Chapter 87: Sense
Hugh walked out of the shifting room, and he was greeted by the same locker that he was familiar with. He stepped into the flooring and his footsteps echoed in the hallway.
He started to walk towards the classroom with a bit of a confident swagger that he had never done before. The last time that he was here, he was always afraid of people finding out about his transformation.
He never wanted to get into a fight unless there is absolutely no choice left. Fighting someone stronger than him would leave him no choice but to use his transformation.
Now that things are different, he became more confident than before. This was evidenced by his posture, which was bolder than before.
Last time, he would slump his shoulders to not stand out and be out of people's vision. This did not work in his favor as it only made him look weak in front of other people.
He was now confident in taking a fight against his peers. With his armor and his eagle transformation, he did not have to worry about using his transformation.
He did not even notice that he became more confident than before. It was just his subconsciousness changing his demeanor by itself.
Realizing that he was too different from before, Hugh decided to make his shoulders slump like before. He did not want to stand out and attract attention more than he already had.
He was already in the sights of the Student Council; he does not need any more trouble.
Although Hugh had a slumped posture, more insightful students can tell the difference. Normal students would perceive Hugh as a weak creature, but some perceptive students could feel the dangerous aura coming off Hugh.
There was a thin film of wild aura around Hugh that was just hiding behind the surface. He was like a wolf in sheep's clothing, baiting others into believing that he is prey.
That is nothing more than a facade. Once they fall into Hugh's trap, they would realize that he is much stronger than they imagined. By then, it would have already been too late.
Hugh walked along the hallways until he stopped on one of the lockers. He looked at its shiny exterior and its blue coloring.
There was no evidence of deterioration, even though this was the locker that Hugh had destroyed to satiate his hunger. He ripped it into pieces and consumed it for his own sake.
The locker had already been replaced by a new one without any fuss. This was expected of a prestigious school, especially in the special class.
The only problem with that incident was that someone had seen him. Jane had seen him eating the metals of the lockers, ripping it into shreds.
He did not have to explain himself to her. If he confronted her about it, it would seem more suspicious than it already was.
The best play to do in this situation is to play cool and act as if it never happened in the first place. If Jane asked him about this incident, he would just play it off as nothing more than a casual show of anger.
With this plan in mind, Hugh was able to ease his anxiety for a little bit. Although it may still become a bigger problem, he did not have to worry about it. There was nothing he could do in this situation.
He continued his stride towards the door, and he stopped before he opened it. He took one big breath and made sure that his posture was slumped. With all these preparations, he slid the door wide open.
As he opened the door, the loud chatting and murmuring of the class stopped into a dead silence. They all looked towards Hugh; some of them hid their gaze, while some did not care that they are looking at Hugh.
This was a normal occurrence for Hugh, so he did not think much of it. The quiet lull was soon overwhelmed by the students carrying on their chats.
Some ignored Hugh, while some took particular attention towards him. The students had been warned about speaking about the contents of Veer's pamphlets, so they could not directly confront Hugh about it.
There were still a million points of reward for Hugh's secret, but they did not think that it was worth it. If the Student Council caught them entertaining Veer's shenanigans, they would be blacklisted.
Once blacklisted, those million points would be rendered useless because the Student Council could order everyone to not accept orders from the person.
This was an obvious power play by the Student Council, and Veer could not do anything about it.
The reason why some of the students took particular attention towards Hugh was not about Veer, but Hugh himself.
Some of the big characters in the social ladder of the classroom were those that were strong enough to prove themselves.
These were Serena, Jane, and Aric's three inner circle friends. They were all an A to S level talent, so they were more perceptive than others.
When Hugh first arrive at the door, Jane did not take particular attention to him. She had already assessed Hugh's strength, so she did not need to look at him.
Suddenly, she felt a slight tingle in her neck. She only felt that kind of tingle when she had faced strong people like her sister.
This strange strange feeling led her to perk her head up from studying her notes and look around the room. She scanned the scenery until she saw Hugh walk into the classroom.
Hugh had the same posture and body language as before, but there was something different about him. She could not identify it, but she knew that there was something dangerous about Hugh.
When she looked at Hugh, she could not help but feel that he was stronger than her. That did not make sense to her because she knew that she had much better talent than him.
Hugh was only an F-level talent, while she had an A-level talent. As far as she knew, they were all at the F-rank of the unadvanced, so she should be stronger than Hugh.
Her sense of danger told her the opposite.
Hugh had been away for a week. The Student Council said that they had detained him for further questioning, so the students did not have any qualms about that.
Her instincts were never wrong, which meant that Hugh was probably stronger than her right now. How could such a man get stronger in such a short amount of time?
Serena was busy talking and chatting with her friends when Hugh opened the door. She gave him one look, and she returned to her business, supposed to anyway.
For some reason, she could not help but take a closer look at Hugh. There was a different feeling coming off Hugh that she could not pinpoint.
Unlike Jane, she did not have the accuracy to know that Hugh was stronger. She was only able to perceive that something was different with Hugh.
Serena returned to her business when she realized that she could not figure out what was different about Hugh. She did not care.
Tanner, Brad, and Chip, were Aric's inner circle friends. They were the closest to Aric, but they had not seen him for a week, the same as Hugh.
They were in charge of the group of boys in the classroom while Aric was gone. They had adjusted well to this lifestyle, ordering people around and feeling superior to others.
They were standing in the middle of the classroom when Hugh opened the door. They looked displeased with Hugh. This was because Aric and Hugh fought, so of course, they would side with Aric.
They stared at him with clear dislike in their eyes. They wanted him to know that they hated him, which Hugh immediately noticed.
If it was before, Hugh would have ignored their stares. He knew that someone was staring at him, but he did not know who.
His newfound confidence allowed him to satiate his own curiosity, so Hugh perked up his head and looked towards the three guys.
He locked eyes with them, but Hugh did not feel anything different. Their eyes were full of animosity, but Hugh did not care. He already felt a superiority against them, so they were nothing to him.
The three guys felt different. When they looked at Hugh's eyes, they saw a beast. Those eyes were sharp enough to cut through the air and reach their eyes. They could not help but lower their eyes in front of Hugh.
This was an instinctive action that they were forced to do. Unlike Jane and Serena, they were not talented enough to know that something was different with Hugh.
The feeling was like they were a pack of wolves, but suddenly a strange wolf had entered their territory. It was in their nature to defend their territory and pride, so they walked towards Hugh intending to teach him who was the boss.