Chapter 128: A Branch of Sixty-Nine
"And now, it’s time to announce the new team rankings."
Carlos ended his speech with the words everyone had been waiting to hear.
Before reaching this point, he had explained that he had already submitted an official request to the Elfine Kingdom, demanding a thorough investigation into the incident as well as compensation for every student involved.
’Unfortunately, I can’t promise anything.’
His gaze swept across the eager crowd.
’Still, I should be able to secure some compensation for everything they went through... even if I can’t force the king’s hand.’
He cleared his throat before continuing.
"As the mission took an unexpected turn, we have also revised the merit point system."
He proceeded to explain the adjustments the teachers had agreed upon during their journey back.
’Even if I can’t compensate them directly... I can at least reward those who suffered the most.’
His gaze lingered on Silas’ team for a brief moment.
’Unfortunately, I can’t include the dragon in the evaluation. If I did, the rankings would lose all meaning.’
The revised system greatly reduced the points awarded for keeping an outpost safe. Under normal circumstances, that would have been the deciding factor, but allowing students to lose rankings simply because they had been forced to fight a dragon and the Dark Hunters would have been absurd.
"Instead, we’ve increased the merit points awarded for eliminating monsters during the tide. Now then... let’s see the results."
Carlos snapped his fingers.
A floating screen materialised above the stage. It remained pitch-black for a brief moment before lighting up, revealing the rankings of all seventy-nine teams.
"Impossible!"
Rachel was the first to react.
"How am I ranked fourteenth? There has to be a mistake!"
Her outburst startled both the students and the teachers. The instant the rankings appeared, Rachel’s eyes had gone straight to the top.
The first name wasn’t even familiar, Terio. Then her gaze moved downward.
And downward.
’No...’
’I’m not even in the top five?’
Disbelief slowly gave way to panic as she passed the tenth rank without finding her team’s name.
’That’s impossible.’
Her confusion immediately turned into fury.
"There must be some mistake!"
"I agree."
Another voice echoed across the garden. It was Leopard.
"I’m ranked eighteenth. How is that possible?"
Like Rachel, he was taken aback for his team’s position.
’Those traitors...’
His thoughts instantly drifted toward Montar and the others.
At first, he had believed they simply abandoned him after everything collapsed, but now another possibility crossed his mind.
’Did they betray me long before that?’
’I entrusted them with several outposts...’
His eyes shifted toward Montar, burning with restrained anger, before moving back to Rachel.
’Even she ended up this low.’
’Something isn’t right.’
Rachel and Leopard were the only ones who openly questioned the rankings. Meanwhile, Silas and the others silently searched for their own position.
"Sixty-ninth..."
Cher narrowed her eyes.
Although she had expected a terrible result, seeing it displayed before everyone still left an unpleasant sting.
’We have a long way to go.’
Her gaze drifted toward the teams ranked above them.
’Sixty-eight teams to surpass.’
Unlike the others, she hadn’t bothered searching from the top. She had started from the bottom instead, expecting exactly this outcome.
"At least we’re in the top ten."
Lara forced a smile, trying to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, they all understood what she meant.
They were simply among the top ten... from the bottom.
Silas glanced at his teammates. For some reason, that number seemed determined to follow him wherever he went.
"We already talked about this before coming here."
His calm voice broke the silence.
"We knew this would only be our starting point."
His eyes rested on Cher longer than anyone else. He knew better than anyone how much their team’s ranking mattered to her.
Noticing his gaze, Cher sighed inwardly.
’I knew what sacrificing our ranking meant when I agreed to abandon the academy mission and pursue Gaia’s quest.’
’Even so... seeing us this low still hurts.’
Realising everyone was looking at her, she straightened her posture.
"This is only our starting point."
The simple declaration was enough, and everyone nodded in support.
"At least those two didn’t gain much from this mission either."
Alfred gestured toward Rachel and Leopard before his attention shifted elsewhere.
"Isn’t that Terio?"
He recognised the name immediately.
’He’s the one Darius was talking to before.’
Seeing the red-haired youngster, Alfred instantly recalled what Darius had told them after the mission. And his leg ached at recalling this.
His gaze drifted to Silas, who stood among the crowd with the same calm, indifferent expression, quietly watching the scene unfold.
"If they keep complaining like this," Darius had said with a wicked grin, "they might end up getting punished."
Among the seventy-nine surviving teams, only Rachel and Leopard had stepped forward to challenge the dean. Everyone had mixed feelings about the rankings. Some were thrilled with their achievements, others were genuinely surprised by how high they had placed, while a few quietly accepted the disappointment of falling short.
Only those two chose to make a spectacle of it.
"We played by the rules," Leopard argued. "We did everything the academy asked of us."
"And my faction is the biggest and strongest," Rachel added, gesturing toward the large crowd of students behind her. "So how did none of my teams make the top five? How did I not end up ranked first?"
The more she spoke, the more her anger grew.
’Not a single team from my faction reached the top ten.’
The thought only fueled her frustration.
"I demand an investigation."
Leopard immediately backed her up.
’None of this makes sense.’
Rachel continued venting while Leopard added his own accusations, both insisting their accomplishments had earned them far higher scores. Throughout it all, Carlos remained silent, watching them with an increasingly cold expression.
’What an arrogant pair.’
Students from G-Clans often carried themselves with excessive pride.
’They’re so blinded by their own importance that they fail to notice...’
’Neither of them noticed that the students behind them had already stopped nodding.’
His gaze shifted toward Terio.
’Plus...’
’The team that ranked first also came from a G-Clan.’
Then he looked at Silas and the others.
’Even the true MVPs of this entire incident accepted their ranking without a single complaint.’
His eyes moved from Silas to Cher, then returned to Leopard and Rachel.
’These two need a harsh lesson.’
Neither of them noticed the gradual change in Carlos’ expression. Those who knew the dean well recognised that look immediately.
Someone was about to learn a painful lesson.
"Are you finished?"
Carlos finally spoke after allowing them nearly ten minutes to empty their grievances, listening to exaggerated accounts of their achievements and endless explanations of why they deserved higher scores.
A chill ran down both Rachel’s and Leopard’s spines. Without exchanging a word, they fell silent.
"First, the final rankings were assessed by me alongside several highly capable teachers."
His opening statement struck them like a slap.
But he was only starting.
"As I explained earlier, the merit point system was revised."
He held their gaze for a long moment.
"It appears neither of you paid attention. You were too busy listening to your own egos."
Carlos raised a hand toward Terio, who stepped forward and stopped a few meters away from the pair.
"You all tried your best during the mission."
"We expected nothing less."
"But there is a difference between doing your best... and achieving the best results."
He nodded to Terio before explaining exactly how the first-ranked team had earned its position.
Silas and his teammates barely listened. They knew the truth even better than Carlos did.
"They reorganised the scattered survivors, formed new teams, and continued completing the mission while everyone else was busy fleeing or chasing the dragon."
"They barely had time to rest before throwing themselves into the incoming monster tide."
"They lost teammates; most of them were seriously wounded, yet they continued fighting and ultimately accumulated more merit points than anyone else."
Those were the achievements Terio and the other top-ranked teams had chosen to disclose, and they were the reason they dominated the top ten.
’A mere warning isn’t enough.’
Carlos was genuinely angered by the pair’s arrogance.
’They could have asked these questions privately in my office.’
’Or better yet, they could have asked the student who actually ranked first how he accomplished it.’
His decision was made.
"As punishment for your lack of manners and your disgraceful conduct, both of your teams will lose twenty percent of their merit points."
"Your final rankings are now nineteenth instead of fourteenth... and twenty-fourth instead of eighteenth."
The announcement struck Rachel and Leopard like a bolt of lightning.
Carlos swept his cold gaze across them.
"Any further objections?"
The two knew what awaited them if they uttered a single word further. Out of fear of losing more, the two looked at each other, thinking the same.
’At least Cher is pushed far from the top ten.’
Leopard thought back to his second meeting and couldn’t help but feel better.
’I’m higher than Cher and Silas.’
’The two are real losers.’
Rachel silently looked at Silas and Cher, finding more relief in seeing how low they stumbled.
Until...
"Mr Dean, may I apply for an official request?"
Terio suddenly spoke up, and hearing his words attracted the other two’s attention, and everyone’s attention.
"Sure," Carlos was feeling better about teaching good manners to Rachel and Leopard minutes ago, "if you want anything privileged to you as top-ranked team leader, you may find the team affairs teacher to handle it."
Carlos mistook Terio’s intentions, just like everyone else.
Yet Terio simply shook his head.
"What I want is something any team is privileged to have."
He suddenly turned towards Silas’ team and pointed towards them.
"I know teams can join others as a branch."
He turned to Carlos, while calmly adding:
"I want my team to be a branch from Silas’."
And simply like that, a bomb was dropped in the middle of the entire garden.
Silas calmly turned towards Cher, who looked confused at first; then she slowly turned to Silas.
’Don’t tell me...’
Her mind instantly resurfaced a certain moment, back in the mine, when she explained to him about the bet.
He silently looked at her, while a faint smile appeared.
’Now you aren’t losing your bet against your father.’