The day after the ball left many of the students in a dreamy state of reminiscing about the night and its events.
Most of the girls were talking about the handsome dark-masked stranger with dazzling amber eyes.
The boys, on the other hand, couldn't help but admire and also wish that they could have seen what was underneath the white mask of the beautiful damsel.
Sophie really thought that these people were a bit stupid when she heard they were gossiping about the two mysterious guests.
Why would they care so much about strangers?
The students were not the only ones who were thinking about last night, though. Sophie was guilty too.
When she peeked into her school bag, the black mask that Nicholas gave her was among them. She forgot to hide it somewhere in her tiny room she was given by her aunt to sleep and store her few belongings. It was still in her bag.
Sophie was a bit lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice that Valerie and her crew were just right up ahead. She accidentally bumped into her cousin.
"Why you," Valerie narrowed her eyes at Sophie in annoyance. "What's in your bag that's making you so distracted? Have you stolen something?"
Sophie blinked and then frowned. "What? Of course not."
Valerie was unconvinced though and looked at her friends. "We'll never know if we don't check it out ourselves, girls. I don't want this girl to sully my family name. So, I'm afraid we have to check."
The group of young women immediately ganged up on Sophie and grabbed her arms and even hair to keep her away.
Valerie took the school bag from Sophie and scrunched up her nose.
Sophie tried to throw the girls off from her, but they all refused to budge. Their nails even dug into her arms as they kept her away from her cousin.
It didn't matter to her that much, since it didn't hurt. Sophie was more worried about the mask, she needed to return it to Nicholas. "Hey, give it back!"
"As if you weren't already satisfied taking my hand-me-downs, but must you also steal?" Valerie dumped the contents of Sophie's bag on the floor.
The beautiful dark mask appeared among the items.
All of the girls gasped as Sophie pulled her arms away from them and quickly picked up her things and shoved them into her bag. Right before they could say anything else, Sophie was now on the run.
Valerie gritted her teeth and realized that the white-masked stranger was her cousin since she had the black mask from the mysterious guest from last night. Valerie looked at all the guy schoolmates who had been staring and she pointed at them.
"Go get her or else Richard will make your lives a living hell!"
It was a threat that worked out well enough, as the boys started to chase after Sophie. The Lancasters could make anyone living in Hastings face a miserable fortune so they moved.
This was a familiar scenario in Sophie's life, being chased down and bullied by others was nothing by now and she used her wits to escape them. And yet this time, she had something to protect and take care of. She ran agilely to avoid her chasers.
Unfortunately, now the bullies had learned from experience.
"Make sure the bitch can't escape or jump!" One of them hollered to their friends.
"Don't let her get to the academy's walls!"
"Let's corner her over there." Another guy shouted and threw a rock at Sophie, who had to move in a certain direction to dodge. freewebnovel.(c)om
It was with great effort and teamwork that the bullies managed to redirect Sophie into a place that even she would have difficulty jumping up to escape.
The group of boys cornered her into one of the academy's buildings. Sophie tightened her hands into fists and prepared herself for trouble as she pressed her back against the wall.
These people were too scared of the consequences of offending Richard and Valerie than it was for them to hit a girl.
This was fine though. Even if Sophie preferred outwitting them and avoiding them, she wasn't also afraid to throw her own punches.
All she could hope was that her school bag and the mask would remain in good condition. She was ready to fight back.
However, right as one of the boys lumbered over towards Sophie and raised a fist to hit her, someone suddenly appeared by her side and grabbed the bully's arm before it could even touch her.
Several of the guys were surprised at how fast this unknown stranger managed to get past them without even blinking an eye.
Nicholas grinned as he tightened his grip on the guy and gave it a painful squeeze.
"I do not think that violence is a good answer to solving anything, my friends. All of you should probably leave now while I'm feeling merciful."
The boy. whose arm was being crushed by Nicholas' powerful grip, groaned in pain as he was pushed back into the arms of his friends. All of them went down like glass bottles from a tavern.
In a blink of an eye, Sophie saw all of them scurrying away in fear like mice. She couldn't believe it herself as she looked at Nicholas, the young man now was wearing the same uniform as Cawden Academy students.
"What…?"
Nicholas looked at her and grinned. "Well, I'm sure that you're surprised and all…"
"How did you get in?" Sophie asked. This felt surreal. Surely she was dreaming that she could see Nicholas in Cow Dung…
"I enrolled here?" Nicholas shrugged.
"But how? There are only several months left before graduation. Cow Dung normally doesn't accept stu—" Sophie's voice trailed off and she immediately knew that it was a stupid question.
People with wealth and influence could get anything if they wanted to. Surely Nicholas bought his place in this academy with a lot of money.
"Don't you think that it's a great idea for me?" Nicholas rubbed his chin. "I always escaped my tutors, but I have a feeling that I'll learn a lot more by being surrounded by other students."
Sophie looked at him doubtfully.
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