Edward's hand moved toward the medallion.
"No!"
Talon's voice cut through the silence like a whip. Everyone turned toward him.
"This isn't the right time..." he said while, still trembling, he stared at Shin's lifeless body.
Edward stopped his hand, looking at him with a neutral expression.
"Is something wrong, Talon?"
"Is something wrong?" Talon pointed toward Shin's body, his arm shaking. "Someone just died! Shin just died! And you're going to act like nothing happened? You're the professor! The only adult here!"
"I believe I made it very clear that deaths in rifts are something that can always occur."
"Even so, it's not appropriate! You can't just let it go and move on!"
"It's funny that you're the one saying that, you know?" Leander began to speak, his voice loaded with sarcasm. "Considering that you—"
"Leander." Edward raised a hand, cutting him off. "That's not necessary. I'll handle this."
Turning toward Talon, his eyes were cold, calculating.
"Tell me something, Talon," he began with a measured voice. "Why were you so desperate to participate in this exam?"
Talon blinked, bewildered by the question. "What...?"
"Your insistence when you spoke to me about being able to enter the exam wasn't normal," Edward continued, his tone analytical. "It almost seemed as if your life depended on it. There was no way you would accept no for an answer."
A pause, letting his words sink in.
'What is he doing...? Why... is he telling everyone this? Does he want them to kill me? We're supposed to have an agreement...'
"So much so that you went as far as offering a bribe to participate and I... accepted, of course."
When he said that, all eyes turned toward Talon—some in surprise, others in anger, judging him at the same time.
"What...? So it wasn't because you were given an opportunity because of your last name like you said?" Beth asked, looking directly at him, while her eyes showed she wasn't understanding anything.
"Damn you," Leander clenched his fists in rage. "You really bribed him to get into the final exam? And you were even capable of lying... You really can't sink any lower..."
"You're despicable," Aurora added with disgust. "I knew you'd pulled some dirty trick... How much money did you pay?" After saying that, she approached Talon angrily. "Come on! Answer, damn it... Say something!"
Talon was nervous, not knowing specifically what to say while Aurora pressed him for an answer with her face inches from his.
"It was 20,000 dollars," Edward added.
When she heard the amount, Aurora stood in shock in front of Talon.
"Twenty... twenty thousand...?" Sarah couldn't believe what she'd heard.
"TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!" Eryndor exploded, his face reddening with fury. "How could you pay twenty thousand damn dollars to get in?! How did you even get the money?!"
"That's..." Ludwig was shocked. "That's more than my family makes in an entire year."
"With that money... Shin could have afforded all of his grandfather's treatment..." Beth murmured, stunned.
"You're not going to say anything...? You're just going to stay quiet and that's it?" Aurora finally spoke. "How did you get that damn money?! Answer! Did your family give it to you?! Is Shin's blood on your entire family's hands?!"
Talon avoided making direct contact with Aurora while at the same time feeling discomfort coursing through his entire body.
"Say something, damn it, or I swear I'll—!"
"Aurora, that's enough..." Edward interrupted her. "I didn't tell any of this with the purpose of having you attack Talon, so stop right now."
Aurora obeyed, though not without first showing an expression of complete helplessness.
"So, Talon... I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't be a hypocrite again by saying it's not the right time, because I know that of everyone here, you're the most anxious to know this."
Edward looked directly at Talon to tell him that.
"There's something I don't understand..." Beth spoke, making Edward look at her. "Why did you accept that bribe in the first place...?"
"Didn't you hear the amount I mentioned...? It's tempting and I'm human after all, it's impossible to resist, and I think everyone here would be lying if they said they wouldn't do the same thing I did."
Saying that, he brought his hand back toward the medallion.
"Get ready... you're about to learn the exam results..."
And so he turned it to one side, making the rings begin to glow brightly until they stopped, having something written on them.
"A rune has just formed on your rings. It indicates your rank as a sentinel..." Edward explained.
"And what does that have to do with the exam...?" Leander asked, confused.
"It means you passed..."
"And what rank am I supposed to be...? Because honestly I don't understand."
"You, Leander... you have the Zharun rune."
"And is that good or bad...?"
"It's quite good... yes."
"And what's the order of the runes...?" Ludwig asked.
"The first, and also the lowest rank, is Nyxaris, then comes Vaeldar, Vornathar, Lilithar, Zharun, Volgrim, Thalgrim, Khaldrith, Drakarth, and Elyon."
"Elyon...? I remember hearing that word several times since I was a little girl," Sarah's eyes widened when she heard the name of the last rune.
"Most likely yes… since there is only one person in the world who has that rune, Cedric Thornveil, bearer of the six elements and also the strongest sentinel of the present day. But well, I guess you already know who I'm referring to."
Everyone felt chills hearing that.
"Well... the last thing I want right now is to talk about that family," Aurora expressed her thoughts, while approaching Edward. "Could you please tell me what rune I have...?" she asked him, showing him her ring.
"You have the Nyxaris rune," he answered.
"What...? That can't be true..." Aurora felt humiliated hearing that.
"You, Ludwig, Sarah and Beth have the Vaeldar rune, while you, Eryndor, just like Leander, have the Zharun rune."
"I suppose that's pretty good..."
"Yeah... honestly I'm not complaining."
Sarah and Beth said, talking among themselves.
"Great! We're the best in the group."
"It was to be expected, honestly... the competition wasn't that great."
Eryndor and Leander did the same.
"Why do I have the worst rune of all?! That's not fair!" Aurora complained.
"There's nothing wrong with having the Nyxaris rune, many sentinels have it."
"But I can't accept it! I thought I'd have a better one!" Aurora felt disappointed in herself.
"If it makes you feel better, you can still keep ascending in runes. At the end of each year at the academy the same procedure is done, so if you work hard enough, you can improve."
Edward's words didn't help Aurora much, as she still felt frustrated.
"And why do Eryndor and Leander have such high runes compared to the others...?" Ludwig asked.
"Because their rings allow them to use elemental magic, which is by default much more powerful than arcane magic, so they by default start from that rune onward."
"That's not fair..." Ludwig said.
"I also forgot to mention something else, sentinels who use arcane magic cannot ascend beyond the Lilithar rune."
"Huh?! That's not fair! There's not supposed to be a distinction between those who use elemental magic and those who don't!" Beth said.
"We told you that having elemental magic made you superior, but you didn't want to believe us," Leander said.
"Unfortunately nothing can be done about it, you just have to adapt," Edward said.
[ Synchronization Error ]
[ You Have 0 Points ]
"But what the hell is happening now?!" Talon, who was behind everyone, exploded in rage when his watch showed an error and after that the points he had accumulated went to 0. "And why hasn't any rune appeared on my ring until now?!"
Desperation showed in his facial expressions.
"Who would've thought... you got the BOSS's points just to lose them, what a waste..." Leander said.
Talon just raised his gaze to look at him and instantly focused it back on his watch.
"This piece of junk must be malfunctioning!"
Not knowing what to do, he began hitting it repeatedly.
"Doing that won't fix anything..." Edward told him. "What's happening is that you can't get a rune on your ring since it's not even connected to you in the first place, it's like it's a common, ordinary ring."
"What are you talking about?! I got the necessary points to pass! I killed the boss! And this piece of junk took them all away!"
"Because the points only synchronize with the ring, and in your case since your ring doesn't work, it simply can't do so..."
"So what?! Are you saying that getting points wasn't going to help me at all?! Killing the boss was for nothing?!"
"Yes, basically that."
"But... I passed, right?" Talon asked, with a mixture on his face between confusion and panic.
"Are you seriously asking me that...? Obviously not, Talon, you didn't pass the exam."
Hearing that, it was as if the world came crashing down on him.
"You're joking, right? You have to be joking..."
"I'm not joking, Talon, it's the truth, you didn't pass."
"But I made it this far! I survived! I killed the boss! How is it possible I didn't pass?!"
"You can't pass without a rune, the academy requires it, and you can't have a rune without a ring capable of using magic, it's simple logic, Talon."
"So... I did all this for nothing... I made Shin die for nothing..." Talon, disturbed, murmured that. "Give me back the damn money I gave you then!"
"What...? Of course not, the deal we made was to let you take the final exam and I fulfilled it."
"But I couldn't pass it!"
"That's a separate topic of conversation."
"That money belongs to my father! If he finds out I gave it away for nothing he's going to kill me!"
"Well you shouldn't have taken it in the first place... Besides, I'm also risking losing my job too much for what I did, even more so now that I told everyone and they all know and can spread the rumor."
"Give me back the damn money!"
"Alright, that's enough... have more respect for the professor."
Leander, noticing that Talon was becoming aggressive, intervened.
"You stay out of this, don't get involved!"
Without realizing it, Talon punched Leander.
"I'm sorry... I-I didn't realize..."
Leander wiped the blood from his lip, his face contorting in absolute fury.
"Consider yourself a dead man."
Taking a step toward Talon, his fist was already raised. But before he could unleash it, Aurora held his fist, with her gaze lowered.
"What do you think you're doing?! Let go of me!"
And without saying absolutely anything, she walked toward Talon.
"Aurora...?"
Talon didn't understand what was happening. But then, without warning, Aurora lunged at him.
"AGH!"
Talon fell to the ground with Aurora on top. His back hit the stone hard.
CRACK
Instantly, her fist crashed into Talon's face.
"YOU'RE A DAMN SELFISH BASTARD!"
She immediately threw another punch directly to his nose. Blood exploded.
"DO YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT YOURSELF?! DON'T YOU HAVE THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF EMPATHY?!"
Another one. And another. And another.
Talon tried to cover his face with his arms, but Aurora savagely pushed them aside, hitting without stopping.
"SHIN DIED! YOUR SUPPOSED FRIEND IS DEAD! YOU'LL NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN! AND THE ONLY THING YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT IS THAT YOU DIDN'T PASS THE DAMN EXAM?!"
"AURORA, STOP!" Beth ran toward her, trying to separate them.
Ludwig, seeing that Beth was having difficulty pulling her off, also ran to help, and the two of them managed to get her off Talon, who already had half his face covered in blood.
"YOU KNEW IT PERFECTLY WELL! YOU KNEW THERE WAS NO WAY YOU WOULD PASS! BUT YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF HIM! OF HIS KINDNESS! YOU USED HIM ANYWAY!"
While Ludwig held her, she still struggled to get closer to him and keep hitting him.
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?! SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Then, Talon responded, with his voice showing he was about to start crying.
"Talon! Are you okay?" Worried about the blood on his face, Sarah approached him.
"GET AWAY! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TOUCHING ME!"
Talon, refusing to receive help, simply pushed her away.
"But what's wrong with you?! I'm just trying to help!"
"I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME! EVERYONE STAY AWAY FROM ME! I WON'T LET ANYONE COME NEAR ME!"