Chapter 29: Chapter 29. The price of friendship
Professor Jennifer entered the classroom with her usual composed bearing, her brown hair catching the light as it swept behind her shoulders. She took her place at the teaching stand, and just as she had the day before, her eyes found Necrotize first.
But the reason was entirely different today.
Yesterday it had been fear. Today it was something quieter, more complicated.
Confusion.
***
Not long before, Professor Nicholas had requested that all senior staff and assistant professors gather in the conference hall. The Chancellor, Eric, had been present as well.
Nicholas had laid out the full account of what had occurred, everything, without omission. Most of the professors had listened with visible disbelief. The sudden clouds, the thunder that had split the air without warning, the strange white light that had swallowed the entire academy whole, everyone had witnessed those things. They had all been waiting for an explanation. But the explanation Nicholas provided was not one any of them had imagined.
When he finished, the room turned as one toward Eric.
Eric was pressing two fingers against his temple.
He looked slowly around the table. "What is your collective opinion? What should be done? Do we remove them from the Magic Department?"
The words had barely settled before Professor Helen was on her feet.
"With the greatest respect, Lord Eric," her voice was controlled but carrying an unmistakable edge, "are you seriously considering that? Expelling Lord Necrotize from the department? Do you have any idea what might follow from that decision?"
Professor Ronaldo rose immediately in response. "Watch your tone, Helen. Remember who you are addressing."
"I apologise for my manner," she said, with a slight incline of her head that conceded form without conceding substance. "But I would ask that what I have said be genuinely considered."
The temperature in the conference room had risen considerably. Professor Marcus moved to the centre of it before anything further could escalate.
"Helen. Ronaldo. Both of you, sit down." He waited until they had. "Decisions of this weight cannot be made with hot heads. That applies to everyone here."
The room settled, reluctantly.
Marcus continued. "Lord Eric, what Helen raised is not something we can simply set aside. We should examine this carefully before arriving at any conclusion."
A number of professors indicated their agreement with quiet nods.
"The first thing we need to understand," Marcus said, "is why Lord Necrotize chose to present himself as a single-element holder. Believing the most powerful being in this universe is genuinely limited to a single element would be foolish. But since he chose to present himself that way, the only sensible interpretation is that he wants us to treat him as one. The question is why."
That drew broader agreement, including from Eric himself.
"And the central question," Marcus pressed on, "is whether this has something to do with the Leonhard family girl. And if so, why her? Why would he do something like this for her? "
This question was spirling in everyone’s mind. No one had the clear answer.
But then, from near the back, a figure shifted forward. An assistant professor, slight build, oversized glasses, dark hair, visibly uncertain whether he should be speaking at all.
Marcus noticed. "Nithen. Go ahead."
Nithen stood with the posture of someone who had rehearsed this and was now second-guessing every word of it. "Ah, good morning, seniors. I heard something yesterday from a friend of mine who works in the cafeteria. He mentioned that Necrotize and Lyra sat together and shared a meal. And that for the entire time they were there, they talked. Like, normally. The way friends would."
Friends.
The word moved through the room without anyone saying it twice.
Marcus and Eric both arrived at roughly the same conclusion at roughly the same moment.
"If that girl is his friend," Marcus said carefully, "then what he did begins to make a certain kind of sense."
Eric nodded once.
But Edmund spoke up before the thought could settle. "Why would he pursue a friendship with a mortal at all? The gap between their status is like the distance between heaven and earth. What could she possibly offer him in a friendship?"
Eric looked at him steadily.
"You’re thinking about this incorrectly, Edmund. Friendship doesn’t form because one person has something to offer another. It doesn’t ask about status or what either party brings to the arrangement. It happens when two people’s hearts find something in each other. That is what friendship is." He paused. "And I believe that is also precisely why he chose to present himself the way he did. And he himself stated that he wants spicy stuff in this academy. Friendship might fall into that category.
Edmund said nothing further. He sat back, jaw tight, something working behind his expression that he wasn’t prepared to name aloud. He had spent the better part of his life studying Necrotize, cataloguing what was known, theorising about what wasn’t. And yet here was the God of Destruction doing something that didn’t fit a single page of that research. Part of him still refused to accept it. But something deeper, quieter, knew that the refusal said more about him than it did about Necrotize.
Marcus moved them forward. "The second matter is the claim itself. Lord Necrotize stated that lightning is more powerful than every other element. This directly contradicts everything on record. The Magic Tower’s doctrine classifies lightning as the least viable of all elements." He looked around the table. "Our entire established body of magical knowledge has just been turned upside down. What do we do with that?"
Eric’s answer was immediate and left no room for debate.
"Nothing. What Lord Necrotize has stated, we treat as law, regardless of whether it falls within the bounds of our current understanding. He does not say things carelessly. Our role is singular: we relay this information to the Magic Tower. That is all."
No one argued. Because there was no argument to make.
Throughout the entire meeting, Nicholas had not said a single word. He had watched everything unfold with careful, unhurried attention, every exchange, every reaction, every conclusion drawn. He had offered nothing.
Tonight, he thought, I need to report all of this to the main base.
He was still turning the thought over when he heard Eric tap one finger against the corner of the table in a slow, deliberate rhythm.
"That will be all for today. Your classes are waiting." Eric rose slightly. "This meeting is dismissed."
***
Jennifer brought her attention back to the room in front of her.
Her eyes moved to Necrotize, then to Lyra beside him, sitting quietly, without any of the self-consciousness that had marked her posture before. Unhurried. Unafraid.
A single word formed in Jennifer’s mind as she looked at the two of them.
Friends.
