Chapter 49

Chapter 49
Cursing the prolonged pre-ceremony that had dragged on for an entire hour, Bones abruptly collapsed into the central seat of the front row the instant he entered the graduation hall, still visibly annoyed. The formal suit they had compelled him to wear fit him poorly, leaving his face fixed in a heavy scowl the whole time. Lucas, looking equally exhausted and trapped inside his own matching suit, slid into the chair directly next to him.

“Just loosen your tie a bit,” Lucas suggested.

“I can’t. General Max is watching,” Bones muttered back.

“You know, it is impossible to tell whether you are an absolute delinquent or a model student.”

“You should be directing that comment toward him, not me.”

Bones nudged his head toward a specific corner, prompting Lucas to shift his gaze. There stood Platon, impeccably tailored in a sharp suit, scanning the assembly as if hunting for a particular individual. Lucas furrowed his brow.

“In what universe does that guy look like a delinquent?”

Platon locked eyes with them a moment later, his expression brightening with genuine excitement as he hurried over. Both Bones and Lucas let out a matching groan of dread. The painful memory of Platon lecturing them not long before—scolding them for attempting to expose Haydam’s injury and telling them to show some self-respect—remained raw.

They still felt awkward around him after that confrontation. Yet Platon, the enthusiastic zealot, approached without a trace of hesitation and immediately spoke up.

“Have either of you seen Lord Haydam?”

Bones, who still flinched at the mere sound of Haydam’s name following the training simulation, nearly bounded out of his seat.

“Are you out of your mind? Why would you ask us that?!”

“He mentioned he would definitely attend today, but I cannot locate him anywhere.”

“What are you even talking about? He is not even a graduate. Why on earth would Lord Haydam show up here?”

“He said he was coming to observe.”

“Is Lord Haydam your parent or something?”

“Has Captain Anton arrived? I did not spot him during the pre-ceremony,” Lucas intervened, calming Bones down before the tension could snap, turning the question back to Platon.

Platon tilted his head slightly, replying in a casual tone. “Now that you mention it, I have not seen him either.”

Bones stared at him in utter disbelief. “You are looking for Lord Haydam before checking on your own father?”

“You are right. Father would likely know Lord Haydam’s whereabouts, would he not?”

“What is actually wrong with this guy?” Bones gave up entirely, wearing an expression of profound exhaustion.

Lucas took over the conversation. “Anyway, we have not seen Lord Haydam. If he does show up, wouldn’t he arrive alongside the Commander?”

“That is a fair assumption.”

“Still, why is Lord Haydam even coming here in the first place?”

“To watch my graduation speech.”

“You did what—” The retort of who do you think you are rushed to the tip of Lucas’s tongue before he choked it back. He still could not fathom why Lord Haydam would travel all this way just to watch this guy speak. Then again, the two of them had gone through a pair of grueling training simulations together; perhaps they had grown close, like brothers—though watching Platon behave felt less like brotherhood and more like a hound waiting on its master.

He surely realizes Platon is Captain Anton’s son… Does that imply political factions mean nothing to him? Lucas himself was backed by a moderate officer aligned with neither the pro-Daphne nor the pro-Haydam camps, leaving him without a personal stake in Haydam’s alliances. Even so, the fact that Haydam held any regard for Platon—the single cadet Lucas had never managed to defeat throughout his academy years—irritated him more than he cared to admit.

“If Lord Haydam is coming to watch, shouldn’t you head to the backstage room already? You would not want to mess up the speech,” Lucas said, offering a polite translation of get out of my sight.

Platon checked his watch and nodded. “You are correct. Thank you for the advice, Lucas.” Offering his thanks, he strode away.

Bones began complaining the second he was out of earshot. “Look at that! That phony Platon is twice as two-faced as I am. He would throw his own father under the bus for a promotion.”

“Do not frame it like that. They are close. Attending a graduation speech is not that bizarre.”

Bones snorted at Lucas’s neutral defense. “Ha! That is hilarious. Who actually shows up just to watch a graduation speech? The exact same kid who ran a one-versus-eight training simulation simply because he refused to enroll in the academy normally?”

“What are you talking about?” Lucas’s eyes widened at the revelation.

Bones belatedly slapped a hand over his mouth. “Damn it. I was not supposed to let that slip…”

“Are you saying Lord Haydam pulled off that training simulation just to dodge enrollment?”

“I did not hear it straight from the source.” Bones glanced around warily before leaning close to Lucas’s ear. “Keep this strictly to yourself. I heard it directly from General Max. The Commander ordered Lord Haydam to enroll, and he replied that it would be a waste of time and that he would prove his superiority over every cadet in the academy.”

“And that stunt was the training simulation?”

“Yeah. And he proved it. Twice.”

Lucas’s face tightened into silence. Bones drew back slightly. “I mean, getting looked down on like that feels pretty awful. But after watching that kid tear through all of us… I cannot even stay properly angry about it.” He scanned Lucas’s expression and chuckled. “You, on the other hand, look a bit battered.”

“I am hardly thrilled, no. Though after getting completely pulverized by him, I do not have much room to complain.”

“…This is probably not my place to interject,” Bones tossed out casually, though a rare note of hesitation lingered in his voice. “We are graduating. Maybe it is time you finally dropped that pointless pride.”

Lucas knew precisely where the conversation was heading, but he played dumb. “Pointless pride?”

“Requesting the training simulation this time around. That was pure pride, wasn’t it?”

“That was not just about me—”

“Save it. Anyone with eyes can see you have an inferiority complex regarding Platon.”

Lucas offered neither confirmation nor denial. Bones pushed forward regardless. “Lord Haydam is the designated successor of this entire zone. Even that freak Platon has Captain Anton backing him… We have neither.”

Lucas understood the reality behind Bones’s words. Within the academy walls, they could still afford to rival each other. The moment they stepped outside into active military service, an insurmountable wall of rank would separate them from Platon. Unlike him, they were merely two sponsored cadets among a crowd.

Coming from Bones—who sat in the exact same position and grasped his frustrations better than anyone—the words carried no sting. Lucas let out a quiet huff of laughter. “Considering you cannot even loosen your own tie out of fear of your foster father, you might actually have a point.”

“Hey! General Max did not even glance my way—I just want to maintain a good impression—!”

“Shh. It is starting.”

The moment Lucas cut him off, illumination swept across the darkened auditorium as the principal stepped up to the podium. Behind him filed the Commander, Haydam, and Platon, moving to take their designated seats. Lucas clenched his fist—then paused as a sudden realization hit him.

Wait, why is Lord Haydam walking up onto the stage?

—

“Lord Haydam!”

I had barely made it inside before the ceremony commenced. The second I stepped into the waiting area, Platon was already there to greet me.

“I knew you would show up!”

“Congratulations on graduating, Platon.”

“Did you come here to offer me encouragement?”

“Uh… yes.” Technically, I was here to ensure he executed the task I had assigned him. Walking all the way to the green room, however, was mostly to check on the Commander, who still had not arrived even with the event about to begin.

“And my father?”

“Ha. If His Excellency were present right here, wouldn’t it make everyone else deeply uncomfortable?”

Fair point. I had grown so accustomed to his presence that I occasionally forgot he was essentially an absolute dictator. Platon’s casual willingness to voice that out loud was also slightly alarming on a psychological level.

“His Excellency will likely arrive right before he is required to take the stage.”

“I see… But Captain Anton is not here either?”

“Indeed.”

Indeed? For someone who had greeted me like a long-lost relative the moment I walked through the door, he sounded remarkably indifferent about his own biological father.

“He skipped it? It is his son’s graduation.”

“I would not know. He must be occupied. More importantly, Lord Haydam—this is the speech I drafted. If you could review it…”

Hmm. Cold father, cold son. Like father, like son, it seemed.

But wait. So it was Anton who had summoned Homebody Honey after all. Platon would have informed Anton that I intended to watch today’s graduation ceremony, leading Anton to deduce that this window presented the ideal opportunity to approach Homebody Honey while I was away. I had suspected he would eventually reach out ever since he began boasting to senior officers about his ties to me.

Since I was making his son my adjutant, he certainly was not going to summon a kid simply to harm him because of our connection. And Homebody Honey was a player—he could handle himself.

“Are you not heading up? It is about to begin.”

I turned toward the familiar voice behind me. The Commander stood there clad in a crisp white uniform, studying us with his single remaining eye carrying a look of mild amusement.

“Father.”

“Greetings, Your Excellency.” Platon delivered a flawless, formal bow.

The Commander offered a peculiar smile. “Look at you, executing a proper greeting. You have grown quite a bit.”

…Wait. Did that imply he normally neglected to greet the Commander?

Platon took it as high praise, responding with a proud grin. “It is entirely thanks to Lord Haydam.”

How is that my responsibility?

“My son certainly possesses a talent for this. Taming another man’s hound to such a degree…”

“Father.”

“Come. We ought to move before it is too late. You have a speech to deliver, do you not?”

Just as Platon opened his mouth to protest the dog comparison dropped right in front of him, the Commander casually chuckled and shoved him forward by the shoulder blades. Platon’s expression made it obvious that the impending graduation speech mattered infinitely more to him than whether the Commander labeled him a hound or whether he acted like one. Knowing Platon, he genuinely did not care.

Still, the Commander’s attitude in front of a cadet desperately trying to stay on my good side was almost certainly because Platon was Anton’s flesh and blood. It was entirely reasonable to suspect Anton had engineered the encounter. I knew Platon’s loyalty to me was authentic, but when forced to choose, he remained human and could not effortlessly discard his own bloodline. Either way, clearing the Commander’s suspicions was Platon’s problem to navigate.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“Excuse me?”

The two of them were headed toward the stage for the speeches, so I had turned toward the audience seating when the Commander’s voice froze me in my tracks.

“Well, I was just…”

“Join us up there. You will need to take the stage eventually anyway.”

That was when the pieces clicked together. He knew precisely what instructions I had given Platon. I had already anticipated that once Platon finished speaking, I might get called up as the mastermind behind the scheme. The fact that the Commander knew and still invited me up meant he had no intention of interfering, which came as a relief.

Only Platon looked ecstatic. “What a brilliant idea! Lord Haydam, please accompany us. As you can see from the draft, having you clearly visible during the address is ideal.”

I had merely held the draft in my hand; I had never actually read its contents. Thus, I found myself half-pushed onto the platform and into a seat. After the principal’s endless well-wishes finally wound down, the floor belonged to Platon for his graduation speech.

He stepped up to the microphone, swept his gaze across the auditorium once, and slowly parted his lips. All I wanted was for him to execute my instructions without deviation.

“Respected Lord Haydam… and everyone else gathered here.”

…This is already heading in a dangerous direction.