Chapter 98:The more she speaks, the faster her ruin approaches

Chapter 98: 98:The more she speaks, the faster her ruin approaches

The Next Day – The Art Studio

Nova, dressed in a pristine, pure white cotton mini-dress, sat silently before her easel. A blank canvas awaited her, but she merely stared at it, her fingers swirling a paintbrush in tight, rapid circles without ever breaking her gaze from the stark white paper.

Across the room, two girls in foreign academy uniforms whispered among themselves, their eyes fixed on Nova.

"That girl is far too pretty. Piper, you’re from a prominent wealthy family—do you know her?" the first student murmured, keeping her voice low.

Piper scoffed, her eyes narrowing. "I don’t know her. What does her beauty matter? She’s clearly from a poor family anyway. What a bitch," she replied with dripping arrogance.

Her friend nodded thoughtfully. "So she isn’t from wealth? She certainly looks the part. With that pampered skin of hers, I almost mistook her for royalty."

"You’re overthinking it," Piper spat, her face twisting with blatant jealousy. "Some people are so obsessed with pretending that they actually start believing their own lies. She’s a nobody, and her skin—it’s definitely plastic."

Rika, seated just behind them, gritted her teeth. "You foreign students are as arrogant as ever. I see you’re itching for a fight," she snapped angrily.

Piper and her friend turned to sneer at Rika. "A fight?" Piper mocked. "You failures don’t deserve our time. You’re only acting brave because the competition hasn’t started yet. Once the timer begins, you’ll all just exchange panicked glances and shiver in your seats."

"And then they’ll lower their heads and leave the studio in tears, just like always," the second girl chimed in with a cruel smirk. "How do you people plan on crying this time? Please, make it a public spectacle."

"You both...!" Rika clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white. "I don’t believe our past failures dictate everything. Just watch as we rise like phoenixes and humiliate all of you."

Piper rolled her eyes, eyeing Rika with utter disgust. "Oh, quite confident today, aren’t we? Did you hire a ghost painter? How much did you spend? Or rather, how exactly do you plan to cheat your way to a win?"

"We don’t need to cheat to win! We aren’t as disgusting as you!" Rika spat back.

Piper snorted. "Hold on to that confidence. Just try not to cry too ugly later." She shifted her venomous gaze back to Nova. "It’s always among your ranks that we find someone clutching a paintbrush like a lifeline, their heads so completely blank they don’t even know what to paint," she mocked loudly.

Outraged, Rika stepped forward and shoved Piper hard. "I’m warning you, you better not provoke her!" she yelled. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Piper stumbled backward, nearly falling onto the floor, but her friend caught her just in time to steady her.

"Are you crazy?! How dare you push me!" Piper shrieked, her face red with fury.

"Quiet."

The word cracked through the studio like a physical blow. Nova’s voice didn’t just echo, it rang out like a deafening, dangerous bell, tearing into the eardrums of everyone present. Students flinched, instinctively clamping their hands over their ears in sudden, visceral pain. The atmosphere in the room instantly plunged, turning impossibly thick and suffocating.

Nova’s icy, unfeeling gaze swept the room. It was entirely devoid of warmth, sending violent shivers down the spines of anyone unfortunate enough to meet her eyes.

"Can you argue in a lower tone and stop disturbing my peace?" she demanded softly, yet the oppressive weight radiating from her voice made their hearts hammer wildly against their ribs. "Your voices are annoying and irritating. If you cannot lower them, then shut up forever."

Absolute, terrified silence seized the studio. Nova cast one final, deadly glare at Piper before returning her attention to her brush.

Piper’s heart felt as though it might burst from her chest. She slowly lowered her hands from her ears, staring at Nova with a volatile mix of terror and hatred. "So arrogant," she thought, her hands trembling slightly.

"Piper, I don’t think this girl is ordinary. What just happened... it was strange and terrifying," her friend whispered, the color completely drained from her face.

Piper gritted her teeth. "I can’t explain what just happened either," she thought but her pride refused to let her back down. "What is there to be scared of? It’s not as if she’s some kind of omniscient god," she hissed back, keeping her voice as low as possible.

"But she—"

Before the girl could finish, Piper raised a hand to silence her. Driven by reckless, wounded pride, Piper marched up to Nova and aggressively slapped the paintbrush out of her hand. It clattered to the floor.

Nova didn’t flinch. She didn’t even look at Piper. Instead, her dark gaze slowly drifted down to the fallen brush, and a wicked, blood-chilling smile spread across her lips.

"Oh my! Your brush fell," Piper taunted, masking her lingering terror with a forced sneer. "That’s a bad omen. Maybe your entire academy will fall horribly today."

Nova remained perfectly, unnervingly silent.

Infuriated by the lack of reaction, Piper leaned in closer. "Why don’t we make a bet to make this competition a little more lively? If we win and you lose, your entire group will have to parade around our academy, wearing signs on your uniforms and screaming ’I am a loser’ at the top of your lungs." She laughed, though the sound was thin and strained.

Nova simply ignored her. Calmly, she pulled her phone from her pocket and opened a mobile game.

Rika rushed forward, placing herself between them. "What a stupid bet! Get out of here!"

Piper rolled her eyes. "I know you’re already aware you’re going to lose, but don’t be so desperate. Besides, I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to this arrogant little mute over here," she said, pointing a manicured finger at Nova.

Nova paused her game for a fraction of a second, then resumed tapping the screen, entirely unbothered.

"Your calmness is abnormal," Anah commented in Nova’s mind, clearly struggling to hold back her laughter.

"I see no point in exchanging words with a dead woman," Nova replied coldly through their mental link. "If we weren’t in public, and if I didn’t care about protecting my husband’s reputation until his final exams, I would have already carved out her tongue. But let her keep talking. The more she speaks, the faster her ruin approaches."

"I knew you weren’t actually that forgiving. Haha!" Anah laughed.