Nelly leans up against the exterior wall of one of the houses, while her low-IQ lackey, Samuel, sits on the bench next to her. The two idly chat.
Who do they think they are? I approach like an annoying HOA board member interrogating delivery drivers encroaching upon the neighborhood.
Nelly gives me a mean look as I approach. But it’s more so that she just has resting bitch face. The two are actually quite calm, almost content.
"Hello, familiar faces."
"Fuck. You." Nelly spits. Not very passionately, but certainly venomous.
"Well, that’s rude. Just trying to be friendly."
"Yeah, that was pretty rude," Samuel murmurs, his eyes big and full of compassion.
"Who’s side are you on, you fucking oaf?!" Nelly stares daggers at the giant. For original chapters go to novel·fire.net
"Aren’t we all on the same side now?" he replies.
She scoffs at that, but doesn’t necessarily deny it. That’s a bit strange.
"You two aren’t part of the captured forces?" I ask.
Nelly shakes her head. "Just allies. Those captured are quite the worthless lot."
"Yeah," Samuel nods his head in agreement. "They do the bare minimum to avoid the collar, or just enough to get extra rations. I’m just glad I don’t have to do that, and I get good rations. Besides, I think it’s better to do things with vigor..."
"Leara trusts you two enough to let you ally?"
"Trust? What the Hells are you on about?" Nelly questions, her face scrunched in irritation.
"It was the watches," Samuel taps the Artifact on his wrist with exaggerated movements.
"We saw the alert. Some scouts found us, and Leara sent the offer, and we accepted," Nelly recites in a monotone fashion. "Didn’t know you were here when we joined."
I check my watch as she speaks. And wouldn’t you fucking know, I missed out on something big.
┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐
Entrance Exam Alert
Parties may now merge via mutual consent to create larger, formal teams.
Contribution and credit will be tallied both collectively and individually.
Betraying your team will incur severe penalties.
└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘
This appeared a couple of days ago, probably while we were going through hell to capture Cossa. I wonder how that useless bastard is doing. He better be worth the trouble—well, I’m very sure he was worth the trouble, I just hoped he’d be a little more useful.
How careless am I getting that I can’t even check a watch? Get a grip, you fucking idiot.
On the bright side, it does confirm a hunch I’d had since the very beginning: the Entrance Exam is evolving.
The Exam was kept intentionally vague since the very beginning. They’re throwing us in a sandbox and observing us without explicit instructions, just a general implication that we need to compete against one another.
Seriously, what kind of Exam has no real instructions? The only motivations for action have originated from each person—Alexander being greedy and taking the castle, our Mateiko faction aggressively attacking and capturing every team possible, etc.
It makes me think that the Dim is up to no good. Maybe they’re aware of the imminent Big Five war and are simply creating a platform for that to fester. That would be rotten of them—and improbable—but not impossible.
They must prefer the more subjective, ’show me what you got’ kind of test. I can’t imagine that it’s all that good for the spectators, but anything the Dim shows will be gobbled up regardless; that’s how important and prestigious it is.
Now they’re changing some variables in the contained environment and seeing how we react. But this reaction is quite tame.
This new team system only seems to ensure that we can create these bigger teams without worrying about betrayal or loss of credit, for whatever is hidden in the Dim Exam rubric.
We could have used it before we captured all these bastards. Though I suppose they could still be upgraded to allyhood—perhaps as a reward for good behavior.
Wouldn’t have done much for Cossa, then and now. Stubborn freak. But I digress.
Anyway, it allows normal students like Nelly and Samuel to join without being captured and collared. Yay. Whatever.
"Seriously?" Nelly looks down with contempt. "You couldn’t check a buzzing watch? You’re duller than Henri."
"I was busy kidnapping Sebastian Cossa," you useless fuck. I want to torture this barking bitch again. "You two aren’t upset over Henri, are you?"
"Not really," Nelly shrugs. "The annoying bastard deserved it."
"Nelly!" Samuel cries. "But he was our friend. How could you be so cruel?"
"He was our teammate, and that doesn’t change that he was annoying," Nelly replies. "Though I will say that you hurt him pretty badly. A little too much, I’d say. He’s quite the fragile flower. You sure you didn’t kill him?"
Uhhh. Erm. Awkward. But absolutely fucking hysterical, and it’s a damn shame I can’t laugh.
"Nah, I’m sure the protection Artifact did its job," I reply in false earnest. "He’ll be fine."
"Who cares?" Nelly says.
Indeed. Probably his family. And the Dim. I’m not eager to deal with the potential aftermath, but it’ll come when it comes. At least I got a nice Imprint out of it.
"I care," Samuel replies.
Sure bud. My big buddy. So full of love and kindness. You care. That’s awesome. Moving on.
I hear Evan of Cicily’s boots through the soil before I turn to him.
He’s been quite the pleasant surprise. The Cicilys must have some tight House Mateiko connections, because he’s been an above-and-beyond vassal. A real glue guy. Team player. NBA sixth man of the year caliber. Really, he merely does all the day-to-day operations that no one else wants to do. But still, very important. We are all very appreciative.
"Leara wants all the top brass to gather in the chapel at noon," he tells me. I nod in reply, and he walks off. Very curt.
"Seems I’m part of the ’top brass’," I flash a smug look at Nelly. "I’m too important to talk to you guys anymore. Goodbye."
I walk off with a wave. How kind of them to let bygones be bygones. But unfortunately, I’m simply too high status to convene with grunts and peons.
"I got invited too, you fucking dullard," Nelly calls out.
Shit.