Page 33 of Interion
After the run, the temporary trainer divided us into two groups. Breno explained that it had been the same yesterday: one group would do the circuit in the Silent Woods, while the other would train with weapons like bows, swords, daggers, and spears.
Unfortunately, I ended up separated from Breno and got stuck with the circuit group. I followed the other students to the clearing where the training was set up. The location was fifteen minutes from the academy, and the deeper I went into the grove, the more worried I felt. Apparently, the teacher wasn’t coming to supervise, and as I ran, I heard taunts from Ethan’s little group behind me. Besides the quartet, there were also Adele, Mila, and Anninka. The only people neutral toward me were Lorena and Aish, the newcomer who kept shooting me looks, though I could never tell if they were out of aversion or curiosity.
When Breno was around, he kept the group from crossing the line. Besides his natural charisma, he was also one of the best at combat, plus he came from a prestigious family: the last Interionian blockers. In our second year, he’d gotten into a fight with Ethan and Adrian to defend me from their insults. That had been enough to keep them away, but whenever he wasn’t with me, I felt vulnerable. Today I had a feeling the training would be problematic.
When we reached the clearing, the quartet stripped off the tops of their military uniforms, leaving just their black tank tops. The girls copied them, except Anninka, who didn’t even remove her vrokiu. So I did the same, because I couldn’t stand the heat anymore and the buttoned-up shirt was killing me. I started doing the rope exercises, keeping my eyes on the ground the whole time. I heard my name being tossed around, accompanied by words like “filthy” or “dirty,” but I pretended not to notice. Their mood was volatile, and I didn’t want to do anything that might trigger a fight.
“You know what the problem with Drute women is?” I heard Naoki saying to Adrian. His milk-white skin had turned red, and his sunglasses protected eyes so blue they were almost violet.
“Besides being Drutes?” Adrian muttered while climbing a knotted rope hanging from the tree.
“Besides being Drutes, obviously,” Naoki said, laughing. “The problem is they’re exotic. You know, like when you see a mandarin duck? I still can’t tell if I think she’s weird as hell or just hot in a vulgar, strange way.”
I kept pretending not to hear—after all, it was my specialty.
“You’re right, I haven’t decided either.” Adrian came down from the rope. I felt his gaze on my back. “Wonder if the carpet matches the drapes?”
“Stop being disgusting, man! Nobody wants to find that out. She’s a Drute, probably has ticks.”
The boys laughed and kept talking shit, but I didn’t want to listen and did everything I could to tune them out. When they saw nothing they said had any effect, they turned to find another target more likely to give them a reaction. They glanced at Aish and quickly looked away, knowing they’d find trouble there. Then they scanned the group of girls training together.
“Hey, Adelevik?” As I struggled with my pull-ups, I heard Naoki call out. “Adele” was the short form of her Yonserian name, and from what I’d gathered over the years we’d spent together, she never liked her full name.
“Hmm,” the girl grunted, sitting on the yoga ball that was supposed to be used for crunches. Her skin was sticky, and her workout shirt clung to her body. She was alone, as always. Her aggressive, borderline psychotic personality tended to drive people away.
“When are you going to drop this absurd feminist crap and come have some fun with me?” Naoki approached her with a smile. Like Adele, he was of Yonserian descent. Because of this, they shared the same albino skin, light eyes, and white hair.
The rest of the group backed him up with whistles and nasty laughter.
“Have fun with you?” She snorted. “Only if you were the last man on the planet, and even then, it’d be more out of pity than pleasure.”
Naoki narrowed his eyes at her with renewed interest.
“I love how your tongue drips venom. I’d like to taste it and see if it’s as sweet as I imagine.”
Some of the boys egged him on, and he circled Adele like a lion sizing up a deer. I tried to force myself to keep doing my exercises, but it was impossible to look away. The thing was, Adele wasn’t a deer—she was more like a very unstable, venomous snake.
“I dare you to try,” she hissed.
“Come on, babe. That never existed in our country. You think living in Interion makes you different? You’re still from Yonser, Adele. You still belong to any man of our lineage, and in the end, you’ll have to marry the first one who buys your pussy for a reasonable price. Isn’t that right, Anninka?”
The girl, covered in fabric, adjusted her vrokiu as if she could hide inside it and dropped her violet eyes to the ground. Adele stared at him, radiating contempt, then blinked her white lashes and tossed her pink-tipped hair back. I knew that meant trouble: whenever I irritated her, she always threw her hair over her shoulders. It was like a snake coiling to strike.
“No, it’s not, Naoki. It’ll be ‘no’ in every language and every nation.”
He smiled and let his gaze trace her body, hovering over her like a ghost. Although Adele stayed seated, appearing patient under the idiot’s sharp gaze, something in her widened eyes and the way her breathing had gone shallow and uneven told me she was deeply uncomfortable.
“You know what I think about this cheap feminism of yours?” the guy asked as he raised a finger and dragged it along Adele’s exposed elbow. Her body shuddered at the touch. “I think what you need is a real man.”
The girl blinked a few times, watching the finger travel along her skin, moving up past her elbow toward her shoulder. With every millimeter he touched, she seemed to grow more unhinged.
“Are you a feminist, Naoki?” She narrowed her eyes.
He laughed and planted his hand on her shoulder.
“What a stupid question. Obviously not.”
The other students and I could only stare. The air was so charged we could barely breathe when Adele shot back:
