Chapter 75: School System

Jack and Victor froze mid step, eyes locked unblinking on Mark, whose entire presence had gone cold, radiating out through every line of his stance. His fists sat clenched tight at his sides, eyes sharp as drawn blades, his posture settling into something closer to a predator coiled and ready to strike than any ordinary student walking a school hallway.

If anything, the sheer shock of it hit them both hard. Neither had ever imagined the guy they’d once written off as an easy target, someone to casually harass without consequence, could ever radiate something this genuinely frightening.

A handful of freshman girls further down the corridor quickened their pace, hurrying clear of the area entirely, the thick, unmistakable weight of danger pressing down over the whole scene enough to send instinct screaming at them to leave.

Jack felt that same pressure bearing down on him directly, and Victor felt it just as sharply beside him. Mark’s eyes locked onto Jack’s without wavering, carrying real, unmistakable intent, the silence stretching taut between them.

Jack’s brow furrowed slightly while Mark’s gaze held steady, sharp and unrelenting as a pair of leveled daggers.

I don’t know what it is exactly, but this guy. He just feels completely different now from how he used to be, and honestly, it’s terrifying. Can’t believe I’m even admitting that to myself, but still... Jack thought privately, unsettled by the strange new weight radiating off Mark’s presence.

Victor took an involuntary step backward, and Jack found himself mirroring the motion a beat later, jaw clenched hard against the creeping fear and sense of inferiority spreading fast through his body, triggered purely by standing this close to Mark.

He genuinely couldn’t believe this was happening to him, and he hated every second of it. Nobody but Mia was ever supposed to rank as a real threat or superior over them. Even Kai had never registered as much of a genuine concern when it came to who actually held dominance.

Every time Mark’s gaze settled fully on Jack, fresh memories of the ambush came flooding back sharp and vivid. He remembered Jack openly breaking school law, unleashing his summon’s full power specifically to victimize him. He remembered thrashing helplessly inside the crushing grip of that slime trap, remembered hearing their muffled, snickering laughter drifting through as they watched him struggle, utterly powerless.

He genuinely couldn’t stomach any more of it, especially not after the headmaster’s dismissive response to the entire situation. He understood the school for exactly what it really was now. He’d already spent his entire freshman year as a favorite target while still an ordinary mundy, and somehow, everyone around him had simply treated that as normal, unavoidable, nothing worth challenging.

But the truth was considerably uglier than that. The school’s own administration ran just as corrupt as anything waiting outside its gates. That was the real face it presented, quietly, to students who lacked the means to properly defend themselves or fight for their own basic rights.

Except now, Mark actually had the capability to do something about it, and he fully intended to start taking matters into his own hands, done tolerating the weakness everyone had permanently attached to his name. He’d start right here, with the two standing directly in front of him.

Mark shook his head slightly as darker, genuinely dangerous thoughts crept steadily into his mind, though he found he couldn’t quite force himself to push them back out. He let them stay instead, and strangely enough, that decision alone felt like something close to real freedom settling warmly into his chest.

A faintly maniacal smile crept across his lips, and both Jack and Victor felt their hearts stutter in response, stumbling another half step backward, muscles tensing hard against the raw threat radiating off him.

"You know, every time I used to watch you two doing what you always do, to other people, to me, I’d always ask myself why. Guess I was wrong to keep wasting time on that question. Actually living through it myself hits completely different. Honestly, this feeling is close to perfect. It’s settling warm right into my chest, and I genuinely can’t believe I spent this long never letting myself feel it," Mark said, eyes gleaming faintly.

"And I really can’t wait to work all of that out on the two of you."

He surged forward like a charging beast, wind whipping violently around him with the sheer force of his movement, already winding up a devastating punch as he closed the distance.

Victor’s heart lurched hard in his chest while Jack lunged forward to meet him, arms warping rapidly into slick, green, slime coated limbs tipped with long, curved claws, bracing to counter. Still, underneath the bravado, the full weight of exactly how furious Mark had become after everything Jack had already done to him sat heavy in the back of his mind, making the entire confrontation feel considerably more terrifying than he’d expected.

Just as Mark closed in for his brutal opening strike against an uncertain, bracing Jack, something cut sharply between them, Olivia, intercepting both Mark’s swinging fist and Jack’s clawed limb bare handed in one smooth, practiced motion. She’d already triggered her own protective ability beforehand, guarding against exactly this kind of dangerous, unpredictable escalation.

Her expression carried nothing close to pleasure the instant the long sleeves of her black suit top tore apart clean across both shoulders from the force of absorbing the blow.

She shot a hard, pointed look toward Mark, who immediately withdrew, before turning that same sharp attention toward Jack and Victor, both of whom instinctively shrank backward like wrongfully accused victims.

"If anything, neither of you gets to play innocent right now, so drop the act completely and get to my staff room. Now," she said sharply, before pivoting back to face Mark directly.

Brushing loose dust and debris from her torn sleeve and bare arm, she let out a long, measured breath.

"And on top of everything else, I honestly never expected you to turn out like this, Mark Moulow. What exactly has gotten into your head, into whatever’s left of your patience, that made you decide going after your own classmates was the answer?"

"Classmates?" Mark scoffed, gaze remaining locked steadily on Olivia. "If anything, those two are barely worth the term. They’re the kind of people who deserve real consequences under this school’s own laws. Except, funny enough, that’s never actually going to happen, is it?"

His words drew a visible frown from Olivia, right before a short, humorless chuckle slipped free from his own lips.

Then he caught himself, pulling back sharply. Was this genuinely what he was becoming? No. This was what the world around him had actively shaped him into, and somewhere along the way, he’d started embracing that shift with something close to real satisfaction. This was, in a strange way, exactly what everyone above him claimed they wanted, someone capable of standing entirely on his own, regardless of whatever pressure came down from those sitting comfortably at the top demanding otherwise.

He’d also started noticing something deeper about how people around him actually perceived him. It never really came down to his current position, or whatever right he supposedly held to threaten or fight back against anyone. It came down to the school’s own quiet, internal system of categorizing people, sorting them neatly after enough careful, ongoing observation.

For instance, if the system flagged someone early on as a bully, or a flaunting, arrogant jerk, it logged that behavior as simply expected, normal, business as usual, the crimes and conduct tied to that particular reputation treated as an unavoidable given going forward.

But the instant someone previously filed away as a victim suddenly rose up, proved genuinely capable, and started fighting back against people who considered themselves naturally superior, that same system, and the minds of everyone who’d already quietly judged that person, simply refused to adjust. That perception had already calcified into something close to permanent.

That was simply how the wider world tended to operate, in practice.

Mark remained permanently branded a mere mundy in most people’s eyes, regardless of the fact that he’d already awakened, proven his genuine strength, and demonstrated staggering potential along the way. None of that changed how people still viewed him the moment he dared push back against anyone who believed themselves inherently above everyone else.

That was simply the majority’s fixed perception throughout the school. Like a scar carved deep into set concrete, a mark that felt, at this point, almost genuinely impossible to erase.