Chapter 143: ¹⁴³: you intruige me

Chapter 143: 1?3: you intruige me

Louis looked at me, a smirk slowly forming on his face. "I have already told you, Athena," he said, sounding completely unbothered by my challenge. "I don’t care about all those superficial things. I would gladly be second to you in everything we do together."

I stared at him for a moment as I felt the familiar urge to give him another frustrated remark, but before I could open my mouth, the principal’s voice echoed through the auditorium.

"Athena Moonvel."...My name, I closed my eyes for a brief second, of course just as Louis had predicted, I was among the first students to be called onto the stage. I turned my head toward the stage, already feeling defeated at the thought of having to walk in front of the entire auditorium again.

"Give me some space to pass," I said to Louis as I stood from my seat and turned toward the aisle that led to the stage, but Louis immediately moved as well.

"Gladly." He got up and stepped aside, giving me more than enough room to pass. I glanced at him briefly. He had a huge smile plastered across his face, his eyes following me as though watching me walk to the stage was somehow the most entertaining thing happening in the entire auditorium.

I chose to ignore him completely. There was absolutely no point in giving him the satisfaction of seeing me react.

I adjusted my clothes slightly, took a quiet breath, and walked toward the stage. With every step, I could feel the attention of the students around me, making me even more eager to get the assignment and return to my seat. The moment I reached the stage, I gave the principal a polite smile. "Hello."

"Hello, Athena," he replied with a small nod.

I then turned toward Gamma Derek. He was already standing there with my assignment in his hand, apparently waiting for me to arrive. I stopped a short distance in front of him, keeping my posture respectful.

"Sorry," he said with a polite smile. "I just didn’t catch your name when it was called. May I know what it is?"

"It is perfectly fine, sir," I replied quickly. I made sure to keep my tone respectful. There were already enough eyes on me without giving anyone a reason to think I was being careless or disrespectful toward one of the empire’s high-ranking officials. "It is Athena."

"Athena?" The moment Gamma Derek repeated my name, something changed., the smile on his face slowly faded, his eyes darkened as he stared at me, and for the first time since I had seen him today, his expression looked genuinely startled.

I froze and my eyes remained on his face as I tried to understand what had just happened. Why had my name affected him like that? "Is... is there anything wrong, sir?" I asked hesitantly.

Gamma Derek didn’t answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed on me, almost as if he were trying to remember something he had heard a very long time ago. The sudden shock in his expression slowly disappeared, replaced by something I couldn’t quite identify.

Intrigue, perhaps or curiosity. I briefly glanced behind him. Our principal was still standing nearby, watching the exchange with a neutral expression, seemingly waiting for Gamma Derek to hand me my assignment.

I turned my attention back toward Gamma Derek. "There is nothing," he finally said. His voice had returned to its earlier calmness, though there was still something different about the way he was looking at me. "It is just that name sounded a little familiar."

I swallowed quietly, familiar? Why would my name sound familiar to him? I couldn’t think of any reason. My fingers instinctively curled slightly at my sides as I watched him, trying to keep my expression neutral.

Then he asked the question that immediately made my heart tighten. "What is your full name?"

For a fraction of a second, I hesitated. "Umm... it is Moonvel," I finally replied. "Athena Moonvel."

I kept my eyes as still as I could while saying it. Athena Moonvel... Even if this name was not my original truth, it had become a part of me now. It was the identity I carried every day, the name people here knew me by, the name I had learned to answer to without hesitation.

It had become my new identity, something inseparable from my existence now.

Gamma Derek nodded at me after hearing my answer, his expression settling back into that polite smile he had worn before. Finally, he moved his hands forward and offered me the thick assignment papers I had been called onto the stage to receive.

"Athena Moonvel," he repeated slowly. The way he said my name made something inside me tighten.

It wasn’t merely the fact that he had repeated it. There was something strange in the way each syllable left his lips, almost as if he were turning the name over in his mind and trying to connect it to a memory buried somewhere in his past.

I curled my fingers around the thick stack of papers as I took it from his hands, my eyes remaining fixed on his face.

His smile was still there. His posture was still perfectly composed. There was nothing outwardly threatening about him and yet, I couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling crawling beneath my skin.

It was almost as though the longer I stood in front of him, the more intensely I could feel something I couldn’t explain. A strange energy surrounded him, something that made my instincts whisper that I should be careful even though I had no concrete reason to be.

Maybe I was simply being overly suspicious. Still, I couldn’t completely silence that uneasy feeling.

"I find you quite intriguing."

My brows lifted slightly. Before I could even process what he meant, Gamma Derek extended his hand toward me.

For a moment, I simply stared at it, a handshake. It was an entirely normal gesture. There was nothing unusual about it. And yet, after everything that had happened in my life, I found myself hesitating over something as simple as accepting another person’s hand.

I eventually forced myself to stop overthinking it and slowly extended my own hand. The moment our hands met, his fingers wrapped around mine.

He gave my hand a quick shake, but there was something almost deliberate about the gesture, as though he had wanted the contact rather than merely offering a customary greeting.

"I will be waiting to review your solutions myself, Miss Athena Moonvel."

His words made my eyes narrow ever so slightly. Personally? I didn’t know why that made me even more uncomfortable.

Gamma Derek finally released my hand, his smile returning to something that looked perfectly ordinary.

"All the best."

"Thank you, sir." I offered him a small, polite smile before turning away. The moment my back was facing him, I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding.

I didn’t know what had just happened. Perhaps it was nothing. But there was something about Gamma Derek that I couldn’t quite place.

I didn’t stop to think about it for long. I had already spent enough time on the stage. I quickly made my way down, clutching the assignment papers against my chest as I headed back toward my seat.

As expected, Louis was called onto the stage immediately after me. We crossed paths halfway. He was walking toward the stage while I was making my way down, and naturally, he couldn’t let the opportunity pass without saying something.

"Why do you look like a scared rabbit?" Louis asked, a teasing smile tugging at his lips.

I immediately glared at him. "There is nothing like that!" I shot back, quickening my steps as I walked past him.

I wasn’t going to tell him about the strange feeling Gamma Derek had given me. Not when I wasn’t even sure whether there was anything to be concerned about. Besides, Louis had enough things to say without me giving him another reason to start annoying me.

I reached my seat and sat down, placing the assignment papers carefully on my lap. Then my gaze instinctively returned to the stage. Gamma Derek was now speaking to Louis. And strangely enough, the moment I looked at him again, that unsettling change I had noticed earlier seemed to return.

His pupils appeared darker. His expression, though still polite, had lost the warmth he had shown me earlier. He was saying something to Louis, but from where I sat, I couldn’t hear a single word. I watched them for a few seconds, trying to understand what was happening.

I finally turned toward Rose. "Is Gamma Derek also close to Alpha like Beta Ryan?" I asked quietly.

Rose was sitting beside me, but she barely seemed to register that I had spoken. Her eyes remained fixed on the stage while her pupils were wide, her expression almost dreamy. I followed her gaze for a moment before looking back at her.

"Close?!" Rose finally replied, letting out a small chuckle. She still didn’t take her eyes off Gamma Derek. "Alpha Kael, Beta Ryan, and Gamma Derek are best buddies. Besides the positions they have in the Empire, they are practically inseparable. They have lived their entire lives together. Even their school years were spent together."

My brows furrowed, their entire lives? That explained why Gamma Derek seemed so comfortable around Louis.

I looked back toward the stage. Louis was still standing in front of Gamma Derek, listening to whatever the older man was saying.

I no longer knew if the weird feeling I had been getting about Gamma Derek was even worth thinking about or not. If Gamma Derek really was this close to Kael and Beta Ryan, then perhaps there was no reason for me to be suspicious.