Not a peaceful silence—a waiting one. The kind that hangs in the air before a verdict is read. The kind that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up even when everything looked perfectly normal.

The transport shuttle had deposited Y/n at the front gates an hour ago, and the campus sprawled ahead like a city built from glass and ambition. Towering spires, gleaming white corridors, and students in crisp uniforms moving with purpose. But there was an undercurrent beneath it all. Tension. Like everyone here was holding their breath.

Y/n had been given a data pad with a map, a room assignment, and a schedule. Earth House. The name had been stamped in red, as if it mattered more than the other houses. Maybe it did.

A girl with short pink hair in two messy buns nearly collided with Y/n as she rounded a corner, her eyes fixed on her own pad. She stopped just in time, scowling.