Outside of Noah's nightmare, Lou Yan finally finished her interview with Erza after great effort and a long time. She was walking to the student council room, stretching her limbs until she heard her bones crack. She kept recalling all the questions Erza had asked, to the point that she couldn't escape them.
"Man, that was a lot," Lou Yan thought to herself in nervousness. She reached the student council room, stood in front of the large wooden door for a few seconds to gather her breath, then grabbed the metal handle, opened the door, and entered the room.
Inside, everyone was present—Aria was sitting at her desk, fingers interlocked, resting her head on them, while Livia sat on her own desk indifferently, having noticed Lou Yan's presence from the corner of her eye. Neriah was sitting at one of the empty desks of an absent council member, while Calli was standing, moving between the books on the shelves. Sirius was sitting in Kieran's seat, leaning the chair back while his legs stretched out on the table, while poor Taeran sat on one of the chairs looking more like a guest than the treasurer.
"They've swarmed the room like locusts," Lou Yan thought to herself in surprise, though she wasn't annoyed—they had bothered the student council enough already.
Then, from the corner of her eye, Lou Yan noticed two new people standing by the wall whom she hadn't noticed earlier—they were Enel and Violet. Lou Yan felt puzzled and turned to Livia, who had noticed her confused expression, and immediately, Livia silently pointed her finger toward Sirius, who was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.
"Since everyone is here, let's begin already; no need to waste any more time," Aria said as she rose from her seat.
"Where should we start?" Kieran asked, looking in annoyance at Sirius, who was sitting in his chair.
"We could check the files of the dead. There must be a certain pattern to his choice of victims," Livia said.
"Haven't you already discovered that the selection pattern is nightmares?" Aria said in a tone of surprise, which made everyone—especially Livia—freeze in shock.
"How did you know that?"
"Didn't we already agree to share all the evidence—?" Aria said coldly, though she seemed amused at irritating Livia like this, before Sirius interrupted her, pointing his finger at Kieran.
"He can read our memories."
Aria didn't answer, simply looking at Kieran. Of course, they should have expected Sirius to know Kieran's ability—they had fought before, and he must have gotten a general impression of it. Livia rubbed her chin, thinking to herself in annoyance.
"It seems a lot of people here have information-gathering abilities—like mine, and Kieran's… maybe Sirius's too."
"But since you mentioned our agreement to share evidence, do you have any evidence you should share?" Sirius said, lowering his feet from the table.
"Don't you already know it?" Neriah thought to himself, letting out a muffled chuckle between his lips.
"…All we know is that the killer wears a demon mask—an oni," Aria said coldly.
"Demon mask…" Calli muttered to herself, recalling Erika's words about seeing the demon when she sleeps. Now she finally understood, and she clenched her teeth in anger.
"A demon? Didn't I see…?" Neriah thought to himself, remembering the night he was searching for Enel when he was kidnapped—in Sector 1—when he saw someone with horns leap over a building and vanish like a shadow.
"Is there any other evidence?" Livia asked curiously.
"No… actually, Kieran has a theory," Aria said, gesturing to Kieran, who was a little startled by the conversation suddenly shifting to him. He calmed himself, cleared his throat, and spoke in a voice full of confidence:
"There are similar incidents that happen every year across the world, where many people report seeing someone wearing an oni mask. The victims of these incidents are students between 18 and 22 years old, and the killer is never found."
Everyone was shocked by this information. They all fell silent, trying to process it. Aria pulled a few files from her desk drawer and placed them on the table, opened—containing papers about the victims Kieran had mentioned: where they were killed, and how their bodies were found. But each victim was from a different country—even continents apart from each other and from the Empire.
"It's impossible for the killer to be just one person, right? Some of these incidents happened very close in time despite being in completely different parts of the world. Either the killer moves at the speed of light, or… there's more than one killer," Livia said, shocked and confused as she looked through the files.
"That's what I thought too. Maybe there's an organization wearing demon masks and killing students. I don't know why, but it seems like something big. Obviously, they're not just hired killers or people driven by grudges… there are hundreds of them," Kieran said, trying to hide his unease.
"Could there be more than one killer inside the university?" Calli asked in an artificially calm tone.
"No, that's unlikely. Sure, the university's security might have let one killer in, but it's impossible for more than one person to get in, even with inside help," Aria said with her usual coldness.
"University security… maybe the university leaders have something to do with this," Sirius said calmly, as if stating a simple everyday fact.
"Excuse me?" Aria said, visibly shocked for the first time.
"It's just an opinion, but the higher-ups of this university—like the professors and even the Council of Four—don't seem to be putting their all into finding the killer. They're not even trying to reassure the students—just running here and there, teaching, and leaving. I'm certain the Council of Four is involved in this," Sirius said, a faint smile forming on his face as he looked at Aria from the corner of his eyes, gauging her reaction.
"That's just your opinion. You can't make a crazy statement like that without evidence to back it up. And also, why the hell would the higher-ups be involved in something like this? Their concern is to protect us students—that's all you should believe," Aria said, struggling to maintain her composure, but with each passing second, she began to lose her temper.
"Believing in some powerless people is what's really crazy. I think believing in a dead stranger from afar makes more sense—" Sirius said, but was cut off by Livia, who clapped her hands to grab everyone's attention, then spoke with a smile that looked friendly but carried irritation and anger behind it:
"Alright, whether it's this or that, let's not talk about it. The walls have ears."
Both Sirius and Aria backed off, feeling uneasy from Livia's expression. Everyone in the room understood her irritation—they had completely strayed from the course of the investigation. Aria cleared her throat and turned to everyone.
"Alright, enough nonsense this time—really. Let's get to the investigation."
———
Back in Noah's nightmare, Noah was still sitting in the meeting room. The room was empty except for Lou Yan beside him, holding hands, fingers intertwined, while Lou Yan was sweating from nervousness.
"M-my hand isn't too sweaty, right? D-does he feel disgusted?… N-no, he doesn't seem like it. He seems distracted… I-is he thinking about what we might do later?… I-is he imagining naughty things? I-I can't take this anymore! I'm going to melt!" Lou Yan thought to herself, looking away, her heartbeat racing so fast she could swear Noah could hear it. She waved her free hand like a fan to cool the heat rising to her face from sheer embarrassment.
"…This isn't working at all," Noah thought to himself. He was trying to think of anything trivial to distract himself from the fact that he would soon feel someone's blood on his hands in the next play, but he couldn't find any solution. After promising himself he would revolt and not follow the script, something took over his body as soon as the play began—he forgot who he was and what he was supposed to do. Even without reading the script, he somehow followed it.
Noah turned to Lou Yan to talk to her about the upcoming play—only to find her very close to him, cheeks flushed red from embarrassment, as if waiting for something from him.
"A-are you alright?" Noah asked in puzzlement and awkwardness.
"H-huh? Yeah, I-I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Lou Yan asked in surprise.
"You're really close…" Noah said, puzzled by how Lou Yan thought being this close was normal. That's when he noticed their hands were intertwined, which confused him even more.
"H-huh? What's going on? Did I miss something? Why are we holding hands?" Noah thought to himself.
"C-can I act naughty?" Lou Yan suddenly said out of nowhere, embarrassed and red-faced.
"…What?"
Lou Yan, thinking Noah's question was an answer, blinded by the heat in her head and unable to hear the confusion in his tone, cupped his cheeks, closed her eyes, and leaned forward, trying to kiss him.
Shocked, Noah put his hand between their lips, causing Lou Yan to kiss his palm, thinking it was his lips. Noah felt a ticklish, strange sensation. Then Lou Yan opened her eyes, and all she saw was a hand blocking her from Noah. Lou Yan pulled back in confusion as Noah lowered his hand, looking at her in puzzlement and shock, as if she had committed a crime that was also illegal to even speak of.
"W-what's wrong?" Lou Yan asked in confusion, thinking she had done something wrong.
"What do you mean, 'what's wrong'?? You just tried to kiss me out of nowhere!"
"Is there a problem with that? We kissed during the play," Lou Yan said, tilting her head in confusion.
"When the hell did that happen? Every romantic scene gets cut and jumps to another scene—either in a different location or after some time. What kind of memories do you have?" Noah asked, bewildered.
"B-but…"
"I… I don't look at you that way…" Noah said, hesitating slightly. Lou Yan felt something inside her break—words she thought she had overcome thanks to the play and her role as Noah's lover had returned to hunt her down, biting her slowly. All she could do was clasp her hands together between her legs, staring down as she was on the verge of tears, whispering words barely above a breath:
"…Okay…"