Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest

Chapter 978 226.4 - Future

"What?"

The word wasn't shouted, nor sharp-it was laced with irritation, yes, but also restraint. Julia's voice cut through the silence like a blade across silk-clean, deliberate. Her arms remained crossed, but her gaze never wavered.

She glared at Victor-not with challenge, not with flirtation, but with expectation. Because she knew him.

Far better than most in the room.

They all did, in truth. Julia, Lucas, Ethan... even Irina and Carl to an extent. Long before Arcadia Hunter Academy had drawn them into this new war-forged mold, they had crossed paths in pre-academy schools, Institutions meant to raise prodigies. To filter the exceptional from the promising.

And Victor?

Victor Blackthorn had always been exceptional.

Untouchably so.

He hadn't needed to speak much then either. He simply was, Brilliant, disciplined, devastating in battle. But even in those early days-amid duels and drills, lectures and assessments-there had been one exception to his stoic detachment.

Julia.

It hadn't been loud. It hadn't been confessed. But it had been obvious to those who knew how to look.

The way Victor used to turn his head whenever Julia entered a room, just moment longer than necessary.

The quiet shifts in his stance when she spoke-how he'd subtly align himself in her direction.

The way he used to offer her his hand first when instructors demanded paired exercises, even when it made less tactical sense.

The way he never corrected her... when he corrected everyone else.

For someone as composed and indifferent as Victor, the subtlety was the confession.

But then came the last year. The withdrawal. The long silences. The way he all but disappeared from the academy under special training orders-his presence reduced to a ghost.

And with that, the signals had stopped.

Or so Julia had assumed.

Now, here he stood. His aura returned. His strength unbound. And yet his gaze?

Still on her.

Still searching.

Victor didn't answer right away.

He didn't smile. He didn't speak.