Reborn: Apocalypse Ready. War Goddess by My Side novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43 Release Me

Finished

“Mind taking these ell me oflicer?” Steven said, lifting his cuffed wrists. “If anyone’s getting cuffed, it’s those two.”

“Yeah, cuff them!” Nelson hollered from across the room.

The whole dynamic flipped in a single breath.

The officer had no real choice. He stepped forward and unlocked the handcuffs.

Then he looked at Steven.

“You witnessed a killing last night. Why didn’t you report it?”

“I honestly didn’t know he was dead,” Steven said. “I figured they were just venting after the fight. And last night I got hit with a beast attack, so I really didn’t have the chance.”

The room went utterly still.

A beast attack?

The officer’s expression turned skeptical.

“I can prove it,” Steven said. “Team Ashen out of Rowenville responded to the scene and pulled me out. You can verify that on your end.”

Team Ashen.

Another wave of stunned silence rippled through the class. Nobody faked an incident involving Team Ashen and lived to tell about it.

“So you’re good to take them in now, right?” Steven said with the cheerful ease of someone who’d just finished a pleasant errand.

The officer had no other move. He signaled his partners, and they moved on Timothy and Chris. Timothy was completely broken. He fixed his eyes on Steven and screamed with everything he had left.

“This isn’t over, Steven! My family will make you pay for this!

“You’re going to regret the day you were born! Just wait!

“You set me up, you lying snake!”

Steven turned to the officers with wide, innocent eyes. “You heard that, right? He just threatened me. I want that on the record. I’m filing a complaint all the way up to the Divine Sanctum if I have to.”

“Steven, I will destroy you!

“You snake!

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11:23 am

Chapter 43 Release Mc

“You absolute snake!”

Florshed

Timothy kept screaming as they dragged him out, with Chris stumbling along behind him in hollow–eyed

silence.

The classroom settled into a deep, uneasy quiet. Every student who’d been close to Timothy stared at nothing in particular.

Nelson crossed the room in three strides and clapped Steven hard on the shoulder.

“Steven, man, that was unreal. You absolutely buried them!”

Nelson’s laughter rang through the room, and it landed differently on everyone who heard it.

Timothy brought this on himself, and everybody knew it.

Bianca laughed through the last of her tears, still sniffling but genuinely relieved. He was okay. That was all that mattered.

Anthony, the substitute teacher, looked out over the room. “Alright, everyone back to your seats. Class is starting.”

He gave Steven one long, unreadable look, then turned and walked out.

Steven caught sight of Cassandra still hovering at the doorway and felt something cold and amused stir in his chest.

She came to watch him fall. He hoped the view was worth it.

He steered Bianca back toward their seats, wearing the easy, settled confidence of someone who already knew how the story ended before it started.

Bianca’s cheeks burned a bright, vivid red.

A chorus of teasing sounds rose up from the class all at once, warm and thoroughly delighted.

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Bianca dropped her head and basically dove into her seat, pressing her face as close to the desk as she could manage.

Up at the front of the room, Lilliana felt a sharp little sting somewhere in her chest that she immediately decided not to examine.

Do I actually care that much about Steven? And I’d lost a potential admirer to someone like that?

Class started.

11:23 am

But Steven wasn’t thinking about any of that.

If someone wanted to come for him, he’d send them right along to wherever Timothy was going.

What occupied his mind completely right now was beast crystals.

The strength boost he felt this morning was extraordinary, and the safety that kind of power gave him was something he wanted more of immediately.

The problem was that beast crystals were nearly impossible to come by in the city unless you had money.

He didn’t have money.

11:23 am

Chapter 43 Release Mc

Finished

A single level I beast crystal, converted to the standard currency most common people used, ran several hundred dollars.

That was ten to fifteen days of expenses for an average family.

He couldn’t burn through resources like that. He wasn’t exactly rolling in wealth.

But he still needed those crystals.

The only real answer was to wait until he got into the Awakened Academy and hunted them himself at the training grounds.

Once he was enrolled, every student received a monthly divine crystal allocation for development on top of that.

Three days until Divine Awakening.

The girl sitting next to him was finally about to step into her own transformation.

Lunch arrived, and Nelson, in a rare social move, planted himself at the table with the two of them.

“Okay, Steven, I have to know,” Nelson said, leaning forward. “How did you set all of that up? Are you actually psychic or something?”

Steven smiled. “You want me to teach you? Sure, but that makes me your teacher. What do you call your teacher?”

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