Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 35: Humiliation For Jorath

Chapter 35: Humiliation For Jorath

"You’re a disgrace to all the guys in the class!" Claude, the one with red hair, shouted, pointing accusingly at Jorath.

Zinnia and the other girls were just as angry, their faces bright red with fury.

"You’re gross and shameless! How could the school even let you in?" Zinnia yelled, her voice full of disdain.

Vivian turned away, disgusted. "I’m pretty sure he’s the kind of guy sneaking into the girls’ bathroom... ewww."

Even though she wasn’t close to Lyra, Vivian still couldn’t stand Jorath’s behavior.

Realizing he had crossed a line, Jorath blushed and stammered, "I just... I just misspoke! We could just have a girl check it, right?"

But it was clear he had blown any chance of dating any girls in the class for the next four years.

Webber, regretting getting Jorath involved in spying on Lyra, turned to the female head student and said, "Take Lyra to the restroom and check her."

The girl hesitated, but Lyra, her expression cold, spoke first, "I refuse. Everyone knows Jorath holds a grudge against me, and having him involved isn’t fair."

"That’s only because you cheated..."

"Do you have any evidence, sir?" Lyra cut him off loudly. "You’ve suspected me from the start without any proof. Involving Jorath just makes it more obvious that you’re targeting me, for no reason."

With no evidence, her argument seemed solid.

Seeing the Webber’s silence, Jorath quickly added, "Then are you willing to let someone check you up?"

"Are you willing to have the detector checked?" Lyra challenged, stepping forward with her head held high. "Can you guarantee you didn’t set me up? According to the rules, you need to prove you weren’t targeting me before proving I cheated."

In the quiet that followed, Claude was the first to speak up, "Sir, I think Lyra has a point."

Zinnia chimed in, "Yeah, why should we just believe whatever Jorath says?"

"The detector was given to me by the instructor..."

But Webber, wiping his face, said, "To clear this up, let’s check it."

Jorath panicked and reached into his pocket.

At that moment, Zinnia darted forward and snatched the device from his pocket.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"Look, the detector is still going off!" Zinnia exclaimed, backing away from Jorath, who tried to grab it back. She moved farther away from Lyra, but it kept beeping.

Claude took the detector, glanced at it, and then smirked. "The detector is set to body detection mode, beeping whenever it touched a human body." He tossed the device at Jorath. "The Shedd family must be ashamed to have someone like you."

Lyra nodded in agreement. "Now the truth is out. Sir, next time, maybe pick someone reliable, like the head student, if you want to monitor me."

Thierry awkwardly scratched his nose, realizing Lyra had figured it all out.

Webber’s face turned dark with embarrassment, understanding just how wrong he had been. He walked up to Lyra and bowed, "I’m sorry. I trusted the wrong guy."

He only admitted to trusting the wrong person, not to falsely accusing Lyra, because he still believed she had cheated. He just hadn’t caught her yet.

Lyra smirked slightly. "Apology accepted, sir."

As long as they hadn’t caught her, it wasn’t considered cheating.

Webber was furious. "Jorath! Apologize to Lyra!"

Jorath felt like he was on trial in front of everyone, but he knew that not apologizing would make things worse. So, he walked over to Lyra, bowed with a serious face, and said loudly, "I’m sorry, I was confused and wrongly accused Lyra."

He sneaked a glance at his classmates, noticing their continued disgust. He then put on a more sincere and apologetic expression. "I was misled by stuff I read online. I know I was wrong. Let’s try to get along as classmates for the next four years."

At least he had the guts to admit his mistake, which eased some of the tension.

It seemed that showing humility, even if just a bit, could sometimes work in your favor.

Lyra accepted his apology, saying, "People often get swept up by things on forums. I hope you’ll be more discerning next time."

She was well aware of who was causing trouble on the school forum.

And with that, the issue of cheating was put to rest.

After the shooting training, everyone was dismissed. Many of the classmates who used to hang around with Jorath now avoided him, except for a few leeches who still tried to suck him up.

Jorath had a gloomy expression. The more he interacted with Lyra, the stronger the unsettling sense of familiarity became.

It was like looking at a distant glacier—majestic and beautiful from afar, but cold and dangerous up close.

Actually, Lyra reminded him one of his cousins, who had died years ago.

"What a jerk! Just a simple apology and that’s it? The instructor didn’t even punish him," Zinnia fumed, glaring directly at Jorath. "No way, I need to beat him up to feel better."

Mandy tried her best to hold Zinnia back. "The school has strict rules against fighting; you’ll get in trouble."

But she couldn’t restrain her tall and strong roommate for long. Desperately, she looked to Vivian for help, but Vivian just shrugged and said coolly, "Why get involved in other’s problems?"

With that, Vivian walked away, and Mandy, momentarily distracted, lost her grip on Zinnia.

Zinnia stumbled but was stopped when another slender young woman caught her arm.

"Lyra, don’t stop me! How can you just let this go?"

"I can’t," Lyra admitted, still holding Zinnia back. "But it’s not worth getting ourselves in trouble over someone like him."

She thought there must be blind spots in the school’s surveillance system.

That night, after Jorath had vented his frustration on the field and was heading back to the dormitory, a hand suddenly grabbed him from the bushes and yanked him in.

The hand wasn’t large, but it was as strong as steel.

Despite weighing nearly 100 kilograms, Jorath was lifted off the ground.

Terrified, Jorath tried to fight back. Being from the Shedd family, he had some training, but the attacker moved too quickly for him to get a clear sense of her position in the dark. He could only aim based on the sounds, but after a few attempts, he had taken several hits.

Each punch landed squarely on his joints.

CRACK.

The sound of bones dislocating was enough to make anyone wince.

Realizing he couldn’t win, Jorath tried to escape, but the attacker tripped him with a swift kick. The beating continued, one-sided and relentless.

The flurry of blows lasted for five minutes. Then, the assailant picked Jorath up and hurled him hard against a tree before disappearing into the darkness.

Jorath lay there, dazed and in pain. ’I’ve been dragged into the woods and beaten up!’

"Damn it, I won’t let you get away with this!" he growled.

He punched the ground in frustration, then quickly reported the incident to his roommate and the coordinator.

At this point, he didn’t care about losing face; he just wanted to catch whoever had done this to him.

...

"The surveillance only caught footage of you being dragged into the woods; nothing else was found," Freida said, rubbing her tired eyes after reviewing the footage for what felt like forever. "Do you have any other clues?"

Jorath, lying down as the school nurse tended to him, looked frustrated. "I... I just remember the person was quick and not very tall."

Freida exchanged a look with the instructor, both realizing that this description wasn’t very helpful. With so many students moving around at that time, it was impossible to pinpoint who the attacker might be.

Jorath had to accept the situation. Even though they couldn’t identify the person who beat him up, word quickly spread around the school.

Everyone knew about the incident, and Jorath was left to deal with the embarrassment and frustration of it all.