usenovelonline Chapter 123 123: MEETING POINT
Chapter 123 123: MEETING POINT
"We are finally leaving for the academy," Silas said, walking out of his room with a languorous stretch of his arms.
"I thought you enjoyed it here," Asher said with a slight frown.
He had watched Silas spend what he could only describe as an entire fortune over those four days.
"It is not that. Knowing I have somewhere else to be has been weighing on my mind," Silas replied.
Asher nodded.
A new necklace wrapped around Silas's neck, its golden pendant depicting stars hanging down.
"Where are we gathering again?" Silas asked with furrowed brows.
He knew that if he reached into his memory, he would remember quickly.
But as though he had fallen under the influence of some spirit of laziness, Silas could not bring himself to do even that.
"At the garage. A vehicle will take you to the gathering point," Asher replied almost instantly.
Silas nodded as they continued walking.
"If only I could skip all of these steps," Silas groaned, looking at the seemingly endless staircase before him.
"I do not have a spatial core, Master Silas," Asher said. "I apologise for my incompetence," he bowed.
Silas turned back quickly, waving both hands.
"That is not what I meant. It is not your fault at all."
Asher nodded slowly with a smile.
Silas turned back and began descending the staircase.
'Why do I feel like he did that deliberately?' He wondered.
The garage was filled with students in a queue that seemed to stretch farther than Silas could fathom.
"How long would it take to reach the front?" He whimpered.
Just then, a shadow fell over him.
Instinctively, he raised his head.
There it was. A towering man, over ten feet in height.
'What sort of sub-human species is this?' He wondered as he looked at the person.
"What do you want?" Asher was faster than Silas with the question.
His body moved in a flicker, appearing between Silas and the man.
A sword appeared in his hand as he met the man's gaze directly.
The man raised an eyebrow.
"I am here to escort him to the gathering point for the top hundred," the man said with a slight bow.
"They have a different gathering point?" Silas asked, stepping out from behind Asher.
"I do not know the full details, but each of us has been assigned to bring all top hundred candidates to the Governor's Estate."
"I would suggest you call Sylvester first."
Silas looked at Asher.
"Although I doubt anyone is trying to kidnap me, I will call Sylvester anyway," Silas said.
A screen flared in his face less than five seconds later.
"Is there a separate gathering point for the top hundred?" Silas asked directly.
"What are you on about? This was announced yesterday at the last gala. We have all been waiting for you," Sylvester's voice came from the other side.
Silas did not wait to hear the rest of his outburst. He hung up immediately.
'I wonder when that was announced,' Silas mused, but he chose to focus on the matter at hand.
"Let's go," he said to the man.
The man bowed once, then began leading Silas and Asher toward their car.
It was a sleek black vehicle, different from the one that had brought them to their residential area on the first day.
The man opened the door for them to enter.
He closed it behind them and took the driver's seat.
The panel seemed to contain hundreds of buttons.
Anyone else would have been overwhelmed just looking at it.
But the man was not anyone else.
His finger pressed one of the buttons and the engine ignited, smooth and silent.
They felt the ground fall away beneath them, though the sensation did not last long.
The car stabilized, hovering just above the ground with effortless grace.
Another button was pressed and they shot forward.
At least, that was what the world outside saw.
Those inside felt nothing. It was as though they were still sitting in the same spot, waiting for the journey to begin.
If not for the world blurring past the windows, they would have believed they had not moved at all.
"This is another level of impressive," Silas sighed.
Less than ten minutes had passed when the car began to slow, then accelerated again.
The scenery outside had grown calmer, far less busy than when they had first set off.
Curiosity got the better of him. Silas leaned toward the window and peered out.
The Orion Clan's estate spread across a landmass that dwarfed the largest city on Veritas ten times over.
All the buildings were elegantly designed, but the one that drew Silas's eyes, the one standing at the very centre of the estate and tall enough to be seen from any corner of it, was on another level entirely.
A massive white structure that resembled an extremely tall bungalow at first glance, but was clearly far from it.
The architecture was simply that flawless.
Seven silver pillars held the front of the building in a perfect semicircle formation.
The car drove past it, but Silas still craned his neck to look back from where he sat.
"Why does everything outside Veritas look so beautiful?" He muttered to himself with a smile.
Asher looked at Silas at those words.
"You will probably feel the same way visiting better planets and sectors."
"How many sectors have you been to?" Silas asked.
The question caught Asher off guard.
But he remained composed. "Probably just over a thousand sectors," he replied after a quick estimate.
"That many?"
Asher nodded. "I am an officer of the Order of Truth. We travel a great deal."
"How would you rate this planet out of ten for beauty?"
Asher considered it for a moment.
"The Orion Sector is among the top sectors within the middle-rank tier," he said. "But if I were to rate it, I would say a three or four."
Silas turned in disbelief.
"So there are places far more beautiful than this?"
Asher did not reply, but his silence answered the question more than adequately.