Grandmother's funeral began at nine the following morning.
Headmaster N's memorial, delayed by twenty-four hours after a water-main failure closed the palace district, began at six that evening.
Sleeping Man's notice called it a safety adjustment.
The transport workers called it evidence that the city was breaking faster than officials could rename the damage.
Yandong found a way to schedule both of my ghosts on the same day.
The East District funeral hall had no working fountain because of the water restrictions. Staff filled a shallow stone bowl with bottled water and floated white flowers across its surface. A printed notice beside it apologized for the reduced ceremonial service.
Even grief had entered conservation mode.
Grandmother's portrait stood above the flowers.
The photographer had captured her looking slightly away from the camera, as though someone outside the frame had said something incorrect and she was preparing to repair them.
Kitty chose the photograph.
NC and Anna arranged the guest book. Jihye handled calls from relatives who could not cross the city because the transport strike had reduced bus service again. Mr. Kim spoke to the funeral staff whenever they tried to ask me a practical question.
JP stood beside the entrance in a black suit that did not fit his shoulders.
"Borrowed?" I asked.
"TZ owns adulthood in three sizes."
TZ adjusted JP's collar.
"Stop moving."
"I am grieving the loss of oxygen."
It was the first joke anyone made that morning.
Grandmother would have approved of the timing and criticized the delivery.
HS arrived alone.
He placed both hands around mine and said nothing. The silence he had offered over the phone remained more useful than every prepared condolence.
Bunny and Cherry came with June.
June carried white chrysanthemums. Her eyes found Kitty near Grandmother's portrait, then moved toward me.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Thank you for coming."
There were a hundred cruel sentences between us.
The funeral allowed none of them inside.
NS arrived last with no driver and no assistant. He wore a plain black suit without the gold watch he usually forgot other people noticed.
He bowed before Grandmother's portrait.
When he stood, he looked at me.
Neither of us mentioned the hospital parking lot.
My grandmother had made me promise not to fight him.
I carried that promise in the same pocket as her comb.
The cremation chamber doors closed shortly before noon.
Kitty held my left arm.
June stood behind NS.
JP, NC, Anna, and Jihye remained close enough that I could feel their presence without turning. Bunny, Cherry, and TZ stood across the aisle. HS stayed between both groups, belonging to neither side and somehow becoming the only person connected to everyone.
The machinery began with a low mechanical sound.
Thunder answered from beyond the building.
The sky outside remained pale and empty.
For one second, another engine entered the sound.
Red metal scraped against a road. A siren called from too far away. I saw NeverMore Palace shining at the end of a street I could not reach.
Kitty tightened her hand around my arm.
"Stay here," she whispered.
I looked at Grandmother's portrait.
"I'm here."
It was true for that moment.
Afterward, the funeral director returned Grandmother's handbag and the small personal items the hospital had released.
I kept the comb.
She had asked me to bring it home.
It was the last instruction I had not yet broken.
At four, the university confirmed that the memorial fundraiser would proceed.
At four twelve, the city announced that purified-water distribution would be reduced in three western wards.
At four twenty, the subway workers' union authorized a forty-eight-hour strike vote.
At four thirty, Sleeping Man's office sent a car to the funeral hall.
Mr. Kim read the message and looked ready to resign on my behalf.
"You do not have to go," he said.
Grandmother's voice returned with irritating clarity.
Come back with your place in Med Track.
"Yes," I said. "I do."
Kitty entered the car with me.
The others followed in two university vans.
Nobody changed out of black.
NeverMore Palace had never looked more alive.
Thousands of white lights covered the front steps. Sponsor names rotated across the outer walls. Television crews occupied the courtyard while donors entered through a carpet lined with student volunteers.
Inside, Headmaster N's portrait watched over a ballroom full of people purchasing the right to remember him.
The Golden Lovers stood at the center.
The temporary octagon for the Combat Showcase had been assembled behind them.
JP stopped when he saw it.
"That looked smaller on the poster."
"You can still withdraw," I said.
"And let KM tell Engineering that Med Track's champion fainted from geometry?"
"There is no shame in understanding a bad idea."
"You learned that sentence twelve hours too late."
He looked toward NS.
I could not argue.
The junior ceremony began first.
TO entered beneath the King banner without missing his mark. Elena Liu received the Queen ribbon after answering that leadership meant protecting people who could not improve your reputation. Shally Tuu received the students' choice award and hugged Elena before the cameras could instruct them how friendship should look.
JP watched them beneath the gold lights.
"They still like each other," he said.
"Give Sleeping Man time," Anna replied.
TO and Elena took their first official photograph beside the Golden Lovers.
They smiled without pretending.
For a moment, I remembered our first photograph at Utopia. HS had still been inside it. PL had not disappeared. June had not transferred. Kitty had not learned to fear an octagon. NS and I had stood close enough to be mistaken for brothers.
Time had not flown.
It had removed people so gradually that we called the empty spaces maturity.
Sleeping Man introduced my accountability segment at 7:08.
The approved script waited on the teleprompter.
UTOPIA GAVE ME THE STRUCTURE TO LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES.
WITH THE UNIVERSITY'S SUPPORT, I HAVE BECOME A MORE RESPONSIBLE LEADER.
YOUR DONATION ENSURES THAT STUDENTS LIKE ME RECEIVE A SECOND CHANCE.
I looked at Headmaster N's portrait.
Then I looked at the comb inside my hand.
"My grandmother died this morning," I said.
Sleeping Man stopped smiling.
The teleprompter continued without me.
"Yesterday, she told me to come back with my place in Med Track. She believed universities should make students work for their education. She did not believe we should beg strangers to keep what we were already promised."
The ballroom became still.
"Headmaster N was difficult. Most of us argued with him. Some of us feared him. But when he said a pathway existed, we believed the pathway would remain if we met its standards. One year after his death, grades are no longer enough. Conduct is no longer a separate process. Placement seats depend on whether we can smile correctly while our fear appears on a donation screen."
Mr. Kim stood near the stage.
He did not stop me.
"Please donate if you believe students deserve laboratories, clinical training, and emergency support. But do not donate because the university turned our worst days into entertainment. We are not redemption stories owned by Utopia. We are students who paid to be taught."
No one applauded immediately.
Then TO stood.
Elena and Shally stood beside him.
The Med Track students rose next.
Applause moved through the room before the sponsor tables decided whether they approved of it.
Sleeping Man returned to the microphone.
"Thank you, Mr. XH, for that deeply personal reflection."
He had converted rebellion into programming before I left the stage.
The legacy photograph was scheduled before the donation total.
Staff arranged us around Headmaster N's portrait according to the original festival archive. Kitty and June stood beneath the Queen banner. NS and I took the King positions. JP and TZ were placed behind us while NC, Anna, Jihye, Bunny, and Cherry filled the second row.
HS waited beyond the marked carpet.
The same coordinator who had excluded him from the rehearsal checked her tablet.
"Current students and approved legacy guests only."
HS nodded as though he had expected nothing else.
He turned away.
I stepped out of the photograph.
The coordinator looked up.
"Mr. XH, your position is marked."
"So is his. You cropped it."
"Mr. HS is no longer enrolled in this pathway."
"He was enrolled when Headmaster N died. If this is a legacy photograph, he is part of the legacy."
"We cannot alter the approved arrangement during the broadcast."
NS stepped away from the King banner.
"Then take both of us out."
I looked at him.
For one moment, the hospital parking lot and the missing placement disappeared.
We were boys in a VIP room again, defending an empty chair before it learned how to stay empty.
June left her mark beside Kitty.
"Take me out too."
Kitty followed.
JP raised his hand.
"I was never emotionally inside the approved arrangement."
"Nobody asked," TZ said.
"I am withdrawing preemptively."
The coordinator looked toward Sleeping Man.
Television cameras were already recording the delay.
Sleeping Man smiled the way institutions smiled before pretending pressure had been their idea.
"Of course Mr. HS should join his former cohort. Utopia honors every path our students take."
HS returned slowly.
Mr. Kim placed him between TZ and NS.
"Closer," the photographer instructed.
We moved until our shoulders touched.
Kitty stood beside me. June stood beside NS. JP leaned forward between both rows, and HS remained visible for the first time in every frame.
"Smile," the photographer said.
Nobody did.
The shutter clicked anyway.
Afterward, HS looked at the image on the preview screen.
"A photograph doesn't put me back in the program."
"I know," I said.
"It doesn't fix the call."
NS answered this time.
"I know."
HS studied both of us.
"Then remember that knowing comes before fixing, not instead of it."
He walked toward TZ.
JP watched the old formation separate again.
That night, he wrote one line in his diary beneath the unfinished second act:
For one photograph, the kingdom remembered every name it had erased. By the next bell, its kings were enemies again.
Donations increased after the speech.
Sleeping Man claimed the increase proved the festival's success.
Jihye claimed it proved people paid more when someone finally stopped reading his script.
At 8:02, the final placement report appeared behind Headmaster N's portrait.
All five sponsor-dependent seats had been secured.
Two of the three placements under negotiation had received provisional agreements.
One seat remained missing.
The ballroom understood the arithmetic together.
One eligible Year 2 Med Track student would not progress.
Sleeping Man described the remaining decision as a holistic review of academic performance, attendance, conduct, professionalism, and institutional contribution.
Every phrase moved closer to me.
My conduct file remained open.
The nightclub case remained attached to it.
My legacy appearance had been approved only as an exception.
NS ranked first.
June ranked second.
Kitty ranked third.
JP and I shared fourth, but only one of us carried probation beneath the grade.
"They already chose," Kitty said.
"They haven't released a name," June replied.
"They don't need to."
For once, their anger pointed in the same direction.
It did not make them friends again.
The Combat Showcase card appeared ten minutes later.
FIVE-ROUND INTERDEPARTMENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
ENGINEERING: KM
YEAR 2 MED TRACK: JP
JP had passed the initial medical assessment. Final clearance would depend on his neurological screening, weight check, and recovery from the nightclub injuries.
KM crossed the ballroom and examined the card.
"Congratulations," he said. "Med Track found someone disposable."
JP's face remained calm.
"Engineering found someone who thinks muscle is a personality."
KM looked at me.
"Will you be in his corner?"
"Yes."
"Bring a towel."
He walked away with his four teammates.
JP watched him leave.
"He meant for sweat, right?"
"Withdraw."
"No."
"He is telling you what he plans to do."
JP met my eyes.
"Then be ready to stop him when I say. Not before."
I remembered Grandmother's warning.
Make him angry enough to live.
"We train safely," I said. "You listen to the physician, the referee, and your corner."
"That sounds less cinematic."
"It is supposed to keep you conscious."
He offered his hand.
I took it.
Neither of us understood what Round Four would cost yet.
NS found me inside the empty octagon after the guests moved toward dinner.
I had entered to see how small it felt from the center.
It felt smaller.
The Golden Lovers watched beyond the black fencing.
"One seat," NS said.
"I can count."
"Your speech helped secure the seventh."
"That sounds painful for you to admit."
"I am trying to tell you that you do not need to destroy the rest."
I looked toward the sponsor tables.
"Easy advice from the safest rank."
"You tied for fourth. Without the probation, you would be safe too."
"Without your money, would you still be first?"
His expression hardened.
"My family did not sit your examinations."
"Your family makes sure every room believes you belong inside it."
"And your anger makes sure every room remembers why you might not."
June stopped outside the cage.
Kitty entered the ballroom from the opposite side.
JP, NC, Anna, and Jihye stood behind her. Bunny, Cherry, and TZ remained near June. HS came last and stopped between both groups.
The factions no longer needed names.
"The university is one seat short," NS said. "Fighting me will not create one."
"Yes, it will."
He understood before I explained.
"No."
"One fight. You and me. No family name, no butler, no money between us. Full contact. No excuses."
"XH," Kitty said.
I kept looking at NS.
"Winner remains in Med Track. Loser files a voluntary withdrawal before the placement committee chooses anyone else."
June gripped the fence.
"NS, don't answer him."
"Your grandmother made you promise," Kitty said.
The words hurt more in her voice.
"She also told me to come back with my place."
"Do not change her last words to excuse this."
NS stepped closer.
"Kitty is right."
"Do not speak for my grandmother."
"Then stop using her death to make losing sound honorable."
My left hand closed.
The splint on my right wrist felt suddenly too tight.
JP moved toward the cage door.
HS caught his shoulder.
"If you do this," HS said to both of us, "never use my emergency as your reason again."
"This isn't about you," I replied.
"That is worse."
NS looked at June.
She shook her head.
He looked back at me.
"If I win, you leave without appeals, threats, or asking anyone to save your place."
"If I win, you do the same."
"And the winner stays."
"The winner stays."
I offered my left hand.
NS took it.
Thunder struck above NeverMore Palace.
Every light in the ballroom went dark.
The emergency power returned three seconds later.
Kitty stood outside the octagon with both hands against the fence.
Sleeping Man had taken Headmaster N's chair near the stage.
His event coordinator was already speaking into a headset.
The Golden Lovers stood behind XH and NS.
One stays.
One leaves.
Her nightmare had found the room.
The registration screen refreshed.
Beneath JP and KM's official championship, two new names appeared under a second heading.
SPECIAL LEGACY BOUT: REVIEW PENDING.
XH.
NS.
The King story had finally chosen its battlefield.