Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest novel Chapter 1040

Chapter 1040: Chapter 246.4 - Sister

The next morning.

The sun broke clean over Arcadia, casting long gold beams between the spires like divine threads pulling the academy awake. Fog still clung to the edges of the lower hills, but above the campus, the sky was sharp and blue—watchful.

Leonard stood once more within the observation gallery, his coat draped over one arm, the crescent pendant beneath his collar already warmed with passive charge.

Today felt heavier.

Not because of the pressure.

But because of the promise.

I’ll watch her today.

He’d contacted Sylvie the night before—briefly. Just long enough to ask, calmly, which rotation block she was scheduled for.

Her response had been plain.

"Mid-day. Team Fourteen. Mist-Ruin variant."

Simple.

Efficient.

No questions. No lingering emotions. She hadn’t asked why.

But something in the timing of her reply—precise, as if she’d anticipated the question—had made him pause.

She knew he hadn’t come before.

She just wasn’t going to say it.

Leonard exhaled through his nose, then flicked a hand across the observation interface, reactivating his slate.

He had time before her rotation.

Roughly two hours.

And in that time—

He would work.

The Kin still hadn’t surfaced. No sign. No stir. If Sylvie wasn’t the one—and he had to be sure—then the field still needed trimming.

Badly.

He moved down the arc of the gallery, nodding to a passing scout he didn’t bother naming, and took up a new vantage near the east-tier viewing runes. His heliowatch was already deployed, masked by low-resonance threads.

Today’s trial arenas were condensed combat puzzles: terrain-dynamic, timed objectives, restricted spell-bands. Designed to reveal control, not just raw power.

Perfect.

He scanned the cadet list.

Eight new names flagged from yesterday’s analysis. Minor anomalies. Statistical quirks. Tether pulses from the heliowatch that almost flickered.

Almost.

He murmured under his breath:

"Caeli signa. Minima intentio. Solis oculus."

Trace lightly. Mark with breath. Let the sun watch.

Tiny golden threads dispersed—none visible to the human eye, even under magnification. But to Leonard, they curled out like spider-silk filaments, reaching toward their respective targets as the cadets entered their assigned dungeons.

One. Two. Three.

Marked.

Four. Five.

Delayed. A little too much mana. He drew back before the wards picked it up.

Six. Seven. Eight.

All marked within thirty-seven minutes.

Leonard observed from three different angles, watching as they navigated puzzles and pressure.

He listened to the pulse of their breath through monitoring glyphs. Watched the shake in their stances. The cast-flutter of their hands.

Nothing.

No echo from the artifact.

No ripple from the divine thread.

Nothing that even resembled lunar symmetry.

He clicked his jaw shut and leaned slightly forward on the rail, expression unreadable.

He was narrowing the field.

But it wasn’t enough.

Still no Kin.

Still nothing to offer.

At this rate...

His gaze darkened a fraction.

I may have to go deeper.

There was one option.

A long-term assignment.

A presence in the Academy itself—not just as a scout.

He could petition for a teaching role, a research position, even an external liaison from Solstice Dawn. The credentials could be forged well enough. His Holiness could cover the rest.

It would take time. Politics. Risk.

But it would give him what he needed.

Time. Access. Proximity.

And if the Kin remained hidden—

If they were still bleeding moonlight through silence—

Then he would find them from inside.

Still, for now—

He turned back to the slate.

A quiet chime pulsed along the crystal surface.

Team Fourteen – Zone Entry Confirmed.

Mist-Ruin Variant. Initiation Time: 12:03 PM.

Leonard’s breath stilled.

He reached forward with a single motion and expanded the feed.

Four screens blossomed in overlapping view—each offering different angles of the entry point, environmental overlays, mana-spectrum filters. He tuned them quickly, narrowing his attention to movement pacing and ambient signature dampening.

The fog was already shifting across the dungeon floor.

Cold mist, bleached stone, the outlines of collapsed sanctuaries.

And then—

Figures emerged.

One by one.

Jasmine Reed, blade drawn, already crouched low and moving with predator’s rhythm.

Layla Vance, steady as ever, shield already pulsing with controlled runes.

Astron Natusalune, walking like breath through fabric—present and yet somehow never the center. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

And finally—

Sylvie.

Leonard’s gaze sharpened, just slightly.

But his eyes caught everything.

The soft glow from her gloves—not bright, not overbearing, but anchored.

She was in control.

Even now, when everyone knew who had stabilized that compression spell...

They were still calling it Irina Emberheart’s team.

As if recognizing her would cost them something.

No one wanted to be the first to say it out loud.

That Sylvie Gracewind might be something more than a background melody.

They’d risk being seen as disloyal.

So they kept saying her name, but only as context. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Only as support.

But fine.

Legacy always drank first.

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