Chapter 51   - 51: The Weights We Carry

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

Gerald and Harvey were sitting in Gerald’s room, which seemed to be even bigger than the Academy’s classrooms. Gerald offered Harvey a cup of coffee, but he refused.

"There’s a rumor that I heard from a sophomore...", Harvey whispered in a meek tone, "...It’s about you"

"Oh? What is it?", Gerald said as he sipped his coffee.

"They are calling you a psycho", Harvey then looked Gerald straight in the eyes.

As soon as Gerald heard his brother’s words, his eyes instantly twitched.

"They said you killed the baby gryphons that the school was taking care of", Harvey rolled his fist as he lightly bit his tongue. He still couldn’t believe what he heard from Gemma and it has been bugging him for 2 days now.

"Who did you hear this from?", Gerald said, his tone that was previously filled with care was gone as he placed his cup on the table.

"Is it... true?", Harvey muttered.

"...", Gerald also looked Harvey in the eyes, and after a few seconds, he let out a sigh, "Yes", he said without even breaking eye contact.

"!!!", hearing his brother’s blunt answer, Harvey could not help but stand up, "But why!?", he said while waving his hand.

"It was not my intention, believe me", Gerald shook his head, "But they were... too weak. I threw them towards the sky so they could fly. But in the end, they couldn’t"

"They were babies!", Harvey grunted in frustration.

"But they are still gryphons!", Gerald said as he lightly slammed his fist on the table, "They should be able to fly as soon as they were born!"

"I didn’t kill them", Gerald breathed, "They died because they were weak"

Harvey’s eyebrows could not stop trembling uncontrollably as he stared at his brother. Even coming from his own mouth, he still could not believe that his reliable big brother was capable of doing something like that.

"...You sound just like father", Harvey shook his head as he let out a deep breath.

Gerald’s eyes quickly widened as he heard Harvey’s words. He then stood up and rushed towards the corner of the wall and punched it. The whole mansion quaked as the wall burst and erupted like it was just made of sand.

"I... am nothing... like that man!", Gerald gritted his teeth, "Father is just human. We are the strong, brother", he said as he slowly turned his head towards his brother, his voice shivering in anger.

"Even stronger than some of the teachers in the Academy", he added as he slightly cracked his neck, "Now leave before father catches you here"

Footsteps could be heard coming from the distance as the guards made their way to Gerald’s room. The room, however, was eerily quiet as Gerald and Harvey just stared at each other’s eyes.

And finally, after a few seconds, Harvey broke the silence. "Goodbye... brother", he whispered before leaving through the window. He could not help but feel the heavy weight in his heart as he landed on the ground.

His brother, who once always smiled at him and told him that everything would be alright.

His brother, who always took the blame for him whenever he did something troublesome.

He couldn’t see it anymore.

Maybe he misunderstood his brother’s smiles back then... maybe it was a cry for help. He always thought that his brother was strong, that’s why the only thing that he did was smile back at him and say thank you.

Say thank you as his brother came back from their father’s office, all bruised and bloodied. They were just children back then... and he didn’t know any better.

But could this be...

"...My fault?", Harvey sorrowly muttered as he looked up to his brother’s room.

***

The next day, it was the start of school again and Andrea was quite curious about how the Academy looked like. She and Van were currently walking in the streets, casually talking to each other.

Van, however, was somehow starting to get impatient. Ever since he gained the power to move fast, he almost always wanted to use it whenever he was going somewhere. It also didn’t help that he wanted to rest as soon as possible and sit down. Even though he was exhausted yesterday, he couldn’t really get a good sleep last night because he kept hearing stuff.

"I didn’t see it last night because it was too dark...", Andrea hummed as she cheerfully walked in the neighborhood, "But this place really is completely different from our home, isn’t it?"

"...Yeah", Van could not help but let out a breath as he also looked around him.

"The houses are all made of stone and bricks... Our new house even has 2 small bathing areas, how luxurious is that!?", Andrea slightly chuckled as she lightly brushed her wet brown hair, "You know... I heard your mother lived in--"

"Andrea"

"S... sorry"

Van could not help but let out a regretful sigh as he raised his voice towards Andrea, "I... I don’t know anything about my mother", Van said in a weak tone, "And maybe it’s best that way"

"Hm...", Andrea, as well, could not help but let out a sigh. She too doesn’t remember much about Van’s mother. She left when Andrea was about 10 years old, leaving Van who could barely even speak a full sentence.

"So... are we far from the Academy?", Andrea quickly changed the topic, "We’ve been walking for like 15 minutes now, you said it was near"

"You saw the gigantic pillar we saw about 10 minutes ago?", Van let out a tiny chuckle, "That was already the Academy"

"W... what!?", Andrea could not help but raise her voice, "How big is the Academy!?"

"Hmmm...", Van placed his hand on his chin. He was honestly quite curious as well. Maybe if he gets the chance to, he would explore the entirety of the Academy"

And finally, after a few more minutes, the two safely arrived in front of the Academy’s gates. Andrea’s eyes widened in awe as she stared at the colossal golden gate that was attached to two pillars, even taller than itself.

Andrea then quickly closed her jaw as she saw the students entering the Academy. They were all wearing their uniform, but some of them had accessories that made them different from one another.

She then looked at Van, who only had his oversized uniform on, and his hair covering half his face. "You should be more stylish!", Andrea shook her head as she tried to fix Van’s hair, but before she could do so, Van quickly leaned back.

Andrea was about to click her tongue and reach for Van’s hair again, but then she remembered that Van had a scar on his face. "You know...", she muttered, "Scars make a boy into a man"

"Then shouldn’t I be a very old man by now?", Van bluntly replied.

"That...", Andrea could not help but lower her head as her words instantly backfired.

"I’m just kidding, Andrea", Van chuckled playfully, but the weight in his eyes could not be hidden, "Do you want to go in?"

"N...no", Andrea shook her head, "You will be late for class. I will try and visit the neighborhood and introduce myself"

"Alright", Van nodded as he headed inside the academy. But as soon as he passed by the gates, he heard Andrea calling for him.

"Evans"

"Hm?", Van turned his head, his eyebrows slightly lifted.

"What do you want for dinner?"

"I...", Van opened his mouth, but there were no words that were coming out of it. But after a while, he let out a small breath, "...Up to you"

"Hmm... Alright", Andrea waved her hand, "Do your best", she then said as she headed back to their neighborhood.

Van could not help but stare at Andrea’s back, a small smile silently appearing on his face.

"Look, isn’t that small freshman the one who broke that one sophomore’s heart?"

"He... has another woman even though he is so small!?"

"Now that I look at him, he is kinda cute, isn’t he?"

"So that’s why he rejected the red-haired sophomore. Can’t beat a woman who can cook"

"Ahhh... So jealous"

Van’s eyes could not help but twitch as he used his superspeed to run away before any more rumors started to spread around him. Poor Gemma though, he thought. Even if she wasn’t there, the other students are still talking about her.

She’s probably sneezing right about now, Van thought.

And he was right. She was sneezing.

"You okay?"

"No, I feel like someone is talking about me"

Gemma was in a small room with 3 other female students and all of them were currently seated around a table.

"Pft. That’s impossible, who would even talk about you--"

"That’s enough talking!", a senior student slammed her palm on the table. If a freshman were here, they would quickly notice her as she was one of the people who spoke during the freshman ceremony.

"We have more important matters to discuss", she said as she placed her hands together.

The 3 other female students all looked at each other and nodded. They were the proud members of the student council body. They just had one major problem.

"...No one knows we exist"