Elysium: Desired by the Cold-hearted Princess [GL]-Chapter 375: The loud ringing

Electra’s POV

The moment I stepped into the classroom, the noise stopped.

It did not just fade gradually, it stopped completely. Conversations cut off mid-sentence, the chairs stopped scraping, and even the small laughs died halfway through. Silence followed us like a shadow, and if I wasn’t so strangely immune, I might have felt uncomfortable.

I paused just inside the doorway, not because I felt nervous, but because I was observing. Half the class was staring at me, while the other half was staring at Irina and Penelope.

Fear was easy to understand. I had been told enough times that my presence unsettled people, so the fact that they all seemed immediately scared was logical and was something I was already quite used to in just the few days that I’ve been here.

The obvious fear that they all seemed to have for Irina made sense too. She was tall, composed, and carried herself like she owned whatever space she entered. Her posture was straight, her chin slightly lifted, and she did not look around nervously.

People responded to that, which was also very logical, but Penelope?

That part confused me.

She walked quietly on my other side, pale skin almost blending with the light from the windows. Her hair was short and soft around her face, and she looked small compared to us. Shorter, slim, and definitely not physically imposing.

Yet several of the girls were staring at her the same way they were staring at me, not curious, but wary.

I shifted my gaze toward her. She looked calm, almost gentle, and if I had to categorize her based only on appearance, I would not label her dangerous, and I did not like people who looked weak. That was something I had realized about myself recently. Weakness irritated me because it felt inefficient.

Penelope looked like she would be easily pushed over, but the class did not see her that way, which could only mean that there was information I did not have.

Irina started walking forward, clearly expecting me to follow. I did, and the sound of our shoes against the floor felt louder than necessary. The whispering began the second we moved further into the room.

"She’s back."

"Is she... normal?"

"Don’t look at her."

I heard all of it, but I did not react. Irina led us toward the back row where three seats were empty together. As we got closer, I noticed Roxana.

Her head was down on the desk, face hidden in the crook of her arm. Her light hair spilled across the table. She was still.

The last time I had seen her was yesterday when I went into Irina’s room, and before that had been when I had told them to leave my room.

I stopped briefly beside her desk.

"She appears unwell," I said.

Irina glanced at Roxana, then at me. "She’s fine."

"Are you really sure about that?" I asked.

Irina sighed. "She’s just tired. Ignore her."

I looked at Roxana again. I had the distinct sense that she was not asleep since her shoulders were too stiff. I also had a feeling she was upset with me, which would explain why she was pretending to be asleep right now.

The awareness registered, but it did not create guilt, and I did not care enough to investigate why she was upset, nor did I feel the need to appease her anger in any way.

Irina nudged me lightly toward my seat. "Sit here."

I sat down when Irina told me to, and she took the seat beside me immediately, close enough that our arms almost touched. Penelope moved to the other side and lowered herself into the chair next to Roxana. Roxana still had her head on the table, her face turned slightly away from us.

I looked at her for a second longer than necessary, then looked away.

The classroom was quieter than it had been when we walked in, but it wasn’t silent anymore, and I could still feel eyes on my back, on my face, and on all three of us.

I leaned back slightly and let my gaze move around the room. Rows of desks, tall windows, and a board at the front with faint chalk marks that had not been cleaned properly. The air smelled like paper and dust.

This was supposed to mean something to me. They had brought me back here because this place was "familiar." Because I had spent years in this room, or rooms like it, and because they believed that being surrounded by what I once knew would unlock something inside me.

I waited, but nothing happened. There was no sudden warmth, no flash of recognition, and no strange pull in my chest.

It was just a room. I felt absolutely nothing being here, and the realization did not upset me. If anything, it made me question why we were doing this at all. I did not understand why I needed memories I could not even remember missing.

If I barely cared about them, why was everyone else so desperate for me to get them back?

I rested my hands on the desk and looked toward the front of the room again, trying to force some reaction out of myself, but still nothing.

"How are you feeling?" Irina asked quietly beside me.

I turned my head and looked at her. Her face was calm, but there was something searching in her eyes. Hope, maybe.

"I am not feeling anything," I said honestly.

She studied my expression. "Nothing at all?" she pressed.

I blinked once. "Was there something I was supposed to feel?"

Her lips parted slightly, then closed again. "No," she said after a moment. "I just thought maybe being here would do something."

"It has not," I replied.

She sighed under her breath.

I looked back at the front of the classroom. "What am I even supposed to do in a ’class’?" I asked, making small air quotes with my fingers without thinking about it.

Irina stared at me. "Well, a teacher comes in, they talk, and we just listen. Sometimes they ask questions, and sometimes we answer."

"That is all?" I asked.

"That is all."

I frowned slightly. "That sounds inefficient."

"It’s school, Electra. We just have to deal with it," she responded with a shrug.

"And I am required to participate in this?"

"You are required to sit through it," she corrected. "Without saying anything strange, and again, without using your abilities in any way. You also can’t allow your outside to show at any point. We’re treading on thin ice, so we need to be extra careful for your own good."

I glanced at her. "You have repeated that instruction multiple times, Irina. Aren’t you tired already?"

"Well, I’m not because you need to remember it. The entire kingdom outside this school hates you, Electra. This is the safest place for you, and I won’t let you do anything to get kicked out."

"I remember that," I said flatly. "I just do not see the appeal of any of this."

"You don’t have to see the appeal," she muttered. "You just have to get through it."

I looked at her for another second, then shook my head slowly. "This is definitely annoying," I blurted out.

A few heads in front of us turned slightly at the sound of my voice. Irina nudged my arm lightly.

"Lower your voice," she hissed.

I did not understand why it mattered, but I let the subject drop.

Minutes passed, and no teacher had entered yet. The whispering around us faded in and out. Someone near the front laughed nervously. Roxana still had not lifted her head, and Penelope sat quietly beside her, her hands folded neatly on her desk and eyes forward.

I watched them both. If being here was meant to trigger something, then maybe they should be saying things, telling me stories, and mentioning specific moments. Instead, they were all just sitting still like this was normal.

It felt pointless.

I exhaled slowly and turned slightly toward Irina. "You and Penelope should say something useful," I said.

She glanced at me. "Like what?"

"Anything that might help," I replied. "Instead of sitting here like morons."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Excuse me?"

I opened my mouth to clarify... And then it happened.

A sharp sound pierced through my head, and at first, it was faint. A thin, high ringing that felt distant, almost easy to ignore, but then it grew louder, and my body stiffened instantly.

The sound did not come from outside the room because no one else reacted. The students around us continued shifting in their seats, unaware.

The ringing intensified. It drilled into my skull, sudden and violent, and I grabbed the edge of my desk as pain exploded behind my eyes.

"What’s wrong?" Irina’s voice came from beside me, sharp with concern.

The ringing grew even louder. It felt like something was vibrating inside my head, like metal scraping against metal. My vision blurred around the edges.

"Irina..." Penelope’s voice started, but I could barely hear it.

The pain spiked, and it was immediate and blinding. One second I could hear Irina asking what was wrong, and the next, everything disappeared.

The classroom vanished. The whispers, the shuffling chairs, Irina’s voice.

Gone.

I was still aware of my body. I knew I was sitting upright, I knew my hands were still gripping the desk, and I knew I had not fallen, but I could not see, and I could not hear anything except the ringing.

It filled the space completely, and total darkness surrounded me. I tried to blink, but it changed nothing. The ringing pulsed through me, each wave bringing another flash of pain. My breathing felt distant, like it belonged to someone else.

I knew I was conscious, I knew I had not lost awareness, and yet, I was trapped inside nothing. I tried to speak, but no sound came out, or maybe it did, and I simply could not hear it.