Chapter 130: Familiar Faces, One City

The central plaza of Hildgard had become the unofficial meeting place for the academies.

With departure still delayed, students had started gathering there almost every afternoon. Some came to shop. Others came to watch street performers or challenge students from rival academies to friendly matches.

The tournament had ended.

The rivalry hadn’t.

Jordan stood near the fountain with his arms folded, watching a small crowd gather around a pair of students preparing for a spar.

"You’d think we were still competing," he muttered.

Joseph stood beside him.

"We are."

Jordan glanced over.

"For what?"

"Pride."

"That sounds exhausting."

Joseph laughed.

The two watched the match begin.

A wooden sword struck against a spear.

The crowd cheered.

For several minutes, the atmosphere felt almost identical to the days of the tournament.

But Jordan noticed something.

The students weren’t talking about the strange bell anymore.

Instead, they were talking about Noah.

"I heard Blackwood’s rank reading glitched again."

"Seriously?"

"That’s what someone from Valhalla said."

Jordan looked at Joseph.

"Did you hear that?"

Joseph nodded.

"Rumors."

"F-Rank becoming A-Rank?"

"And S-Rank, apparently."

Jordan whistled softly.

"That doesn’t sound like a normal system error."

Joseph’s expression became thoughtful.

"Maybe it is."

"You don’t believe that."

"No."

The answer came too quickly.

Jordan smiled.

"Thought so."

A short distance away, another group of tournament participants sat beneath the shade of a large stone arch.

They were discussing their own academy’s performance.

The tournament had exposed strengths and weaknesses none of them had expected.

Some students had returned home heroes.

Others had returned with bruised pride.

A few had discovered that they simply weren’t ready for the level of competition they had encountered.

One student leaned back against the stone.

"I actually miss the tournament."

Another stared at him.

"You got thrown through a wall."

"Still."

"You’re insane."

"Probably."

Laughter followed.

The conversation shifted toward the delayed departure.

"Three more days."

"That’s what they said yesterday."

"And the day before."

"Maybe Hildgard doesn’t want us to leave."

The group laughed.

None of them noticed the faint vibration beneath their feet.

It lasted less than a second.

A glass sitting on a nearby table trembled.

One student stopped laughing.

"Did you feel that?"

Everyone looked around.

Nothing.

A moment later, someone shrugged.

"Probably construction."

The conversation resumed.

The city swallowed the incident without a trace.

At Valhalla, Noah walked into the dining hall just as Eric was reaching for the last piece of bread.

Their eyes met.

Eric slowly pulled his hand away.

"No."

Noah blinked.

"What?"

"You’ve had enough mysterious rooftop time. You’re not taking my bread."

Noah stared at him.

"I wasn’t going to."

"You were looking at it."

"I was looking at you."

"That makes it worse."

Sophia laughed from across the table.

Luna covered her mouth.

Even Laura smiled.

Noah sat down.

For a little while, the tension that had followed him for days seemed to loosen.

He listened to Eric complain about the food.

Damien argued with him.

Sophia joined in.

Luna quietly observed the chaos.

Laura watched Noah.

His expression was normal.

His voice was normal.

But there was something beneath it.

Something she couldn’t reach.

Noah suddenly looked at her.

"You’ve been staring."

Laura blinked.

"I wasn’t."

"You were."

She smiled.

"Maybe I was."

Noah shook his head.

"You’re strange."

"So are you."

Eric pointed between them.

"Finally. Someone said it."

Everyone laughed.

Noah did too.

For a few seconds, he forgot about Dead Zone.

Forgot about the system.

Forgot about the strange vision at the fountain.

He simply sat with his friends.

Yet deep inside him, something stirred.

Not violently.

Not enough to interrupt the moment.

Just enough to remind him that it was still there.

6.4%.

The number appeared briefly in his vision.

Noah’s smile faded.

He blinked.

The notification disappeared.

Nobody noticed.

Nobody except him.

And the thing inside him that was quietly becoming stronger.

Hildgard’s western district had changed completely since the tournament ended.

What had once been packed with spectators was now dominated by academy uniforms.

Niflheim students occupied one café.

A group from Skadi had practically claimed the restaurant opposite them.

Further down the street, students from Jotun were loudly debating which academy deserved the highest ranking after the tournament.

Nobody seemed interested in going home anymore.

Mostly because they couldn’t.

"Four days."

A Niflheim student stared at the latest transport notice.

"Yesterday they said three."

His teammate leaned over his shoulder.

"At this rate, we’ll graduate in Hildgard."

Someone nearby laughed.

"Could be worse."

"How?"

"You could be from Jotun."

A shout immediately came from across the street.

"WE HEARD THAT!"

The entire café erupted in laughter.

For all the brutality of the tournament, something strange had happened afterward.

Rivals had become acquaintances.

Enemies could sit across the street from each other without immediately reaching for weapons.

Not friends, exactly.

But Hildgard had forced fifteen academies into the same city long enough for old barriers to soften.

At least temporarily.

Joseph walked through the western district with Jordan beside him.

Jordan looked around.

"This is weird."

"What?"

"Seeing everyone like this."

Joseph understood.

During the tournament, every unfamiliar uniform had represented an opponent.

Now those same people were shopping, eating, arguing over prices and complaining about transportation.

They looked less like rivals.

More like students.

Jordan suddenly stopped.

Across the road stood several competitors they had faced during the tournament.

One noticed him.

Their eyes met.

A long silence followed.

Jordan raised his hand.

The other student raised his.

That was it.

Joseph laughed.

"Beautiful reunion."

"Shut up."

They continued walking.

Near the central intersection, however, Joseph slowed.

Hildgard officials were placing barriers around an alley.

"What happened there?"

Jordan followed his gaze.

Three officials stood around a section of cracked stone.

The damage wasn’t large.

Perhaps two meters across.

But the cracks were unusual.

They spread outward in a near-perfect circle.

An official noticed them staring.

"Keep moving."

Joseph frowned.

"Was there an accident?"

"Maintenance issue."

Jordan looked at the perfectly circular cracks.

"That’s some aggressive maintenance."

The official didn’t appreciate the joke.

"Move."

They did.

Once they were far enough away, Jordan glanced back.

"You believe him?"

"No."

"Good."

Joseph’s expression remained serious.

The bells had stopped.

The strange mana pressure had disappeared.

Yet small things kept happening.

Things nobody wanted to explain.

Across Hildgard, another group of tournament competitors had gathered on a rooftop training field.

Their conversation wasn’t about the cracks.

It was about Noah Blackwood.

"F-Rank?"

One student scoffed.

"No chance."

"I saw the official tournament record."

"And I saw him fight."

Another student lowered his practice spear.

"Whatever Blackwood is, he’s not F-Rank."

Nobody disagreed.

One girl sitting nearby shrugged.

"Maybe his system is broken."

"Systems don’t just break."

"They also don’t jump from F to A."

The group became quiet.

Someone finally muttered:

"That guy is weird."

Elsewhere, a communication crystal vibrated on a desk.

Once.

Twice.

It went unanswered.

A young woman stood beside the window, staring at it.

Her expression slowly hardened.

She had sent four messages.

No response.

She picked up the crystal again.

Alcris.

Still nothing.

Daniella lowered it.

Her brother could be difficult.

Arrogant.

Infuriating.

But he didn’t disappear without reason.

She looked toward Hildgard’s distant old district.

"Where the hell did you go?"

For the first time, irritation gave way to something else.

Concern.

Daniella reached for her coat.

She wasn’t searching yet.

Not quite.

But if Alcris failed to answer one more time...

She would.