Chapter 43: Sealed Results

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Sealed Results

The Hall of Resonance was still buzzing with chaos when the final bell rang.

Students gathered in groups, whispering excitedly about the two shattered globes.

Some argued that Lyra possessed a rare elemental mutation.

Others insisted Theon had used a hidden artifact.

A few claimed the ancient runes had reacted to the bloodline of the imperial family itself.

No one knew the truth.

And that uncertainty only made the rumors spread faster.

Theon walked beside Lyra and Lazeria as they left the hall.

Ifrith remained on his shoulder, unusually quiet.

Lyra kicked a small crystal fragment across the floor.

"So, what do you think my score was?"

Theon glanced at her. "High enough to break the globe."

"That doesn’t answer the question."

"It’s the only answer I have."

Lyra pouted, her shoulders slumping.

Lazeria looked worried rather than excited. "Why would they hide your results?"

Theon shook his head slowly. "I was hoping someone would tell me that."

Ahead of them, a large crowd had gathered around several floating crystal boards suspended above the central plaza.

The ranking boards.

Instructor Selene appeared near the entrance and raised her voice. "All first year students, proceed to the ranking boards to receive your resonance classification."

The crowd surged forward at once.

Theon sighed quietly. "Here comes the real chaos."

The ranking plaza was enormous.

Five floating boards hovered above the stone square, each glowing a different color. Bronze. Silver. Gold. Royal. Mythic.

Students rushed from one board to another, searching for their names.

Cheers erupted from the Bronze section. Proud laughter came from Silver. Gold students received admiring looks from the crowd. The Royal board held only a handful of names.

The Mythic board remained almost empty.

Lyra grabbed Theon’s sleeve. "Let’s check ours!"

Theon nodded, and they made their way first to the Royal board.

No Lyra.

No Theon.

The crowd around them began whispering.

"Maybe Mythic?"

Lyra’s eyes brightened, and they moved toward the highest board. Only two names glowed there. Neither belonged to them.

Theon frowned. "That’s strange."

Lyra blinked. "Did they forget us?"

Lazeria checked the other boards one by one, then checked them again, her expression slowly shifting from confusion to something closer to worry.

"You’re not on any of them."

Theon stepped closer and searched carefully. Every board. Every name. Nothing.

Lyra’s name was missing too.

A hush spread through the students nearest to them. Then the whispers exploded all at once.

"Their names aren’t there."

"How is that possible?"

"Did they fail?"

"After breaking the globes?"

The loud noble boy from the previous day burst out laughing. " the famous prince doesn’t even have a rank?"

A few students laughed along with him. Others looked far more nervous than amused, glancing between Theon and the empty spaces on the boards.

The silver haired swordsman, standing near the edge of the plaza, watched Theon with narrowed, thoughtful eyes.

The mysterious girl from before stood beneath a crystal tree nearby, silent and unreadable as always.

Ifrith’s tail flicked once. "They’re hiding something."

Theon agreed silently. This was not a mistake. The academy had removed them deliberately, and someone had wanted it done quietly.

The crowd grew louder, students demanding explanations from anyone who looked like they might have one. One boy even shouted toward the instructors.

"If they have no rank, why were they even allowed to take the test?"

Another answered just as loudly. "You saw what happened in the hall!"

"That makes it even worse!"

Theon felt the attention pressing in from every direction, heavy and unwanted. He had hoped for a peaceful academy life, something quieter than the palace he had left behind. At this rate, he would become the center of the entire academy before attending a single class.

Lyra crossed her arms. "I don’t like this."

"Neither do I," Theon admitted, his voice low.

The loud rival stepped forward with a mocking smile. "Maybe the academy realized the prince abilities was all rumors."

Theon looked at him once, saying nothing. The boy’s smile stiffened for a fraction of a second before Theon turned away without answering at all.

The rival’s face darkened.

Ifrith chuckled softly. "Second time ignored."

"Keep count if you want to."

"With pleasure Master."

A hand touched Theon’s sleeve. Instructor Selene.

"Come with me." Her voice was calm, but her eyes carried something serious underneath.

Theon looked at Lyra. "She comes too."

Selene hesitated only a moment. "Very well."

Lazeria immediately moved to follow. Selene glanced at her, then nodded without argument.

The four of them left the plaza while the crowd continued arguing behind them, voices fading slowly as they entered a quieter corridor.

Lyra finally broke the silence. "Alright, what’s going on?"

Selene stopped beside a tall window overlooking the academy. For a few seconds she said nothing at all, as though choosing her words carefully.

Then she turned to Theon. "Your result has been held."

Theon’s eyes narrowed. "Held?"

"Sealed by the academy."

Lyra blinked. "They can do that?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Selene’s expression grew complicated, torn between duty and something like discomfort. "Because the result is no longer under the authority of the instructors."

A cold weight settled in Theon’s chest. "Who took it?"

Selene looked away briefly. "Someone above us."

The corridor fell silent. Even Ifrith stopped moving on Theon’s shoulder.

Theon stared at her. "The headmaster?"

Selene did not answer, but her silence said everything he needed to know.

Lyra looked between them. "So both of our results were taken?"

Selene nodded slowly. "Yes."

Lyra frowned. "That sounds bad."

"No," Selene said quietly. "If it were bad, you would have been ranked immediately, and quietly dismissed."

Theon’s eyes sharpened further. "Then what does it mean?"

Selene met his gaze directly. "It means the academy saw something it was not prepared to classify."

A chill ran through the corridor, settling into every corner of the silence.

Lazeria swallowed hard, as Ifrith’s dark-crimson eyes narrowed in thought.

Theon stared at Selene for a long moment, trying to read whatever lay beneath her calm expression. It was not the calm of someone hiding a mistake. It was the calm of someone who had been given orders she could not disobey, no matter how uncomfortable they made her.

Lyra broke the silence again. " what happens now?"

Selene folded her hands behind her back. "For the moment, nothing changes. You are still officially enrolled as students of the Imperial Academy."

"That’s not what I meant," Lyra said, frustration creeping into her voice. "What happens to our ranks?"

Selene hesitated, then answered carefully. "They are under review."

Theon frowned. "By the headmaster?"

Selene did not answer directly. "By the highest authority currently involved in your case."

That was as good as a confirmation, and they both seemed to know it.

Lazeria looked uneasy. "Can the academy really hide a student’s result from everyone?"

"It rarely happens," Selene replied. "I have only heard of it occurring a handful of times in the last century."

Lyra blinked. "That sounds even worse."

Ifrith’s tail flicked lazily. "Or much better."

Selene glanced at him, surprise flickering across her face for a moment, as if she had briefly forgotten the small black cat was capable of speech.

Then she looked back to Theon. "There is one more thing."

Theon straightened slightly, bracing himself.

"The runes that awakened in the Hall of Resonance. They should not have reacted to a simple mana examination."

Theon’s eyes sharpened. "So I did not imagine it."

"No."

"Do you know what caused it?"

Selene shook her head slowly. "And that is exactly what worries me."

The words settled heavily over the corridor, refusing to lift.

They left a few minutes later, stepping back into the still crowded plaza. The moment students spotted Theon returning, conversations quieted around him like a wave pulling back from the shore.

The silence that followed him was not admiration, and it was not fear either.

It was expectation, as though everyone was waiting for the academy to finally reveal what he truly was.

The loud rival snorted from across the square. "Still no rank?"

Theon ignored him again. This time several nearby students laughed at the rival instead of with him, and his face darkened with embarrassment.

Lyra leaned closer and whispered, "You’re making him angry on purpose, aren’t you?"

"No."

"You are."

"Maybe a little," Theon admitted, a faint smile tugging at his mouth despite everything.

Ifrith purred with quiet approval.

Near the edge of the plaza, the silver haired swordsman still stood in the same spot. When Theon passed him, the young man finally spoke.

"You don’t seem bothered."

Theon stopped. "About what?"

"Having your result hidden."

Theon considered the question honestly before answering. "Being bothered will not change anything."

The swordsman studied him for a long moment, then nodded once, as though satisfied. "Fair answer."

"What’s your name?"

"Leon."

Simple. No family name attached to it. Interesting.

Before Theon could ask anything further, Leon turned and walked away toward the training grounds without another word.

Lyra tilted her head, watching him go. "He talks like an old man."

"He fights like one too," Ifrith muttered under his breath.

As they crossed a bridge of floating crystal, Theon noticed someone watching him from below. The mysterious girl, half hidden beneath the branches of a silver tree.

Her eyes were not on him.

They were fixed on Ifrith again.

The demon met her gaze steadily. For a heartbeat, the world seemed to grow strangely still around them.

Then she smiled faintly, the same knowing smile as before, and vanished into the crowd without a sound.

Lazeria shivered. "She disappeared again."

Theon looked at Ifrith. "Do you know who she is now?"

"No."

"Can she tell you’re a demon?"

Ifrith’s expression turned serious in a way Theon rarely saw. "Yes."

That answer unsettled Theon far more than he expected it to.

The sun was beginning to set when Selene led them away from the central district. The floating bridges grew quieter, and the number of students around them steadily thinned. The academy beneath them glowed with countless blue lights, turning the whole mountain into a city built from stars.

Lyra leaned over the railing, wind catching her hair. "This place is huge."

Lazeria nodded silently beside her.

Theon looked toward the highest part of the academy, where the tallest building pierced through the clouds like a silver spear driven into the sky. Ever since the Hall of Resonance, he had not been able to stop glancing toward it.

A faint pull remained in the back of his mind. Subtle. Persistent. Refusing to fade entirely.

His storage ring vibrated once, then went still.

Theon pressed a hand against it gently.

Ifrith noticed immediately. "Again?"

"A little."

"The sword is reacting to that building."

"I know," Theon said quietly, and neither of them liked what that implication meant.

They reached a final bridge, isolated from the rest of the academy. At the far end floated a separate structure surrounded by a faint blue barrier.

Selene stopped walking. "This is the Imperial Dormitory."

Lyra’s eyes widened. "That’s a dormitory?"

Theon stared at the floating residence in silence. White stone walls. Silver roofs catching the last light of day. Gardens suspended impossibly in the air. Water flowing upward around the building in glowing, weightless streams.

It looked less like a student residence and more like a palace that had quietly detached itself from the rest of the world.

Selene turned to face them. "Your residence has already been prepared."

Lazeria looked overwhelmed, her eyes darting across the floating gardens.

Theon took a slow breath, letting everything settle in his mind. The academy had hidden his result. The headmaster had taken a personal interest in him. A mysterious girl could somehow see through Ifrith’s disguise without effort. And a sword buried deep inside his storage ring kept straining to answer a call from the tallest building in the entire academy.

As the barrier of the Imperial Dormitory opened before them, glowing softly in the fading light, Theon finally understood something important.

He had not escaped danger by entering the Imperial Academy.

He had only stepped into a different kind of battlefield, one with far quieter weapons.