Three days had passed since Izel and Elliot’s little argument, which had been quite an enjoyable sight for Leona to watch... it reminded her of their first meeting.
During these three days, the storm and heavy rain continued without stopping even now.
This caused the remains of the city to drown in water, though that didn’t mean it bothered them much.
It was disappointing to stop for nearly four entire days and remain trapped inside this collapsed building, unless they wanted to swim through the rain outside.
Still, these days of rest weren’t bad, especially because of what happened a few days ago.
"This looks really delicious."
Elliot’s voice echoed through the brightly lit room as he sat around the table at the center, his eyes fixed on the dish Leona had just placed down.
She smiled proudly while placing her hands on her waist. "Wait until you taste it, then tell me what you think."
Moments later, a delicious smell began spreading around the table, slipping into their noses before drifting even farther away.
It was the scent of sugar and melted chocolate.
Elliot inhaled deeply. "This gives a feeling of home."
Before them was nothing more than a medium-sized cake covered in a layer of liquid chocolate.
This was what Leona came up with to improve the mood. Using the basic ingredients Caius carried with him, she managed to make this.
Since he didn’t want to survive only on canned food, he carried many things that could last for a long time, such as spices, sugar, salt... even powdered milk... and many other things, though the quantities were somewhat limited.
With those ingredients, along with Ellen’s help in creating the oven through metal manipulation, and Izel with her flames, she finally managed to make this.
Izel arrived behind Leona before extending her finger toward the cake. "You finally finished."
But before she could touch the layer of chocolate, she felt a slap on the back of her hand, causing her to pull it back instinctively. "Ouch... I just wanted to taste it."
"Sit down and I’ll cut it now." Leona’s tone was strict unlike usual.
Izel shook her head while walking over and sitting on the stone chair before folding her arms together impatiently. "Then hurry up."
Even with Izel urging her to hurry, Leona didn’t rush, seemingly enjoying the moment and the beautiful scent filling her nose right now.
She let out a satisfied sigh while staring at everyone with their plates already before them. Even Kyle was there with his plate and spoon neatly placed.
Only Caius still wasn’t here, though he would arrive any moment.
The next moment, Leona pulled out her sword to cut the cake, only to realize it was far too long.
She put it away again while looking toward Ellen, whose eye was fixed on the dessert... who knew whether she was thinking about something important or simply pretending to.
"Ellen, give me one of your blades." But before she even finished speaking, one of Ellen’s blades was already floating before Leona.
Without hesitation, she grabbed it and brought it toward the cake.
At the same time, Caius entered, his eyes wandering around the dessert while inhaling the sweet scent. "Wow... this looks better than I expected."
Ellen was already cutting the cake and placing slices onto the five plates, so without even sitting down or anything, he walked toward the table while carrying one of them along with a spoon in his other hand and took the first bite.
The sweet taste spread through his mouth along with a special flavor different from ordinary cake, though it was still good.
He nodded his head. "You did well making this, Leona."
Leona happily responded to the praise. "I’m glad you liked it."
He took another bite. "You should be glad, because if I didn’t like it, I would’ve made you pay for what you took."
Leona pretended she didn’t hear that last part... or maybe she truly didn’t hear it.
At the same time, the others picked up their plates and took their first bites as well.
Kyle didn’t react and simply ate quietly, while Elliot gave Leona a thumbs up. "Amazing."
Ellen ate while nodding with a small smile on her lips, while Izel seemed to have sunk into the long-lost feeling as she kept bringing one spoonful after another to her mouth.
With the spoon in his mouth, Caius stared at the large plate that still held nearly half the cake before looking at Leona’s empty plate. "What about you?"
Leona looked at him for a moment before sitting down and extending her hands toward the large plate, pulling it toward herself along with everything left on it as she spoke words that made everyone forget what was in their hands and focus on her instead.
"I’ll take this... I mean, I’m the one who made it..."
...
Hours later, the storm showed its first signs of calming down, the rain weakening while the thunder disappeared and the clouds slowly broke apart and faded into the horizon.
In the end, it revealed the star-filled night sky and the fragments of the moon floating beneath it once again.
The moment they saw this, they didn’t delay and immediately resumed moving, leaving this place behind them.
Forever.
...
On the other side, in the world of Aetheron, time continued flowing as normal.
It wasn’t as if the disappearance or death of a few people would truly change much.
Especially since nearly two months had already passed since the disappearance of the seven.
The search operations still hadn’t stopped, but they were no longer as intense as before, becoming little more than formal procedures.
The families’ hearts sank deeper day after day as they remained uncertain of their children’s fate and what had happened to them. All they could do was pressure the Axis to search more and more, and they even launched search efforts of their own.
But none of it proved useful so far, and they still hadn’t found a single helpful lead.
Nor could they really do anything against the Axis. After all, their children had signed agreements taking full responsibility for their lives and all possible risks.
In the end, the elite class was reduced to half its original number.
And since the missing students could now be considered dead—or simply never returning—the Axis decided to fill those empty spots, otherwise the class itself would become crippled.
This opened seven new positions within the Axis, so without hesitation, the administration recruited seven new students and stole them away from other academies.
However, only three of them joined the elite class, while the remaining seats were filled by students transferred from other classes.
So after the new semester began a few weeks ago, the remaining seven students found themselves alongside new companions. Four were already familiar faces since they came from other classes, while the other three were entirely new.
The new students quickly caught up. After all, the theoretical curriculum was exactly the same.
And now, three weeks had already passed with the new group.
Inside the academy’s dining hall, tables were spread everywhere while many students moved between them, some carrying trays of food while others did not.
Most of them were already seated while the sound of conversations filled the hall.
Among all of this walked a handsome young man with dark hair and clear green eyes. He radiated a cheerful atmosphere while searching for a suitable place to sit and eat his lunch.
It was none other than Ivan Rexel.
’I shouldn’t have arrived late today.’
Unfortunately, he was slightly late for lunch because of some small reasons, so he found every table already occupied. No matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t find his dear companions anywhere.
Perhaps they had already finished and left, which was why he couldn’t see Garon, Jin, or anyone else.
Ivan continued searching for a few more seconds until his eyes landed on a particular table with several people sitting there.
"Finally, a good place... no, a great one." A happy expression appeared on his face as he saw it and decided where he would eat his lunch.
It was relatively empty compared to the other places, especially since the people there were familiar to him.
It was none other than a group of three girls.
The trays before them were still full of food while they leaned against the table, immersed in conversation.
One of them was Valia, with short black hair barely reaching her shoulders and brown eyes. She stared at the girl before her while resting her head on her hand and listening to Naira, whose wavy brown hair moved slightly as she spoke word after word.
Ivan couldn’t hear them from this distance with all the surrounding noise, but judging from Naira’s constantly changing expression and the movements of her hands, she was obviously telling some sort of story, while her eyes remained fixed on the third person at that table.
The most distinctive among the people who joined the Axis, and their somewhat strange new classmate.
Emeris.