"Hoist your head. You will look me in the visage when I speak to you!"
The Academy Leader was not in the residence he normally inhabited; following the Arena of Ascension bout, he was spending the night in the Inner Circle. In the small, single-story house encircled by dense trees near the borders of the Academy's Heart, he was speaking while glaring at the younger of the two women stationed before him.
"Deborah, do you comprehend why I granted you the authority to govern the Outer Circle?"
The red-haired woman was attempting to avert her emerald-green eyes, yet due to the Academy Leader's command, she returned to the same spot every single time. She tendered zero rejoinders to the inquiry, maintaining her silent wait.
"You must harbor a guess at the minimum, right? Your sister being the Leader of the Martial Division, your reliability, you being in a position where betraying me is an impossibility; perhaps you genuinely are the most optimal choice for this task!"
