Janet, who was walking beside him with a firm and elegant stride, glanced at him sideways with a look of puzzlement. Her silver hair swayed slightly with each movement, and her celestial blue eyes scrutinized Darius's face as if trying to solve a puzzle.
"Why so quiet?" asked Janet, breaking the silence with a soft but inquisitive voice. "You haven't said a single word since we left the farm."
Darius Maximoud, disguising his inner turmoil with feigned calmness but worried about the truth he had just discovered, responded in a neutral voice, avoiding looking at her directly.
"It's nothing," he said calmly, though his mind was screaming the opposite. "I just prefer the silence."
Janet, puzzled by his sudden response, as if something wasn't right and doubtful of his sincerity, arched an eyebrow and let out a small sarcastic laugh.
"You prefer silence?" she replied, with a playful tone but loaded with skepticism. "Playing mysterious doesn't suit you at all," she added, laughing briefly, a sound that echoed in the hallway like a light echo.
Darius practically ignored her immediately, his mind occupied with much more urgent matters. He had more important things to worry about, like investigating his identity and why he was a son of the Maximoud family.
Was he an accidental addition to the script? Or was there something more sinister at play? The hallways seemed to stretch eternally, each turn revealing more opulence: ancient vases, hand-woven Persian rugs, and discreet guards stationed in the shadows, constantly reminding him of the dark power that sustained this facade of luxury.
After a short while walking in silence, Darius and Janet stopped in front of an imposing door made of carved wood with intricate motifs of lions and intertwined serpents, symbols that Darius recognized from his own script as emblems of the Maximoud family.
At the door, a man in an elegant black suit with a red tie and well-groomed brown hair stood guard, watching with attentive eyes and an impeccable posture that denoted military training. His presence was a subtle reminder of the mafia nature of the family: he was not a simple butler, but an armed and loyal protector.
"Good afternoon, young Darius, Miss Janet," the guard greeted with a deep and respectful voice. "You both look very well today."
Though they hadn't said anything, Darius and Janet simply nodded, returning the greeting with a polite nod of the head. The guard, without further delay, opened the door from the lock with a master key, allowing them to pass to the other side with a courteous gesture.
Upon entering, they arrived in a dimly lit and subdued room, where heavy curtains covered the tall windows, filtering only a thin thread of sunlight that created elongated shadows on the polished parquet floor. The place was decorated with shelves full of ancient leather-bound books, lined up on the walls like silent guardians of family secrets.
There were also paintings of abstract art depicting chaotic storms and ethereal figures, along with heads of wild animals—a lion, a wolf, a deer—mounted as decorative trophies on the wall, evoking an aura of hunting and dominance.
However, amidst all that, there was a kind of sinister yet strangely satisfying and tranquil mixture, as if in some way Darius felt familiar with that environment.
It was as if the body he inhabited responded instinctively to the atmosphere, a residual echo of the original Darius's life that made him feel, for a brief instant, at home despite the latent danger.
The most notable feature was the central desk, carved from dark wood and adorned with pencils and pens organized in a decorative crystal glass, a couple of blank sheets ready for notes, and a jar of various candies wrapped in colorful paper, an unexpectedly sweet touch amid the severity.
Beyond that, Darius saw the appearance of a woman seated in a wheelchair behind the desk.
This woman resembled him, but very much like him: long black hair that fell in soft waves over her shoulders, shining silver eyes akin to the moon, wearing a plain white shirt with a black tie, semi-unbuttoned, where a bit of her black bra could be seen holding her enormous breasts that seemed about to burst out of the shirt.
She had a serious expression; the woman bore the vivid image of Darius, only as if she were his female version this time, yet she was calm and with her arms relaxed on the desk.
Janet, upon seeing her mother, made a respectful bow, inclining her head with grace.
"Here he is, Mother," said Janet in a formal voice. "I brought him as you asked."
Suddenly, the mother, with a soft but firm voice, which in her conveyed an imposing aura that made Darius feel an instinctive sense of danger, even though she was his mother, responded coldly.
"Good work, Janet," said the mother in an authoritative tone. "You may retire now."
Janet, catching her mother's order instantly, left without another word, letting the door close with a soft click, leaving Darius alone in the room with the woman who observed him with penetrating eyes.
Darius was silent but observant of what was happening, though the mother looked at him in a way that seemed to expect some response from him; her presence was like a gravitational force that demanded obedience.
"Don't you know how to greet your mother?" asked the mother, breaking the silence with a dry tone.
Darius, who was standing rigidly, greeted her with simple naturalness, though nervousness was killing him inside.
"Good afternoon, Mother," he said in a controlled voice.
The mother, ignoring his greeting and simply wanting to tell him what she had in store, continued without beating around the bush.
"It doesn't matter," she said coldly. "Anyway, I won't see you again."
'What? What did she mean by that?'
Darius said thus, trying to sound casual.
"Why did you need me, Mother?" he asked. "What did you summon me for?"
Suddenly, the mother responded with a cold attitude.
"Of course, regarding that, I'll get to the point," she said without emotion. "Since I have more things to do."
She continued saying.
"It's about your academy, with your admission exam," she explained precisely. "You have managed to qualify for acceptance into the academy."
Darius Maximoud, surprised, thought to himself: 'Of course, that's why she said she won't see me again. The Zenith Block Academy.'
Darius said.
"From what I see in your cold and distant face," he observed cautiously. "It means I was admitted, and I will live there during my study period."
Darius Maximoud thought to himself: 'Then in that case, I'm also glad not to see them again.'
Suddenly, the mother, interrupting his thoughts, said.
"But you passed with one of the worst results in the academy," she added with disdain.
Suddenly, the woman took out a bluish card with digital glowing features bearing the name Darius Maximoud, which was accompanied by an advanced tablet. She placed them in front of Darius on the table with an impersonal gesture.
"I want you to review them yourself," she ordered. "It doesn't surprise me that you were the worst on that exam."
Darius, trying to exclaim—not because he wanted to know about the academy topic, he was simply seeking more context about himself.
"But how is it possible that I passed if I was one of the worst..." he asked, confused.
"Let me finish speaking," she interrupted with authority.
"As I said before, review your own results yourself," she repeated, coldly. "I don't intend to waste my breath summarizing them for you."
"But however, Harold, Janet, Lady, and Mark, they also got into the academy, with much better results than you, of course," she added, emphasizing the comparison.
Darius was aware that those names he had heard, besides Janet, were those of his other siblings, key figures in the plot of his novel.
"However, so that you don't sully the name of our family and stain it with your incompetence," she warned coldly. "I don't want to see you associated with them in any way."
Darius Maximoud, who was receiving the cold orders from his mother, the woman sitting there, her words were as hard and sharp as blades, such that you didn't feel how painful they were, but rather how cold and emotionless they were being pronounced.
But of course, to the original Darius Maximoud, those words would surely hurt, however, this was not the original Darius Maximoud although he had a familiar sensation with that woman. Perhaps it was because she was the biological mother of the body he was using.
"Did you hear me?" she asked, demanding confirmation.
Suddenly, he coldly returned a simple response as well.
"Yes, understood," he responded with neutrality.
"Very well, in that case, classes will begin in 2 weeks," she explained. "But Sebastian will take you to the station in 3 days so you can go to your dormitory designated by the academy."
"You will be reserved a luxurious 5-star hotel so you can do whatever you want in those 3 days," she added. "And from there you will go to the academy."
"And regarding your things, well, we will send them to you soon in the second week or less depending," she concluded.
The mother's orders were firm and clear, without delay or wavering, her cold and penetrating gaze was clear, sufficient enough that it was never necessary to exaggerate, her word was the final sentence and judgment.
"And well, is everything clear?" she asked finally.
Suddenly, Darius returning to the same said a simple yes.
"Yes," he confirmed briefly.
Without further preamble, Darius found himself outside his mother's office with only the door closed, she didn't even say goodbye or look at him, she just handed him his student card and his academic tablet. But of course, he didn't care about that, he already had what he needed, after all, his was to prepare for everything that was coming.
While he was in his room, he had managed to see that his things were already packed in large boxes, and leaving his bed turned over and perfectly ordered. The room was spacious, with mahogany furniture and a view of the manicured garden, but now it seemed like an empty space, ready to be abandoned.
Darius Maximoud said to himself.
"They want to get rid of me so badly, what has Darius done to them to be excluded like this?" he murmured, observing the boxes.
"Well, it doesn't matter, for now, I have everything clear, I'm at the beginnings of the novel," he reflected in a low voice.
Suddenly, he said with a hand on his chin with his mind scheming.
"And that means a lot to me, enough to prepare myself during the academy arc," he added, planning.
Suddenly, while looking at his student card, he saw the data and details of his identity, these showed everything about him, suddenly he scanned it with his tablet which instantly holographically displayed his data in a more detailed and extensive way in the air.
[Student Card – Zenith Block Academy]
User ID: Darius Maximoud
Age: 16 years
Image: (Holographic Image of himself)
Program: Resonants Program Year 1/4
Academic Ranking: 3055/3055
Rank Potential: (None)
Profession: Tactical Mage.
While seeing the details of his student card, he felt some pity, not for himself, but for the original Darius, there were 2 data points that showed the same reason why the mother saw him as incompetent.
"I'm ranked 3055/3055?" he asked incredulously. "So that means I'm the weakest in the entire academy?"
"And let's not even talk about my rank potential, which I don't even have any," he added with discouragement.
He said with a deafening sigh saying.
"What have you been doing all this time to end up in this state, Darius?" he murmured, shaking his head.
"Damn, in a world like this, and especially the students of this academy, I'm going to go through a lot to survive," he admitted, aware of the gravity.
Darius was very clear about the magnitude of his situation, since in the world of the novel, it is not a sweet and tranquil world, it was the complete opposite, when he wrote the script he made that world as intense and difficult as possible, to the point where the weak like him had no place there, a world where discrimination abounds, in secondary characters as much as main ones, he couldn't even imagine what awaited him who was an erroneous extra.
"However, I still don't understand my existence, why am I a member of one of the main families for the plot?" he reflected.
"I only remember that in the novel, the Maximouds had 4 children, 2 males and 2 females, but there was never a fifth?" he asked himself, confused.
With everything that had happened, Darius Maximoud knew what extras were in web novels and webtoons, real characters that transmigrate as a narrative anomaly, however most of those anomalies are too irrelevant to be taken into account, they are not even from a family or have relation to canon main characters of a novel, they are all simply from families so unknown that neither the author nor the reader know them, after all that's why they are called extras or background characters.
But what about him? That meant he was an exception? Or something more different, his situation is so anomalous that he doesn't even seem to be an existing character in the plot.
So there would only be 3 possibilities for what is happening, due to his existence.
A: It is possible that he has transmigrated to a completely different universe but at the same time identical to the original novel, only with some changes that he himself does not know.
B: There was a change in the script or some type of error, very likely that the co-author or the original author decided to change the script while the novel was still canceled.
C: His existence caused a butterfly effect, it may be that by his simple transmigration his existence has caused an error in the script, giving life to Darius Maximoud as the fifth child.
"No, no, no, A and B are completely discarded, I don't think it's them," he dismissed out loud.
Exactly, he discarded 1 and 2 because, first, 1 is unlikely to have been a created universe, for the simple fact that it wouldn't have to behave like the script if it's parallel, although he hadn't discarded it 100% since it was 50% likely to happen but he couldn't confirm it.
The 2 he couldn't understand how that stupidity could happen to him, in the first place how were they going to invent rewriting a canceled novel that was already associated with a page with which they had a contract, the simplest thing to say is that they have "transmigrated" just like him and that somehow they change the plot, who knows, because they are the ones who created this world.
Suddenly, he said.
"And that makes me wonder, who is Darius Maximoud exactly? A simple background character or something more that has to do with the script?" he questioned himself, thoughtful.
Suddenly, Darius said thus.
"In that case, it's better to stick with the third, a butterfly effect is very possible to happen, enough to give life to my existence," he concluded.