Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 49: Good Aim

Chapter 49: Good Aim

Jorath lay in the treatment pod, trying to get some sympathy from his grandfather during the video call.

Patrick Shedd didn’t waste any time. "How did you get hurt?" he asked.

Jorath, too embarrassed to admit he got beaten by some "weak" girl, mumbled, "I got injured during pre-training."

His recent field training didn’t go well, and he wanted to give his family a heads-up.

Patrick guessed as much and frowned. "How could you make such a rookie mistake? Did your cousin, Erin, teach you nothing during the training?"

"Don’t bring it up, Grandpa. You have no idea how brutal NMA is. If I were at EPMA, it wouldn’t be this bad."

Complaining to his caring grandfather, Jorath vented his frustrations. If he hadn’t come to this lousy school, he wouldn’t have crossed paths with that brat Lyra.

Patrick sighed, speaking earnestly, "First, you upset your Grandpa Ansel. Second, with your cousins shining at Elden Prime, how could you stand out?"

This hit a nerve. Jorath snapped, "How am I worse than Kail?"

The butler, observing quietly, thought, "You really don’t know?"

Jorath’s impatience tested Patrick’s patience. Patrick snorted, "You need to temper your attitude! Now, why did you send the guard to Voidstar No.2? They’ve asked me to have a serious talk with you!"

The confrontation Jorath dreaded had arrived. His arrogance melted away. "I just wanted him to gather information about someone."

"Who?"

"...A chick, named Lyra something."

Patrick’s voice suddenly rose, startling Jorath. "Who did you say?"

"Just a new student from Voidstar No.2. We don’t get along, so I wanted to check her background. Didn’t know they’d make a fuss."

Hearing it was a new student, Patrick relaxed a bit, though still uneasy. "How old is the girl you’re talking about? What does she look like?"

Patrick didn’t get why everyone in the Shedd family seemed to dread this name. Even after so many years, the name Lyra still unsettled them.

Annoyed, Jorath replied, "Just a young woman, nineteen or so. She doesn’t look anything like Kail’s sister Lyra. You yell the name Lyra on the street and I bet half of the girls will look back."

Of course, he made that last part up. All he remembered about Kail’ sister, Lyra, was fear, and he had no idea how that fearsome girl looked like.

Given the girl was just nineteen and from Voidstar, and since military school background checks wouldn’t be wrong, Patrick accepted it as a coincidence.

Seeing Patrick about to say more, Jorath quickly added, "Don’t worry, Grandpa. I can handle it."

Patrick snorted again, "If you could really handle it, would Voidstar have caught on? I’ll let it go this time, but don’t make me come over to deal with the same thing next time!"

He then barked at the butler, "Keep an eye on him!"

The butler, undeserving of this, bowed and replied, "Yes, sir."

If he knew he would have to deal with this troublemaker earlier, he would’ve requested for an early retirement long ago.

Afterwards, Jorath ignored the butler’s advice and went to see Raymond. The once tall man now seemed much shorter, covered in horrifying injuries.

Jorath couldn’t bear to look long. He simply said to fit him with good prosthetics and provide ample compensation.

"Mr. Shedd already ordered that," the butler said. In other words, ’your grandfather had already cleaned up your mess.’

Jorath had a rough start and was feeling pretty irritable, but when he returned to school the next day at noon, he heard some good news.

"Lyra was targeted by the student council," his roommate said, knowing Jorath disliked Lyra. He had saved this news to tell him in person.

Jorath’s eyes lit up. "How did she offend the student council?"

"Our classmate Taryn has a sister who’s the finance minister... Look, they’re talking about it in the group chat right now."

From his roommate’s mischievous grin, Jorath quickly understood the situation. Taryn’s sister was sticking up for her. This was an opportunity to add fuel to the fire.

Meanwhile, Lyra was in the combat arena, putting away the mats. She always left right at the last minute, so the administrator, tired of her persuasion and wanting to slack off, gave her a spare key to lock up.

She got caught by a sophomore council member during an inspection. They intentionally delayed her by two minutes, claiming she violated the rules, and punished her by making her clean the combat arena.

Lyra didn’t mind since she had agreed to help clean when she asked for the key. The council member, Irene thought she had succeeded and happily reported the incident over the comms.

Listening in, Lyra guessed a bit of what was happening. Irene, feeling secure in her position for the upcoming elections, was reporting their success.

Hearing thudding noises from behind, Irene turned around, annoyed, and she was shocked.

Lyra, a small-framed girl, was effortlessly tossing the large, heavy mats, each about 70 to 80 pounds, as if they were frisbees, neatly stacking them in the corner.

In less than ten minutes, she had organized the entire arena, which normally would take at least half an hour. She activated the vacuum and sterilization system and waited for the administrator coming back from lunch.

"Hey, wait!"

Lyra looked at the girl blocking her way. "What now?"

Irene panicked. Cleaning up so quickly wasn’t much of a punishment. "I... I haven’t checked it yet."

"Then do it now. I’m going to lunch."

Lyra had barely taken a few steps when the girl called out again, pointing at a pile of mats. "Your cleaning is not up to standard!"

Irene, who had just advanced to her second year, was insecure and trying her hardest to cause trouble. "The dust has already been vacuumed. Lay the mats out again."

"The administrator said to stack them. Why don’t you ask him?"

Irene thought Lyra was bluffing, but she called anyway. The administrator, busy enjoying his meal in the noisy cafeteria, only heard something about mats and said it was fine.

"Clean it up," Irene said smugly, folding her arms and nodding at Lyra.

"Alright."

Irene was delighted, thinking this freshman was easy to push around. Then she saw Lyra lock the combat arena door and flip a switch on the control panel at the entrance.

"You... what are you doing?"

Irene took two steps back, trying to remind herself that she was a sophomore and shouldn’t be scared of a freshman. She attempted to put on a stern face. "Don’t play tricks."

Lyra didn’t even look at her. She dragged a ladder towards the tall stack of mats, the ladder’s feet screeching against the floor, making Irene’s scalp tingle.

Lyra climbed high on the ladder and looked back at her. "I’m starting."

Irene impatiently waved her hand. "Hurry up!" As soon as she finished speaking, a large mat cast a shadow as it flew through the air, about to hit her!

"Ah—" Irene dodged clumsily, her face pale. "What are you doing? Are you blind?!"

"I have eyes, and my aim is very good."

Without another word, Lyra continued to toss the mats, each one flying through the air like a giant hand trying to squash a buzzing fly.

Irene panicked, finally realizing that Lyra wasn’t easy to handle.

Now the table had turned; Lyra was trying to teach her a lesson!