I Reject Quests

After a moment of him staring blatantly at an opposite gender's face, he immediately retracted his gaze as it would be awkward and inappropriate if his stare were to be questioned. Unfortunately for him, the other party seemed to have caught his stare and confused looked at him and asked.

"Is something wrong?"

Pretending to be casual, he answered while not looking at her. "Uh, no. I just found you familiar. Sorry."

"Oh…" The cute blonde-haired cute girl didn't think too much about it and got back to fiddling with her smartphone.

Famin inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. 'Is this the result of not bothering to have a proper conversation with members of the opposite sex?' With nothing to do, he quietly listened to the conversations others around him were having.

The ones sitting closest to him were three seniors, presumably third years – two guys and a girl.

"The set-up is grand, I have to say." One of the guys said.

"Indeed. I didn't expect the Branch Director to invest so much to R.I.P to some nameless student from the first year." The girl replied.

"You are a bit behind in times. The person who died isn't someone nameless, at least not in the first year." The other guy continued.

The girl touched her forehead and sighed in a dramatic manner. "Whatever do I know... My time in the academy is coming to an end. Ah… good days are gone."

For some reason, the first guy got ticked off by her. "Don't fucking derail the conversation to yourself."

The girl smilingly replied. "Hey, don't call me out like that. There are people around."

"I don't care… Anyways, what about the first year who R.I.P.? Do you have some information about him? It might turn out to be my final project." The first guy looked at the other guy and asked.

Hearing him, the girl almost jumped out. "Holy shit! That's a great idea! I'm doing the same."

The first guy refused with a flat face. "No. If you were to copy what I do, the value of my project would diminish."

"I won't copy. I'll just work on the same topic." The girl felt that he had misunderstood her words and corrected him.

The first guy had the same straight face. "That's copying ideas. Don't do that unless you want to get on my bad side."

The girl got mildly angry and snorted. "Huh! You speak as if you are someone great. Fine. I don't need your worthless idea."

"Hey, guys. Calm down. Let's talk about the first year…" The other guy helplessly tried to mediate the situation.

"Forget it. It looks like the Branch Director has arrived." The first guy's attention to the elevated stage.

The girl as well as the other guy looked at the stage.

Famin stopped listening and saw a bespectacled lady on the stage. She was tall, had a long sleek ponytail and dark hair. Almost every student found her solemn mannerisms attractive.

"Is that the Council President?" The blonde girl sitting next to him casually asked. As she turned her head, her side bang made a small flip which made him appreciate her beauty. However, in order to not appear as a pervert of sorts, he hastily answered.

"Uh, yeah. She is the Council President. Her name is Melanie Light."

"Ma-la-nee Right?" The blonde girl tried to get the pronunciation right.

Famin frowned, then proceeded to correct her. "Melanie."

"May-la-nee Right?" The blonde girl tried again.

Famin nodded and asked. "Are you from the South?" From her accent, he could guess that she was from the southern part of Nat Province. Usually, people, there has a different accent from the people living in the northeast (Travil Town). They extensively use the soft palate and often confuse 'L' with 'R',

"Ah, no. My father is."  The blonde girl replied.

"I see." Famin didn't continue to talk with her and looked at the stage where the Council President was about to start speaking.

On the stage.

Melanie Light suppressed her nervousness and confidently swept her eyes across the people sitting below her. This is the first time she was going to make a speech after becoming a Council President, naturally, some amount of nervousness is unavoidable. Looking to her right, she saw the Mic Guy giving her a thumbs up.

She then looked at the paper in front of her and started speaking.

"I'd like to start my speech by making it clear that the morning is clearly not good today. For that, my apologies to everyone. However, greetings."

She took a small pause, then continued.

"Yesterday, an aspiring and vigorous young man passed away at the hands of barbaric terrorists. It is with deep grief and regret that I had to inform you that the man named Rewen Klofar is no more in this world. Before I continue, I'd humbly request everyone present here and listening to me to give a minute of silence for the youth who had immaturely left the world."

Melanie stopped speaking. With her hands clasped together, she along with everyone present in the training ground closed their eyes and silently prayed.

A minute later, Melanie opened her eyes. "Thank you, everyone. Now I'd like to go over the life history of…" She stopped in the middle of her sentence when the Mic Guy appeared near her and whispered a few words.

Away from the microphone, she softly asked. "Would this be alright?"

"Well, that's what I have been told."

"Okay. Wait a second." Melanie turned to the microphone. "The Director has a few words to share with regards to the incident. I would like to welcome him on the stage."

*Clap*

*Clap*

*Clap*

Sounds of claps resounded from every corner of the training ground.

A middle-aged man came on the stage. He adjusted the microphone, then chuckled. "Sit tight. This is going to take a while."

Most of the people showed unhappy expressions when he said that.

The Branch Director followed. "What did you think it's going to be? I'll come and cry out a few sentences and leave? Save those claps for later. But… I give you my word that – it's going to be worth it."

The small chatters around the training ground stopped.

The Branch Director coughed lightly, then started speaking. "Before I start to speak, I'll give everyone an overview of what I'm going to talk about today. There are essentially two main things that I would talk about today which would hopefully enlighten some of the people gathered here… alright. First, the media. I'm going to give out some ugly truths about the media. It's not directed at any of the media gathered here, so don't worry. Then, I'll talk about the character who tragically died yesterday."

As soon as he took a pause, most people were dumbfounded.

Why does it look like he's preparing for a lecture?

No! We've had enough of that. Please give us a lengthy speech.

Also, why would he talk about the media? Isn't it completely unrelated?

Needless to say, very few looked interested.

The Branch Director gave a subtle smile and continued. "I'm sure that right now many of you are thinking – why discuss the media? I'll give you a simple and accurate answer – Rewen Klofar didn't simply die at the hands of the terrorist group. There's an immense number of details that the media has hidden from you. Yes, you heard it right. The truth is right out there but it has been hidden from you. As for why it's hidden, I'll leave it to you… not! I'll talk about it."

Most of the students who had a sullen posture immediately had their back straight.

Looks like the "lecture" isn't as boring as they were thinking it would be.

Bianca and Co. looked at each other figuring out what the Branch Director was talking about. They were among the few people who were aware of the incident. So today morning, when they turned on the news, they were disappointed that nothing more – "a first-year student from one of the Eastern Dream Academy branches was killed by a group of terrorists" was reported in news channels.

Initially, they were confused as to why that's the case but then, after talking among themselves, they figured that it's related to politics.

Famin also rubbed his chin in interest. His eyes subconsciously traveled to the blonde girl sitting beside him. For some reason, she had a look of anticipation on her face and had her fists clenched.

The Branch Director gave a small nod. "Let's talk about it. I'm only risking my career. It's nothing compared to the sacrifice that has been made. Sigh, anyways… for obvious reasons, I'm not going to name any news media.

"Yesterday, at around 6 p.m., the official report regarding the events and details surrounding the death of Rewen Klofar was released. Due to the nature of our Public Information Procedural Act, the reports released directly by the Provincial Security Bureau never get openly released."