Jinny slammed her tray down onto the oak table. Clang!

  ?Ethan flinched so hard his knee cracked against the underside of the table. Jinny narrowed her eyes, darting her gaze between the pale faces of Marcus and Ethan, and Vanessa, who was sitting unnervingly still.

  ?"Don't tell me... are the Higans around here again?" Jinny whispered, her head swiveling rapidly to scan the cafeteria. "They always pop up like a bad omen."

  ?Vanessa remained silent for a long moment. Behind her lenses, her eyes hardened with absolute resolve. She beckoned Jinny and Luna closer, until all their heads were clustered over the center of the table.

  ?"You two... cannot breathe a word of this to anyone," Vanessa's voice was frigid, making Jinny swallow hard.

  ?Methodically, Vanessa relayed the events of the previous day. The cipher. The subterranean vault. And finally, Silas Vane's frantic sprint through the dining hall just minutes ago, searching for the missing Eternus file.

  ?Jinny’s jaw dropped. The spoon slipped from her fingers, clattering onto her tray. Luna, whose default expression was a gentle smile, instantly tensed. The light in her eyes dimmed as her brain clearly began running worst-case scenarios.

  ?"Are you... out of your minds?!" Jinny hissed, her voice vibrating with suppressed panic. "That's a restricted historical archive! If you get caught, that's not expulsion. They’ll 'scrub' your existence from the Academy registry!"

  ?"Well, in the moment, it seemed—" Ethan started, raising his hands defensively, but he couldn't finish the thought.

  ?"Listen to me," Vanessa cut him off, her tone sharp as a scalpel. "If that dossier was actually extracted, and someone deliberately used us to bypass the chronal lock, they don't just want the data. They want a scapegoat. And we are the only ones who left a biological or ethereal footprint in that vault."

  ?She met the eyes of everyone at the table. "We are tethered to this now. If one of us breaks, the entire squad goes down."

  ?Vanessa swept her gaze over them, asserting absolute control. "Think about the timeline. Professor Vane doesn't know who breached the vault yet. If he did, we wouldn't be eating breakfast. We would be in holding cells."

  ?She leaned in closer, dropping her voice to a lethal whisper. "Therefore... baseline behavior is mandatory. Eat. Laugh. Go spectate the evaluations like every other ignorant First-Year in this room. Do not look over your shoulders."

  ?"How are we supposed to act normal?!" Jinny whisper-yelled, her anxiety bubbling over into anger. "Dammit! Why is it always us?! And look... just look at this guy!"

  ?Jinny snapped her head toward Roy. He was still face-down on the table, drooling a small puddle onto the wood, completely oblivious to the fact that they were currently discussing high treason. She ground her teeth together, reached over, and grabbed a fistful of his messy hair, yanking his head up.

  ?"Wake up, you walking liability!" Jinny violently shook his head back and forth. "How long are you going to hibernate?! We are literally standing on the edge of a prison sentence!"

  ?"Mmph... breakfast..." Roy groaned, his eyes still squeezed shut. He let his head flop loosely despite the shaking. "Is there mackerel...?"

  ?Ethan buried his face in his massive hands, groaning. "See, Vanessa? The most 'normal' thing about our squad is Roy trying to sleep through an execution."

  ?Marcus exhaled a long, heavy sigh. He shifted his gaze up to the ether-screen above, watching the roster for the first round of evaluations scroll past.

  ?"The Eastern recruits..." Ethan muttered, staring at his half-empty plate. "What kind of fighters are we actually dealing with?"

  ?"From what I've researched," Jinny let go of Roy's hair and gestured with her hands, slipping into the role of tactician. "Some of them utilize weapons etched with micro-runes. They don't output massive, area-of-effect elemental blasts like standard Western mages. They localize their ether to hyper-accelerate their speed or edge-sharpness. The real threats, though... are the ones who use pure martial arts, internalizing their ether flow directly into their musculature."

  ?The moment Ethan heard 'martial arts', the terror vibrating in his shoulders vanished, instantly replaced by a predatory spark.

  ?"Martial arts? Internal ether flow?" Ethan’s voice spiked with genuine, unfiltered excitement. He threw a quick, tight jab into the air. "Like... shattering stone with a bare knuckle? Catching a blade barehanded? Oh, man... I want to get in the ring with them! If I can see how they shift their weight, I can adapt to it!"

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  ?Jinny caught the energy, and the two of them immediately spiraled into an intense, rapid-fire discussion about stance mechanics and physical counters. Within seconds, the oppressive tension of impending doom evaporated, replaced by the atmosphere of fans hyping up a heavyweight bout.

  ?Marcus chewed a piece of dry bread, offering a faint, strained smile. Well... at least your obsession with getting punched in the face is useful for maintaining our cover, he thought, glancing at Vanessa. She was calmly sipping her tea, her aristocratic mask completely flawless. It was terrifying.

  ?Suddenly, heavy, deliberately loud footsteps echoed near their table, followed by a harsh, grating laugh.

  ?A group of Eastern recruits swaggered down the aisle. At the front was a lean, heavily muscled guy. He casually rested a long, solid iron staff across his shoulders, completely unconcerned about who he bumped into. His bright orange hair spiked up wildly, and his eyes carried the restless, aggressive energy of a feral dog.

  ?"Tch. This place is loud as hell. Is this cafeteria just an aviary for sparrows?" The orange-haired guy sneered, violently spitting onto the stone floor.

  ?Ethan and Jinny were out of their chairs in a fraction of a second.

  ?"What did you just say?" Ethan dropped his voice to a low, guttural rumble. The playful brawl-enthusiast was gone. "Did you buy this hall, carrot-top?"

  ?The guy stopped. He slowly rolled the iron staff off his shoulders, gripping it in one hand. A wide, unhinged smile stretched across his face, revealing slightly elongated canines. The brass plate pinned to his tunic read 'Sun'.

  ?"Oh... a sparrow wants to chirp," Sun laughed, a harsh, scraping sound. "You want to go right here? I’ll gladly put you on a liquid diet before the evaluations even start."

  ?The ambient temperature around them seemed to spike. A dense, heavy pressure radiated from Sun and his iron staff, making the wooden plates on Marcus’s table rattle faintly.

  ?"Enough, Sun."

  ?The voice was smooth, quiet, but it cut through the rising hostility instantly. A young man stepped out from behind Sun, inserting himself between the two groups. His uniform was immaculate. His expression was completely placid, his eyes dark and deep, giving absolutely nothing away. His name tag read 'Jin'.

  ?"Tch. You're a buzzkill..." Sun clicked his tongue loudly, glaring at Jin, before aggressively hoisting the staff back onto his shoulder. "Whatever. Save it for the ring, sparrows. Hope you still have teeth when I see you."

  ?"Are you running away?!" Jinny yelled after him, her fists clenched.

  ?Sun didn't look back. But the moment he took a step, a massive wave of ether violently pulsed outward from him. It wasn't a kinetic blast, but a localized spike in spiritual pressure that warped the air. It hit Ethan and Jinny like a physical wall, freezing them mid-step. For a split second, Marcus felt an overwhelming, primal instinct to duck, as if the shadow of a massive, furious ape was looming over them.

  ?Jin turned back to Marcus's table. He offered a slight, measured bow, the picture of aristocratic grace. "I apologize for the disturbance. My companion is... undisciplined, and deaf to reason. I trust this will not ruin your meal."

  ?Jin offered a faint smile that didn't reach his dark eyes, then turned and walked silently after Sun, leaving Marcus’s group standing tense under the stares of half the cafeteria.

  ?Marcus and Vanessa watched Jin's retreating back in silence. Ethan and Jinny were still baring their teeth, the adrenaline from the near-brawl refusing to fade. But the chaos wasn't over.

  ?Sun didn't just walk away. He strutted down the central aisle, twirling the heavy iron staff, his grating laugh echoing off the stone walls. When he saw a group of smaller First-Years sitting too close to the path, he casually kicked the leg of their chair, sending a kid stumbling forward.

  ?"Move it, sparrows!" Sun barked, intentionally leaking his heavy, oppressive ether. The trays on the nearby tables rattled violently. He scanned the room, his feral eyes clearly looking for someone else to break.

  ?"Hey! What is your problem?!" a senior student stood up from a nearby table, his hands glowing with localized heat.

  ?Sun didn't answer with words. He casually flicked his wrist. The tip of the heavy iron staff blurred, whistling through the air and stopping exactly one centimeter from the senior's nose. The sheer kinetic displacement of the air from the swing shattered the glass cup on the senior's table into fragments.

  ?Sun threw his head back and laughed—a manic, barking sound—as a thick, murky orange ether flared around him, forcing the students in the immediate vicinity to scramble backward in fear, dropping their trays.

  ?"Weak! Nothing but fragile little birds in here!" Sun roared, his voice booming over the cafeteria.

  ?"Sun. Stand down."

  ?Jin’s voice carried no anger, only a profound, exhausting patience. He closed the distance in two unnervingly silent steps and grabbed Sun’s bicep. The grip didn't look forceful, but Sun instantly froze, the murky orange ether sputtering and dying out.

  ?"What, Jin?! I'm just getting my blood moving before the exams!" Sun complained, trying to yank his arm away. He couldn't. He grumbled, finally lowering the staff to the floor.

  ?Jin let out a long sigh, rubbing his temple. "Antagonizing those weaker than you contradicts the master's teachings. Have you already forgotten the fundamental tenets?"

  ?Sun clicked his tongue loudly, clearly agitated, but he didn't argue. He stomped heavily toward the cafeteria exit, kicking a stray apple across the floor. Jin stayed behind for a moment, bowing his head slightly to the students Sun had threatened, his eyes conveying a genuine, weary apology.

  ?Before exiting the hall, Jin paused. He turned his head, looking back across the room to Marcus’s corner table. There was no hostility in his gaze. He offered a small, warm smile—one that carried the distinct exhaustion of a man constantly cleaning up someone else's mess. 'Apologies again for my idiot friend,' the look seemed to say.

  ?"He... actually seems like a decent guy," Marcus muttered, watching Jin finally jog after Sun to stop him from kicking over a trash barrel near the doors.

  ?"Indeed. A tragically decent person," Vanessa noted, adjusting her glasses. "Being shackled to a volatile asset like that is the equivalent of carrying a live explosive in your pocket every day."