Tiffany crossed her arms and lifted her chin. "Dean, with all due respect, I wasn’t involved in Eydis’s injury at all. Ask my friends if you don’t believe me.”

  Natalia scoffed. “Then explain the bruise on her head, Tiffany.”

  “Maybe she tripped. Honestly, with her poor eyesight, it’s no surprise.”

  While they bickered, Eydis watched Dean Saito, whose expression stayed carefully neutral. She already had the context. Natalia had been nothing if not thorough.

  Tiffany had attended the Academy since the minimum entry year of 6th grade. On her first day, she quickly formed a clique of influential elite heirs who lived near her area. Apparently, in this world, having a mansion on the Warrungal Ranges meant power, a higher vantage point overlooking Alchymia City like judgement.

  Naturally, her family had enough influence to make consequences optional, especially since her uncle was a senator. The Academy would not expel her without undeniable evidence. In the end, it was simply Eydis’s word against Tiffany’s.

  Saito wasn’t someone who openly favoured the elite, but even for him, dealing with them required finesse. And a queen, after all, knew how to play.

  “Why don’t we hear from your trusted friends, Tiffany?” Eydis interrupted.

  Tiffany smirked. “Sure. It’s not like I have anything to hide.”

  “Since you have nothing to hide, you will not mind if I pick two of them. And,” Eydis glanced at Saito, “we question them one by one.”

  Tiffany glared at her. “What crap are you trying to pull?”

  “Language, Miss Tiffany,” Saito finally spoke.

  “Why, Tiffany? It’s only reasonable.” Eydis faced the dean.

  Saito agreed. “Indeed it is.”

  Tiffany mumbled something unintelligible, snatched a notepad, scribbled five names, and shoved it across the desk. “Whatever. It won’t change a thing.”

  Saito scanned the list and nodded. “Eydis, choose two. Tiffany, until the investigation is over, you are not to contact your friends.”

  Amanda shifted on her chair, glancing up sheepishly at Dean Saito. The sunlight caught his glasses, making it hard to hold eye contact without squinting.

  By the window behind him, Eydis stood straight-backed. Her hair was neatly braided for once, unlike the sloppy look she usually sported. She seemed different. Maybe it was the attitude, those weird and intense eyes, or that mysterious smile.

  She actually looked intimidating.

  Amanda forced herself to concentrate and repeated Tiffany’s words in her head: Deny everything.

  “Amanda,” Dean Saito said, “did you see what happened?”

  “Yes, I saw the whole thing.”

  Eydis raised an eyebrow. “Did you now? Alright. Where exactly did I fall?”

  “The running track. We were just chatting on the bleachers when you walked past and tripped, just like that.”

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  Eydis turned to the dean. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the running track is designed for… running, isn’t it? Smooth, flat, nothing to trip over?”

  “That is its intended design,” he said.

  “You tripped over your own feet!” Amanda insisted weakly.

  Eydis tapped her lower lip. “That clumsy, was I? Then as an eyewitness, you will not mind demonstrating.”

  Saito’s mouth twitched. “That would certainly clarify things.”

  With a tsk and clear reluctance, Amanda lowered herself to the floor and attempted a clumsy imitation of a fall.

  Uh oh. The office’s eery silence was absolutely bad news.

  When Amanda looked up, she caught Eydis and Dean Saito both struggling to keep straight faces. Heat rushed into her cheeks.

  “Amanda, is that really how it happened? Because this…” Eydis turned and swept her braid aside to show a fading bruise at the base of her skull, “…says otherwise.”

  Amanda flinched. Shit. They had not planned that far. “Let me try again.”

  She scrambled up, sucked in a breath and flung herself backwards. Her arms shot out without thinking and cushioned the fall.

  Lying there, she winced. “Do I… need to do that again?”

  Eydis tilted her head, barely amused. “There’s no point. You will brace yourself every time. It’s instinct.”

  “Exactly, who the hell w—”

  Eydis’s smile widened. Dean Saito leaned forward slightly at his desk.

  Shit.

  SHIT.

  “You’re right, Amanda,” Eydis said softly, almost purring. “When we trip, the brain usually tries to protect the skull. It’s… survival.”

  “Y-you are slow to react, though, right?” Amanda looked to the dean for help, but he only sipped his tea. “I mean… clumsy?”

  “Is that a statement or a desperate question?” Eydis asked.

  “Everyone knows you’re dead last in PE,” Amanda snapped.

  Eydis stepped close and tucked a strand of black hair behind Amanda’s ear.

  Amanda froze, goosebumps rising on her skin, probably because she was grossed out. Yes. That was it. But was Eydis always this intense? Like… those eyes up close were actually…

  Attract—no!

  “Let’s assume for a moment I am that clumsy.” Eydis brushed her fingertips just below Amanda’s temple, then moving them slowly down the side of her head.

  “But this part of the human skull…” Her touch hovered just below Amanda’s ear. “…tends to hit the ground first in a fall, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Amanda nodded before she could stop herself. Her skin tingled where Eydis had touched it.

  “Oh? Agreement. That is inconvenient for your story.” Eydis moved her hand to rest at the nape of Amanda’s neck. “Because the injury is here.”

  Blinking, Amanda felt overwhelmed. “Well—I—You…”

  “So…” Eydis stepped back as if the last thirty seconds hadn’t happened. “How did I really get hurt?”

  The room felt smaller somehow. Dean Saito hadn’t said a word, but his eyes now felt colder.

  He knew.

  What was going to happen? Getting expelled would be bad, but her dad’s reaction… Amanda didn’t even want to think about it.

  “You are in my economics class, are you not?” Eydis suddenly changed the subject.

  “What?”

  “The prisoner’s dilemma is on the syllabus. Confess now and you are a witness. If Jillian speaks first,” Eydis said, voice dropping, “you are an accomplice.”

  Anxiety twisted Amanda’s gut. She stared at her shoes, then at her trembling hands. The words spilled from her mouth in a rush. “Tiffany… she hit her. That afternoon at recess…”

  Within the hour, Dean Saito held two matching statements—same names, same weapon. Tiffany, a baseball bat, a single strike.

  When the witnesses had left the office, Saito regarded Eydis with the patience of a man not easily impressed. “That was impressive. How did you know to choose Amanda and Jillian?”

  Eydis’s attention stayed on the window, where the pink eye pulsed faintly outside the glass.

  “A simple calculation, Dean. They’re close enough to Tiffany to be useful to her, but not elite enough…” Her gaze flickered to him. “To avoid consequences.”

  Saito curled a finger around his teacup’s handle.

  “When self-interest leads,” Eydis added, “loyalty quickly becomes an afterthought.”

  He looked at her and took another sip of his tea. “With these confessions, Tiffany will receive a one-week suspension.”

  Eydis began to wonder if it was the esteemed dean’s nervous tic.

  She laughed deliberately, but her eyes remained cold. “A week? For assault?”

  “But the injury was minor—”

  “Minor? Scan it, inspect it, measure it as you like. I doubt the bat left only a scratch.” She pressed. “This is not her first time. You knew, and you let silence do the work.”

  Saito flinched. “There was little I could do without anyone coming forward.”

  “Then take this chance to fix it. A baseball bat, Dean. People have died from less. A week is an insult.” Eydis couldn’t be bothered masking her displeasure.

  Died… from less.

  What if the original owner of this body hadn’t survived that hit? The idea sat heavy in her chest.

  Later. That was for later. Now there was a point to make.

  Eydis lifted her chin. “Dean Saito, grudges bore me. I prefer to leave the past where it belongs. But…” Her voice dropped. “I make an exception.”

  “Is that a threat, Miss Eydis?”

  “Threat? No, just an observation.” She strode to the door, opened it, and paused at the threshold without looking back.

  "Silence in the face of cruelty is the same as becoming its accomplice.”

  Saito swallowed audibly.

  “Do you not feel that weight, Dean?"