Chapter 834: Already Making His Move
Chapter 834: Already Making His Move
Liam arrived at the cafeteria and found it almost exactly the way he had expected.Quiet and mostly empty.
The large dining space, which usually carried the heavy noise of students arguing over classwork, gossiping about rankings, or loudly pretending they were not worried about exams, felt almost peaceful at that hour. Only a few scattered students occupied the tables, most sitting alone or in pairs with books open beside their plates.
A handful of cooks moved behind the serving counters, speaking among themselves in low voices while preparing food for the next busier wave. The long tables were cleaner than usual, the floor less crowded, and the air carried the warm smell of roasted meat, bread, and soup without being buried beneath the sweat and noise of a hundred bodies.
Liam approved of it immediately.
He approached the counter, chose something warm and filling without wasting time, and took his tray to a table near the side of the cafeteria. It was not hidden, but it gave him enough space from everyone else to make his intention clear.
He wanted food. He wanted quiet. He wanted to eat without being spoken to, return to the library, and continue studying the Eldervale guide until he had enough of the realm’s structure mapped in his head to stop feeling like the academy was withholding half the important things.
He sat alone and began eating calmly.
For several minutes, the world behaved.
No one approached him. No one asked questions. No one tried to talk about the Bastion Assessment, commander roles, Sheila, Chris, or the Warden. One student at a distant table glanced his way once, then returned to reading. The cooks remained occupied behind the counter. The cafeteria doors stayed shut. Liam ate in silence, letting the warmth of the food settle into him while his thoughts cooled into something almost orderly again.
Rare quiet was a thing to be respected.
Unfortunately, the academy rarely respected anything Liam enjoyed.
The cafeteria doors opened.
A cluster of second-year students walked in, and one particular voice carried ahead of them with far more confidence than the moment deserved.
Liam’s gaze shifted toward the disturbance without lifting his head fully.
Chris Rature walked at the center of the small group, dressed neatly and carrying himself with the familiar certainty of someone who believed every space improved once people noticed him inside it. There were only a few students with him, not enough to be called a crowd, but enough to create a little orbit. Logan was there, of course, close to Chris’s side like the loyal dog he had decided to make of himself. His expression carried that eager readiness to agree, bark, or sneer depending on what Chris required.