mumbled but refused to unbury her face.

"I’m kinda still healing so could you..."

He didn’t finish as she finally let go of him. Her eyes doey as she glanced up at him. "I’m never letting you out of my sight again."

Her words were followed by an awkward silence, Aegon looked at Eli and Cara whose eyebrows were kissing their hairlines.

"So how are classes?" Aegon changed the topic.

"Suspended." Eli answered. "Principal Miller wants a whole new curriculum that’s centred around turning awakened students into awakened heroes."

’Jesus... Guess Alex is serious.’ He turned to Cara. "So what have you guys been doing since then?"

She leaned against a wall. "Most simulation training and sparring... but classes start in a few days with a new arrangement."

"... What new arrangement?"

---

Previously classes were grouped by Faculty, each faculty to a different class but since taking on the hero curriculum, Atherion academy had adopted a rank based classing.

And as Aegon filed into class with the sign above ’A - 1’, this was the first class encompassing awakened Adepts from 1 - 20.

They all took their seats. Micheal at the back, Quinn in front and the rest were scattered around as they waited for the teacher.

"..."

The doors finally slid open with a quiet grace as a figure stepped into the room and headed straight for the raised podium at the front of the class.

As he passed the students fell silent, straightening their postures and sitting right as he progressed forward.

He finally stopped before the board. Grabs a piece of chalk and turns to the board, scribbling his name and underlining it in finality.

The words simply read, "Mr Collins."

An unconscious smile made its way onto Aegon’s cheeks and Cara slowly shook her head in embarrassment.

~CLAP!~

He loudly clapped his hands to call their attention.

He never smiled, he barely even looked like a teacher. "My name is Mr Collins—" he gestured back at the board. "—and I’ll be your professor on Villain Psychology And Threat Assessment...

You." He pointed at Mira.

"Me?" Mira said, almost inaudible, still playing the perfect role of the shy girl.

"Yes, you."

Professor Collins said simply.

She stumbled but stood, the scratching sound of her chair vibrant.

"Who’s a villain?"

"Uhmm... a Vi- Villian is someone who does something wrong?" Her answer was more of a question than an answer, she was truly born to play this role.

"No." Collins answers dryly, gesturing her to sit before pointing at someone else.

"You on the far left, next to the door. Who’s a Villain?"

The figure refused to stand, he remained sat there—slouched, while his bangs hung perfectly.

"Ren Yamamoto? I’m never going to remember that," Collins looked at the class list before answering, he still couldn’t remember anyone’s names. "If you don’t want to be here, the door’s unlocked."

Ren met his eyes, held it for a second before sitting straight. "A villain is someone who consciously and repeatedly employs unethical, harmful, or...

destructive means—typically leveraging significant personal power, resources, or ideology—to achieve a goal that fundamentally opposes the well-being of a society, community, or heroic ideal."

And at the end all of his little Wikipedia snippet, all eyes fell on him, including Mr Collins’.

"Uh..." Collins stuttered, confused about what just happened. "Correct. Although that’s the textbook definition.

Unethical, harmful or destructive means," he repeated. "Did you hear affinity?"

He pointed at another student.

"No." They answered.

"And why is that?"

"Because being a villain doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an awakened."

"Correct." Collins continued. "So then what distinguishes a villian from a terrorist?" He pointed to Quinn who answered like clockwork.

"A villain is more of a job title while a terrorist is the job description."

"Hmm..." Collins mused. "Could you expand on that?"

Quinn sighed. "Basically all terrorists are villains but not all villains are terrorist... A mob boss villain wants mob and power, but not political change.

A revenge-driven villain targeting their specific enemy isn’t primarily trying to terrorize the public into political action."

"Correct." He said, then spotted Aegon and Cara whispering at the side. "You two." He called for them.

They immediately stopped and turned to him. "Sir?"

"Is there something important you want to share?" They shook their heads in opposition. "Good. Now can one of you tell me why villain psychology is important?"

"..."

They fell silent for a second, Aegon scratched the back of his head before Cara let loose.

"Every psychology has a flaw. The megalomaniac can be lured by flattery." She continued. "The ideologue can be trapped by their own rigid rules.

The traumatized avenger can be distracted by a symbolic connection to their past. Physical force meets their strength; psychology targets their Achilles’ heel."

Me Collins shrugged. "Decent enough. But it’s about a lot more than that... Predictability, exploiting weaknesses—especially for stronger villains, de-escalation and even prevention."

They all furrowed their brows slightly at his last words.

"Yes." He concurred. "If you can stop a crime and prevent it from happening in the near future then you saved more lives in that day that a year..."

He picked up the chalk once more, "So, to solidify the superiority of the pen over the gun, let’s have a pop quiz.

It’s going to be a fun session."