128: A Little Lying To Hide One’s Pain

Roxanne and Angelica continued chatting in their corner of the gymnasium while the sounds of battle filled their ears. Time they spent together though, as always, disappeared in a blink, and twenty minutes later, Kaiser clapped. The robots came to a slow stop before powering down, those in the air floated back down, while those on the ground just stayed in place.

The students themselves, having been embroiled just seconds prior, splayed out on the ground to varying degrees while trying to catch their breath. Some, like Celeste, pushed themselves back to their feet within seconds, walking in slow circles to have a more gentle cooldown process. Others, like Nyssa, looked like they had just come out of war. On the ground like a starfish, Nyssa’s chest rose and fell as sweat poured down her forehead and fatigue invaded every bone in her body.

“No napping, everyone,” Kaiser’s voice filled the room as he watched his daughter close her eyes. “I know some of you may have the habit from the past, but it’s a bad habit that prevents you from having a smooth recovery process. Let’s all get up and go through a cooldown workout.”

A unified groan filled the room. Everyone bumbled back to their feet and stumbled over to Kaiser. Along the way though, a couple of students’ eyes widened as they looked towards the corner of the gym.

“It seems like we’ve been noticed,” Roxanne leaned down and whispered to Angelica. “Want me to push you over?”

“Mn, sounds good,” Angelica yawned, running her hand through her hair. “Who noticed me first?”

“The ones you expected, Electra and Ryker I believe? The one who can explode and the one who can generate electricity,” Roxanne answered while beginning the journey to the center of the room.

Electra and Ryker, meanwhile, had gotten everyone else’s attention and pointed towards the two approaching figures. Murmurs had broken out, but before anyone said much, Kaiser dispelled their words with a couple of his own. “Begin stretching, they’re here to chat with you while you cool down, so start stretching for now, and chat later. Let’s start with a few dynamic stretches to let your bodies recover. We’ll follow those up with static ones.”

Ryker, the de facto leader of the class, nodded and motioned for everyone to begin walking in slow circles while stretching out their hamstrings. “Just take it slow, focus more on catching your breath, but we want to keep everything moving a little, it’ll help you avoid being stiff and sore later.”

As they moved around, Angelica and Roxanne arrived. They came to a stop right beside Kaiser. Angelica, with bandages still over her eyes, reached up to unwrap them, only to receive a light slap on the wrist from Roxanne.

“I knew you’d try and do that, keep the bandage on,” Roxanne scolded Angelica. “Your eyes need to heal, they can’t be exposed to light for the time being.”

“Blah, blah... it’ll be fine...” Angelica sighed. She didn't, however, reach up again to take off the bandages; instead, she folded her hands on her lap while letting her elbows rest on the armrests of the wheelchair. One deep breath later, she turned toward the students and a small smile danced across her lips. “Good afternoon, it’s been a while, everyone.”

A faint silence hung in the air before Electra broke through it with a “Are you okay? It’s been so long...”

“I’m doing splendidly, much better than before, don’t worry,” Angelica reassured, unable to see how her words caused the students’ faces to blanch. Dressed in a baggy jacket, she hid the bandages still wrapped around her shoulders as her shoulder blades continued their slow recovery. “Just a little here and there, now. I’ll be back to full-health in no time.”

Another stream of questions came in about her wounds, and Angelica answered each and every one of them with a gentle smile. Roxanne’s eyebrows, however, stitched together as she listened to the answers. Her worry, and recognition of Angelica’s blatant lies about her situation, went unnoticed by everyone though—bar Kaiser who looked at her and mouthed “how much of this is actually true? Seventy percent? Eighty percent?”

Roxanne though, just replied with an imperceptible shake of the head and mouthed back a “closer to twenty percent...” while everyone else’s attention stayed enraptured by Angelica.

Standing at the back of the group, Kaiser couldn’t help but feel shock jolt through his body as he took another look at Angelica. With knowledge now on hand, he noticed the faint muscle tremors making Angelica’s hands shake, the faint raggedness behind her breath, and a couple of other smaller signs of everything she hid.

How much of it is she actually still hiding? I trust she’s being open with Roxanne, but... Even then, there must be a lot that I’m still not seeing.

Seems like this teaching position is going to last a lot longer than I expected...

Pulling out his phone, he swiped to open it before clicking through the apps and opening his messages with Roxanne. Typing out a quick message he sent it off. [I don’t mind teaching the students, so don’t let Angelica lie and come back early. If she requests to come back, I’ll check in with you, but I know she’ll want to hide things, so don’t let her know I asked this.]

Not expecting a reply, Kaiser’s eyebrows raised, then relaxed as Roxanne sent a quick text back. [Got it. I’ve been on the same page, Dad. I’m not letting her leave the house until she’s fine again.]

“Anyway, that’s enough about me,” Angelica smiled, waving off the rest of the questions. “Other than coming to see you, since I’ve dearly missed you all, I came to talk to you all about some important business: Your next mission.”

With a wave of murmurs spreading through the seven students spread out stretching in front of her, she let them say their bits before continuing. “I know it hasn’t been too long since your last mission, and I won’t be there for this one either, but you all have everything you need to do this. In fact, you’ll be working hands-on in conjunction with a certain Wildheart Sentinels guild. Without their guildmaster though since she’s a little preoccupied right now.”

Said guildmaster, standing beside Angelica, just rolled her eyes as a couple laughs slipped out of the students’ mouths.

“I definitely believe you all can do this, especially considering the fact that the older ones among you have reached levels comparable to A-Rank hunters, and the younger ones hovering between B and C-Ranks. It’s a solid strike force that can get a lot done, and with the current issues, you’ll be needed,” Angelica gestured towards the outside world before retracting her hand. A faint wince flashed across her face, but it went unnoticed by the students. The two others though, just made eye contact and raised their eyebrows as Angelica continued. “So the details of your mission are as follows...”