"Whew. Mo Bai came to see me alone yesterday."
Leaning against the wall, Losera recalled their conversation, then raised her head to look up.
Mo Bai had guessed right yesterday. She really had been watching his conversation with the version of herself in her memories.
Although she hadn't entered the hall of memories herself, she'd still had enough energy to peer inside from the outside.
She had seen a great deal.
She had seen Mo Bai talking to that other version of herself, and she had seen him learn about her shameful past.
But most importantly, Mo Bai had said aloud that he trusted her.
He trusted her to lead the students through this crisis. He trusted the students of this Academy to rise to the occasion.
But... why?
His faith in the students was easy enough to understand. His friends were among them, after all, so trusting the students here meant trusting his friends.
But why did he trust her?
Losera knew Mo Bai had never truly considered himself part of Star Torch Academy.
If he had, he wouldn't have treated his enrollment so carelessly, time and again.
That made his expression of trust all the stranger.
An outsider with no sense of belonging to the Academy had chosen to trust its principal?
"Maybe... Mo Bai thinks of you as a friend, too. He's always treasured his friends, so he doesn't want you doing anything rash."
After Losera recounted what had happened the night before, Rover suddenly spoke up.
"A friend?"
Clearly, Losera hadn't expected her to say that.
[Your teachers are your strongest support.]
[Your teachers are the best friends you can trust.]
In any world with schools and rules, students were bound to be familiar with those two lines.
To students, they were either words teachers used