Max's fingers wandered across the desk, drawing phantom lines into the wood grain—no pattern, no tempo. Just motion for the sake of it.
A week had passed. Still no headlines. The CEO of Axion was supposed to be in chains by now, dragged into the light with cameras flashing in his face. Instead? Silence. Like the world hadn't gotten the memo.
'He should've been exposed by now…' Max thought, his eyes lifting just enough to catch Isabell mid-lecture. She spoke with the practiced confidence of someone who didn't second-guess their voice. Her gaze swept the classroom as she spoke, cutting across faces like a lighthouse beam, but not once did it brush his.
It wasn't disdain. She just didn't see him.
To Isabell, Max had the same narrative weight as the desk he sat at.
'Did I mess up the timeline? That possible? No, of course it is. This world's too big to hold still. Maybe I misjudged the delay… or maybe I'm just spiraling over nothing.'
The bell rang, its shrill chime slicing through the air like a blunt blade. Max stood, distracted, as his phone buzzed against his thigh. A notification blinked across the screen—one of the curated news feeds he followed religiously, his lifeline to the larger game.
Axion CEO arrested for orchestrated assassinations and conspiracy charges.'
Max exhaled slowly. A grin, small, sharp, and laced with satisfaction, pulled at the corner of his lips.
Max glanced around. A few other students were looking down at their phones, eyes narrowed, brows furrowed. Some of them had clearly seen the same news.
He tilted his screen back toward himself, skimming through the article. Names, dates, charges. The fallout was already starting. A familiar name buzzed in over the top of the page Silas.
Incoming call.
Max slid his thumb across the screen.
"What did you do?" Silas said immediately. No hello. Just suspicion, half-wrapped in curiosity.
Max lowered his voice. "Hold on. I'm still in class. I'll call you back."
He ended the call without waiting for a response, slipped the phone back into his pocket, and let his eyes drift—not to the front of the room, not to the whiteboard or the lesson, but to Isabell.
She'd seen the headline too. Her jaw was clenched, eyes scanning her own screen with that signature, principled frustration.
'With her moral compass, she's probably just mad she didn't get invited to the arrest,' Max thought, already standing, already walking toward the door.
Outside the classroom, the noise was less structured—less filtered. A sharp voice echoed off the hall's walls.
"I'm a hundred ranks higher than you, and you're challenging me to a duel? I might kill you for the inconvenience!"
Takahiro. No mistaking that voice—authority and arrogance wrapped in one polished sentence.
"I don't think you're all that! I counter your fighting style!" the other student shouted back.
Max paused briefly.
'Brave. Or stupid. Either way, I should get his name.'
Behind Takahiro stood the familiar arrangement—Collin, Skylar, Ophelia, and Evelynn. A clique formed more out of circumstance than choice, though no less effective for it.
Max's gaze lingered on Collin.
'Is he on pace power-wise? Maybe. It's been what…three weeks now? Three weeks, huh…'
His eyes moved to Skylar, who was already watching him. Not glaring. Just watching.
'So I wasn't imagining that. She's getting protective of Collin.'
That sort of behavior was telling. It meant lines were being drawn, whether they realized it or not.
Evelynn, tuned out from the boys' argument, noticed Skylar's attention. She followed her gaze, saw Max. Then watched as he looked away, eyes dropping to his shoes, the weight of the glance too heavy to keep holding.
She tilted her head slightly, tracking him as he walked down the hallway.
He pulled out his phone again. Unlocked it. Took a call.
The noise of the school folded back around him. But the air felt different now. Not louder just heavier.
"Who is that?" Evelynn asked, her voice soft but piercing as she leaned slightly forward, her gaze following Max as he walked away, his footsteps light but purposeful. The hallway was buzzing with the usual chatter of students, but her attention was fixed on him, studying the way he moved through the crowd.
Skylar glanced over, her eyes narrowing for a moment before she shrugged. "Dunno. He was looking at Collin," she said, her voice casual, though there was a hint of curiosity in her tone. Her arms were crossed, one hand absently twirling a strand of hair as she watched Max disappear around the corner.
"Like... badly?" Evelynn asked, her brow furrowing slightly. She leaned back in her chair, eyes now flicking between Skylar and Collin, sensing something off in the air, but unsure if she was reading too much into it.
"No, it was like he was studying him or something," Skylar said, her tone thoughtful, a little more intrigued than she let on. Her eyes followed Max's retreating figure, lingering for a moment longer than usual. "A little strange, honestly. Like... he wasn't just looking, but watching him with purpose."
Collin, who had been quietly flipping through his notes, finally lifted his gaze from the paper, his voice neutral. "Did you say my name?" he asked, a subtle edge of confusion threading through his words, though his expression remained mostly impassive.
"Yeah, some guy was watching you," Skylar replied, her voice nonchalant, but a glint of wariness flashed in her eyes. "Not sure what that's about. Seemed a little... off."
"Stalking?" Collin asked, his tone dry, a slight quirk to his lip that suggested he wasn't particularly worried by the idea. He wasn't one to get thrown off by much, least of all someone else's curiosity.
"No… nothing like that. He's already gone anyway," Skylar said, brushing off the thought with a shrug. "Probably nothing."
Collin paused for a moment, the silence between them stretching just long enough for him to glance in the direction Max had gone, though it wasn't out of concern. He was more... curious than anything else. But just as quickly, the moment passed, and he returned to his notes with a slight shake of his head, as though whatever happened was nothing to worry about. "Guess so," he muttered, almost to himself, before letting the moment slip entirely from his mind.
Max leaned back in his chair, his fingers drumming a steady rhythm on the edge of the desk. The dim light from his phone screen illuminated his face, casting sharp shadows across his features. He wasn't in the mood for small talk, but Silas wasn't giving him a choice.
…
"What did you do?!" The panic in Silas's voice was palpable, cracking through the phone like a whip.
Max exhaled slowly, unfazed, and let his gaze wander to the window, watching the afternoon light filter through the blinds. "Nothing. I've been at school all day," he said, his tone calm, almost bored. It was the kind of answer you gave when you knew it wasn't going to be believed, but you said it anyway.
"Are you serious?!" Silas barked back, clearly not buying it. "How did you know the CEO would get arrested? Raising the stocks of Velroix?" The suspicion was thick in his words, a barely-concealed accusation. "Do you have insider info?"
Max didn't flinch. He'd been expecting this. He knew how Silas's mind worked—always a step ahead, always looking for the angle. "No," he said, dragging the word out, his gaze now focused on the screen in front of him. "I just thought it would be a good idea. Something like that was bound to happen eventually."
"Really?" Silas asked, his voice dripping with disbelief.
Max's lips curled into a faint, self-assured smile. "Yeah. I've got more ideas like that. It's all about timing, you know? Sometimes, you don't need all the answers to know what's coming."
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. Then, Silas laughed—a low, amused sound that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You must be from Timothy Dexter's bloodline with all this luck in stupid investments."
Max snorted, though there was no one there to hear it. "Trust me," he replied, his voice taking on an almost condescending edge. "I know what I'm doing. You'd be surprised how far a gut feeling can take you."
Silas didn't immediately respond, as if considering Max's words. Then, finally, the resignation in his voice was clear. "Seems so. You've at least made millions off of it."
Max leaned forward slightly, a faint glint of satisfaction dancing in his eyes. "Nice, right? But I've got stuff to do."
There was a pause, the sound of Silas breathing on the other end, before he finally spoke again, a little more softly. "Okay. Have a good day. I'll call you whenever I decide to sell."
Max smirked. "Sounds good. You too." He ended the call with a swift swipe of his thumb, the silence in the room feeling louder than ever.