Novel's Extra: I Awakened The Strongest Physique From The Start - Chapter 88

Chapter 88: CHAPTER 87 – Verdict 2.
Step-Step

The tense, eerie silence of the stadium made it possible for the light and shallow steps of Zyrrak to resound throughout the stadium like beating drums. All eyes turned to him.

Unlike his usual confident stride, there was something unmistakably different about him today. His golden skin, once radiant and proud, seemed to have lost its luster under the harsh light.

With his shoulders hunched, he walked toward the mic, his eyes, dull and distant, unlike his usual energy-filled gaze.

Many among the students in the stadium, who had once been in awe of him, stared at him with disdain, rage, disgust, and fear. They had no sympathy for him.

To them, he was nothing other than a beast with uncontrollable lust—a goblin they would want to kill themselves. He wasn’t a special and rare species they would want to protect, but just walking proof of why no one ever wants to accept the gold goblins as a normal intelligent lifeform instead of a monster or a beast.

He had crossed the line—a line he shouldn’t have. That was all that mattered to the students. But there was something more—something that only the council members noticed.

Alex, seated in the second chair of the council, observed Zyrrak closely. There was a coldness in his eyes, a glint that was far too cryptic to decipher.

‘He has changed…’ Alex’s eyes flashed as he watched Zyrrak walk to the mic with an incomprehensible expression, his lips pressing together in silence. There was no anger in his gaze, no pity. Just a quiet tension as his fingers twitched, but he remained motionless.

Zyrrak, on the other hand, now in front of the mic, took a deep breath as his hand gripped the mic. His mouth opened as he tried to speak, but no words came for a while, and just when he gathered enough strength to speak…

“Monster!” Someone shouted from the back.

“Molester!” Another voice yelled, venom dripping from the words.

“Shame on you, Zyrrak!” Someone else screamed.

“You should be killed in the worst way possible!” Added another one, as a loud chorus of boos erupted from the crowd.

The stadium was soon filled with an overwhelming barrage of hate and anger, each word more venomous than the last. Zyrrak stood there, unmoving, his hand still tightly gripping the microphone, but his expression remained unreadable.

‘Is this it…?’ With a cryptic and hollow smile on his face, Zyrrak stared at the crowd, observing how he couldn’t find a single person siding with him.

‘I’m just a monster in their eyes anyway…’ He chuckled dryly. His eyes flashed, first with confusion, then with a flicker of pain, followed by cold indifference. His emotions shifted too quickly for anyone to notice.

The noise, however, continued, building like an unrelenting tide. Zyrrak stood motionless, letting the boos rain down on him, his face a mask of frozen calm. His fists clenched at his sides, but he said nothing.

Minutes stretched on. The students continued to hurl insults, the vitriol and anger growing louder, filling every corner of the stadium. The atmosphere was thick with judgment, and yet, Zyrrak stood there—silent, waiting.

Aelora, who had watched him closely from the corner of her eye, shifted nervously in her seat, her pink eyes full of sorrow. But she said nothing. She couldn’t—the same could be said for some other council members. If they stood up for him, the situation would end like no one wanted it to.

He let out a slow, shaky breath before lifting the mic to his lips, his voice quiet but cutting through the noise.

“I’m sorry.” It was only when Zyrrak’s shaky voice, along with his trembling breath echoed through the stadium, all thanks to the amplification device, that the crowd quieted down.

His body trembled, in shame or regret, or maybe anger—no one could tell. But the pain in his voice was clear when he whispered the next words. “I… I’ve hurt so many people. I was weak. I am weak.”

The words were simple, but they carried the weight of everything he had done—everything he was being blamed for, including the fact that gold goblins now had their image worsened.

The stadium fell into a hesitant silence, the crowd momentarily stunned by his apology. Yet, there was still a lack of understanding in their eyes. They hadn’t heard what they wanted to hear. They wanted more—they wanted his punishment, his remorse to be just as loud as their fury.

But Zyrrak didn’t offer more. He lowered his head, his hands trembling as he slowly stepped away from the stage. No one moved to stop him as he walked off the stage and was approached by the academy patrol team to be escorted to the prison.

Zyrrak passed through the council members, feeling their gaze on him, but he didn’t even glance at them. He didn’t want to make things harder than they already were.

‘Everything’s already decided…’ A flash of pain flashed past his eyes as he was again reminded of the decision he had made two days ago, but then he closed his eyes. ‘They have already given their verdict.’

For the past two days, no one from the council—the student council—had come to visit him. he knew from that moment what the result was going to be.

As the image of his times in the council flashed through his head, his eyes opened, but all that remained were hollow golden pupils, with no will to do anything.

The council members—who had once shared smiles and quiet conversations with him—on the other hand, looked away, gritting their teeth as Zyrrak was dragged from the stage.

Alex, watching everything intently, let out a slow, measured breath. His jaw clenched. His eyes flicked momentarily toward the others. He could see both Lilia and Zahara looking at him with worry.

They were the ones who knew most about him, so they knew that he liked Zyrrak, yet he couldn’t do anything to save the guy.

But Alex, looking at them, just passed a forced smile in return, trying to reassure them.

‘Just a little more,’ he thought inwardly, as unlike his outer tension, he was calm as a lake on the inside.

His eyes then moved to Theron, who looked busy with his own thoughts. Alex was sure that he, just like others, was thinking if the decision was the right one. Everyone was thinking the same thing right now: was it really the right thing to abandon someone they treated as family before?

Even Fenna, who was always cheery and bubbly, seemed to hold a lot of weight in her eyes today as she, just like Theron, was a council head, and she was the one who agreed to this decision as well.

But soon, as the academy patrol team and Zyrrak walked out of the stadium, Alex stood up and walked toward the mic, his expression as cold as it could be while his movements were deliberate and controlled.

The student council members instinctively turned their heads at him, frowning as they didn’t know what was going on. The announcement was supposed to end now after all.

But the people in the crowd had yet to notice it, as they were all growling and murmuring about how Zyrrak’s punishment could’ve been made severe.

Some noticed Alex’s movements, and they tried to inform others about it, but as the students were slowly turning their attention to him, growing silent, his cold voice echoed through the stadium.

“Silence,” he commanded in the mic, his voice amplified as he scanned the crowd, his eyes catching some people whom he had been keeping an eye on. They had all stopped moving.

The rest of the crowd, still murmuring in shock and anger, immediately stilled, their attention now focused on Alex.

‘That’s the first part,’ Alex, on the other hand, had a cryptic glint pass through his eyes as he accomplished what he wanted to for now.

But things were far from completion.