Kapitel 42: ACTIVATING TELEPORTATION FIEF (II)
She walked away without showing the slightest concern for his dire condition.
Halfway past his fatigued, kneeling form, Lagertha abruptly paused, not even bothering to turn back and face him.
"By the way, if the case arises that you're charged for defaulting the academy's curfew…I won't be speaking on your behalf, so I advise you find a way to drag yourself to your dorm." Lagertha said in her signature emotionless tone and then walked away.
Stare was completely dumbfounded by her words. He didn't need anyone to explain that the curfew meant lights out at 9 pm.
At first, Stare assumed she was joking, but as she continued walking toward the hall's exit, it became clear she meant every word.
Unwittingly, he fell back to the floor, staring aimlessly at the hall's ceiling.
Stare still had no idea how much time had passed during his punishment and couldn't determine the current time.
If he had to guess how much time he had left before lights out, he'd estimate an hour, maybe less. With his current condition, it wasn't definitely not enough time.
It was just him and himself alone finding solutions to his problems he didn't exactly cause as usual.
Did he have a solution to this current pressing situation?
Of course not! There were barely any methods he could use to get back to his dorm in less than one hour with his current condition.
It would definitely take more than an hour for him to get a little revitalized to walk again and there wasn't possibly any way he could call either of Bobby or Joel.
The Paraclete Watch obviously couldn't make calls.
"So much for the academy's most technologically advanced artificial accessory," Stare muttered grumpily, glaring at the watch on his left wrist. Unexpectedly, he heard Paraclete's familiar monotone voice in his head.
[The reason I can't make calls is due to academy rules against unauthorized calls and other forms of telecommunications within its walls, not because I'm not technologically advanced enough.]
Stare could have sworn hearing a hint of annoyance as it spoke, but he wasn't unfortunately bothered by that and went back to going over his chances in leaving this hall to his dorm in less than an hour.
He could as well wait for Bobby or Joel to show up on their own, after all there was a chance they would come looking for him after not seeing him come back to the dorm despite the duration of his punishment elapsing.
Stare would have definitely gone with this plan if Lagertha wasn't involved.
Those two would be too scared to even consider coming looking for him, even if he didn't return for days.
Not like he could blame them.
Even he who was an entity that had led different lives over a duration of hundreds of thousands of years still felt cold run down his spine from the woman.
"Damn why couldn't the Oracle put more teachers like Emma in the Oracle's path." Stare thought aloud in frustration.
With the chances of any of his plans working being null, that left him with no other option than just lying here and waiting for the lights out.
"The punishment for violating the curfew couldn't be that bad, right, Paraclete?"
[I'm not allowed to provide such information.]
A frown appeared on Stare's face.
[However, I can give it a rating... It's a 2 out of 10.]
Stare's face brightened slightly.
"Two out of ten isn't that bad, is it?"
"It's not like they would subject him to further physical punishment given his current condition."
Stare began to feel hopeful, but Paraclete's next words shattered that hope.
[The rating is not based on the difficulty of the penalty, but on the number of students who survive the penalty without major injuries.]
Stare's mouth remained partially open, unsure of what to say. Frustrated, he muttered under his breath, "Artificially Stupid AI."
He was starting to envy the Elites and even Y-204. If he could just manage to activate his fief, even for a few minutes, he'd already be back in his dorm, possibly resting on his soft and inviting bed.
He had tried on different occasions after discovering his fief to activate it after then, but all his attempts had borne no result.
As Stare continued to imagine himself lying in his dorm room, he suddenly felt a familiar sensation welling up within him.
The last time he experienced something similar was when he had teleported to escape Just A Guy, who had nearly killed him. Although the sensation had been brief, it was etched into his memory.
It began with a sudden chill coursing through his entire body, followed by the sensation of rapid movement until he seemed to become intangible.
What followed was a brief moment of blankness, and then everything quickly returned to normal.
Stare slowly opened his eyes, which had involuntarily shut during the whole experience.
The moment he opened his eyes, a severe headache surged into his head, only to vanish so quickly that he barely had time to cry out in pain. It was as if the headache had never existed in the first place.
The first things he noticed were the astonished expressions on Bobby and Joel's faces. Their eyes and mouths fell wide open in disbelief.
"Did you just use your fief?" Joel was the first to speak, breaking the strange silence in the room.
Stare appeared too shocked to provide a coherent response.
Pointing to himself, he asked in a bewildered tone, "Did I?"
However, after cautiously scanning his surroundings and realizing that he was indeed in his dorm room, lying on his bed, he nodded with a small, satisfied smile on his face.
"I think I did."
However, neither Bobby nor Joel were willing to accept his brief reply, bombarding him with a barrage of questions.
"How did you do it?" Bobby inquired eagerly, shaking off his initial surprise, but his intense stare made Stare uncomfortable.
Before Stare could formulate an explanation, Joel interjected, "Seriously, how did you do it?"
Stare felt a strong urge to facepalm in frustration but lacked the strength to move his hand to his face.
"Based on what Imma said, the only way to activate or fully awaken your fief is by pushing your body and mind to the point where the fief activates forcefully. This explains the early morning exercises he has us endure and the rigorous training in our classes."
"And we haven't even touched on the activation process, where you must discover the actions or thoughts that trigger your fief. For me, my fief usually shows signs of activation when I convince myself I have constipation or something similar. Yet, the most I've achieved with my fief is briefly turning my skin gray for about six seconds."
"In other words, it's quite challenging to activate your fief at such an early stage, unless you have the bloodline of a powerful Prime running through your veins. In other words, you're an Elite?" Joel added with a somewhat suspicious tone.
"That theory makes sense to me. You have the appearance and a knack for engaging in disputes with other Elites and high-ranking officials, as if you're one of them..." Bobby nodded in agreement with Joel's theory.
"It's almost like a plotline where a character hails from a powerful family but pretends to be ordinary, with their family concealing their true identity from the public for some reason.
Although Stare felt extremely weak he still forced his hand up to facepalm himself.
Despite missing the camaraderie he witnessed between Bobby and Joel after their earlier odd squabble, Stare found himself unprepared for the onslaught of questions that followed.
Using his hands to signal for them to calm down, he replied with exasperation, "I'm not from some powerful family, and this isn't a soap opera Bobby. I think the penalty Lagertha gave me put my mind and body under enough stress to forcefully awaken my fief."
Stare decided not to elaborate further, considering it unnecessary as both Bobby and Joel already found his explanation plausible.
Bobby acknowledged, "That's right, you were also serving Lagertha's penalty. We initially planned on asking about that on your return but it was your wonderful manner of making an entrance that distracted us."
Joel chimed in with a nod, "How did you even survive? We were genuinely concerned that you might not make it, at least not without being bedridden for a while."
Bobby added in agreement, "That woman is scary."
Stare, too exhausted to provide responses to their unrelated inquiries, reclined on his bed, savoring its soft comfort. He hadn't realized how comfortable it was until that moment.
Bobby and Joel seemed to grasp his fatigue, and they ceased their barrage of questions.
The scene would have been truly tranquil for Stare if it weren't for Bobby and Joel's unwavering gaze on him, even with his eyes closed.
Displaying an annoyed expression, Stare's eyes opened slightly, and he quipped, "what do you want to say now."
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
DreamScribbler
DreamScribbler but then good news.
I think we might be going back to posting everyday again.
schedule might soon free up so....more time to write.
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