The dreaded day… The dreaded day has finally arrived.
I don't know how I made it but I did. As much as I wanted to skip the tedious ceremony, it was a compulsory event and probably the last of such things.
Red and green blazers did not match my blond hair. As much as I found them atrocious, there was hardly anything I could do. Seriously, the Academy should allocate better budget to employ more fashion designers than nosy investigators. Lined up in a neat row, the fifteen of us waited for the director to show up and make his speech.
Of all the things I hated about the ceremony, Raoul's valedictorian's speech took the Pantiumite. It was no surprise about who should be given the honour. With how prominent his achievements are to the Inner City, the Academy couldn't refuse even if they wanted to.
After what felt like forever of waiting, a frail looking old man dressed in ceremonial robes hobbled up the stage with the aid of assistants. Silence swept across the hall. There was no applause and the mood from earlier was replaced by something more solemn. The ceremony was one of meaning and not formality.
However as soon as the Academy director began his speech, I slowly tuned out to his monotonous voice. With how late I stayed up last night to finish my tracer bug program, it was a wonder I didn't keel over. Then again, better tired than haunted by the nightmares that followed Mia's death.
"Titus Crowley."
The burning stares to the side of my head snapped me out of my daze. Turning to the left I was greeted by fourteen pairs of annoyed stares. The head investigator didn't look particularly pleased either.
Sheepishly I gave them a wave and went to the stage. Everything was going so well until my legs got tangled with each other on a short flight of steps. The floor closed up in my vision and I mentally groaned upon impact.
Waves of giggles and snickers erupted when I greeted the ground with my face. With cheeks burning from the impact and humiliation, picked myself back up and marched over to the Academy director. Not wanting to give the others a reason to laugh again, I pulled up my sleeve as rehearsed to reveal the underside of my wrist. Wordlessly, the old man updated my identity chip. The skin became warm where the identity chip tattoo was when the device went over it. A holographic screen appeared and the director entered a few lines of code.
It was official. Titus Crowley has become a citizen of the Inner City.
It felt surreal even as I made my way back to the line. The tattoo still felt warm under my sleeve, convincing me it wasn't a dream. For the first time in a while, I didn't know how to feel.
Once the last person had gone through the official ceremony and all fifteen of us were recognised as citizens of the Inner City, the Academy director took his leave as silently as he entered. Raoul was then ushered up for his valedictorian speech.
The braggart made his way to stage in wide and overly confident strides. I just rolled my eyes. Knowing him, that poor excuse of a living creature, was going to spout some rubbish about having fair chances at succeeding in life. Anyone who agrees must clearly have never experienced 'life'.
"Ahem," Raoul cleared his throat and I deadpanned when he started, "I believe that with the Academy's help, we would be able to sail on our own. However, let us remember who it was that paved our road to success and return the favour by giving back to the society."
Insert dramatic eye roll here. The society he talks about doesn't even consist of the ones who really
need it. They belong to project funders who guaranteed a return for their investments. It's so funny that it's making me yawn.
"The future of humanity is bright and our future lucrative," he continued. "To each his own and may our friendship still be strong with the test of time."
This time, a smile was directed at me and I cringed inwardly. If this isn't the most insincere speech of the century, I don't know what is. I gave back a feeble smile of my own when everyone else applauded.
What a terrible start.
***
The congratulatory ceremony was a party mainly for the attention seekers. While most graduates would stick around and rub shoulders with bigwigs in order to secure their future, your boy here just really wanted to get out of this hell pit as soon as the mission is complete.
Inching along the walls, I tried to sneak past a large group of female reporters. Raoul was somewhere in the middle of a press group trying to get his pictures for tomorrow's paper.
Weaselling my way through the mass of bodies, I shadowed Raoul from a distance until there were only two of us. It took longer than I had anticipated but now that it was over, I thanked the stars. The wave after wave of interference was ridiculous!
After the media left, a group of scientist approached him and once that group left, some representative of a Pantiumite manufacturing laboratory congratulated him. There wasn't even a tiny window of opportunity for me to make my move. I'd finished three glasses of Pantiumite champagne before it was my turn.
Pretending to be tipsy with a champagne glass in hand to make it believable I staggered over to his direction. "Hey!" I scowled the moment I bumped into Raoul like any drunk person would. All I needed was a little contact and the mission would be accomplished. Pretending to brush of Raoul, my ring came in contact with his hand and I heard Kevin whisper in my ear monitor that the virus was successfully transferred to Raoul's identity chip system.
Perfect! Now all that's left was for Raoul to log into his credit account to activate the virus that will compromise his location and activities. It was by no means legal but hey! The Night Walker doesn't need a fair play pass, does he? They always say 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. I'm not paranoid, just implementing some precautionary measures.
On the plus side, maintaining a good relationship with him will prove good for my future Pantiumite sources. Nash mentioned that the new batch helped to cope with the Pantiumite shortage in the Slums for a decent amount of time. Even when broken down, the new concoction was still twice as effective as the normal stuff available.
Thin eyebrows pinched together but it was quickly replaced with a practised smile when he recognised the drunken fool. "Titus! Congratulations on graduating. Why don't you give me your mailing address? I'll be sure to visit you after five years if you're still living in the Inner City that is."
Pretending to have difficulty recognising who it was, I stalled for a bit before laughing. "Oh well, I guess I should. Five years is a long time though. Anything could happen but I guess you don't have to worry seeing how you're set and all. Wasn't that man earlier from Centurion?"
I could almost see how Raoul's nostrils flared up at that. His nose pointed in the air and his chin stuck outwards in a display of arrogance. It was always fun to toy with him. As smart as he was, his simple-mindedness towards praise made him dumber than a pile of snow.
"Of course! Who do you think I am?"
"The boy who peed in his pants…" I muttered lowly.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing!" I smiled. "It's nice talking to you and all but I think I'll head back and rest. I've had a little bit too much."
Without waiting for his reply I made my speedy escape. That had been really close… Bad mouth! My inner monologue almost got me in trouble. This is a side effect of sleepiness, makes one dumber by fifty percent.
The trip back to the dormitory was nostalgic. Mrs Peterman bade me farewell yesterday and gave me my favourite physical book as a parting gift. As much as I loved research books and historical journals, my favourite physical tome was fiction.
Fiction archive books were really rare to find as many of them were destroyed alongside civilisation during the Great Explosion. People had no time to read or write new ones while rebuilding Luna. The shortage of resources was a more pressing matter than the lack of literary arts after all.
Legend of Kozzo was a story about a poor and weak boy who became a hero. The kind boy and his mother were bullied in the village they lived in. However, despite their conditions, he never lost his kindness. One day he met a fish stranded on land. Instead of taking it back home to eat, he let it back into the river. The fish who turned out to be a god of some kind granted the boy a wish in return for the help. The boy made a wish to become strong so that he could protect what was important. He fought more than bullies. He fought on behalf of the weak and poor and eventually become a respected hero.
Unfortunately, the story didn't have a happy ending. Although he was able to protect his old mother, she was taken by illness due to her old age. The great hero could do nothing to save his ailing mother as death was an enemy he could never win against.
I've read the story countless times and it struck me odd that the author of this book refused to end the story when the boy was in the prime of his career. It also never made sense to me why the author would not continue the story of how he overcame his depression over his mother's death and lived his life thereafter. It was a simple children's story and shouldn't amount to much. However, I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if the boy wished for something different. What if he wished for the power to save lives instead? Wouldn't he be almighty? Why didn't he do that in the first place? Was becoming stronger than everyone else the only way to protect a person? Was there any true way to protect everyone?
Before I had the chance to delve deeper into my thoughts, I reached the dormitory. My heart wasn't ready for what I was about to do. Despite knowing that the day would come, I still wasn't ready. The Academy was home to me for as long as I could remember.
Neat stacks of boxes greeted me as soon as I entered. Everything was neater than I liked because the movers are coming tomorrow to help me move to the office Felix found. The man had really outdone himself. Buying an entire building in Area Twelve for my office located on the top floor and subletting the other floors was a genius business move.
Letting my fingers glide across the smooth surface of my desk as I walked to the bed, I glanced at
the chair. Many years ago, it was too big for me to sit in but over time, it grew to become a comfortable size. That's probably the one thing I'll miss most after leaving the dormitory. The new chair in the office will feel far too big and empty. I wonder if the Academy would allow me to take this chair along with me…