Hal felt tense. For some reason the atmosphere suddenly cooled down.
It was so sudden. While he thought Neris was a bit chatty, when the instructor suddenly stopped talking to him, the atmosphere suddenly became oppressive.
Hal felt like he was walking on pins and needles.
Finally the instructor stopped. He raised his hand and touched the dome. His hand passed through the barrier. He slowly stepped out of the restriction and put Bram on the ground.
"You guys, come out," he said, beckoning them to follow him.
Neris happily rushed towards the barrier. They didn't stop him and just let him be the test subject.
BAAM!
Neris bounced off the barrier like a tennis ball. Looking at Neris clutching his head and wailing in pain, they couldn't help but hiss.
The instructor sighed. He sounded exhausted. He walked back inside the barrier and pulled Neris up. He looked at the rest and said, "Come, hold onto me."
They held onto the instructor's shirt. They followed him and passed through the barrier.
Now standing outside the plaza, they felt that it was unreal.
"Instructor, what do we do next?" Neris asked.
"Call your academy and ask someone to pick you up. Tell them the artifact briefing is over," the instructor said. After that, he seemed to be in deep thought for a moment, then he finally made up his mind, "My number is 98x xxx xxx, call me if you have questions or you need anything."
"I'll be going now. I still have something to do."
They looked at the instructor's departing back. It looked like as if he was being chased by something. After hearing the motorcycle turning on and it driving away, Neris suddenly sighed in relief.
It was quite. Then...
"We did it!" he squealed in excitement.
Hal rolled his eyes at him. "You really would do anything just to escape the lesson, huh?"
Neris felt guilty. He rubbed his nose. "Ahh, Instructor is quite gentle. If that was our other professors, there's no way they'd let us leave even if we were battered to bits."
Clea looked at the two scheming devils. "Bram will probably kill you guys once he knows that you're treating him like a pawn"
Idris was clueless, but after hearing what Neris and Hal were talking about, he suddenly realized something. "You guys did that deliberately?!"
Neris stuck his tongue out. "Hehehe, yes. Sir Quill and Miss Cassia will ask what we learned, but what if we had a proper excuse that the teacher accidentally struck Bram too hard so the lecture was abruptly finished?"
Idris looked at Hal and Neris as if they were devils. "So you guys sacrificed Bram? Hal, when you spoke up at the instructor a while ago, you did that on purpose to goad Bram into finishing what you've started, right?"
Looking careless as ever, Hal shrugged. "I'm not a sucker for beating. Of course I won't do it myself."
Now Bram was the pitiful one. Idris felt distressed as he looked at the unconscious guy. Poor Bram, he wasn't a victim of the instructor but a victim of his own team members. Why would you need enemies when you have friends like this? Idris now deeply felt that quote to his bones.
Idris still had a bit of anger towards these two. "I think you guys are a bit too much. What if Bram suffered long-lasting damage from this?"
This time Neris was quite guilty. "Actually, I did not expect the artifact to be that powerful. The instructor seemed to have also not expected it either based on his reaction."
Clea didn't think their plan was reliable at all. "What if, even if Bram was injured or unconscious, the instructor still wouldn't let us go? What are you gonna do?"
"Then that's it." Hal didn't think that what he did was wrong.
Clea exploded. "What do you mean 'that's it'? You're our captain, Hal. You showing this kind of attitude makes me fear for my future in this team. Who wants a captain that treats his members this lightly?"
Idris and Neris saw that they were getting heated. They tried to calm both of them down. Neris felt nervous facing Clea. "Clea, Hal knew that academy teachers really wouldn't harm us. It wasn't that big of a deal."
Idris, on the other hand, knew that Clea had a point, so he tried to make Hal understand her concerns. "Hal, Clea was just concerned. Although I know you probably had a backup plan, what if something happened?"
Hal's face was already ugly from what Clea said. Now hearing his best friend Idris backing her up, he felt even worse. "Passiveness and safety. Clea, there is no opportunity in stability. We want to get out of here because of the auction, so we need to find a way to do so. I can guarantee your safety, but in order to get what we want, we need to take the risk."
Clea didn't buy it. "Risk? That was too risky! I think you just got used to your family catching you whenever you fall. Not everyone is a Veilkin like you, Hal. If opportunity is within risk, then we wouldn't have been in the honor class at all!"
"Calm down, Clea, hahahahha. Don't we need to go to the auction?" Neris had no idea how to calm them down, so he just blurted out their most important agenda.
Hal wanted to argue, but when he heard what Neris said, he calmed down. He and Clea arguing wouldn't get them anywhere, so he decided to compromise. "Okay Clea, I understand your concerns, but I don't think now is the time to argue. We only have 5 hours left before the academy starts looking for us. I think we should get going."
Still pissed, Clea pointed at Bram. "Then you carry him! This is your mess, so you clean it up."
Hal gave up. He walked towards the unconscious Bram and carried him on his back. He could feel the void energy inside of him churning. He frowned in pain but still steadied his hold of Bram.
Idris wasn't that concerned about their argument. They had always been like this since day one. The thing that he was most worried about was Bram. He poked Clea. "Clea, is Bram really alright? Why is he still unconscious?"
"He's fine. He'll wake up around an hour later base on my estimate, after the void energy from the compass dissipates." Then she added, "As for the broken bones, you know Bram's aptitude. He can heal himself."
Idris was assured.
Now their focus should be how to get that artifact.
"What if we fail the bidding?" Neris was worried.
"We'll look for something else." Hal felt exhausted.
Clea snickered. "Heh, do you think it's that easy to find a dealer?"
Neris had an idea. "Hey, I memorized the instructor's number. Maybe if we ask, he'll help? He seemed to be very gentle."
"Are you not hearing what I just said? Do you think it's that easy to find a dealer? Even in our academy, we only have 4 contracted dealers. Wild dealers are dangerous and not trustworthy. If this auction fails, then it's over for us." Clea was a bit pessimistic about the whole thing.