Luminary Institute

63: A Desolate Classroom

The next morning, Nyssa and Celeste ended up arriving at the classroom first—as per usual. Even after talking late into the night to sort out the “are we dating now?” awkwardness, they seemed to have fared better than their fellow Class Zero compatriots. 

Angelica ended up being the next to arrive. Scanning the empty room with a disapproving click of the tongue, she thanked Nyssa and Celeste for arriving on time before retreating to her desk and filing away a couple papers. Once her desk had been cleaned from any unnecessary documents, she laid out the reports she had gathered. One by one, she stacked the documents in the order they’d show up in for her upcoming presentation. 

As she organized though, her ears picked up the quiet conversation transpiring between Nyssa and Celeste. Unbeknownst to them, she snuck a quick glance and saw their hands intertwined under their desks. 

... I see how it is. Impressive how fast they got it done. Knowing them, I expected to wait another couple years before seeing any real development. 

Interesting though... I’ll have to update my plans. I’m sure they’ll fight with just a little more chemistry now. 

Her train of thoughts though, came grinding to a halt as the door got flung open, sliding and slamming against its doorstop. In walked the classic trio—Albion, Titus, and Conrad—who, with their eye bags, yawns, and energy drinks, showed clear signs of sleep deprivation. 

Angelica, after a quick glance, sighed to herself. At least the regret towards their actions is already clear in their eyes. 

Pausing her work, she checked her watch, glanced towards the three, and shook her head while tapping her watch. “Three minutes late, please try and be on time in the future, especially if I’m doing a presentation like today.” 

The voices of the three overlapped as they all did their own version of a lazy salute. “Yes, Angelica.” “Sounds good.” “We’ll be more mindful of the time in the future.” 

“Good,” Angelica returned to her work. She pulled out a laptop as the classroom began coming alive with morning conversation. While she connected her laptop to the screen to display her presentation, she couldn’t help but break into a small smile as the five Class Zero students chatted about their escapades from the previous night. 

Not that the trio is going to notice the change between Nyssa and Celeste though... They were already quite affectionate, after all.

She, herself, stayed quiet though. Once she got the screen to display the title slide, she returned to her seat and leaned back before pulling out her phone. Letting the five talk, laugh, and banter away while they waited for the two fourth-years, she sent a few quick text messages to Roxanne. 

[Good morning dear] 

[Hope you’re not tiring yourself out over there] 

[Love you as always <3] 

[As a side note, Nyssa and Celeste finally started dating, I overheard them whispering about it this morning] 

[... You’d think they’d be more aware of my elevated hearing abilities by now, especially Nyssa]

[Not that I’m complaining! Lmfao] 

[Take care of yourself though, make sure to eat a full breakfast, not just a yogurt, okay? You’ll need it on the battlefield] 

[i love you as always though, lovely, so stay safe] 

Though Roxanne’s icon—and the three hopping dots to show she had begun typing—had popped up by the message window, Angelica had to turn off her phone and slide it into her pocket as the last two Class Zero students appeared. 

“Glad you two decided to make an appearance,” Angelica raised her eyebrows after seeing Ryker and Electra’s messy hair and tired eyes. “Hope the party last night after getting second didn’t hold you two up too long.” 

“How could we lose to Olivia...” Ryker sighed as he walked to his desk. “She’s one, and we’re two...” 

“It should be cheating for her to use a whole-ass demon...” Electra grumbled, slumping against her desk after taking a seat. “It’s a high-ranking one too! The blasphemy! Our holy water didn’t even work! Did the dude scam us or something?” 

“He must hav-” 

“Ahem, ahem,” Angelica cleared her throat to cut off Ryker. “Let’s get started, shall we?” 

She rolled back in her chair and pushed herself up before stepping to the screen’s side and waving her hand. Once the conversation died down, she flashed a quick smile to the class. “Good morning, everyone, how are we doing today?” 

Nodding along as everyone made a few quick comments, she turned back to the presentation with a small hand flourish. “So, as I mentioned in my message last evening—I apologize for the short notice by the way—but we’ll be leaving this evening to go on our field exercise. I’ve printed out packing lists here, and I’ll pass them out before dismissing you to give you some time to pack. As for some logistical information, I’ve already booked the tickets for a high speed overnight train to the north, so we’ll meet up around dinner time, grab a meal, and head out, okay? Let’s keep it light hearted, we’re here to have some fun!”

After getting a few subdued murmurs of agreement, she shook her head with a faint smile. She took a quick step back to her desk and grabbed her papers. With a clicker in hand, she changed from the title slide with a subtle flick of the finger. “Let’s start broad with our goals going into this. This is still a learning exercise so your safety is paramount…”

Nyssa’s head bobbed up and down as she squinted to keep her eyes open. The consequences from the previous night’s extended conversation reared its ugly head, wrestling her mind and pinning her down with a move called ‘sleep deprivation.’ 

Words marched one ear and… tumbled their way out of the other. She had to admit, Angelica had a silky smooth voice tailored for audiobooks. “We’ll be in the north past the bounds… civilization… unknown monsters… investigation.”

“There might be other teams… calm… we’re all collaborating in this investigation… plus… institute’s influence.” 

Nyssa still felt like she had managed to get the gist of Angelica’s presentation. Sure, for some reason certain words seemed to go missing, but the meaning… entered her brain. 

I’ll just ask Celeste to fill me in later… 

Later, past her introductory section, Angelica passed out a couple printed packets to each of the students. “I’ve also shared these on our class page, but here’s a hard copy. I’ll skim over it right now, but make sure to give it a read later today when you’re done packing or when we’re on the train. In the first fourth of this packet I’ve detailed many of the terrains and environments we might encounter. The rest of it details the currently known species of monsters we might run into. Keep in mind though, we are investigating the potential of mutations, so be guarded as we might run into creatures never seen before.”