Chapter 39: Umbral
"Ha ha ha. From the look on your face, it seems I was right about this year’s recruits." The camp commandant’s deep laugh filled the room. He leaned back in his chair with his gaze fixed on the person sitting on the other side of his astronomically large desk.
His desk was an impressive piece of dark, polished wood. Its lustrous sheen was unmistakable, reflecting light like a mirror and showing how well it was cared for. Even a layman could tell that it was a desk of supreme quality, and rightly so. For a man of the commandant’s physique and caliber, the desk he used daily had to be able to take the occasional smash from a peak tier four awakened without taking any damage.
The other person looked up from the magical artifact she was holding, a genuine look of surprise on her face. The commandant’s grin widened, noticing her full expression.
"Please don’t spoil the surprise for me, Miss Alyra. You know I want to know the results at the same time as the recruits." He held a hand up to stop her from saying what she was just about to.
Mistress Alyra obliged, but her surprised look slowly morphed into one of genuine confusion, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing on the artifact she held.
It was an artifact in the shape of a book that, based on its link to each examiner’s score recording tool, displayed the live rankings of the recruits as their kills were recorded. So far, the rankings had been fairly stable, without much variation within the top ten.
There were outliers like Zephyr and Cedric who tickled her interest with their ranking, along with a few others—profiles of various kids laid spread out before her on the desk.
But all these weren’t enough to surprise her... except this. What she was seeing now went beyond just tickling her interest. She was shocked.
She looked back at the rankings again, and the individual didn’t seem to be stopping, prompting her to stand up abruptly, startling the commandant who was fantasizing about the satisfaction he’d get if his guesses were correct. He enjoyed playing this game each year. He’d make his guesses and wait till the results were out to feel the shock along with all the recruits.