The letter didn't stay hidden.
Not for long.
By the next morning, Saint Eden Academy was a roaring wildfire of rumors, suspicion, and fear.
Teachers whispered behind closed doors.
Students avoided eye contact in the hallways.
Elian knew something had shifted — something big — even before he reached his first class.
---
The moment he stepped into Room 2C, all heads turned.
Some gazes were filled with pity.
Others — with disgust.
A few — with outright fear.
The teachers looked nervous too, their smiles tight, eyes darting toward the doorway as if expecting someone far more dangerous than Elian to walk in.
For the first time, Elian wasn't invisible.
He was radioactive.
And he hated it.
---
Mina sat at her usual desk, her eyes red-rimmed but proud.
She gave him a small nod.
A promise:
I'm still here.
Elian swallowed thickly and shuffled to his seat.
He caught snatches of conversation around him:
"Did you hear? Someone reported the Hunt!"
"There's gonna be an investigation—"
"I bet it was one of the losers."
"Saint Eden's gonna crush whoever it was..."
---
Before lessons could even start, Principal Abernathy stormed into the room.
He was an aging man with thin silver hair slicked against his skull, and deep-set eyes that gleamed like oiled marbles.
Today, he looked particularly furious.
Behind him trailed two strangers — a man and a woman, dressed sharply in black suits that screamed government.
Or worse.
The woman had an icy expression, sharp cheekbones, and piercing green eyes that seemed to cut through stone.
The man was broader, darker-skinned, wearing a faint smirk that didn't reach his cold, cold eyes.
They were not ordinary officials.
They were inspectors.
Real ones.
---
"Students," Principal Abernathy barked, "meet Inspectors Hale and Vance. They will be conducting a formal evaluation of our institution due to recent... baseless allegations."
His voice dripped with contempt.
But the inspectors didn't seem to care.
Inspector Hale, the woman, stepped forward.
Her gaze swept across the room like a scalpel.
She paused — just briefly — when her eyes met Elian's.
Something shifted in her expression.
Recognition?
No.
Interest.
---
"You will cooperate fully," she said, her voice like cracking ice.
"Any attempts to lie, conceal information, or interfere will be treated as obstruction."
The students sat stiff as statues.
No one dared to breathe.
Elian kept his head down, heart thudding painfully against his ribs.
Was this Mina's doing?
Had her letter really brought the government down on Saint Eden?
And what did these inspectors really want?
Because something told him — deep in his gut — that this wasn't just about school bullying anymore.
---
At lunch, Elian found Mina sitting under the old oak tree behind the gymnasium.
She was biting her nails — a habit she only did when she was terrified.
When she saw him, she stood up too fast, nearly dropping her lunch tray.
"I didn't think they'd actually come," she blurted.
Elian sat down heavily beside her.
"They're here," he said grimly.
"And they're not here just to talk."
Mina shivered.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then she whispered:
"Elian... what if this goes wrong?"
He looked at her — really looked.
The bruises under her eyes.
The chipped nail polish.
The trembling hands she tried so hard to hide.
She had risked everything for him.
For them.
And if it all collapsed...
It wouldn't just be Elian who paid the price.
It would be her too.
---
But before he could answer, a sleek black car pulled into the school parking lot.
It wasn't just any car.
It was a Koenigsegg Jesko — one of the rarest, most outrageously expensive vehicles in the world.
License plate: "X-9999".
Students gasped.
Teachers paled.
Even Inspector Hale narrowed her eyes slightly.
The driver door swung open.
A tall, masked figure stepped out — dressed in an immaculate white suit, gloved hands adjusting the cuffs casually.
The stranger moved like a king without a crown — effortless authority dripping from every step.
All noise around the courtyard died.
---
Without a word, the stranger strode toward Principal Abernathy — who had turned ashen — and handed him a letter sealed with a black wax stamp.
Abernathy took it with shaking hands.
The masked figure didn't wait for permission.
He simply turned...
and walked straight toward where Elian and Mina sat.
The world tilted.
Mina clutched Elian's sleeve, terrified.
The stranger stopped a few feet away.
And then — without warning — he bowed slightly.
Low.
Respectful.
Before speaking a single, earth-shattering sentence:
"Master Elian, it is time to come home."
---