My whole body hurt. How did I get here?
As I sat up, pain crackled across my skin like lightning. Every movement sent needles through my limbs. My torso was tightly wrapped in bandages, and even my fingers bore thin gauze.
Bandages. My whole body was covered in bandages.
"Who brought me here?"
Then—
Like a tidal wave, the memories came flooding back. The demon's mocking grin, the relentless exchange of blows, the moment when everything inside me snapped into place. That cloak of shadows. The silence in my chest. The burn in my eyes.
And someone—someone had come to help.
"Oh yeah, I got that [Demon Mana Heart]."
I flexed my fingers. My core felt... different. My mana flow, once coarse and wild, now moved with clarity. Like a current guided by instinct.
Swirls of blue and purple mana drifted across my vision, tinged with a faint trace of crimson.
Step. Step.
Footsteps.
My body tensed, instinctively reaching for the hilt of my sheathed blade. No time to think—someone had seen it. The trait.
Then a calm voice, familiar.
"Calm down. It's just me."
From the shadowed arch of the room, Aria stepped forward.
Her presence was steady, her midnight blue hair falling in gentle waves across her shoulders. She walked toward me at a steady pace.
I exhaled slowly. "You saved me."
She flinched. Nodded once. No smile. No unnecessary words.
We sat in silence.
******
From Aria's Point Of View:
He looked like a different person now. The boy she had met in the library, the one who puzzled her by learning the firebolt spell in twenty minutes—was also the same collapsed boy she'd carried after slaying a mid-tier demon.
The demon had belonged to the Greed Clan. One of the more dangerous branches.
If it had devoured enough mana, it could have become a calamity.
She had followed him only out of curiosity, intrigued by a boy who looked ordinary but carried around a mysterious vibe with him. But what she witnessed in that forest was something else.
The way he fought—that murderous intent, calculated moves, disregard for safety—that was not normal.
And when that black cloak of shadow burst from his back and swallowed the battlefield...
No first-year should've survived, let alone won.
She hadn't heard the full conversation between him and the demon. Too far away, hidden behind a tree with a concealment talisman. But the tension had been palpable.
"You fought like you had nothing to lose" she said softly.
He glanced at her. Silent. Cold. Expressionless.
"You didn't flinch," she added. "Even when it went for your arm."
Still silence.
She sighed. "I saw everything."
His gaze sharpened.
"Relax," she continued. "I'm not interested in ratting you out. That demon was a ticking bomb. You stopped it before it could devour more mana. You probably know that."
He said nothing.
"Your secret's safe. For now. But you owe me."
His lips twitched slightly. Not an expression. More like the memory of one.
Her voice stayed level. "I don't know what you're hiding, and I won't dig into your past or anything... Just thank you." She stopped her sentence midway.
The silence stretched again. Tense. Curious.
Aria's thoughts whirled. Unlike the others, he didn't look at her like a goddess. No stammering, no awkward flattery. Just... stillness. Like she was no more special than the breeze outside.
It was wierd.
Intriguing.
She turned to leave.
"Rest," she said. "You'll need it." She stopped midway "Oh. And remember you owe me."
Then she was gone.
******
Caelum's Point Of View:
When the door clicked shut, I stared at the ceiling.
So she saw everything.
I clenched my fist.
There was no point hiding anymore. Not completely.
The trait had awakened, and with it, my emotions had dulled. I didn't feel panic. Or guilt. Or fear. Just a quiet emptiness.
But not numbness.
Focus.
Resolve.
It was unsettling, but it was just what I needed.
"I owe her huh?"
I was forgetting something, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. A part of my memory of last night was dark. Right before I collapsed...
I slapped myself across my cheeks.
"No more distractions."
******
The Academy halls - Faculty office hallway:
"A mid-tier demon? In the forest?"
Leon blinked, overhearing a stray conversation as he passed by the faculty office. The teachers didn't seem to notice him.
"Yes," one professor whispered. "It had sword wounds. Clean ones. Decapitation. No signs of magical residue."
"But no one claimed credit?"
"No... and that's what worries me."
Leon frowned. That didn't make sense. No student should be able to handle something like that yet. At least, not without being seriously injured. Was it a stray demon? No that can't be it either.
"Strange," he murmured.
"What's strange?"
He turned. Candice stood behind him, expression calm.
He explained what he overheard.
.
.
.
.
Candice only shrugged. "Probably a teacher."
But inside, alarms rang.
******
Candice's Point Of View:
That couldn't have been a teacher. Not if they were hiding it.
And during the demon invasion, there was one student she couldn't account for.
Caelum.
She had tailed him, suspecting something off. But he hadn't been in his dorm. The cameras had no footage of him leaving or entering campus. No one saw him. No one knew where he went. It was like he disappeared.
Now a mid-tier demon was found dead.
And Caelum just happened to reappear, bruised and bandaged, the next day?
Her eyes narrowed.
She didn't have proof. Not yet.
But she was close.
And when she found the truth, she wouldn't let it go.
*****
Back to Caelum:
I stood up and walked to the window.
The sky outside was gray. Dull clouds hung like secrets, waiting to fall.
My body was still hurting all over. The pain felt like needles piercing my skin.
The world was moving faster now. The plot had deviated yet again. That demon was not meant to be here. It's danger level was too high for an academy student.
"Well~ guess that's as far as I go with the plot." There was no use in relying on the plot anymore.
Soon, the next scenario would begin.
And I had to prepare to fight, injured or not. I must survive.