Bab 21: Chapter 16: You're an Investment

•National Academy of Science, 1st Ward•

Ana

Ana tried to collect her thoughts. This mission wasn't as simple as she thought. It appears Valerian was hiding a LOT of secrets.

Ana poked the salad in front of her. During times like this she oddly craved meat. Unfortunately for them, food shortage was on the rise in the sanctuary. Despite the technological advances, it was hard to maintain the amount of meat with the rise in population.

Now, most of their food were lab-grown artificial vegetables. Ana looked at the small portion of meat on her tray and sighed.

"Are you ok? You've been sighing an awful lot lately." Lily asked her.

"She must have been in shock from the attack yesterday." A female voice said from behind them.

"Hi, I'm Margo. Mind if I join you." The girl said.

Ana nodded. "Hey guys she said it's ok to sit here." Margo called and suddenly two other people approached them and filled their table.

"Sorry about this. There weren't any other tables. The kids from the regular class won't let Class E students sit with them so..."

Ana looked at the people around her table and indeed they were her classmates from class E. Class E only had 7 students. (The seven students who scored the lowest on the entrance exam). Ana didn't bother to pay attention to any of them since she didn't want to have any unecesary attachments when her mission was over. But now that she got a good look at them, they looked depressed.

"Hi, I'm Trois." A boy with messy ash-blonde hair said extending his hand. "I'm from the 5th Ward." he added. Ana shook his hand. The 5th Ward?

"I know what you're thinking. 'How can a person from the 5th Ward study at the prestigious Academy of science?' Well, I was offered a scholarship so I managed to take the exam. Fortunately managed to pass but unfortunately, I was one of the seven people who scored the lowest." he chuckled.

"We're like the dark counterparts of the Imperial 7" Margo laughed as her long braided black hair caught the wind.

"Hi, I'm Eclarissé. I'm from the 2nd Ward" The red-head whispered. Ana could tell she was shy

"Eclarissé is my girlfriend" Trois said while proudly putting his arm around her. This made the red-head blush. It was rare to see couples from different social classes like them. Usually, people from the inner wards (1st Ward and 2nd Ward) didn't even like associating with people from the outer wards.

"Ughhh what's with this?! Our portion of meat is as small as my pinky while the regular class gets a fist full?!" Margo complained. "Back at home, we could eat as much as we wanted!"

"Margo is from the 4th Ward. Her family is one of the few people who owns a farm and supplies the Sanctuary with meat." Trois explained as he wolfed down his food. "This is amazing! This is the most meat I've eaten in my entire life. Plus I can eat THREE times a day here. I'm not complaining."

Ana couldn't help but feel uneasy at the clear social discrimination. On the surface, the sanctuary seemed to be the perfect paradise but deep-down, the sanctuary was slowly crumbling. The space inside the sanctuary was only limited and with the rise in population, more and more people in the outer wards are losing homes, going hungry and dying. Of course, people in the inner wards still live like kings. Not minding that amount of resources they're wasting.

It was a rotten system. And Ana was a part of it. As Ana sighed she noticed the friendly chatter of the people in the table cease, replaced by hushed whispers.

"Hi, sunshine." A deep voice said from behind her as he took a seat beside her. Ana instinctively froze from the sheer proximity. She could almost feel Valerian's shoulders touching hers.

"You're not following me today? That's new" Valerian teased. Ana used all her strength to keep looking forward and avoid eye contact with him. But even that proved difficult to do when she could sense him staring at her from er peripheral vision.

"Oh, yeah hahahaha. I'm dying of hunger" Ana said as an excuse as she shoved a spoonful of salad in her mouth and almost gag. She hated the taste of vegetables. She could sense the corners of Valerian's lips tug upwards. "Who knew you were a picky eater" he mumbled.

"Hey!" Margo shouted at Valerian, pointing her finger straight at him. Trois, Lily, and Eclarissé all tried to push her hand down but she just shook them away. "Your the prime minister's son aren't you?! YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS UNEQUALITY! THE REGULAR CLASSES ARE ENJOYING GOOD FOOD IN THEIR MUSEUM-LIKE CLASSROOMS WHILE WE'RE STUCK HERE EATINF PEA-SIZED MEAT WITH DUSTY OLD CLASSROOMS IN A RUN-DOWN BUILDING AND NOT EVEN ONE WORKING COMPUTER!!" Margo exhaled heavily after her rant.

A deep uncomfortable silence filled the entire table. Everyone looked uneasily between Margo and Valerian. Valerian raises her eyebrows at her and Margo instinctively shrink into her seat avoiding eye contact. "I mean...we deserve to eat meat too don't we? hahahahah" she forced out a laugh to try to ease the situation but the laugh ended up sounding dry and awkward.

"You're right." Valerian said and opened a screen in font of him. In a matter of moments the cafeteria door swung open and a swarm of drones carrying parcels entered. About 5 drones flew to their table and dropped the parcels carefully in front of them.

The smell of freshly cooked meat wafted across the air, leaving Ana drooling at the scent. Valerian gestured to open the parcels and they saw more meat than all the meat in the cafeteria combined.

Grilled, fried, baked. There was chicken, beef, pork, even seafood which was a delicacy only the elites could enjoy. "OH MY GOD!" Margo exclaimed.

"Turns out you're not such a jerk after all. A spoiled brat maybe" Margo said and instantly everyone froze careful they would feel Valerian's wrath. "I meant a good spoiled brat" Margo added.

The others started to dig in while prying eyes looked jealously at them from the other tables. "Well, go on sunshine," Valerian told her.

Ana just stared blankly at food in front of her. Was this the Valerian she knew? Was he perhaps abducted by aliens and the one beside her was a fake? There was no way THAT Valerian--who shot Kalix Dyle--could be so generous and give them FREE food even AFTER he got told off.

"Sunshine, if you keep staring at me, I'll melt" He teased. Ana just furrowed her brows and looked at him confused. How could his attitude do a complete 360 change? What the-

Ana placed her hand on her forehead to check his temperature. "Are you sick? Do you have a fever? Did you hit your head and get amnesia!" She asked.

"Why are you being so nice" Ana whispered skeptically.

"I didn't want you to starve. I mean you barely ate anything." Ana looked at her plate and the half-eaten salad that she forced herself to eat despite the disgusting taste of the leafy vegetables. "You clearly hate vegetables. I'm just doing you a favor." he added as he took a piece of chicken from the parcel and placed it in her plate.

"Why?" Ana asked as Valerian sliced the chicken in her plate into tiny bite-sized pieces.

Valerian looked up from his work and stared directly into her eyes. They were only inches away from each other. Valerian's lips curled into an unsettling, devilish smirk that seemed to hold secrets darker than the shadows themselves. His eyes gleamed with a mischievous glint.

Ana's heart raced, and a cascade of emotions swirled within--fear, confusion, nervousness.

"Because you're an investment" Valerian whispered against her lips.