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Chapter 22 - be the revolution

When Aria and Zorvath returned from the rooftop, the courtyard had devolved into near chaos. Students shoved and shouted, batch lines bending out of shape, leaders shouting themselves hoarse just to keep order. It was less organization and more noise stacked on noise.

Zorvath barely glanced at it. With hands in his pockets, he drifted to the wall and leaned back against it, his eyes cool, unreadable. He wasn't going to step in. Not this time. He was watching. Watching her.

Aria felt his stare. She rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath, and stepped forward.

"Everyone, please—just cooperate a little—please, stay in your groups," she called, her voice firm but not cutting through. Her words scattered like pebbles against a storm. Nobody really listened.

The tension knotted in her chest. She raised her voice, almost yelling, "I said cooperate! Everyone listen—"

That's when a voice tore back at her from the crowd.

"You ruined KHSS! Now barging?"

The words cracked like a whip. Suddenly the courtyard stilled—not silent, but weighted. Heads turned, breaths held. Everyone expected the same thing: Aria would crumble and run, or the place would break into a fight.

She didn't move. She just stood there, staring at the girl who had shouted. Then, slowly, her gaze swept across every single face in the courtyard.

Her voice, when it came, was low—but it carried.

"Yes. I ruined KHSS."

The air tightened. No one spoke.

"You were perfect, weren't you? Perfect when you injected drugs." Her tone sharpened. "Perfect when you turned Room Zero into a club. Perfect when you dragged this school's name through the mud until KHSS was a joke—until we were a headline waiting to happen."

Her words cut, steady and unflinching. "And now you point at me? You're right. I ruined that. I ruined the filth that kept this place rotting. I tore it down. If you're angry because I broke your playground—fine. But don't pretend you didn't already break this school yourselves."

The silence that followed wasn't ordinary silence. It was a silence that pressed down, that made students glance at each other, shifting, guilt stirring in their eyes. Faces that had been defiant a moment ago bent under the weight of her words.

And then, from the crowd, familiar figures pushed through.

Sona—embarrassed, worried, whispering, is she okay?

Danvy—chin high, eyes blazing, smirking as if to say, that's my girl.

Sreya—wide-eyed, almost unbelieving, whispering to herself, is this really our Aria?

One by one, all eyes turned back to her. The courtyard wasn't noise anymore. It was waiting. Waiting to hear what she would say next.

Finally, she lifted her chin. "And don't think I want you to line up just because Zorvath said so. If you want to prove this school isn't dead, if you want to show you're not just bodies rotting in Room Zero, then come out and prove yourselves. Not to him. Not to me. To yourselves."

Her voice rang clear, sharp, cutting through the air with the finality of a blade.

A ripple passed through the crowd—some shifting on their feet, some staring at the ground, others suddenly unsure of what to do with the truth gnawing at them.

Against the wall, Zorvath's expression didn't change much. Hands still buried in his pockets, he just watched her, but his eyes were different now—sharper, darker, as if he was measuring her in a new light. A flicker of something like reluctant respect passed there, quick as lightning.

From the ranks of Batch 3, Lolan's ears burned red. His crush on Aria had always been a quiet thing, hidden behind his usual bravado. But now, watching her stand alone and cut the entire school down with nothing but words, he couldn't look away. He smirked, a little too wide, like a boy trying to cover up the fact that he was hopelessly impressed.

And then there was Leo. Lazy, reckless Leo, the so-called playboy who only ever cared about his own amusement. He leaned against a railing, arms folded, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. This wasn't the weak Aria he'd half expected to watch crumble. This was fire. Dangerous, sharp-edged fire. And for once, he wasn't laughing at her. He was smirking, yes—but it was the smirk of someone who'd just spotted something worth his time.

Aria's voice cut through again, softer now, but edged with steel.

"We are poor. No teachers. No books." Her words dropped like stones, heavy and undeniable.

She took a step forward, her gaze burning through the crowd. "But nothing—nothing—can stop us unless we let it. Just look around you. Is this what you really want KHSS to be?"

Silence followed, sharp and stinging. Dozens of eyes lowered, feet shifted against the stone floor. For a moment it was as though her voice had stripped the noise from the air itself.

Then her tone rose, building, carrying power in its climb.

"Then break it. Break the cycle. Be that bloody bloodline breaker!"

The words struck like fire catching dry wood. A murmur surged in the courtyard, a spark of energy too big to cage. From the crowd, one boy's voice rang out, bold and raw:

"Yes! Come on—let's go!"

Cheers followed, rough, uneven, but real. Students shifted, shoulders squaring, eyes lifted toward her instead of away.

Aria's lips curved into a small, dangerous smile. She found the boy in the crowd and fixed her gaze on him.

"If you're ready," she said, voice sharp as a vow, "then be here. Tomorrow. Same spot. 9 a.m. Even if it's just one of you—I'll be here."

With that, she turned on her heel, walking out of the courtyard as though she had already claimed it.

Sona, Danvy, and Sreya pushed through the crowd to follow her, their faces lit not with doubt but with pride. To them, this wasn't the soft, hesitant Aria they once knew. This was their Aria—bold, unshaken, a girl who could silence an entire school and still walk away stronger.

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