Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 46: Gossip

Chapter 46: Gossip

Anton’s teleportation skill had them zipping through the battlefield. With surprise attacks and seamless teamwork, they wiped out three bases in just two hours.

By now, it was four in the afternoon.

"Time for the final outpost," Thierry said.

Lyra gave a quick nod.

The three of them hopped onto stolen hoverboards and zoomed towards their last target.

Anton and Alaria, left behind, were tied up but exchanging determined glances.

"Let’s head back and get ready for a lecture."

SHH...

The air buzzed as Anton snapped the ropes. He helped Alaria up. "Making it harder for us isn’t fair, but I gotta admit, this year’s pre-training was a blast. You seemed to loosen up a bit."

He winced, and Alaria chuckled. "Calling it fun might be a stretch. The students were brutal."

No one before had dared to break an instructor’s bones and drag them around.

They chatted on and off until the sun started to set. The sound of an approaching helicopter broke the quiet.

It was time for them to get ’recycled.’

Climbing the soft ladder, they were greeted by their equally battered colleagues.

These were the ’enemies’ whose outposts Lyra’s team had trashed.

"Anton, you sure had fun switching sides. Look at what they did to me."

"Those freshmen were vicious. They even knocked out my tooth with a punch! Which class are they from?"

In the corner, Webber tried to sneak off to the cockpit.

But Anton caught him by the neck. "Webber, isn’t that Whyte kid in your class?"

"Oh, no wonder he’s quiet. Feeling guilty, huh!"

"What have you taught to your students? They attacked us!"

They all laughed and roughed up Webber again, their voices carrying through the dusk, startling birds into flight.

Meanwhile, the three students made it to their destination just in time. From a distance, people mistook them for instructors because of the cool hoverboards.

Lyra pulled out two folded papers and handed them to the officer in charge. "Class 1, Group 1, and Class 1, Group 5."

The officer gave them a curious look before scanning the papers. "Class 1, Group 5 passed. Class 1, Group 1’s final score is invalid since their teammate got eliminated."

He pointed to a large tent. "Go rest. Final scores will be out tonight."

Mandy glanced at the tired Thierry. "So, Taryn got caught."

Thierry, rubbing his sore arm, didn’t seem too upset. "Yeah, figured."

Thierry glanced at Lyra, who was unreadable, and then he said, "She was probably caught around two o’clock. Her score should still be around ninety. That’s decent."

Then he grinned, back to his usual self. "But we’ve got high bonus points, which count towards our graduation credits."

NMA graduation needed a certain number of credits. Doing an elective course got them four credits, but smashing four outposts earned each of them at least ten credits. That meant fewer courses to take, which was pretty exciting.

As he spoke, he stopped and stared at Lyra.

Mandy was puzzled, looking at her two companions. "Did you let Taryn escape on purpose and then eliminate her?"

Thierry’s question caught Mandy off guard. She thought Taryn had run away on her own.

Lyra’s response was even more surprising. "If she hadn’t run, all four of us would have been eliminated. You didn’t stop her either, did you?"

Thierry scratched his head and grinned widely. "That’s true."

Their brief exchange revealed a lot. Mandy, trailing behind, mulled it over until the truth hit her.

Lyra had known from the start that their enemies were strong. She deliberately let Taryn go first to bear the brunt. When it became obvious they couldn’t win, Taryn naturally tried to escape.

Lyra’s shout, "Run as we planned! I’ll keep her busy," was meant to make the enemies think Taryn had the documents, splitting their firepower. Together, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

Thinking deeper, with Lyra’s psychokinesis, she likely sensed the enemies approaching and switched plans, using the opportunity to retaliate against Taryn and pull Thierry, a strong fighter, to her side. And Thierry, understanding the plan when Lyra shouted, had played along.

It turned out that both the seemingly straightforward Thierry and the aloof Lyra were far more cunning than Mandy had realized.

When Mandy entered the Class 1 tent, the air felt off. Despite Zinnia and Claude’s chatter, everyone’s eyes kept darting to Thierry and Lyra with curiosity, subtlety, and a hint of disdain, mostly aimed at Lyra.

’What’s going on?’ Mandy noticed the head student, surrounded by other boys, frowning and explaining something.

Meanwhile, Zinnia was fussing over Lyra, applying ointment to her head.

"You should wear a headscarf. Your hair is too short, and you’re covered in bug bites."

Lyra touched her forehead, thinking a headscarf would be too warm. "It’s okay, I can heal myself," she said, avoiding the pungent ointment.

Then there was Taryn, who seemed to be comforted by her dorm mates, glaring at Lyra with resentment.

Curious, Mandy approached Vivian. "What’s going on?"

"I was going to ask you about that. Lyra always looks cold and aloof. How did she manage to charm the head student?" Vivian said, cleaning dirt from under her nails and nudging Mandy.

Mandy took a moment to process this, then she gaped and pointed back and forth between Lyra and Thierry. "Are you saying Thierry and Lyra are together?"

"Didn’t they come back together? Taryn said it herself. Your two teams joined forces, and Thierry only cared about saving Lyra, ignoring Taryn."

Vivian watched Mandy’s reaction, seeing her go from speechless to angry.

"That’s not true!" Mandy fumed.

Vivian then felt she might be right; Taryn was probably lying.

Just then, one of Taryn’s roommates stood up and shouted at Lyra, "Lyra, you should apologize to Taryn!"

The buzzing conversations abruptly stopped, and everyone turned their gaze toward Lyra.

Finally, the moment had come.

Lyra, caught off guard, glanced at Taryn hiding behind her roommates. "Can you explain why I need to apologize to you?"

The strange atmosphere had been palpable when she entered, but no one had told her why. Now, it seemed something odd was going on.

Zinnia snickered and whispered a few words in Lyra’s ear, making her expression even more peculiar.

"This is really strange. How does normal pre-training turn into some kind of melodramatic romance scandal?" Lyra glanced at her classmates, who were eagerly soaking up the gossip, and tilted her head. "And you guys care more about this than your scores? Are military school students really this lame?"