<h4>Chapter 130: The Moon Whisper’s Blog is Back</h4>


    <strong><i>{Elira}</i></strong>


    ~**^**~


    One week and a few dayster, the cafeteria buzzed with unusual energy this Monday morning, louder than the clinking trays and the chatter of students usually allowed.


    It wasn’t just the smell of noodles and fried eggs that stirred the air. No, it was the low hum of gossip rippling from table to table, growing louder with every passing minute.


    I had barely set my tray down when Nari nearly jumped out of her seat. Her phone screen glowed as she shoved it toward us, her voice carrying more excitement than restraint.


    "It’s back!" she practically shouted. "The Moon’s Whisper Blog is back!"


    My fork paused halfway to my mouth. The words lodged in my chest, heavy and strange. "Back?" I echoed, the sound thin in my throat.


    Juniper leaned closer, her usual coolness melting into sharp curiosity. "What do you mean back?"


    Nari’s grin stretched wide as she scrolled down, reading aloud without hesitation.


    "’Breaking silence after months of absence, The Moon’s Whisper has returned, and this time, with a case that demands every student’s attention. Abuse of power at the very top: Student Council members, led by Princess Kaelis herself, wrongly punishing and humiliating first-year student Elira Shaw—’"


    The words mmed into me before she could finish, my own name burning across the air.


    My stomach knotted. "Wait—what?"


    "’—and how their punishment was swiftly dismissed after the intervention of a professor who refused to let injustice reign in ESA.’" Nari looked up from the screen, her eyes wide with thrill. "They wrote about you, Elira. You."


    The table erupted. Cambria pressed a hand to her mouth, half in shock, half in awe. Tamryn muttered something about <i>"finally, justice,"</i> while Juniper’s lips curved into the kind of sharp smile that spelled trouble for anyone who crossed her.


    Meanwhile, whispers from the surrounding tables crept into my ears—my name passed around, paired with words like courageous, lucky, and, from a few, undeserving.


    Heat rushed up my neck. My friends and I had wished for the blog to return, yes, but definitely not like this. Not with my name at the center of it.


    The noise spread like wildfire. More students craned their necks in our direction, their whispers sharp and deliberate.


    "That’s her, the first-year."


    "Can you believe The Moon’s Whisper chose her?"


    "It must be nice to have a professor defending you like that."


    "Or suspicious..." another muttered darkly, their gaze lingering on me a little too long.


    My pulse quickened under the weight of so many eyes. I hated the mix—some curious, some admiring, some outright jealous.


    I tried to focus on my food, but each word felt like a pebble thrown against ss, impossible to ignore.


    Juniper, however, leaned back in her chair, arms folded smugly. "Well," she said with a deliberate sigh, her lips twitching with pride, "I did say there was going to be breaking news in ESA soon. Didn’t I?"


    Cambria blinked before bursting intoughter. "You actually did! Juniper, you sound like a seer now."


    Nari groaned dramatically. "Don’t encourage her, Cambria. We will never hear the end of it."


    Juniper raised her chin, her smugness radiating. "Well, I will ept all your thankster. For now, I will settle for being right."


    Despite my nerves, a smallugh escaped me, the tension in my chest loosening. Trust Juniper to im credit at a moment like this.


    Across from me, Tamryn’s expression darkened in a way that made me straighten.


    "Forget Juniper’s gloating," she said tly, her voice low. "What matters is that the Student Council just got their faces smashed in front of the entire academy."


    Cambria’s eyes lit with cautious hope. "Do you think this will make them back off?"


    "Back off?" Nari snorted. "If anything, this will bruise their egos. And a bruised egoshes out. We need to be careful."


    Her warning sat heavy in the air, though her grin returned a heartbeatter. "Still, The Moon’s Whisper came back for you, Elira. That means someone out there cares about truth. That’s huge."


    I nced back down at my tray, my fork tracing idle lines in my eggs. Huge? Yes, but also terrifying.


    I couldn’t deny the small spark of satisfaction curling inside me. The council hadn’t gotten away with humiliating me. But now... everyone knew my name.


    And nothing in ESA ever came without a price.


    More chatters swelled,ughter bouncing from table to table until the air suddenly shifted. A hush rippled like a wave. Forks clinked against tes, then stilled.


    I didn’t need to be told why because my gaze lifted on instinct.


    Kaelis swept into the cafeteria with her usual regal confidence, her pristine uniform sharp against the soft morning light streaming through the windows.


    Behind her, the other Student Council members fanned out like shadows, each one wearing their authority like armor.


    They didn’t belong here, not in the first-year cafeteria, and definitely not with trays and chatter and the smell of buttered toast in the air.


    But I knew what their presence was all about. It was a deliberate statement, loud without a single word spoken.


    A muscle in my jaw tightened. My fingers gripped my fork too hard, the metal biting into my skin.


    The silence was suffocating. Everyone’s eyes darted between them and me, as if they already knew the reason why they had stepped into our cafeteria in the first ce.


    Nari leaned closer, her voice a hushed whisper meant only for us. "What in the world are they doing here? This is our cafeteria, not theirs."


    Cambria’s lips pressed into a thin line, worry clouding her soft eyes. Tamryn’s fists were already curled on the table as though daring someone to test her patience.


    Juniper leaned forward slightly, her expression sharp with a mix of curiosity and annoyance. "They’re making a show of it," she murmured. "They want us all to see they are not cowed by a blog post."


    I swallowed hard, the weight of Kaelis’s gaze brushing against me even though she hadn’t turned her head in my direction yet. My heart thudded like it wanted to escape.


    The whole cafeteria waited, breath held, as if the next move, either hers or mine would decide whether breakfast ended peacefully or not.