Clomp—! Clomp—! Clomp—!
As the door of the classroom swung open, a fierce gust of icy cold wind swept through the room one after another, sending chills down the spines of the cadets present.
And then, she appeared— a vision of power and beauty, her every step a declaration of her authority.
She was a young woman in her teenage years with a figure that was both thin and athletic. Her skin was like silk, a porcelain white that seemed to glow in the light.
Her hair was a striking silver color, cascading down her back in a waist-length waterfall of shimmering locks.
But it was her eyes that truly commanded attention - blood-red orbs that seemed to possess a light of their own, burning with an intensity that was both captivating and mysterious.
She was an elf, her long ears a dead giveaway of her elven heritage, and a member of the Cadet Council, her white one-piece dress with blue trim and a blue armband on her left arm confirming her status.
Her mere presence seemed to have dropped the temperature of the atmosphere drastically, leaving the cadets to shiver and chatter with their teeth in the cold.
Hmm? What about me? Nah, I'm fine.
I knew this was going to happen to I wore a thick inner under my uniform. Heh.
"Permit me to introduce myself. My name is Yelena Morning, and it is likely that many of you are already familiar with it. I hold the esteemed position of the Queen, or rather, the Vice President of this Academy City."
Only when Yelena elegantly walked up to the center of the classroom and started speaking did the temperature begin returning to normal.
Her words echoed right into everyone's ears as if she was standing right beside everyone else.
Sound magic. It was her favorite choice of magic after Ice magic.
Looking around, I saw the confused look on the cadets' faces. Yet, despite their clear confusion, no one dared to utter a word.
It was as if they all knew they were in the presence of a queen, and their best course of action was to stay silent and listen.
"I'm here to tell you that class 1-C-8 has filed an official complaint against class 1-A-1."
However, their silence lasted only until Yelena informed them about the current situation.
Instantly, a chain of loud murmuring broke out among the cadets.
-"What?!"
-"Ridiculous! Why are they the ones filing a complaint against us?!"
-"Yes, it should be the other way around!"
-"Indeed! It's them who started this mess!"
"I don't care who started what," Yelena declared, silencing the cadets. "I only care about what's happening right now. Now Nero Dekrauf and Chase Woods, come stand forward."
With a frown of confusion plastered on their faces, both the guys whose names were called walked to the front of the class.
"I'm Nero Dekrauf, ma'am."
"And I'm Chase Woods."
Nodding at their introductions, Yelena continued;
"Class 1-C-8 has charged you for assault," she announced while pointing to Nero with her chin before turning to Chase. "And they have charged you for threats and disrespectful behavior and assault."
"Nonsense!" Chase exclaimed. "Those fuckers were–"
But again, before he could complete his sentence, an eerie chill ran down his spine.
He felt the grim reaper's icy grip around his throat and felt like he would really die if he were to utter another word.
"As I said, I don't care," Yelena repeated in an uncaring tone, her cold gaze piercing his soul. "And you might want to watch that tongue of yours in front of me."
To her clear warning, Chase meekly nodded his head up and down like a pup.
Satisfied by asserting her authority, Yelena tapped on her smart bracelet and a holographic screen projected out of it.
The holographic screen displayed a video of the recent cafeteria incident where Nero employed his mana pressure to force Alberto to kneel before delivering a brutal kick, rendering him unconscious.
In the next moment, with a flick of her finger, Yelena altered the playback to an audio recording of Chase's altercation with the members of class 1-C-8.
In the recording, Chase's language was littered with foul and obscene words directed toward the other cadets of 1-C-8.
The level of vulgarity became so extreme that Yelena was compelled to discontinue the playback.
By the end of it, both Nero and Chase had their heads down. They wanted to retort— say that in both instances, class 1-C-8 was the first to provoke them, but by now Yelena had already made it clear that she had no interest in their defense.
"In both cases, your class was out of line," Yelena spoke. "You guys broke the cadet code of conduct. The excuse that they started it first wouldn't be applicable here."
"I know it's our fault," Nero, with his head down, muttered apologetically. "So please only punish us and not our class."
Chase nodded to his words. I guess even he was feeling responsible for all this mess.
"Punish only you?" Yelena raised an eyebrow. "And what will that accomplish?"
"Huh?"
"What do you mean?"
Confused, both Nero, Chase and everyone else looked at the silver-haired elven beauty.
"Punishing both of you could worsen conflict with 1-C-8 and further complicate the situation, especially since most third-year cadets, including those in the Disciplinary Community and Cadet Council, have yet to return from their annual exam mission."
Yelena calmly spoke before taking a brief pause and continuing.
"That means if I were to punish only both of you here, that would only create more work for me in the future. And I hate working. What I do love is drama."
Oh wow, someone's copying me.
"Additionally, Class 1-C-8 is not without guilt, even though they didn't initiate the rule-breaking. I'm confident that I'll find solid proof if I investigate their rule violations, but I don't want to waste my time on a bunch of first-year troublemakers. But I also do not want to pass the wrong judgment. Quite a predicament, isn't it?
"So here's what we'll do. We'll settle this by a challenge— a sort of game, if you may. The one who loses will be charged guilty and would have to face the consequences. How does that sound?" Yelena proposed in an amused tone.
"What?! Is this your solution?" Nero exclaimed, clearly taken aback. "So, the winner is absolved of guilt despite clear evidence? That's not justice!"
"Yes, that's not fair!" Chase too voiced his concerns. "If they beat us then they won't receive any punishment regardless of the fact that they were the ones who started coming after us first?!"
As the two main characters spoke up, the rest of the class followed suit.
-"Yes, how is that fair? How is that just?!"
-"You can't make this decision! You're acting outside of your authority! Only the Cadet Council president can suggest something like that!"
-"That's madness! Not to mention how uncivilized it sounds! She's only favoring the strong. She doesn't care about justice!"
-"I love you, Yelena!"
Snap—!
Yelena silenced the room with a snap of her fingers, stopping the buzz of student chatter in the classroom. A burst of cold air then swept through, reminding everyone at whose mercy they were on.
"Silence!" she barked, her eyes as cold as ever and her face contorting with disdain.
"You wormlike creatures have no right to question my authority. I may not hold the highest official title in the Cadet Council, but at this moment, I am the law.
"And if any of you dare to challenge my ruling, let it be known: I will not tolerate insubordination.
"You cry out that this is madness, that it is not justice, that I am favoring the strong. Allow me to enlighten you all right here, you simple-minded fools. This world has always favored the strong. The weak have never, and will never, receive true justice! Why is that?"
Her words hung heavy in the air, and the class sat in stunned silence, digesting the harsh facts she had laid before them. They all knew that Yelena spoke the truth as they waited for her to finish.
"History is witness to the fact that the victors alone shape the notion of justice and morality, making it a fleeting and subjective ideal. The victorious are crowned with righteousness, while the defeated become mere footnotes in time, forgotten by the ages.
"The choice is yours. Which legacy do you wish to leave behind? Do you wish to become a memory, or do you wish to receive justice?"
Without bothering to utter another word, Yelena elegantly walked out of the room, leaving the cadets both in awe and shock.
What others were too busy to notice was the fact that Quinn had gotten up from his seat and followed behind Yelena.
Yeah, he was officially joining the Cadet Council today after being forced into it by the silver-haired elven beauty.
"Heh," my lips slowly turned into a smirk.
In reality, Yeleana already had enough proof against both classes. She could've punished them both and closed the matter right then and there.
However, she decided against it because there were many things she needed to teach these first years.
For starters: Justice is not served; it's earned.
And of course, there are consequences to one's actions however big or small they are.
As the excitement built up in me, I bit my thumbnail with an erratic grin on my face, "Let the game begin."