Chapter 53: The Five Pillars [I]

Starlight stared at her in sheer disbelief, recognizing her instantly. It was the same imposing girl who had used her sheer size and body to hold back the crowd of students outside their dorm elevator earlier. "Why would you... I mean, wouldn’t it be easier for you to just keep your seats?" Starlight asked, looking from the girl to her friends with a mixture of surprise and hesitation. "You don’t have to move just for us."

The girl and her friends simply beamed at her, shaking their heads as though the suggestion was nothing worth considering.

"It’s totally fine," the girl said, waving her hand dismissively with a bright grin. "We can easily find another spot further back. Please, take them and sit together with your friends!"

Starlight glanced at the seats the girls had just given up, a knot of discomfort forming in her chest. It felt entirely wrong to take a prime spot from people who had clearly arrived early to secure them. She didn’t feel right taking their seats, especially when she hadn’t even asked for them. "I really appreciate it, but you don’t have to give up your seats for us," she insisted.

"Oh, thank you so very much! We really, really appreciate it!" Elle interjected quickly, stepping in front of Starlight with a practically glowing expression as she clasped her hands together. "Thank you so much. Seriously, Queen Star is blessed to have kind fans like y’all."

"You’re welcome! Anytime!" the tall girl beamed, her friends nodding eagerly along with equally bright smiles. "We’re the ones blessed to have Queen Star here with us."

"Wait!" Starlight called out as the girls turned to leave, stopping them in their tracks. "Um...what’s your name? I didn’t get it earlier."

The girl’s entire face lit up instantly, her smile widening with unmistakable excitement. Her favorite celebrity had personally asked for her name. She practically bounced on her feet.

"My name is Nalani," she announced proudly.

"Thank you so much, Nalani," Starlight said with a genuine smile. "I really appreciate this."

"Anytime, Queen Star! Anytime at all!" Nalani gushed, waving enthusiastically before dragging her grinning friends toward the upper rows.

Elle did not waste a single second. She slipped into the newly vacated seats, sliding across the sleek desk to claim her spot with a satisfied sigh. Starlight took the seat beside her, while Chloe and Ariel settled into the remaining two.

"Ah, the perks of being friends and roomies with a top star," Elle sighed happily, leaning back in her chair with a satisfied smirk. "I could definitely get used to this life." Starlight just looked at her, shaking her head in quiet exasperation.

The heavy front doors of the lecture hall swung open at that exact moment, silencing the low hum of chatter and drawing the attention of nearly every student in the room as the Lycanthropic Ethnology lecturer walked in.

Mr. Vargen was not only tall but also huge, a broad-shouldered man with a powerful build that made him look more like a seasoned warrior from an ancient battlefield than an academy lecturer. His piercing sharp blue eyes swept across the room with intimidating calm. His long blond hair was pulled neatly into a tight low ponytail, accentuating his sharp jawline and giving his otherwise imposing appearance a surprisingly refined edge. He held a sleek tablet in one hand and a metallic stylus in the other, his expression composed as he paused briefly at the front of the room to assess the class before walking toward the podium.

Elle leaned over and whispered to Starlight, "Isn’t he a total eye candy? I would literally do anything to get wrapped up in those strong arms and have him do all sorts of wicked things to me."

Starlight immediately choked on her own saliva, forcing her to cover her mouth as she coughed lightly, trying not to disturb the rest of the class.

"Sooo-rryyy~" Elle sing-songed with an amused grin that earned a murderous glare from Starlight.

She snickered and leaned back in her seat as Mr. Vargen began scrawling the subject and the day’s topic in large capital letters across the digital whiteboard with his stylus.

LYCANTHROPIC ETHNOLOGY: THE FIVE PILLARS OF THE LUNORIA EMPIRE

Starlight quickly followed the example of the other students around her, fixing her phone securely onto the small adjustable stand attached to the desk, positioning the camera toward the front before tapping the screen to begin recording. All across the hall, students were doing the exact same thing, positioning their devices toward the front of the room and checking angles to make sure both the lecturer and the digital whiteboard would be clearly visible in the recording.

At the front of the hall, Mr. Vargen capped his stylus and turned back toward the class.

His sharp blue eyes swept across the rows of students before pausing, ever so briefly, on Elle before continuing their sweep across the rest of the lecture hall. Starlight’s eyes narrowed.

There was absolutely no way he could have heard what Elle had said unless, of course, he possessed the heightened hearing associated with his lycan lineage despite being unable to shift. She wouldn’t put it past him to have inherited that much. If he had, then there was a very real chance he had actually heard every single word that had come out of that shameless girl’s mouth.

"Can anyone tell me what the Five Pillars of the Lunoria Empire are? Or, simply put, what they represent?"

Nobody moved. It was painfully quiet.

"Why are y’all quiet?" Mr. Vargen asked, his voice laced with mild amusement. "Surely everyone in this room has heard of them at least once."

Maybe because nobody knows whether you’re asking for the public version or the historical one, Starlight wanted to say, but she bit her tongue to keep the thought to herself.

One of the werewolf students, a guy who looked like a varsity athlete, suddenly stood up proudly and cleared his throat. "The Five Pillars of the Lunoria Empire are the Five Clans."

"How creative," Vargen deadpanned, earning a wave of laughter from the entire class.

The boy’s confident expression immediately faltered as he realized he had just stated the obvious, and he quickly sat back down, his face burning with embarrassment.