Luminary Institute

57: A Forced Rescheduling

“I’m still so beat,” Nyssa slumped against the table with a faint bonking sound. A yawn slipped through her lips as she perused the menu laid out on the table. “I’m glad we won though...” 

After their frontal attack, the graduate students had countered with an offensive push of their own; yet, victory had still come into their grasp thanks to Ryker pulling off a genius self-detonation to launch himself down the entire training field’s length. Following their win, they returned to the classroom where they rested while Angelica went through each person one-by-one to break down their habits and areas for improvement. The graduate students, with nothing else to do, ended up leaving to see some of the other teachers and administration they had still cared for. 

Once done, before Angelica could give them any more assignments, they—as a unit—staged a breakout and escaped to the food district of the institute to settle down and get a meal. Electra and Ryker, in the midst of the process though, suffered a grievous kidnapping from their Class One friends and had gotten dragged off, leaving their group only five people strong.

Seated across from Nyssa, Celeste held her own menu in one hand and perused it with languid eyes. Her free hand wandered over to Nyssa’s head and began rubbing it with absentminded pats. 

“What do you all want?” Titus set down the menu while looking out the window. He cracked it open and—though they sat on the third floor—the sounds of the laughter leaked in from the window as students from Class One and Class Two brought the district to life. “I’ve already decided on what I’m getting.” 

“Just order on the tablet they gave us,” Albion motioned to it while giving the dessert section an intense staredown. “I’ve decided I’m only eating from the dessert section today. We won after all, I can treat myself.” 

“Treat yourself to diabetes,” Conrad retorted, leaning over to Titus’s side and tapping a few buttons to add his own order to the tablet. Before he could pass the tablet to Nyssa and Celeste though, he paused. 

Celeste and Nyssa, lost in their own world once more, had started their own quiet conversation beside them. Lost in each other's eyes, they held hands while discussing if they wanted to share dishes or coordinate their orders to try a few extra dishes. 

Conrad coughed, they didn’t react, and he turned back to Albion and Titus. The two greeted him with solemn eyes. 

“It’s over for you.” 

“Just accept it, they haven’t even confessed yet, and they’re already like this.” 

“D... Do they even know they like each other?” Conrad facepalmed as he handed Albion the tablet instead. “What’s going on with them? Do you two know... anything about this situation?” 

“Depending on the day, I feel like Celeste knows, but yeah I’m pretty sure she knows,” Albion took the tablet with a brief nod. “Nyssa I have no clue, maybe? They’ve definitely both realized subconsciously, the question is... do they recognize it right now for example.” 

“What a great question,” Titus rolled his eyes with a faint laugh. “Honestly, no clue. I’d say Celeste realizes, but only afterward. I think Nyssa realized but hasn’t... realized. If that makes sense.” 

“Yeah it does, don’t worry,” Albion added one of each ice cream dessert item to the order. “But yeah, just give up Conrad, it’s not happening.” 

“No, I know that... I’ve... I’ve come to terms with that,” Conrad pushed his hair back. After pantomiming putting a rose between his lips, he struck a half pose while calling forth his shakiest voice.  “The protagonist in me has moved on, my heroine will come somewhere else.” 

“Glad you have the foresight for that at least...” Albion raised his eyebrows while fidgeting with a napkin. One snap of the fingers later, the napkin had become a thin sheet of ice he could snap with even the slightest twitch of his muscles.

Crack. 

...Crack. 

The new ice-napkin fell back to the table with a faint crack as Albion decided to double up and order a second serving of ice cream for his two favorite flavors. The moment the pieces of ice fell against the table though, both Nyssa and Celeste seemed to snap out of their own little world. 

“Ah... sorry,” Celeste brushed her hair back and scratched the back of her head. “Got a little distracted there, were you three saying anything?” 

Nyssa, along with her, nodded her head as a faint pink tinge appeared at the tips of her ears. “Sorry, yeah, didn’t notice we got absorbed in our own conversation.” 

“... You’re fine, don’t worry,” Titus reassured as a faint sigh of exasperation left his mouth. His eyes twinkled in amusement as he slipped a faint glance towards Albion who just smiled and returned a head shake of his own. “We’re just ordering right now. So, put what you want into the tablet.” 

“Sounds good,” Nyssa motioned for Celeste to start first. She, in the meantime, decided to check her phone which had been buzzing for the past couple minutes. As she slipped it out of her pocket, she noticed a stream of conversation happening in her family group chat. 

Roxanne’s messages had sparked it all. [Hey dad, just letting you know that I think I have to push my seminar at the institute back. I’d love to do it, but the hunter’s association just issued an emergency mission so my team has to respond. Mandatory duty as you all know...]

[Don’t worry! I’ll make mine much better than Slade’s! Trust me!]

[You’ll have so much more fun Nyssa, of course! I’ll make sure to build in a break halfway where you can sleep!] 

Slade, after reacting to her second message with an angry emoji, followed it up with a couple questions. [I haven’t followed the association recently, what’s it about? Is it mandatory for us hero teams as well?] 

[Maybe I’ll take my team to join... we’ve been considering doing some hunting work to expand our skill sets... and well, be scrutinized a little less in the media, you all have it easy.]

[You’re doing fine,] Kaiser’s message came in. [Don’t worry about the media, you're their favorite hero right now. As for Roxanne, sounds good, I’ll let the necessary people know. Don’t worry this is a common situation for people we invite, you all have busy schedules after all.]

[What are the details though? I’m just curious. Make sure to stay safe too.]

[A pod of leviathans appeared in the ocean near the Sunrise Academy... I think? It's in that body of water, but might’ve instead been encroaching on the kingdom a little more south. We’ll be flying out because leviathans, not to mention a pod of them, require a lot of international attention...]

[Sounds troublesome]

[Good luck, I’ll talk to my team to see if we can help you]

[Leviathans are a pain in the ass to fight though, so its a coin toss, I’ll let you know]

Nyssa ended up just sending a sticker of a cat giving a hug and a sticker of a cat saying “Good luck!” Once she had put her phone down, she took the tablet from Celeste to order her own food with a “Thank you,” before clearing her throat to get everyone’s attention. “Well, I have some... news. I don’t know if it's good or bad. Roxanne’s pushing her thing back because of an emergency mission. So, it looks like we’ll be going on our mission within the week since Angelica doesn’t want to waste time.”