How To Survive A Calamity

[A/N: Finally!! No, i have not dropped the bookಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ. Just been nasty busy but here's finally a new chapter.]

Trise appeared, glowering over me suddenly out of nowhere, her striking green eyes glaring daggers right at me. I felt stumped and at a loss of words, my gaze flickering with exasperation.

"Why me though?"

"You're already causing trouble, aren't you, you bastard?"

"... I'm glad to see you're alright as well. Me? I'm great, thanks for checking."

Despite how i almost forgot how irritating this idiot was to me, i genuinely was glad she seemed alright. Well at least on the surface. Trise had been present during Nicodemus's final battle and moment, although i hadn't paid much regard to that.

At the very least, the heated interaction between the two top cadets, Deandra and Ceres was cut short by her sudden appearance. I sighed a hidden breath, adjusting my glasses as i gave Trise's appearance a dry look when i suddenly glanced to her side at a figure closely approaching from behind her.

I felt a lump form in my throat and the tips of my fingers became numb, my aching eyes flashing behind the pair of lens with hesitant breaths. A beautiful familiar female cadet was walking right behind Trise as if she had been following her, until the latter ran off and came towards our table, her steps were silent and measured, and her gait was calm with bright auburn hair framing the sides of her delicate face and pale features.

The figure appeared from just behind Trise, her presence distinguished in a slightly unusual manner, almost as if she were an underlying undertone to the atmosphere surrounding the table — it was hard to miss, almost overbearing, but also silent until the final moment. That was probably why i was a couple of seconds too slow to realise that someone had been following just behind Trise as she arrived. Something different about that supposedly oh so familiar presence.

"... Chelsea?"

A gulp inadvertently rolled down my throat as i suddenly felt parched, a mixture of thoughts and emotions rising all up at once as i recognised Chelsea's figure before me.

Chelsea's presence wasn't the only thing that had changed or seemed different. No. In fact... there was something even more striking, alarming, and distinguishable about her now. Her long bright orange hair which flowed down her back like a cascade of waves was cut short, roughly trimmed as if done roughly by blade in the hands of someone inexperienced. Her rough short bangs framed the sides of her face, complimenting and highlighting her features with a rugged, roughish charm that was hard to ignore.

Chelsea's bright orange eyes that gleamed like auburn gems were much darker now, their depths hiding an inexplicable darkness and shadow that made her gaze much heavier and overbearing, than jittery like before. Her eyes were slanted and much narrower with traces of dark circles along her eye bags.

Chelsea's cold gaze which felt more and more unfamiliar reached me from behind, stepping forward with a tray of food.

"Victor..."

Then she sighed. "We were wondering what the commotion was from outside..."

"Hey, why me though?" I retorted, every little trace of mixed feelings i had for Chelsea's sudden appearance scattered like ash to the wind by that unfair commentary she just made.

Why would these guys assume I'm at the center of whatever commotion that was happening? If anything, i was as much a victim as anyone else dragged into this! The real culprits were the two identities sitting around the table with me.

"Chelsea, you're here."

"Mhm."

Chelsea merely responded curtly with a nod at Deamdra, a silent form of acknowledgement. Chelsea seemed more withdrawn and cold, a nascent shadow and darkness swirling in the depths of her eyes. I felt a pang of guilt and emotion as i stared at her countenance, her usual vibrant and radiant halo of a character seemed to have been something of the past now.

Since i woke up, this was merely my first interaction with Chelsea, and even prior to that, i hadn't been able to find out much about how she or many of the others had been doing. But this short moment alone was enough for me to perceive and understand... Chelsea had gone through her own fair share of change

And as for whether it was for the better or worse, i was still yet to find out.

"Trise and i were just passing by when we decided to drop by at the cafeteria for a while and notice there was something happening. So we quick decided to take a look and check." Chelsea briefly said, her voice, slight and haoese.

Shifting from her position, the red-haired moved to take the empty seat next to Deandra from across the table as though it was the most natural things.

"Coincidentally, i just heard you were finally discharged. But i wasn't expecting you'd already be at the center of something this quickly."

"No, like i said though, why me?"

I heaved a helpless sigh and just lowered my head; why do i even bother, was how i felt at the unfair accusations surrounding me.

Chelsea let out an unexpected small chuckle, seemingly finding amusement in my expression. It was quiet, but managed to grab my attention. I raised my head to glance at her, a very small smile pulled at the edge of her lips. For a moment, the image of Chelsea overlapped with her countenance of before — bright, lively and excited.

But only for a moment.

Although Chelsea's smile was small, it was quiet and hollow, a vacant gaze in her eyes.

Prompted, i said:

"...What happened?"

My voice was low and soft, a tinge of concern managing to lace it's way into my words filling them with so many meanings.

Something moved in Chelsea's gaze as she looked at me — something unrecognisable. But it was gone the very next second. Her lips parted, a small pull at the edges.

"I should ve asking for you. What's with the glasses?" Chelsea gestured at my face, raising her chin.

My brows furrowed into a frown, the frame of the glasses slipping slightly off the bridge of my nose, prompting me to raise and adjust it.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"...Ah... I see."

I observed my right to remain silent, grumbling slightly under my breath. I appreciated Chelsea or the others didn't push further on the topic as well before turning back to Chelsea when she suddenly continued.

"So, what's with this?"

She said, gesturing around the table at Deandra and Ceres who were both present. By this point, it was clear that the source of the whole commotion stirred from those who were around the table, specifically the menacing two young women sitting there. Chelsea's question prompted me to look around helplessly, shrugging.

"I have company, i guess. Unexpected company. I could almost say the same thing about you, i wasn't expecting to run into you, too, here."

But now that i said that, i realised how strange that sounded. The cafeteria was a public cadet area, it really wasn't supposed to be weird or strange that I'd run into Chelsea or any one else here. In fact, hadn't Chelsea and i personally been here together once before?

It sounded somewhat prejudice to say, but there was a more likely obvious chance of running into Chelsea than Deandra or Ceres, hence why the term 'unexpected'. I wasn't sure, when i stopped to look at it, for some reason i just couldn't see the high and dignified Deandra, and the stoic and mysterious Ceres sitting at a mundane cafeteria table.

Ah, well, in any case...

"You're just going to stand there?"

I turned back to Trise standing over the table from behind.

With everyone who was here at this point, i couldn't help it. Might as well just invite the idiot to sit, since she was also initially accompanying Chelsea anyway.

"Hmph. There's no need, i was just about to take my leave."

The snobbish young lady scoffed, turning down my invite and harrumphed, chin raised, legs spread apart and shoulders squared.

"I just happened to be passing by when i ran into Trise then whatever was happening here. Normally, I wouldn't even be found in a place like this."

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure, sure."

Trise began blabbing about something but by then my interest in her had waned. I dismissively waved my hand through the air at her, gesturing for her to hasten her exit

"Tsk. You bastard... you're still as rude as ever!"

Leaving a few words behind, Trise first greeted Deandra before taking her leave. And in a few seconds following her exit, Don sharply rose to his feet to take his leave all of a sudden.

"I... I'll be leaving to."

"Huh?"

The black haired boy with an eye patch rose from the table and turned to leave before i or anyone of us could say anything, his actions strange and sudden. Don's head was lowered making the extent of his expression hard to tell, it also wasn't helping that he had on an eye patch covering over one of his eyes.

And so without as much of a proper warning, Don Clyde promptly left the table, exiting the cafeteria as his back and figure blended into the distance and crowd of bustling cadets. By this point, one would think the initial commotion caused by both Deandra and Ceres would have subsided by now, but the reality was different.

In fact it had only been a mere handful of seconds since Chelsea arrived and both Trise and Don took their leave. And as such, Don had to struggle slightly through the crowd of onlooking cadets before his figure could completely vanish from my line of view.

"Strange..."

Staring towards the direction Don headed towards, i silently muttered to myself and turned my head back to the table.

"What's with him?"

"Oh, you didn't know." Chelsea responded, shrugging slightly and i raised my brows.

The next person to respond was Deandra sitting next to her.

"Don's been acting a little different since the Dungeon. He's been unlike his usual self since he found out what happened while he was unconscious all the while."

Deandra nodded curtly.

"Yeah. I believe he has some grievances for himself."

Deandra and Chelsea both explained. In the end, it seemed like the events of the dungeon had affected everyone, some of us more than others, in one way or the other. Don was having complicated feelings and emotions especially towards himself when he found out the rest of us and his team were running the edge and fighting desperately for their lives while he was passed out and asleep throughout the whole time.

And even when wasn't out cold, he was a mindless, controlled nuisance that was attacking everyone.

'I see.' i nodded inwardly in enlightenment.

This seemed good. Depending on how this may be looked at, this could be a good development for Don as a person and an Awakened later on

But there was still one little thing bothering me though.

"So what's with the eye patch?"

Deandra's expression became strange.

"Oh. Don was found with a pretty nasty black eye for some reason. It's almost like he was hit by someone who held a grudge—"

...Ah.