Capítulo 27: Chapter 26: Party

***Steve P.O.V.

Some things never change no matter how much time passed. Doesn't matter which world you reside in. They are fundamentals that society stands on.

Power begets power.

I was not unknown to this notion since I had seen it happen all the time in my small but colorful lifetime.

Once you possess a certain degree of power, it in itself produces more power for you to wield. Whether it's monetary power or administrative power or religious power. All follow the same principle.

How people were interacting around me further proved this notion of mine.

If you were to categorize the people in the party at a level, you would find three types of people.

The first ones were the elites, whether it's because of their background or their capabilities, or both. They behave like a black hole.

Just like a black hole warps the space around it and creates an attraction force called gravity, they too create an attraction force.

The second kind was people that knowingly and unknowingly revolved around the elites.

Some of them wanted to reap the benefits by serving the elites while others had the delusion that they were worthy of standing side by side with the elites. A few likely even thought that in a few months these elites would be the ones begging them.

And at last, the third kind. The kind that realized that there was no point in being a part of the second kind since they would not get much from it. The only kind that was here for enjoyment. I too was a part of the third kind.

Why behave like a dog wagging his tail before the elites if the most we could get in return was just scorn?

The elites were here either because they had to or because they needed to be present for the fulfillment of their agenda.

I mean, I don't think they enjoy the attention that they received at every event. They couldn't behave freely because they were observed to tiny details and every mistake would affect their image.

It's so much similar to how celebrities in my old world had to behave on social media.

Everything that they would do or say would be criticized by people that had nothing to do except cancel someone on the internet.

It was so idiotic. They didn't understand the basic principle that a person grows as time passes. What a person was 10 years ago was not the person they are today.

But sadly, the masses just wanted a target. The same could happen to these elites. They had to tread with care because their enemies would make use of their mistakes to paint them as a target to the masses.

With all said and done, that got to do nothing with me.

I received the drink from Liam before following him around.

"What do you think?" Stella asked me as she looked at the senior that was making moving animals on air with the fountain water by manipulating it.

"Pretty great until now. Nice drinks and snacks, opportunities to interact with people that know more than you. The only way it could have been better was if I could get some pot right now." I replied as our fellow freshman clapped at the senior's performance.

"Pot?" She looked confused.

"He means marijuana." Liam sighed.

"Woah!! Really? Isn't it bad?"

"Oh come one, I can see at least 5 people smoking a cigarette and that's 18 times more addictive than weed." I couldn't help but grumbled. A teenage party without drugs felt a little out of my base.

"Marijuana is a drug, no?" She asked while enjoying her drink. We sat down on some benches.

"Well yeah, but everything has degrees to them. Like how harassment and rape are both bad. Both need to be punished but it is clear that one is a bigger crime than the other."

"The same applies to drugs, weed is a drug and opium is a drug but while weed only makes you high for a few minutes, opium could destroy your and others' life."

"Hmm, You know what? That's an interesting point of view but I don't think the disciplinary committee would care about your opinion." Liam nodded to Stella's opinion.

"They could allow cigarettes but not weed, seems redundant to me." I sighed.

"First of all, cigarettes were not allowed too. Someone likely used a backdoor to arrange them. The second point, there is politics involved in this." Liam started to explain.

"Cigarette has the backing of influential companies while weed has none. So it doesn't matter that cigarette is bad for health too, as long as it has the backing of lobbying benches, it would always be endorsed more."

"Whatever, can we stop with politics and just enjoy ourselves?" Stella grounded her teeth in frustration.

"Fine by me, what do you want to talk about?" Liam smiled while entertaining her.

"I don't know, something that doesn't remain relevant more than for today."

"Hmm, I see. Steve, Why were you drinking juice?" Liam nodded before turning toward me.

I look at my drink before shrugging off," I just don't like bitter things."

"Ohh, I thought it was because of your religion or something."

"Who the hell still flows religion today? Aren't everyone atheists nowadays?" To be honest, I was an atheist in my past life too.

"Well, it's true that during the apocalyptic century, everyone gave up on religion since if god exists then where the hell is he while humans were on the brink of extinction but there are still traditionalists that follow the teaching from pre-apocalypse."

"There are not many of these people but they do exist. I thought you were one of them since you often use terms from pre-apocalypse."

Stella widened her eyes," Now that you mentioned it, yeah. He does like to use words from that age."

***Isabel P.O.V.

"So I jumped from there since I couldn't let them catch me. That saved my life but I had to stay in bed for almost a week because of that. The river is known for its cold water." The dump wit kept on bragging to Daisy without realizing that she stopped listening to him.

I didn't get why does he think that escaping from goblins of all species was something to brag about. It's so absurd that I found it almost comedic.

Even a normal child could take them out if they were outside of their lair and not in big quantities and here he bragged about escaping from 4 goblins while having access to mana and education.

I shook my head before turning around and leaving them to discuss childhood stories.

As I was grabbing a drink, I stumbled upon someone that might make coming to this party worth it.

"You were better than I imagined you to be," I remarked to garner the attention of the crimson-haired girl.

The girl turned around with a confused face.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Isabel. And if I'm not wrong in recognizing people from photos then you must be Scarlet." I raised my hand for a handshake that she hesitantly returned.

"Yes, what can I help you with, Isabel?" She asked in wonder as she communicated to her friends by making eye contracts.

"Please don't take it the wrong way. I didn't want to disturb you and your friends. I just couldn't stop myself when I saw you. After all, it's not every day you find someone like you that could get evaluated over Sabrina." Sabrina was the most skilled female warrior from our generation that I knew and I know a lot of people because of my sister's influence.