Several days passed, and Mr Yu continued to treat Kai and Michael's punishment as though it were a personal experiment.
Every afternoon after their final lesson, the two boys reported to the private combat hall beneath the academy. Mr Yu gave them ten minutes to land a clean strike against him. Every afternoon, he defeated them before either came close.
They tried attacking from opposite sides. They attempted distractions, traps and improvised combinations. Michael phased through Mr Yu's body while Kai attacked from behind. Kai used Blur to close the distance while Michael waited for the exact moment their teacher turned.
Nothing worked.
Mr Yu read their movements before they completed them. He struck only hard enough to hurt, never enough to cause lasting damage, which somehow made the humiliation worse. By the end of each session, Kai and Michael were usually lying on the floor while their teacher calmly explained everything they had done incorrectly.
On Friday, Mr Yu surprised them.
"You will not report tomorrow," he said.
Michael remained flat on his back. "Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Did we finally land a strike?"
"No."
"Did you get tired of beating children?"
"No."
Michael raised both hands toward the ceiling. "I don't care why. Freedom is freedom."
Michael intended to spend the entire free day sleeping. Kai tried to do the same, but by late morning, the room had become unbearable.
Michael's snoring seemed determined to challenge the structural integrity of Shadows Retreat, and every attempt Kai made to close his eyes brought another memory of Sacred Virtue. He saw rain against the windows, Richard Norman standing in the dining room and Miss Agatha's blood spreading across the floor.
Kai eventually dressed and left the residence.
He wandered toward the commercial district without deciding where he wanted to go. The academy island contained almost everything students might require, from training stores and medical centres to cafés, restaurants, clothing shops and entertainment facilities. With students prohibited from visiting the mainland without permission, the school had built a small city within its walls.
The streets were busy despite the cloudy weather. Students gathered beneath shaded walkways, and music played from speakers hidden among the buildings. Blue and red uniforms mixed more freely here than they did inside the classrooms, although Kai still noticed the distance many students maintained from one another.
The black crown rotated above his head, drawing its usual attention.
Since his victory over Damian, students had become less subtle about staring.
Kai had been doing his best to ignore them
The smell of fresh pastries led him into a café near the centre of the district.
Kai ordered a drink and two pastries. He paid using the credits stored in his academy watch, then turned to search for somewhere to sit.
Only one table had an empty chair.
Rebecca Chronoa sat opposite it.
She had placed her bow case beside the wall and was reading a thick book bound in faded black leather. Her silver hair was tied behind her head, and the Chronoa crest had been stamped into the corner of the book's cover.
Kai approached.
Rebecca looked up before he reached the table. "No."
"I didn't even say anything."
"You intend to sit here."
"Yeah. Every other seat's taken."
"I would prefer that you chose another table."
Kai looked around the café. "Which one?"
Rebecca followed his gaze and found no empty seats.
"That is not my concern."
"Come on, it's one chair. I'm not asking to move into your house."
"You have already demonstrated that personal boundaries mean very little to you."
Kai pulled out the chair and sat.
Rebecca stared at him.
He took a bite from one of the pastries. "See? Nothing terrible happened."
"That remains to be determined."
Kai placed his drink beside him and leaned back. "are you always this friendly?"
Rebecca returned her attention to the book. "I dislike unnecessary noise."
Kai smiled. "Then you're gonna hate sitting with me."
She ignored him.
For several minutes, neither spoke. Kai ate while watching students pass outside. Rebecca continued reading.
Kai eventually noticed the title pressed into the book's spine.
Ashes of the Sixth House: The Rise and Fall of House Vesper
His attention settled on it.
"That's an old edition."
Rebecca looked up.
"The book," Kai said. "The public version cuts out nearly a third of the original testimony."
She studied him more carefully. "You recognise it?"
"Yeah."
"The complete edition has not been available through public archives for decades."
She looked at him as if he had become a different person while sitting across from her.
Kai nodded toward the book. "What part are you on?"
"The siege of Vesperhold."
"The official version or the witness account?"
"Both."
"And?"
Rebecca rested her hands on the book. "And what?"
"What do you think happened?"
She considered the question. "House Vesper attempted to overthrow the ruling governments, eliminate the other Great Families buy the five great houses united to stop them."
Kai smiled faintly. "That's what the textbooks say."
"Books written by the people who killed them."
"That does not automatically make the records false." Rebecca replied
"Didn't say it did."
Rebecca waited for him to continue.
Kai leaned forward slightly.
"Cassian Vesper wanted control. I'm not gonna pretend he was some misunderstood saint. He built an army, took three cities and executed people who refused to support him."
"Then we agree."
"Not really."
Rebecca raised an eyebrow.
"The books start the story when Cassian attacks the first capital," Kai said. "They barely mention the fifty years before that."
"What happened during those fifty years?"
"You know what happened."
"I want to hear your interpretation."
Kai looked at her for a moment, recognising the challenge.
"House Vesper was the only Cursed family ever recognised as equal to the Great Families," he said. "They guarded the northern breach zones because those portals had the highest number of monster attacks. They built sanctuary cities for Cursed people no other territory wanted, and they supplied soldiers every time the other families needed someone to enter a portal too unstable for other people to even try to enter.
Rebecca's posture remained composed, but she was listening closely.
"In return," Kai continued, "they were supposed to get equal voting power in the Concord Council. Except they didn't.
"The Vespers were Cursed. Their abilities carried risks the others did not."
Kai laughed quietly. "There it is."
"There what is?"
"The excuse."
"It is not an excuse."
"And the Vespers were dangerous and unstable."
"Every Great Family is dangerous. But because the Vespers were cursed, it made them easier to hate."
Rebecca's voice became firmer. "House Vesper attempted to conquer the world."
"Everyone wants to take over the world." Kai retorted
Rebecca stared at him.
Kai continued. "The Great Families control Guilds, weapons, portal zones, trade routes, and pretty much everything else. They don't call it taking over the world because they already own enough of it."
Rebecca closed the book completely.
"The Vespers did not seek influence. They wanted every government, Guild and Awakened institution placed beneath their authority."
"Yeah, and they lost."
"That is your only objection?"
"No. They did terrible things."
"Yet you defend them."
"I'm not defending them. I'm saying the people who beat them wanted power too."
Kai took a drink before continuing.
"The difference is that House Vesper failed."
Rebecca studied his face. "Do you believe strength makes a person right?"
Kai shook his head.
"Strength doesn't make you right. It makes you matter."
Kai tapped one finger against the table.
"You can be the kindest person alive. You can have all the right ideas, care about everyone and never hurt anybody. If you've got no power, someone stronger can still walk into your home and decide what happens to you."
The memory came too close, and Kai stopped.
Rebecca noticed the change but did not ask about it.
"What do you consider as power?" she asked this instead.
"Power is everything. It's freedom."
"That is extremely broad."
"It's supposed to be. Fighting is power. Money is power. Your family name is power. Knowing something another person wants hidden is power."
Kai glanced at the Chronoa crest stamped into the book.
"Being able to say no and having people actually listen is power."
Rebecca's fingers tightened against the cover.
"The Vespers had enough power to refuse the Concord Council," she said. "Their refusal led to a war that killed millions."
"Maybe."
"Not maybe. It is a historical fact."
"The deaths are a fact. Who started the war depends on which record you believe."
Rebecca opened the book and turned several pages.
"Cassian Vesper declared that every Cursed person in the world owed loyalty to his house. He demanded that Gifted-led governments surrender their authority."
"After the Council ordered House Vesper to hand over every child whose Curse was classified as unstable."
"For assessment."
"For imprisonment."
"That is your interpretation."
"That's what happened to most of them."
Rebecca looked at the page but did not answer.
"Vesper refused to give up their children. The Council called it rebellion. Then Cassian decided refusing wasn't enough and tried to destroy the whole system." Kai continued
"He became exactly what the other families feared."
"Yeah."
The agreement surprised her.
Kai looked toward the cloudy street outside.
"People like simple stories. Vesper was evil, the other families were good, war happened and justice won. But that's not how people work. Somebody can be treated badly and still become a monster. Being hurt explains what they do. It doesn't excuse it."
"You have thought about this extensively." Rebecca said
"I had a lot of free time growing up, I read what I could."
Rebecca examined him again. She had expected Kai's intelligence to exist only within battle, if it existed at all. His behaviour in class, his impulsive challenge to Damian and the hallway fight had made him appear reckless and emotionally driven.
He was still both of those things.
But beneath the recklessness was a mind that absorbed details, questioned official narratives and understood political structures most academy students ignored.
"The Vesper Rebellion began because Cassian wanted power," she said. "Whatever happened before it does not change that."
"Wanting power isn't automatically evil."
"The way someone pursues it matters."
"Of course it does."
"You speak as though ambition excuses anything."
Kai shook his head. "Nah. People just act like wanting something for yourself is already wrong."
"Selfishness can destroy families."
"So can loyalty."
Rebecca became very still.
Kai did not notice immediately. He had begun speaking with the same honesty Azrael had demanded from him in the void.
"People do stupid things because of family," he said. "They fight wars they don't believe in. Marry people they don't love. Give up what they actually want because somebody tells them it's their duty."
Rebecca's voice remained controlled. "A family cannot survive if every member chooses only what benefits them."
Kai leaned forward again.
"Look, if you love your family, protect them. Help them. Fight for them if you have to. But there's a difference between choosing to sacrifice for your family and being sacrificed by them."
Rebecca's composure slipped for only a second.
Kai saw it but misunderstood the reason.
The sentence struck her more deeply than Kai realised.
"What if refusing your family harms people who depend on you?"
"You believe people should always choose themselves."
"No."
Kai finished the last of his drink.
"I think it's okay to choose yourself sometimes. People act like selfishness is always evil, but it isn't."
"It's just you trying to be happy, and if happiness is evil then we as a society are totally screwed."
He collected his empty cup and stood.
Rebecca looked up. "Where are you going?"
"You told me not to sit here. Figured I should leave before you call security."
"I was not going to call security."
He observed for her a few seconds and then smiled
"Good to know."
He walked away before Rebecca could respond.
She remained at the table, watching him leave.
For the first time since meeting Kai, she did not see an arrogant boy who had received more power than he deserved. She saw someone who had spent years studying people born into advantages he never possessed.
His conclusions were cynical, sometimes dangerous and often morally uncomfortable.
But They were not thoughtless.
Rebecca looked down at family crest
Kai's words came mind
There is a difference between choosing to sacrifice for your family and being sacrificed by them.
Rebecca pressed her thumb against the raised Chronoa emblem.
"What if I do not want the life you chose?" she whispered.