Reborn: Apocalypse Ready. War Goddess by My Side novel Chapter 48

Chapter 48 Reminded

Finished

Lilliana watched round after round of Awakenings unfold in front of her, and her inner world stayed remarkably steady.

S–rank and above wasn’t something you could chase. It either found you or it didn’t.

Steven’s words from that day drifted back into her mind unbidden.

“What if you awaken an S–rank Divine Sigil, and I only awaken C–rank or B–rank? Would you still let me near you?”

Lilliana’s answer hadn’t shifted. If her rank placed her in a different world than Steven, then that was simply the truth of their situation. They were never going to be equals in that sense.

If he landed higher, she’d accept it with her chin up.

And if Steven chose to walk away from her for someone like Bianca, that was his loss to carry.

She was going to prove it to him. Steven was wrong, and she’d make sure he knew it.

She also couldn’t figure out what Bianca could possibly awaken that would come close to rivaling her.

Lilliana glanced back at the two of them standing close together, whispering, their heads tilted toward each other.

The look on her face was difficult to name.

They didn’t make any sense together.

Bianca was still thin and unassuming. She was a small, quiet girl who hadn’t yet grown into herself.

Steven was reasonably good–looking, someone who drew the eye in a casual way. So what on earth does he see in her?

Lilliana made a small, dismissive sound and looked away.

Time kept moving, and by two in the afternoon, the ceremony had produced five S–rank Awakenings in total.

The envy that rippled through the remaining students was almost tangible.

Alongside the triumph, there were also just as many people walking away from the pillars in quiet devastation.

Some of them had combat classifications that sat at S–rank in practical training, students who worked relentlessly and outperformed everyone around them. But a combat classification and a Divine Sigil were different things entirely, and a raw talent that never translated into an Awakened Sigil became something hollow and unusable.

11:25 am

Chapter 43 Reminded

Ms. Chapman’s class was finally coming up.

The first student from M Chapman’s class stepped forward.

Nothing happened.

The second student tried.

Nothing happened.

The third student pressed their palm to the pillar.

Still nothing.

The string of failures dimmed the spirits of several students who were still waiting their turn.

The fourth student stepped up and triggered a pale blue light.

B–rank.

A small wave of relief moved through the group.

Nelson looked like he was barely keeping his feet on the ground.

“Steven, it’s almost our turn! We’re almost up!”

Finished

Steven smiled at him with tired patience. “Try to breathe. What if you don’t awaken? Just keep that in mind.”

“Don’t you dare say that to me! I’m absolutely awakening, and you can take that statement and leave!”

Steven laughed quietly.

Then the queue moved forward, and it was Lilliana’s turn.

“Lilliana’s up! What rank is she going to get?”

“Someone like her has to be at least S–rank, right?”

“You think S–rank grows on trees or something?”

“Who knows? She could get anything. She could even get nothing!”

r

Lilliana held a particular place in the hearts of many students at Aethercrest. She was genuinely, breathtakingly beautiful, with long, elegant legs and a complexion that looked like it was carved from flawless white marble.

Her face was the kind that stayed in a person’s memory long after they stopped looking, refined and devastatingly striking, and she’d claimed a place in the thoughts of more male students than anyone could

count.

They called her the school’s goddess, and they meant it.

11:25 am

Chapter 48 Reminded

Finished

She was going to become one of Draconia’s brightest lights, a name that history would remember.

In that single moment, something fundamental in Lilliana’s perspective shifted.

Her eyes moved to where Steven was standing

She didn’t fully understand why, but she wanted him to see

this.

Steven had planted a thought in her head, and now she needed to answer it.

Their eyes met across the field.

The shift in Lilliana’s perspective was growing bigger.

A supervising teacher stepped up beside her. “Lilliana, we need to get you registered.”

Lilliana turned to the teacher with a composed smile. “Give me just a moment. I need to say a few words to someone from my class first, and then I’ll come straight back.”

The teacher smiled and nodded with the easy generosity reserved for people who just awakened S–rank. “Of course. Don’t take too long.”

Lilliana turned and walked back toward Ms. Chapman’s class‘ section of the field, her legs carrying her with the kind of unhurried grace that made people stop and stare.

In this moment, the school’s reigning beauty moved like she’d already left this world behind for a better one, radiant and untouchable as the first snow settling on a high mountain peak, so lovely and so distant that the air around her seemed to change.

Her footsteps were light and certain, and she moved through the crowd like something rare and luminous passing through ordinary air.

She was a different being now.

Her future was nothing but brilliant.

She walked toward her old class‘ formation, and the students around her practically viprated with excitement.

“She’s coming this way!”

“Who’s she looking for?”

Lilliana walked directly to where Steven and Bianca were standing and stopped in front of them both.

1.7K

。

m

11:25 am