Descendants of Gibbous
Chapter 48: Decision

Chapter 48: Decision

Vice Principal Mei-ling’s eyes were glued on the fulgurating aura value on the pillar that showcased two zeroes glued together with a small ’null’ written at their bottom. As for color, the gemstone pillar had turned white again with no cracks on it.

There was no way to determine Damien’s rank, but the woman knew better than to think the boy was weak. She had seen the way he moved during the game—a kind of power she had last seen during the days his father was a student at Gibforge.

"There can only be two explanations as to why the gemstone can’t read your aura value," she announced, her voice filling the stadium as she addressed the noisy audience.

"One: you’re too weak for the gem to read your aura."

Damien’s body stiffened as the words escaped the woman’s lips. His nightmare had come true. He was officially the weakest ranked student amongst the lot of them all.

As if to cement the bitterness bubbling in his chest, a unified hiss of snickers came from Vestin’s corner. Damien didn’t dare look in their direction. He knew exactly why they were laughing, and if Yong’s words from before were right, he was probably their main target now.

’It just had to happen after I told Ahara I’d take all the risks and pain, didn’t it?’ Damien snorted.

Mei-ling raised her hand at the unharmonious crowd, promptly silencing them as if by some spell.

"However! That can’t be true considering how you tagged out thirty teams alone during the final minute of the game," she added, pointing at the large screen below the phoenix.

The moment she did, a video began to play on it in slow motion. It took Damien a moment to realize that there was recorded evidence of him tagging other teams during the match. Thanks to that, the snickers from Vestin’s house stopped, giving Damien a chance to shine in the pit of darkness he was in at the moment.

"This leads us to my second explanation," Mei continued. "Your aura is still probably getting accustomed to your body, hence the sudden shifts and developments to it at any given point. If that’s the case then the pillar won’t be able to see inside, and naturally, the same applies to the cardinal house appointing gems."

Mei-ling looked around the silent stadium, waiting for some sort of objection from one of them. There was always bound to be that one ignorant fool who didn’t know about the Numen’s son leaving for the human world after their family was raided eleven years ago despite it being written in modern history books and being taught in schools.

Luckily, Gibforge was spared the stupidity today—and so was Mei. She wasn’t ready to give a history lecture mid-ceremony and be labeled the boring teacher for yet another coming year at Gibforge. Sighing, she turned to Damien.

The boy was visibly shivering and rubbing his hands together, oblivious to the nurse behind him manipulating water to assist the fainted fairy.

"Ahem!" She faked a cough, managing to draw Damien’s attention in an instant. "You my boy are left with but two options."

Damien blinked furiously at her. "And w-what are those options?" He stammered, half-expecting her to tell him he was expelled before he even started school.

"Well, either you go back home and leave the hero training to your peers whose ranks have been decided if you fear that you might be too weak for Gibforge, or you stay and see how far you can reach. However, I must warn you, Gibforge won’t take any special note of your condition whilst you’re here if you decide to stay. We’re meant to train heroes who will save Gibbous, not babysit the weak—so make your decision wisely. Are you going to stay, or are you going back home? We can give you a grace period to—

"I’m staying," Damien cut her before she finished speaking, making the crowd gasp or hum in unison.

Whether it was them being shocked at his sudden answer or at the sheer audacity of his bravery in cutting the Vice Principal amidst her explanation, Damien couldn’t tell which was which. But despite their worries, one thing was certain in his head—he was going to stay and study at Gibforge no matter his aura value or rank condition.

There was no need to think about it a second time. He had already talked to Ahara about it and was sure she was unwillingly supporting him somewhere in the stadium seats. This was a journey he had to take by himself.

To be able to change both inside and out—just like he had promised the shadow.

"Are you sure you don’t need to think this over with your family or by yourself?" Mei-ling asked, her usual expressionless face now gone.

She didn’t know whether to be amazed by Damien’s determination or if it was just him faking bravado because he wanted to look cool. Whatever reason he had, the look on his face suggested he was serious about Gibforge and wanted to become a hero—an act that earned him some of the old woman’s respect.

Damien nodded in an instant. "I already talked to my family. I’m ready for Gibforge even if it’ll cost me an arm and a leg," the boy firmly answered, the twinkle in his eyes seemingly growing with each word he said.

Mei-ling paused for a moment, assessing his reaction. Once she was sure of whatever thing made her judge the boy, she finally nodded in response, standing tall and addressing her senior who was now walking towards her and Damien after successfully assisting the nurse in carrying the enlarged fairy to the school’s infirmary.

"He has decided to stay," ’Mei told Twiller, her voice still echoing in the stadium loud enough for everyone to hear despite not having a mic or some sort of amplifier on her.

’How is she doing that?’ Damien wondered, just when Twiller walked past him and stood next to Mei-ling, facing the boy.

"Excellent. Very excellent. He will go down in history once again as the first student to be accepted by Gibforge despite his aura ranking being unknown," Twiller replied, grinning.

Unlike the Vice Principal, he had a small black device that looked like a tiny insect attached right below his lip which acted as his microphone. Damien soon realized that it was alive when it flapped its tiny wings open in time for Twiller’s next words.

"And what about the Cardinal house? Has he already been assigned one?"

Mei-ling shook her head. "As you can see, all the cardinal house gemstones have opened for him. I was thinking that instead of us choosing a house for him, why not let the boy decide since he has options laid out in front of him, unlike the other students? What do you think, Principal Dextrodus?"

Damien cringed at their mannerisms. They sounded like weather forecast reporters and were behaving the same as well—looking at each other and smiling at the crowd blah blah.

"Hmm. I think you’re right. The boy should choose his own destiny, we can’t be the ones to decide that for him," Twiller replied, stroking his long beard.

He glanced curiously at Damien—a current fetish of his that made Damien squirm every. Damn. Time!

The way Twiller looked at him made him think he knew something about Damien even he didn’t know about himself. He couldn’t quite decipher the meaning behind his scrutinizing gaze, but he knew it wasn’t normal. Even his gut screamed in agony every time those blue eyes landed on him, but it always calmed down when the old man finally spoke.

His voice was cool like that.

"Tell us, Damien Amaris. What cardinal house would you like to be appointed to?" Twiller asked in a low voice, making the entire stadium’s focus shift to the poor boy amidst it.

Damien blinked at the pair standing before him. He hadn’t expected them to actually ask him that despite their discussion. In his head, he thought they’d at least do some magic on him—maybe Mei-ling would use that clock eye and see into his future to determine which group he was going to end up in, but no!

They just had to dump the dilemma on him.

Damien could almost hear the screams from the houses telling him not to choose them even though they were silent. However, his choice was pretty much made already before he even spoke.

The only people he knew were in the Fangpeak’s cardinal house. Going to the other houses was pretty much suicide and the last thing Damien needed was being depressed during his first year at Gibforge.

"I’d like to be in Fangpeak’s cardinal house then," Damien announced, glancing at the students in red.

It was no trouble spotting his former teammates from the group standing below them, not with Eden already waving at him and desperately gesturing for Damien to choose Fangpeak. She hadn’t heard what he said since he had no voice amplifier.

’Chill out penguin of Madagascar. I’ve already chosen Fangpeak."

"Fangpeak, huh?" Twiller glanced at the phoenix statue, grinning.

Eden’s sudden yelp of joy sliced through the silent rows of people, making the old man hum in approval. He knew Damien would need all the assistance he could get in his first years at Gibforge, especially after this strange ordeal that just made him the prime target of every other student.

Gibforge was, after all, a hero school.

Duels were to be had, and so were competitions. The only thing that could keep a young heart from bleeding out during failures or defeat was friends.

’And it seems he’s already made some,’ Twiller noted when he saw Eden nudging Ambrose and getting the grumpy girl to wave at Damien too—though her waving looked more like her telling him to back off.

"Then Fangpeak cardinal house it is," Twiller loudly announced, gesturing at it. "Go and stand under the phoenix statue with your other peers and wait for your acceptance letters."

As Damien made his way to the students in red uniforms, he couldn’t help but notice how only a few of them were happy to have him in their house. The rest of them seemed to be annoyed that he had chosen their house—and they didn’t bother with trying to hide their expressions either. Some girls even whispered with their eyes set on him as if to show him he wasn’t welcome in their house.

’Here goes nothing,’ Damien told himself, focusing on the three students at the edge of the new students group.

Eden had stopped waving now but had a huge grin plastered on her face, holding on to Ambrose’s arm like she was her mother. As for their betrayer, the look he was giving Damien was unreadable, annoyed even—and it didn’t help that he was the one standing on the outer edge of the group where Damien was headed.

"You did good," Yong Kim informed Damien, and before the vampire could back away from him, he grabbed his hand and pulled him into a hug.

Damien stumbled forward, falling into Yong’s embrace and coming into view with the students behind the prince—their three attackers from before.

’What in the fucking fate shit is this setup?’ He wondered avoiding their gaze as he tried to move away from Yong, but the idiot had a formidable grip on him. Once the Prince was within earshot though, he whispered in Damien’s ear:

"Fuck your revenge or whatever, I’m going to pay you back for not telling me the secret to having the fairy touch you. Just you wait.."

’What the—’

Damien finally shrugged himself away from Yong and glared at him.

"I’m not a pervert like you, pervert!" He hissed at him, adjusting his suit and taking a step away from Yong, all whilst feeling the prying eyes of other students on him.