For the next few hours, the training field became a graveyard of ambition.

Professor Hera drove them through the first foundational form of winged-boot flight with the quiet, merciless precision of a sculptor chiseling away every flaw. One by one, the determined students rose into the air, deactivated the winged boots, and then dropped.

A painful wail cut through the air when one failed to activate the winged boots again.

And Professor Hera came, giving the student a small bean.

It was not to heal the wound, but to suppress the pain before telling the student to continue.

Brutal is the only word to describe this new lesson.

By the time the sun tilted westward, most of the students lay sprawled on the cloudy expanse, chests heaving, limbs leaden, while the feathered boots were dark and dormant. Seeing such a sight from above, Professor Hera made a faint nod.

Neither approval nor disappointment; merely acknowledgement that they had worked hard.

She dismissed them without ceremony as she returned to the academy.

It took a good moment before the students could stand up again—and drag their bodies back to the academy, and eventually into the dormitory.

Days bled into one another after that, and the new normal settled over the student body like a second skin. A fresh class had been slotted into the schedule, wedged tight against the first like a blade against a rib.

Every student felt the pressure.

Before this, their daily life was at a manageable rhythm.

Class, train, mine, and rest.

Now, buckled under the weight of compounded obligations, the mining session to gather the mana ores for their weekly quota was the first casualty. After the rigorous second class, most of the students were beat.

Mana exhaustion became a constant problem.

It was so bad that gatherings began to form.

A senior from the student council was kind enough to teach them a technique to quicken their mana recovery. Not fast enough to make the students instantly get back to work, but enough to lessen the burden.

Regardless, sessions were postponed, then postponed again.

And like an inevitable domino effect, Kai and the others were impacted severely.

Not only because they were now far more exhausted than they normally would, making it harder for them to keep up with the normal rate of mining during nighttime, but the schedule change also encouraged the students to mine during nighttime.

During midday, they focused on recovering their mana or napping.

Night mining became a desperate strategy among the students.

It was harder for the group to gather together without being seen—and pushing the mining session to later is also not ideal. Bryan, Dorian, Matilda, and Bree could not keep up with that kind of schedule.

So, they instead became even more careful in mining in the Fire Swamp.

More aware of the students around.

And that meant a slower mana ore gathering rate.

Kai found himself leaning harder on Nigh-phantom than he ever had during mining, draping himself in its cold, presence-eating veil as he slipped through moonlit corridors and shadowed areas of the academy.

For transportation, it fell to Dorian.

Going with Matilda or Bree as he used to became harder.

Some of their friends asked them to at least go together to the Fire Swamp.

Even if they refused, they would still be under the radar of the other students, so Kai leaned on Dorian. He’s a pariah, so there’s no attention on him. Not to mention, Dorian also can now ride a Pegasus.

Or at least mastered it enough to go to the Fire Swamp and back without accident.

Kai could’ve flown on his own; he had seen the others ride a Pegasus enough to know—how to ride one himself. But he was still a Lesser Angel in the eyes of the academy’s charter, and he would be at the bottom of the list.

He would only be given a Pegasus if the other students were all done using it.

And at this particular time of night, it was simply impossible to happen.

So, he mounted behind Dorian.

As the two landed on the cloudlet near the Fire Swamp to gear up, Matilda was standing not too far away with a friend of hers. She saw them landing, and that was the cue for her to go to the Fire Swamp.

It has been like that for these past few days.

However, as she was about to give a signal to Bree, she noticed something.

Bree was stealing glances at a particular student in front of the factory entrance.

And that student was, oddly enough, staring at Kai.

’He’s looking at Kai...’ Matilda thought with a frown. ’What’s his business?’

Right now, Kai is using his nigh-phantom imprint, making him only visible to intent, at least until he arrived at the Fire Swamp. For the student to be able to see Kai meant he had an intent inside his mind towards Kai.

Initially, Matilda went to trouble. And Bree must’ve thought the same thing.

But then she remembered someone who warned Kai about what was happening in the dark.

About someone encouraging other students to make a group to sabotage Kai.

’His appearance is completely normal, like Kai said,’ Matilda nodded. Deciding that this guy might possibly be the student who warned Kai, she made her way towards him. Mining can wait for a few minutes.

Not a lot of students on the cloudlet.

It was easy to spot Matilda approaching as she didn’t make any effort to be discreet.

Almost instantly—the student spun on his heel and hurried toward where he had tethered his Pegasus. His strides were quick and anxious, desperate to avoid any uncertain confrontation. But Matilda was faster; she caught his arm before he could mount.

She then pulled him down.

Before even saying anything, she dragged him to a more secluded place.

"Let go of me!"

"I only want to talk to you. Don’t make this difficult."

Eventually, the student didn’t fight back and followed Matilda to avoid prying eyes.

Once they were in the clear, Matilda let go of him.

"What’s your name?" She asked demandingly. "I don’t think you’re in my class."

"Rifky," the student, Rifky, answered. "And I’m from class 1-C."

"Okay, Rifky. I saw you earlier," Matilda crossed her arms, and then raised a brow. "You were looking at the Lesser Angel. What are your intentions toward him? If you lie to me, then I will know. So don’t."

"I... I don’t need to answer your question." Rifky argued.

Matilda’s brows dipped even further, sharpening her frown. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

She could tell from Rifky’s posture alone that he wasn’t someone confident. Maybe even a tad bit scared to be speaking to her, a High Angel, like this. Even now, his gaze looked anywhere but her eyes.

And despite his words, he made no move to leave.

Like he needed permission to leave.

"I’m asking you nicely, and you don’t want to answer my question?"

"I don’t know what you’re getting at here, but there’s no reason I can’t look at him."

It was true.

Matilda couldn’t exactly say that Kai was using an imprint that made him only visible to those with an intent towards him, be it good or bad. She wouldn’t do that to Kai. So—for someone who doesn’t know about it like Rifky, she was practically unreasonable.

Another High Angel that made a big deal out of simply staring at Kai.

’He might not even realize I was on Kai’s side.’

"Do I need to repeat the question?" She stepped forward. "Rifky?"

"That’s not how you get the truth from someone."

Out of nowhere, a voice interrupted them.

Matilda was alerted, but soon she realized that it was only Bree.

She was peeking from the edge of the building, finding amusement in their conversation.

"As much as television series and books praised how good threats and tortures could do, it’s the worst way to extract information from someone," Bree smirked, approaching the two with a hum in her throat. "So don’t intimidate him."

"Then what are you suggesting we do?" Matilda asked.

"It’s simple. Someone just has to make the first friendly move." Bree offered her hand with an easy smile. "Hey, Rifky. Do you know who I am? If not, my na—"

"Y-Yes... I know who you are. Everybody knows who you are."

"Oh, why is that? I wasn’t aware that I’m famous."

"Many guys in my class talked about you... inappropriately."

"I see," Bree chuckled sweetly—and then slapped Rifky’s shoulder gently. "I hope you’re not one of them, too. That’ll be a bummer if you are one of them since I’d have to slap you at least one time before we can talk."

"Of course, not," Rifky scratched his head. "I don’t dare talk about any High Angel."

"Good, good, that’s more like it," Bree stepped back and then gestured towards herself and Matilda. "You may not know this, and I hope you can keep this a secret, but Matilda and I are secretly friends with Kai."

"Are you stupid?!" Matilda gasped. "Why did you tell him that?"

"It’s fine. It’s fine," Bree waved her hand—dismissively. "He’s not going to tell a soul. Right, Rifky?"

Rifky nodded, but he was clearly surprised at the confession.

He wasn’t expecting two High Angels to be friends with a Lesser Angel.

Nobody can be friends with a Lesser Angel, he thought.

However, he didn’t seem to be surprised to hear that Bree was working together with Kai.

And Bree picked that up.

"In any case, we were wondering whether you are the student who warned Kai to create his group quickly. Are you that student?"

"Y-Yes..."

"Can you tell me how you came to know that?"

Under Bree’s soft interrogation, using her warm voice and disarming appearance as a tool to coax, Rifky finally buckled and revealed where he had heard the information. He was one of the stronger students, unaffiliated with any group.

And one day, someone from the student council approached him.

Someone called Ragnar.

Ragnar encouraged him to form a group and step up as its leader. To sweeten the offer—he mentioned that the requirements for forming one would be relaxed—and the student council would provide a reward on top of it.

At that time, he was enticed, but he decided to think about it overnight.

It was a habit of his; whenever he wanted to make a big decision, he’d sleep on it first.

Like a sign from the Gods, he saw Kai and Bree talking about creating a new group. And that made him realize Ragnar was trying to block Kai from making a group for some reason. One that he didn’t know and couldn’t even begin to guess.

"I’m sure someone from the higher-ups gave the order, but Ragnar seemed to also be on the same page with whoever it was."

"What makes you say that?"

"Ragnar looked motivated to pressure me into making a group."

"Is that so...?"