Chapter 316: Questions and Echoes

By home, Orion had meant his, and Sophia wasn’t even surprised when they arrived there. She could walk on her own without support, but Orion didn’t want that...they argued.

Sophia told him she wasn’t that weak or sick, which was why Marta let her leave, but Orion didn’t care. He was so close to picking her up, but thankfully, her glare stopped him, and he sighed in irritation at that. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

But Sophia smiled because she got what she wanted. But she wasn’t able to win when it came to having a bath or even changing her clothes.

"Orion, I’m not that sick that I can’t do this," she argued.

"Says the person who winced when she raised her hands just now," he replied.

Sophia rolled her eyes with a huff because that wasn’t a lie.

She sat on a chair with a novel she had left in his home before...the last time she was in here when they had prepared for the storm.

Orion had arranged her books on the table close to the window, and when she asked him why, he told her that he just felt like doing so.

He left after placing a quick kiss on her forehead, telling her he had work to do.

Sophia pushed him away, telling him to focus on his work, and Orion left his home with a smile on his face.

The office felt the same. It’s been a while since Orion was in the office, but he still felt the same dread he had whenever he was in there.

Garrett had transferred the remaining paperwork—those they were not done with and some more—back to the office. But Orion had something else to do first.

He needed to know more about what Sophia had told him about what happened on the training grounds and why Garron didn’t report it to him.

Orion took his seat behind the desk, exhaled once, then sent Garrett to call for Garron.

Garron arrived promptly, expression neutral, posture respectful.

"You sent for me?" Garron asked.

"Yes," Orion said. "Sit."

Garron did and then smiled at Orion. "I heard the news. I’m glad she’s okay," he told Orion.

Orion smiled at him. "Me too, but that’s not why I called you here. I heard something about an incident at the training grounds."

Garron frowned immediately. "What incident?"

"That’s what you are going to tell me. You’ve told me about the plan for the test, and we are making preparations for that too, but you never told me about the incident that happened at the training grounds."

"That is because I have no idea about any incident...at least none worth telling you since they are all normal events," Garron told him.

Orion observed Garron quietly. The man was telling the truth.

"I was told," Orion said calmly, "that Holly threatened a member of the shortswords group. This happened the last time I trained them and left with Rita."

Garron frowned. "I’m not aware of anything like that. If I had known, then I would have intervened. But perhaps it was just a disagreement?"

"From my knowledge, Holly tried to hurt the person."

Garron paused as he pondered the words.

"I saw Holly leave the grounds that day," Garron replied. "She was angry. But that’s not unusual for her. It’s Holly, after all, and I didn’t call her back because she wasn’t breaking any rules. Trainees are allowed to leave whenever they choose to."

"And you didn’t see or hear anything involving the others?"

"No," Garron said firmly. "I saw them standing after you left that day and told them to get back to training. Just because you left didn’t mean they had the opportunity to slack off."

Orion leaned back slightly. "Very well."

"Is this a very serious matter, Orion?" Garron asked him.

"That is still to be determined," Orion told him, then turned to Garrett, who had been quiet all along.

"Get me Nia, Laia, Joren, and Holly. Tell them to come now and to leave whatever they are doing behind," Orion told him.

Garrett nodded and left the office.

It didn’t take long before the first three arrived.

They arrived as a group—Nia first, shoulders squared; Laia close beside her, protective as always; Joren trailing behind them, expression unreadable. They had no idea why they were summoned; they only knew that there was a reason.

They stepped into the office and stopped just before Orion’s desk.

Orion turned to Garrett. "Did you not summon Holly?"

"I did," Garrett told him. "She was the first person I called."

Orion nodded, but instead of waiting for Holly, he decided to start with those present first.

"I’ve just been made aware that something happened at the training grounds. Something involving your group, and I’m also just finding out that the instructor at the training grounds wasn’t made aware of this," Orion told them.

The three of them looked at each other.

"Um...I’m confused," Joren said softly.

Orion nodded. "Rightfully so. I’ll be straight then. I need the full details of the incident that happened with Holly at the training grounds. Don’t leave anything out."

There was a brief pause.

Then Nia spoke.

"Is this about when she threatened me?" she asked him.

Orion nodded.

"Oh," she said, then cleared her throat. "Well...after you left that day, I tried to train her like you assigned me to do, but she looked like she wanted to go with you, so I made a harmless joke. She didn’t like it, though, but then Instructor Garron told us to train and we continued training. I tried to correct her on something, closing the distance between us, but she told me not to touch her. I told her that I wasn’t even touching her and told her to calm down. She was annoyed that I did so, and that was when things escalated. She started asking if I knew who she was and who I thought I was to be so bold at that. I’m not one to back down from a fight like that, so I stood my ground, but she didn’t like it. She almost attacked me then, but Laia held a sword to her throat and stopped her. She marched out of the training grounds after that."

There was no hint of a lie in everything she told Orion. And he would know if she was lying.