Knight | Celeste Academy Series BK #1

26th Chapter ♣ A New Challenge

A/N: Picture above is Zion Brunhild.

"Denovegasia—the largest continent under the rule of the Kaivens."

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Chapter Twenty-Six  ♣ A New Challenge

It was a rather peaceful day when Valeriana found herself waking up in a relatively chilly morning. A week had passed since she was first admitted to Celeste Academy.

Though things have been terribly boring the past few days, Valeriana had an intuition that something interesting would happen today. Although she wasn't exactly sure what, her guts made it clear it wasn't something to look forward to. Ever since last night, she hadn't been able to sleep properly. She stayed up late trying to cover as many pages of her lessons as possible that it didn't even occur to her it was already four o'clock in the morning.

She had to drag herself out of bed with weak-feeling limbs and sleepy eyes. She was barely even able to get herself into her uniform.

She trudged down the stairs wearily and entered the kitchen. Charles was already in his apron dicing carrots on his chopping board. When Valeriana came, he paused from his work and looked up, but what he saw only made his mouth drop open.

"Valeriana," he said. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah . . ." she replied, sounding weak and enervated.

"It doesn't look that way to me," the fourth-ranker answered. "Go and wait in the dining room. You'll only get in the way."

She scratched her head and looked down at the ground, feeling somewhat hurt. "You should've put it more nicely. I would've understood."

"It's useless beating around," he straightforwardly stated.

"I can see that," she answered and swept away the stray lock that wandered on her face. "Are you sure you don't need help?"

"Be reminded that I used to prepare breakfast on my own."

Valeriana sighed and just nodded compliantly at Charles' order. She dragged her feet to the dining room and sat tiredly in her seat. Keelan was in his usual side of the table, waiting eagerly for food to be prepared. There also were Raziel and Brindon—who both were disinterested with anyone else. Tamara was sitting quietly, yawning while rubbing her eyes. Keelan looked bewildered by her appearance, but when Tamara's eyes landed on her, she broke into a scream.

"What happened to you?!"

She could not blame her, though. She had those dark eye bags, hollow cheeks, almost lifeless-like eyes, paper-white skin, and those pale and cracked lips.

"What in the world—did you even look at yourself in the mirror?" Tamara inquired. "You look like someone who just came back from the dead. Are you still alive?"

"My, Valeriana," Raziel said haughtily, flashing a disgusted look at her direction. "Women should be more conscious of how they look. That is not very beautiful."

"Who gives a damn about beauty right now anyway?"

"It's a very crucial part of our lives!" Raziel argued. "But I guess you wouldn't understand since a human such as yourself is not able to comprehend how people like me feel. Beauty is the epitome of life!"

Barely even listening through Raziel's long, narcissistic speech, Valeriana felt herself yawning. Just how many times had he already recited this speech?