It didn’t take Cynrik but a fraction of a second to catch up, but his head was hung low in thought when he did.
Headmaster Rivia took note of the little silent spat between the children but chalked it up to kids being kids and chose to ignore it, diverting his attention towards the other Headmasters. His primary focus was Headmaster Opurn and Lithlen, who had shown direct, and apparent hostility towards Cynrik and Brance.
The minor Killing Intent incident earlier was a dead giveaway that there was more to this story than he knew, but he felt there simply wasn’t enough time to get the full details. With the contracts signed, the members of MyrkLys were officially his wards. Thus it was his duty as the Headmaster to protect them at all costs.
Luckily or not, the two adults seemed to be throwing themselves into the contract signings and showed very little attention to the group.
Upon reaching the noisy bunch of applicants and Headmasters, Headmaster Rivia escorted the party over to a section of grass marked off with VSFA and, after taking a quick check of the progression of the Selections on his Watcet, informed them it wouldn’t be long until the event was finished.
Sitting on the ground in a semi-circle, the five of them confirmed they understood before looking toward Cynrik to say, “what now?”
It didn’t take much to appease Gabby and Benny, who were well-versed in following the older boys’ orders, but there was a storm brewing within the mind link.
[[Fuck, man, are you two sensing that slimy feeling washing over us?]] Trying her best not aimlessly to look around, Selene vocalized the weird sensation she was experiencing thanks to the eyes of hundreds of High Tiered beings watching her closely.
[[YEP, welcome to the club. It’s been like this since Brancie, and I wiped out the first batch of dipshits who got in our way.]] Cynrik said while pulling up patches of grass only to release it so it would float away.
[[Eh? Seriously, was that you guys fighting those morons outside our zone earlier? I heard the noise but couldn’t be bothered to watch.]] Selene’s beautiful eyes shined with a weird luster when she said that, which didn’t go unnoticed by Cynrik.
[[You see, my dipshit older brother here has no clue how to keep his mouth shut and not get himself into trouble. As a result, he has not only pissed off our Grandfather but also a second Headmaster, the guy in charge of the snooty school.]] Exhaling hard and tilting his head to glare at Cynrik, Brance instantly tossed him under the bus, sourcing him as the cause of their troubles.
[[BAHH, a minor inconvenience at best. Opturd sent some goons after us a couple of times on the walk over to Zone A-1, so we roughed them up before walking away.]]
[[Roughed them up. Didn’t you legit rupture some kid’s eardrums and soccer kick a helpless one while he was down.]] Rolling his eyes, Brance said.
[[Meemee meh meh meh, didn’t you paralyze a kid with a rock pillar, don’t cast stones, Brancie, its quite unbecoming of you.]] Using a mocking tone and whipping his head side to side as he spoke, Cynrik started his verbal counter-attack.
Brance felt helpless as he did, indeed, paralyze someone earlier, so he drooped his head before flipping his middle finger at Cynrik, who chuckled in response.
Seeing he had won the little spat, Cynrik calmly glanced at Selene.
[[So, what’s your deal? You probably weren’t gonna join up with VSFA, to begin with. What was your initial goal?]]
[[That… well, my shitty parental whore is an Alumni from that posh shitstain school, SU, and she pretty much beat the fuck out of me until I “agreed” to go there. But that all changed the instant I found you two. I’m sure Mommy Dearest is having a bitch fit right now and ripping apart the couch cushions or something in her rage.]] Selene was forced to reel in her Killing Intent the moment she began spilling little bits of her back story.
However, to Cynrik, he could see every ounce of pain, sadness, and fear in her eyes. He had seen this kind of look thousands of times in his own eyes back on Earth. It didn’t take him long to realize how broken inside Selene must feel, and for some reason, it invoked a lot of strange things within his mind.
From the instant he laid eyes on her, it was as if something clicked, like a key finding its lock within his head. Although he was aware of how unguarded and unsuspicious he was of this new girl, Cynrik didn’t fight what he was feeling. Instead, it was as if the universe itself said, “trust her…you need to trust her.”
Brance was the most concerned about the whole situation. Whenever he looked at the two, hundreds of thoughts raced through his mind. Where had the overly calculating and paranoid brother gone? Why was he so accepting of this girl? How the fuck did she have a version of Tobs?
What freaked him out the most was how she was now given access to his mind link, something that should have sent Cynrik off the deep end. However, when Cynrik was dismissive and seemed fine with the idea, Brance was left speechless.
With the myriad of questions playing on repeat, instead of being able to converse with his brother, he sat patiently and waited for the answers to come naturally. Brance knew he was, to some extent, Cynrik’s counterbalance. So if he had to slot into that role for the new girl, who was VERY MUCH a female version of Cynrik, he would do so, willingly or not.
The more he interacted and listened in on the conversations between the two, Brance noticed how similar Selene was to Cynrik before he beat Ragnar. The signs were all there, the lack of empathy in her gaze, the cruel way she flung around her words. Hell, even the simple fact that she ACTUALLY got along swimmingly with the Chaotic personality that was bottled within Cynrik, it was all like a GIANT red flag for him, screaming, “if the two are together, all hell will break loose.”
Breaking away from that dangerous way of thinking, Brance listened to the story Selene explained. It was more or less her entire origin, from being Reincarnated by Freya after receiving a mission to the horrendous abuse and mental anguish she suffered at the hands of her mother. The longer she went on, the more infuriated Cynrik and Brance became.
[[And that’s pretty much everything…thoughts, comments, concerns?]] Smiling weakly at the two boys who seemed to accept and share her pain, Selene patted her knees aimlessly.
Silence descended on the mind link for a couple of minutes as the brothers digested the story; eventually, Cynrik exhaled loudly and scooched closer to the girl.
Hearing how she emotionlessly told her backstory, Cynrik knew he had a lot of trauma to help her work through, but that was fine. What he couldn’t do, was stop his right hand from quivering uncontrollably.
‘Fuck…FUCK! Seriously, this shit im feeling right now. Calm down, focus, and reel your mind in, just like you did after beating Ragnar. So what if the Divinity fragments buried inside our souls resonate on some freaky frequency. It’s no big deal; just do what you always do, compartmentalize everything, break it down logically, and analyze the data.’ Cynrik thought to himself while using his left hand to stop the shaking of his right.
[[I guess that explains why it was so easy to accept each other.]] Cynrik finally said after adjusting his mentality.
[[Yeah…no kidding. It’s funny, in 16 years, I haven’t had a single real friend, yet now because of these damn Deities, I somehow found myself with two.]] Going back to her expressionless appearance, Selene patted Cynrik’s knee in a friendly manner.
[[Well, as Cynrik said earlier, welcome to our band of Misfits. Gabby and Benny are probably the most normal of our group since they are their age, unlike us, who are a bunch of oldies in kid bodies. But, at least you found the right brothers; that’s got to count for something, right? Haha.]] Brance shrugged his shoulders and smiled warmly at Selene, making her shiver slightly.
[[Uh…is he always that positive about everything?]] Selene said with figurative question marks in her eyes.
[]PRETYYYYY Much~ you get used to it; however, it’s best just to let him talk himself out, or else you’ll get stuck in an endless loop of sermons.]] Cynrik retorted, holding up his two index fingers in the shape of a cross and pointing them at Brance like he was a vampire.
This action forced a melodic yet soft giggle from Selene and an angry grunt from Brance.
“Ok, hehe, ok, onto business. So as we all know, once the last applicant gets their contract signed, the barriers will come down, and we will meet up with the other people registered with our Academy. Up next is boarding the vehicles and heading to the school. That was the main reason we said our goodbyes earlier.” Then, speaking aloud so Gabby and Benny could join the conversation, Cynrik started listing out the next batch of plans.
“When we get to the Academy grounds, we have to move to the registration office to receive our dorm assignments. Unfortunately, I don’t know how things will be set up over there, but ideally, I’d like to get a house or apartment we can all live as a group instead of us all being separated.”
“The biggest issue is there are three boys; if we get assigned dorms, we can work out Gabby and Selene staying together, but the problem is who gets paired up with a rando. That is, of course, assuming the dorms are 2 to a room. The girls get the rando if it’s three to a dorm.”
Just when Cynrik finished speaking, there was loud applause, and the Mana Barriers slowly retracted, allowing fresh air to filter in and causing a soft hum followed by a slight hissing sound.
“Alright, alright.” Everyone was drawn to Lithlen, who was floating high above the crowd. On either side of him were expansive holographic screens so everyone in all the Zones could clearly hear and see him.
“I will officially draw this year’s Selections to a close. The next step is for all the applicants, now considered first-year students, to make their way over to the flags indicating their Academy and board the transport vehicles. From there, every one of you will start on the path of further education. I wish every one of you good luck, and I hope to see you all again at this year’s Festival of Sport.”
Seeing Lithlen grandstanding in front of the audience of students caused a sour taste in Cynrik’s mouth, making him spit on the grass.
“Bastard, can you just shut the fuck up and leave already,” Cynrik murmured.
“Time to go, you five; our transport is on the far side of the grounds, so it will take us a while to get there.” Then, clasping Cynrik on the shoulder, Headmaster Rivia stated with his booming voice.
Moving as a group, Cynrik narrowed his eyes and looked from the floating Lithlen over towards Viktor Opurn, with rage threatening to boil over in his heart.
‘One day, you mother fuckers, one day I will be just as strong as you two. Then…I will show you what real pain and fear are.’ Making the vow in his heart, Cynrik looked away and ignored the presence of the two Headmasters, who were watching him, and the members of MyrkLys walk away.
-BIG BOI SHOUT OUT TO Joe_jo_3480 for dropping our Second Magic Castle on our heads, that’s 2 down and 2 more to go.-
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong Fam. PS Check out the Discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg