Chapter 21 Sneak Peek! - Stormweaver II (Patreon)

Valera took a step forward, her irritation causing her to lose her cool for a moment and engage her Speed spec. She was nose-to-nose with Reese so fast that the resulting blast of displaced air nearly knocked his cap right off his head.

“I bet you didn’t even ask them why they acted in such a manner, did you?” she half-whispered, half-hissed. The two of them were of a height, but Valera was well aware of the impact her presence—the presence of a rare S-Ranked Knight-Class User—tended to have, and she leaned into it now. “I bet you started yelling the moment you had them down here, without bothering to give them an opportunity to explain.”

Reese’s mouth shut tight with a snap, though whether out of surprise at her approach, momentary fear at her proximity, or because he didn’t have a good answer, she couldn’t be sure.

She decided to go with the option that fit her narrative best in the moment.

“Yeah… Thought so.” She sneered into his face for a moment more, then stepped around him to stand in front of Firesong. It was a little gratifying to see the hint of relief on all their faces—other than Arada’s, predictably, given the girl was staring at the back of Reese’s head like she was calculating what size plaque she would need to hang it on her dorm room wall—but Valera couldn’t let them know that. The behavior they’d displayed had been outrageous—Grant and Ward’s most obviously, with the rest of them complacent in their inaction—but it had also been completely out of character. That alone should have given Reese pause, but the man clearly didn’t know how to let go of a grudge.

Valera, on the other hand, was already well aware of what had happened. She’d known since the evening before, and had been patched into—through back channels only one entity in the entirety of the ISC could have granted her access too, of course—the conversations that had taken place in the Boneyard v. Firesong match. She saw the logic, and she approved.

But—again—she couldn’t let them know that.

“One of you,” she said sharply, not wanting any listening ears to accuse her of favoritism later. “Explain what happened. Now.”

She hadn’t let them drop to at ease, so the six first years had to exchange awkward side-glances with whoever stood beside them.

Eventually, Ward himself spoke up.

“It’s on me, ma’am,” he said steadily, looking only slightly less inclined to break Reeses’ nose now that Valera stood between them. “I shouldn’t have played any games with Biggs. I should have ended it as soon as I dropped down into the—”

“I didn’t say I wanted a play-by-play of what you should have done, Cadet Ward,” Valera interrupted him unforgivingly. “I said I wanted an explanation. So… Try again.”