How To Survive A Calamity

"Eh?"

Xavier's eyes flashed wide open at the news he just received as if his brain had short circuited for a quick second, the distinguished environment of his dorm room forming a backdrop to his surroundings. An outstanding but small perk of being among the top 10 ranked cadets was having the privilege of remodelling or modifying the interior design of your dorm room.

Where as some could add a big and massive canopy bed at the center, or others would expand the quality of their personal training room, Xavier had his entire dorm room remodelled into a well furnished office — a personal study perhaps — with an exquisite furnished wooden desk. The floors were made of stylish wooden floorboards with bookshelves and lamp stands lining the dark brown walls to the side.

Xavier was sitting comfortably behind his study desk that was strewn with countless pieces of messy papers and documents concerning several matters which he had spent the whole morning and afternoon attending to diligently. The fresh, warm smell of homely coffee permeated the air like a symphony of the nose rather than sound.

This was usually how Xavier spent his mornings. Even if there were classes or appointed lectures for the day, he could just decide to skip them without suffering any penalty. At worse, the academy was willing to spare extra effort and resource to set aside make up classes or private lectures for their most promising prospects, which Xavier Locke was one of.

He blinked, slowly lowering the piece of document he held on to, sitted behind a messy, but furnished wooden desk, and stared at the male cadet standing across from him from over the table. It was a male cadet with average looks and bearing who's name was currently unknown.

"What did you say?"

The male cadet sheepishly scratched the side of his face without responding clearly. He was almost as shocked and speechless as Xavier was about the news, perhaps.

Perhaps if Victor was here, he would recognise the unassuming male cadet as one of his classmates.... Or not. Xavier had quite recently assigned him with the task of subtly monitoring No.1499 and his interactions with others ever since the duel with Ceres. He would do so and report to Xavier, especially if anything different or major happened again

Just like now.

"The cafeteria? Victor, Ceres and Deandra? Together?"

This... this was... certainly something different, but Xavier wasn't sure what to make out of it exactly.

He had heard from his sources that Victor had recently been discharged earlier in the day, but Xavier, despite his age and appearance, was quite a busy young man. He decided he would pay Victor a separate visit later eventually.

Usually Xavier would have needed to employ more tact and skill if he wanted to closely approach Victor for the first time, but fortunately or not, the two already bled side by side each other and shared a life threatening moment together at the Dungeon. Despite never having spoken a word to each other before, or meeting face to face in the past, they were tacit comrades in battle. Kind of.

Now Xavier had a very more than valid reason, or excuse, to see Victor and get closer to him.

But this news was unexpected to him. Quite a suprise really. He wasn't sure what to think.

Xavier's mind formulated different thoughts that raced in that short moment. Perhaps, maybe, on any other day or circumstances, this usually wouldn't be anything to get excited or worked up about; in the end, Victor, Ceres and Deandra were all classmates after all.

But that was the matter, these guys weren't just classmates! They were Victor, Ceres and Deandra. The latter two were the top of their year, just being seen together outside of class on a regular day was already more than enough to spark numerous attention.

While Victor was at the very bottom of the barrel. The lowest ranked cadet — the No Talent Crazy Bastard. At this point, almost every First year knew who the No Talent was, even if they didn't specifically know Victor's name or face, for certain reasons.

So what were the the two top of the years seen doing with that low level scum out in the open at the same time. Those who didn't know would definitely find this bizarre and strange. But those who knew even more, like Xavier, found it even more interesting, ironically.

Xavier's eyes narrowed back into the their usual slits as he regained composure.

"You say Deandra was the first to approach him?"

Xavier's eerily calm and composed voice snapped the cadet out of whatever thoughts he had with a small welp. He shook his head.

"Yes! The Princess — i mean, Class rep...no — Deandra and number 522 Don Clyde were the ones who went to Victor first."

Don, Victor, and Deandra were all on the same team during the Field Experience and fought side by side, so Xavier was prompted not to find this unusual actually. What was wrong with team members casually checking on one of their own despite their standings. In fact, what truly made this whole matter much more peculiar was the addition of Ceres, who was a verified lone wolf, out of nowhere.

But Xavier's guts told him there was more to it than what it just seemed. He had grown up and matured to be widely open-minded in various cases and to trust his inhumane instincts more times he could count. As his father always said after all, 'an Awakened instincts is their greatest weapon in the end'.

So Xavier was analysing this information from different perspectives.

Xavier had had very few interactions with Deandra, the Princess, in the past before. A sharp, perceptive and splendid young woman, he would call her. Deandra was smart and cunning in her own right, she was prideful but it wasn't misplaced in the slightest. She was probably the only one with access to even more resources and information than Xavier himself, and he, without shame, acknowledged that.

That was also why he found this movement a little curious.

What if Deandra knew something, just like he did?

Deandra was charismatic so visiting a member of her team wouldn't really warrant much suspicions from many. But doing so in the open like this, in such a place as the cafeteria where everyone could see would obviously draw her their attention could be considered a sort of tacit move.

That, Xavier knew, was only one way to look at it at least. There were various others. Like, maybe Victor and Deandra were maybe just a lot more closer than anyone thought?

But Xavier knew that wasn't it. Since he kept a tag on Victor ever since the duel, he knew both Deandra and he had little to no interaction until they were grouped.

Then did they grow closer during the Field Experience, just like the way Xavier now felt a thin kinship and sense of comradeliness with Victor after surviving the Sand Dragon together. Sharing a near death experience happened to do that to a lot of people.

Maybe that was it actually. And maybe during that time Deandra could have noticed something about Victor as well, just like Xavier did during the duel. Maybe she realised there was something more beneath the mask and shell Victor portrayed as 1499. Deandra was smart and perceptive after all.

Xavier was almost completely sure that was it. That meant he wasn't wrong about Victor either, the thought made his blood boil with excitement. Xavier took considerable effort to stop his lips from curling crazily.

He withheld his excitement, his mind still hopping through various possibilities in an instant, trying to understand where Ceres came in all this. Indeed, another big variable in this whole turn out was Ceres Walker. What did she have to do with all this?

Despite his vast worth of resources and intel, Xavier knew the least about Ceres. Nothing about who she was, how she thought, where she came from, what she liked or disliked. She was completely silent , mysterious, unreadable and indiscernible. All his information on her was limited to what everyone else in the academy or first years did.

Despite all this, he was still adamant on building a connection with Ceres, if at all not having her under him in the nearest future. If Xavier wasn't anything at all, he was patient the most.

Aside from the well known duel with Victor, from what he had gathered Xavier knew there was some kind of silent friction between the first ranked cadet and the second ranked cadet. It was like a kind of rivalry between Deandra and Ceres.

Or at least, it seemed like that from the side of Deandra. And whether it was real or not, Ceres didn't seem to hold any regard for Deandra, talk less of a rivalry so it was actually kind or one sided.

From what Xavier knew, he could more easily tell when this began was after Deandra was made the class representative instead of Ceres, who was obviously ranked first. And Ceres didn't seem to care in the slightest. Xavier knew about Deandra's pride, so he could imagine how big a blow the red haired princess seemed to have suffered by this.

And that further went on to fan the flames of friction and aggression, one sided rivalry, between the two. It was even evident in the way the two acted around each other back in the Dungeon. Although then they all had a common enemy and the circumstances didn't allow to hold personal feelings or grudges against each other, but the tension was seething nonetheless.

As such, Xavier knew both Deandra and Ceres weren't on good terms at the very least. But now those same two were sitting together at the very same table.

And at the center of it all, was Victor.