The team list went up during lunch.
That was not an accident.
Nothing important in Astral Zenith happened privately unless someone powerful wanted fewer witnesses. Public humiliation belonged to breakfast. Public recognition belonged to evening announcements. Team assignments appeared during lunch because students were hungry, tired, and surrounded by enough people to turn paper into politics.
The assignment board stood outside the Great Hall, framed in polished silver and guarded by two second-years pretending posture could stop a riot.
Crowds gathered in layers.
Zenith students stood first because excellence taught people to occupy the front before anyone invited them. Gold students gathered behind them, smiling like knives wrapped in manners. Silver formed disciplined clusters. Iron pressed forward carefully. Obsidian students waited at the edges, watching for gaps as if even information had a class system.
I arrived late on purpose.
