Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 139 - To see the Light

Previously:

It's Friday, the last day of Muni entrance exams. It is time for the last exam of the day – Special exam. Kiel and Elaru make their way towards Sapphire Quarters where their special exams will take place. Elaru's special exam starts and she is confronted by three old geezers.

* * *

For just as the box was activated...

BOOM!

The ground shook and Kiel almost fell out of his chair.

The fragments of the box flew everywhere like snowflakes.

The hourglass on the table crashed on the floor, spilling sand on the carpet.

The professors rolled on the floor, their faces black, their hair all over the place.

White, mostly intact, papers rained all over the room, covering the furniture and the floor.

As Kiel stared at the chaos, his mouth dropped open, his pupils dilated and his mind stalled.

...fu**! Don't tell me Elaru passed her bad luck onto me?!?

Episode 139 – To see the Light

Luckily, the silver box absorbed most of the explosion, so no one got injured. After several seconds of dizziness, even the old grandma got up to her feet by herself.

The professors shared incredulous looks coupled by sour faces and collectively glanced back at Kiel.

Kiel gulped inaudibly. The professors disliked him already for wasting their time... and now... he just hoped they wouldn't expel him from the exam. He wasn't even at fault here. Elaru caused so much more trouble and she was still fine. Surely, he would be fine.

The old lady, although the frailest, was the first to recover from the shock, she coughed awkwardly and made the scattered papers fly into her hand. Her action seemed to awaken everyone else and they huddled together over her shoulders anxiously, hoping that the papers were alright, praying that they wouldn't need to redo the test.

In fact, they were so worried about redoing the test that they didn't even take the time to tidy up their sorry appearance. They looked over the papers with black faces and hair standing up like it was a tiwi nest.

The grandma's hands shook. Judging by the paling faces of the examiners, things didn't look good. The results probably got damaged.

Before anyone could erupt, saying something inappropriate, someone erected a sound isolation barrier around the examiners. Just in time too, for not a moment later, one of them started yelling something.

Another one grit his teeth and glared at the first one. Granny was frowning, as the rest erupted into an insult-spewing clamor, giving Kiel sneaky glances from time to time.

Kiel's back was already drenched with cold sweat, they wouldn't take their irritation out on him, would they?

Yet, judging by their black faces... they were cursing him for sure!

Kiel anxiously concentrated on their expressions, hoping he'd be able to lip read what they were saying. He couldn't just silently wait for their verdict! If he wanted a chance to defend himself, at least he ought to know which ones were cursing him and which ones were reprimanding the cursing ones!

Unfortunately, the little words that he managed to recognize with his poor lip-reading attempts weren't enough for him to make sense of the conversation.