The silence in the courtyard was thick enough to choke on. The high-ranking official, Mr. Vance, remained bowed, a bead of sweat tracing a frantic path down his temple. The female administrator beside him looked like she might faint.
“You tried to kick me out of the school,” the girl in the hoodie repeated, her voice lacking any warmth.
Mr. Vance’s head snapped up, his expression a mask of panicked obsequiousness. “A terrible misunderstanding, Ms. Sterling. A catastrophic error in judgment by a junior staff member. It has been rectified. Immediately. And they have been terminated.”
The name dropped like a bomb. Sterling.
The murmurs returned, no longer mocking, but tinged with awe and fear. The Sterling Corporation owned half the real estate in the city and had its fingers in every lucrative pie on the continent. They were the apex predators of the financial world, and their heirs were rumored to be ruthlessly protected, hidden away from the public eye.
The blonde bully, still sprawled on the asphalt, scrambling backward, her snakeskin skirt scraping against the ground. “Sterling?” she whimpered, the color completely drained from her face.
Elara Sterling finally turned her gaze to the fallen queen. “Yes,” she said softly, but the word carried across the quiet courtyard. “Charity, you said? It seems my family’s ‘charity’ is the only reason you have a paved courtyard to scrape your knees on.”
She didn’t wait for a response. Elara walked past the trembling official and through the grand oak doors of the academy, the sea of designer-clad students parting for her like the Red Sea.
As she navigated the opulent hallways, however, her stoic facade cracked just a fraction. This grand reveal wasn’t part of the plan. She was supposed to remain hidden, observing the academy from the bottom of the social food chain. That had been her grandfather’s strict instruction. Find the rot, Elara. Before it spreads to the board.
She slipped into a deserted stairwell and pulled a sleek, encrypted phone from her pocket. She typed a single, frantic message to an unknown number.
Cover blown. They know who I am. But I think they still don’t know what I am.
A response buzzed back almost instantly.
Proceed with caution. The Blackwood faction is moving tonight. The game has just begun.
Elara stared at the screen, a chilling smile finally touching her lips. The petty bullying of spoiled heirs was nothing compared to the war brewing in the shadows of this academy. And she was ready to fight.
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