Keith sat quietly. 

The school was to be assembled for an assembly and a speech from the School President. He had arrived there somewhat early, owing to the fact that he didn’t need to be anywhere in particular. No one would miss him, so he had gone.

The speech as far as he had heard was concerning the deaths of several students in the Royal Academy, but to the players of Deep Ground, they were renowned as the Kings. The death of four Kings was a monumental loss to the balance of Deep Ground. Each kind had vast amounts of power, and now the most active four were dead, the remaining Kings were free to claim everything they could set their eyes upon.

In the midst of the chaos, the Black King had taken advantage of the situation, cutting a bloody swathe through Deep Ground. Of course, the remains of the guilds of the four Kings were directly affected, but they weren’t the only ones. Many solo players such as himself were affected, with the Black King on the warpath, many missions and duels would be halted as the Ebony Strykers rampaged along their warpath.

The School President was to deliver a speech regarding the deaths of the Kings, hard as that would be for her. The White King had apparently died in her living quarters and according to rumour, she seemed to be having some amount of trouble coping with the stress. He had seen her on her way to the auditorium and he had seen some truth to the gossip.

She had changed practically overnight people had said. She stopped talking to the others as much, and she always had a blank look in her eyes. Some had even said that if you looked at her without knowing about the Kings, you would’ve thought a relative of hers had died.

[i]Same as me really.[/i] Keith thought. He looked in a nearby glass window, his reflection almost the spitting image of hers. The same dead eyes, and unfocused gaze. [i]She’s almost like me now.[/i] He thought grimly.

Even with though she was evidently not in the best condition for this, she was still going to deliver a speech in front of the whole population of the Royal Academy. For most it would take a lot of strength just to deliver a speech, but delivering the same speech under the same amount of pressure the School President was would be a nightmare for many students.

She must have had a lot of strength just to be able to come here today.

[i]Strength befitting of a leader.[/i] He thought.