Chapter 825: More Irritations
Chapter 825: More Irritations
By the time Liam reached his dorm room, the announcement inside Beacon Hall had already begun rearranging itself in his mind.He closed the door behind him and stood still for a moment, one hand resting against the handle while the room settled around him in familiar silence. The warmth inside helped remove the edge of the cold clinging to his coat, but it did nothing for the irritation that had followed him from Beacon Hall all the way across the academy grounds.
The Bastion Assessment itself was one problem. Fourteen days inside Eldervale, a fortified settlement to secure, a command structure to build, supplies to manage, and a Warden the academy was serious enough to warn them not to engage. That alone would have been enough to occupy most students’ thoughts for the rest of the evening.
But Liam was not thinking only about Eldervale.
He was thinking about Chris.
More specifically, he was thinking about the moment during Lucia’s explanation when he had connected with Nyxie to see how Chris was taking in the announcement. Liam had done it almost out of habit, partly because Chris was one of the three people under watch and partly because the announcement itself was the kind of thing that could reveal more through reaction than words.
Most of the second-years had been visibly taken aback by the duration, then unsettled by the mission-like nature of the assessment. Even those trying to remain composed had shown something. A tightened jaw. A widened eye. A shift in posture. A whisper to someone nearby. The sudden stillness that came when a student realized a future problem had become real.
Chris had not looked like that.
Through Nyxie’s low, hidden perspective, Liam had seen Chris seated near Logan and Lucian with a faint smugness resting on his face. Not loud. Not theatrical. Nothing that would have drawn attention from the stage. But it had been there all the same, a subtle smile belonging to someone who did not feel surprised by what he was hearing.
When Lucia announced the assessment would last fourteen days, Chris did not react like someone absorbing the information for the first time. When she named Eldervale, explained Veyrhold, spoke about securing the abandoned settlement and building command structure, Chris did not stiffen, murmur, or glance around for reassurance.
He looked as though each piece confirmed something already given to him.
At first, Liam had considered the possibility that Chris was simply being Chris. Arrogance had a way of making people look prepared even when they were not. Chris was a prince, proud, polished, and practiced enough to keep his face composed in public. Maybe he had decided to act confident because he wanted others to see him that way. Maybe he had known that second-years would look toward ranked students and influential figures during the announcement, and he had chosen to wear certainty like armor.