Reborn as an SSS-Rank Guide in the Sentinel Academy [BL]

The evaluation hall was already packed by the time Julian walked in, way more packed than the regular hall from earlier. Rows and rows of students sitting up in stands like this was some kind of sport, and up front there were teachers, proctors, even a few people in fancy uniforms Julian didn’t recognize yet.

’great. an audience’ he thought, walking down toward the platform in the middle of the room. ’nothing like a crowd of strangers watching you fail’

[Host will not fail. System has confidence]

’you’re literally programmed to say that’

[Correct. But also true]

Julian almost smiled at that. Almost. He spotted Logan sitting up near the front with a few other Sentinels, arms crossed, looking bored already like he already decided how this whole thing was going to go. The guide from earlier sat right beside him, whispering something, probably something about Julian, probably something mean.

’let them talk out their shit’ Julian thought, stepping up onto the platform when his name got called.

"Julian Valerian," the proctor said, not even looking up from his clipboard, voice flat and bored like he’d said that name a hundred times already that day and expected the same result every time. "step up and show us a guiding pulse."

A few laughs rippled through the crowd. Somebody muttered something about wasting time. Somebody else just sighed loud enough for Julian to hear it from the stands.

Julian stood there in the middle of that platform, and in the center of it sat some kind of crystal, tall as his waist, glowing faint and dim, waiting.

[This is the evaluation crystal. It measures guiding output. Host must channel guiding energy into it]

’how do I even do that, I don’t even know a thing about this...’

[Close eyes. Reach for the same feeling host used to hold the wall. That feeling is guiding energy in this world]

Julian shut his eyes. He thought about the wall. About six hours standing there with his arms shaking, about the gate, about holding a line that wasn’t supposed to hold with nothing but stubbornness and the fact that he refused, absolutely refused, to let it fall while people were still behind it. He thought about Mia screaming his name. He thought about every single time he told himself just a little longer, just hold a little longer.

Something in his chest cracked open. Power poured out of him like it had been locked up somewhere and finally found the door.

The crystal in front of him flickered once. Then it lit up bright, brighter, way brighter than it should, and a low hum started building in the room that made people in the front rows lean back in their seats.

"is that, no way..." somebody started saying.

The crystal cracked straight down the middle with a sound like a gunshot, and every single proctor at the front table shot up out of their chairs at once, papers flying off the table.

Silence. Dead, heavy silence. Then the readout above the crystal flickered to life, numbers climbing so fast they blurred, blowing straight past every marked line on the display until it landed on one glowing word. SSS-Rank.

Somebody in the crowd dropped something. Somebody else made a choking sound. The proctor at the front table just stared at the readout like it personally betrayed him.

"that’s... that’s not possible," he said, voice shaking. "there’s never been a recorded SSS-Rank Guide. not once. not in the history of this academy, and you a nobody say what now."

Julian opened his eyes slow, and the whole room was staring at him now, every single face twisted into some mix of shock and disbelief, mouths hanging open, and somewhere in that sea of faces he found Logan’s.

Logan wasn’t bored anymore. His cold mask had cracked wide open, eyes blown wide, staring at Julian like he was seeing a stranger standing in a body he thought he knew everything about.

[Congratulations host. SSS-Rank confirmed. First in Empire history]

’yeah’ Julian thought, feeling something almost like satisfaction settle into his chest. ’not bad for a guy who used to just deliver pizza, worth it’

The proctor was still stammering something into a communication device, probably reporting this straight to the top, and the whispers in the crowd kept getting louder and louder, spreading like wildfire, until one single voice cut through all of it, loud and sharp and coming from the doorway at the back of the hall.

"did somebody just say SSS-Rank Guide?"

Every head in the room turned at once. Standing in the doorway, dressed in a uniform darker and heavier than anyone else’s in the room, was a man Julian’s borrowed memories screamed a name at so fast it nearly knocked the wind out of him.

The Crown Prince. And he was already walking straight toward Julian with a look on his face that promised absolutely nothing good was about to happen next.