Chapter 265

There were few men and women across Valhaur that held the prestigious title of ‘top ranker,’ a person who had climbed to the nearly unbelievable height of level fifteen or above, and the Dean of Tenet Academy was, perhaps unsurprisingly, one such woman.

Dean Pemcroft was a woman in middle age. She sat behind an ornate mahogany desk, brown hair done in a ponytail, seeming annoyed. That alone was enough to make Natalie break into a sweat. An irritated top ranker. Much less the dean of the academy she attended. This woman was the absolute last person on campus, maybe the world, that she wanted annoyed with her.

And yet here the Dean was, glaring at her like an impudent student who’d caused her a headache.

Which, uh. Was exactly what had happened.

Baron Crestwood was less annoyed, more red-faced. He seemed to be barely restraining an outburst—probably only due to the woman of incredible status in the room with him. The affable figure from earlier was nowhere to be seen, which was maybe fair, considering the circumstances.

Then again, not really. Alaina was her own person, and what she decided to do with Natalie was her own business. The Baron had no right to be upset at her for what his daughter did, or what the two of them did together.

Well. Besides maybe how it had happened in the middle of a public alleyway, which was technically illegal, and how they had been caught. It might be less about the dalliance and more about the specifics. All the same, Natalie couldn’t help but feel his anger was at least partially unreasonable.

What followed, over the next half-hour, was an extremely uncomfortable encounter. The Baron ranted and raved about Natalie’s ‘completely unacceptable behavior,’ and ‘was this how Tenet students comported themselves on missions?’ and so on and so on.

Alaina, bless her, seemed to have made it clear that Natalie wasn’t fully to blame; the Baron didn’t pretend that Natalie had seduced his daughter, or some nonsense of that sort. Just that her behavior, as an agent of Tenet, was unacceptable.

Throughout, Natalie gritted her teeth and bore the tirade. She defended herself the best she could, with the Dean playing an irritable moderator.

This wasn’t her first time dealing with an angry parent, though it was the highest-stake variation of the event she’d experienced, since it had never happened with a woman of national reputation in the room. Natalie had even dealt with angrier parents than the Baron, and in situations where their anger hadn’t needed to be moderated.

That said, Natalie would have much preferred for the Dean to not have been there. As much as her presence muted what the Baron could say, it also made things worse for Natalie. Because the woman controlled her life at the Academy—or whether she had a spot at all, quite frankly.

The Dean was definitely on the Baron’s side, which wasn’t surprising. Natalie suffered through, trying to play contrite and apologetic, which wasn’t her strong suit. After her previous catastrophic lack of judgment, though, she forced herself to keep silent. Though maybe more than a renewed sense of good judgment, it was the Dean’s withering gaze that kept her mouth sealed.

One major mistake was enough, Natalie told herself. She bit her tongue on her real opinions on the matter. She had a penchant for doubling down and getting herself into deeper trouble, but she was already plenty deep enough. She couldn’t afford to keep digging. Even she had some innate level of self preservation.

When the Baron’s outrage had sputtered out, and Natalie had provided her weak defenses, and the Dean had assured him that proper punishment would be forthcoming, he left in a huff, muttering to himself as he went. Natalie barely stopped herself from glaring at his back.

With the door closed behind the Baron, it was just her and the Dean.

Where Natalie had needed to struggle to stay silent during her dressing-down, now that it was just her and the Dean, she found silence exceptionally easy. One, two, then three full minutes passed as she sat in front of the Dean’s desk and squirmed, one of the most powerful women in the world glaring at her. Natalie didn’t dare speak first. Only when a genuine fight-or-flight response started to bubble up, and she was considering running away and starting a new life elsewhere, did the Dean speak.

Two fingers on each hand went up to rub at her temples.

“I remember,” she said flatly, “what it is like to be young. But doing such a thing, with the city baron’s daughter, in the middle of an alleyway, and being caught?” Her fingers didn’t stop rubbing, though the action didn’t seem to provide much relief. “I would ask what you were thinking, but it’s obvious you weren’t. Not for a second.”

Her glare dared Natalie to deny the accusation, but Natalie only returned red-faced mortification. That didn’t mollify the Dean—she wasn’t sure if anything would—but at least she didn’t get angrier.