Chapter 812: Time For The Reports (1)
Chapter 812: Time For The Reports (1)
The classroom settled into a silence that felt too deliberate to be natural.Once the reports were collected and displayed through the magic screen hovering before the half-circle of desks, even the students who usually found small ways to distract themselves became still. Tactical Espionage had always carried a different atmosphere from the other classes, but that afternoon, it felt especially sharp.
Seven second-years sat beneath the gaze of Lady Seraphina Vale and Professor Veylan Kaine, waiting as their work was not merely graded, but exposed. In most classes, a report could be read privately and marked with corrections. In this class, apparently, embarrassment was part of the curriculum.
The only disruptions came from Charlotte.
She sat beside Liam, which meant he had become the unfortunate recipient of every small noise she made while fighting boredom. First came a quiet shift in her chair. Then the faint tap of one nail against the side of her desk. Then a sigh that was soft enough to pretend it had not happened, yet dramatic enough to make it obvious she wanted someone to notice.
A few seconds later, she leaned slightly toward Liam as if preparing to whisper something that would almost certainly not be useful.
Liam kept his gaze forward.
Charlotte tapped once more, slower this time, as if testing his patience through rhythm alone. "This feels like the kind of silence people die in," she murmured.
Liam did not look at her. "Then stay quiet."
"How cold of you."
"Accurate of me."
Charlotte’s lips curved, and she opened her mouth again, but before she could continue, Seraphina’s voice drifted from behind them.
"Miss Raven."
Charlotte stilled.
Seraphina walked behind the half-circle arrangement with the slow elegance of someone strolling through a garden rather than a classroom. Her hands were clasped behind her back, her midnight-green hair falling smoothly down one side, and her voice carried that lovely, velvety warmth Charlotte seemed to enjoy far more than was healthy.
"Do be calm while we review everyone’s reports," Seraphina said. "Otherwise, I may have to ask Professor Kaine to give you a task to occupy that restless little mind of yours."
Charlotte’s smile faltered by a fraction.
Her eyes moved toward Kaine.
Professor Kaine leaned against the wall on the far side of the sitting arrangement, arms folded across his chest, expression as cold and unreadable as stone beneath winter shade. He had not moved since the reports began. He did not need to. The possibility of him being involved in anything was usually enough to make students reconsider their choices.