The silence from the last answer still lingered—like the air had gone too still, too heavy to breathe.
Yuxin hadn't said anything.
She stared down into her now-empty glass, finger slowly circling the rim without thought.
The others began to shift slightly—ready to speak again—until her voice cut through.
"One question, right?"
Rea nodded slowly.
Yuxin looked up, her expression unreadable—calm, almost.
"Is there an Astraga…
that can bring someone back from the dead?"
Silence.
Total.
Even the hum of the enchantments above the café seemed to fade out.
Rea froze.
Blanche's brows slightly furrowed. Vila said nothing. Ruka stiffened.
Rea finally leaned back, her mouth slightly parted like she was filtering through a thousand rumors.
"That's... heavy."
Yuxin didn't blink.
"Answer."
Rea exhaled—slowly.
"There are whispers," she started.
"Not confirmed. Not catalogued. But there are old stories.
About Pacta made with Astraga from the deeper levels—forgotten things buried in the folds of the Ætherial Veil."
"They say... if you're willing to give enough, lose enough—
you might get something back."
Pause.
"But no one guarantees that what returns...
is the same as what you lost."
Yuxin's face didn't change.
But her fingers stopped moving.
Her eyes dropped back to the table.
She nodded once.
No sarcasm. No anger.
Just quiet acceptance.
"Figured."
She leaned back in her seat.
"Guess I got my answer."
Rea bit her lip—like she wanted to say more, but knew better.
The moment passed like a shadow through firelight.
By the time they left the café, the sky over Asterblume had already turned soft lavender—halfway into dusk. The air was cooler now, brushed with faint wind and the smell of moss and old stone. Mana-lamps along the cobbled walkways flickered on one by one, glowing in that familiar bluish hue that made the academy look almost dreamlike at night.
No one really talked after that.
There wasn't much left to say.
They passed the courtyard without a word, cutting across familiar paths—past the ivy-covered walls, the quiet fountains, the occasional sleepy cat spirit curled on a bench. Students walked by here and there, laughing, trading books, eating late snacks from vending stalls.
It felt normal.
Too normal.
Eventually, they hit the fork in the path—where the dorm routes split.
Blanche straightened her coat like usual and gave a small nod to the rest, not even waiting for a reply before walking off toward the west wing.
Vila followed without a sound, hands in her pockets, eyes straight ahead.
Rea was the only one who actually waved.
"Good chat, everybody! Let's trauma again sometime soon!"
No one answered her.
Ruka muttered something and speed-walked away like she was late for something, probably just trying to process everything.
Yuxin lingered for half a second, glancing up at the sky. Then she turned and muttered to herself.
"Back to hell."
And just like that, they scattered—four different paths, four different silences.
The academy never really slept, but it always knew how to pretend.
Tomorrow would come.
Classes, schedules, practicals.
Back to the usual.
At least, for now.
The sky above Asterblume had dimmed into a soft navy blue, dotted with faint stars barely visible through the academy's high spires. The glow from floating mana-lamps lit up the stone paths like fireflies caught in place, humming low with magical energy.
Their footsteps echoed lightly across the plaza, each step slower than the last. No one really said much.
It had been... a long day.
When the road forked, so did they.
Rea stretched her arms above her head with a loud yawn, her sleeves falling past her fingers.
"Welp, back to the land of grease and iron. Try not to miss me too hard~"
She gave them a lazy salute, already walking off toward the west wing—the side of the campus where the tougher crowd claimed territory. Her silhouette faded into the lantern-lit haze like she belonged to the shadows of that world.
The others continued their way toward the eastern dorms, quiet steps under the soft flicker of enchanted sconces lining the corridor walls.
Once inside the east dorm building, the silence got heavier—like the academy itself was finally starting to sleep.
By the time they reached the main hallway, the group naturally slowed.
Ruka peeled off first, giving a tiny wave before slipping into her room without a word. The door clicked shut behind her.
Vila followed soon after, not bothering to say anything—just a small glance at Yuxin and Blanche, unreadable as always, then disappeared into her corner room like a whisper.
Only Blanche and Yuxin remained.
For a second, it almost looked like one of them might say something.
But no.
They just looked at each other—like two people too tired to argue again.
Yuxin rolled her eyes and turned away first, muttering something under her breath as she shoved her hands into her pockets.
Blanche didn't respond. She just quietly reached for her doorknob and stepped inside.
And just like that, the hallway was empty.
Doors shut. Lights dimmed.
Back to silence.
Back to normal.
Whatever that meant here.
A few days passed since the whole mess at The Pit and the not-so-missing student incident. Life at Asterblume, like always, bounced back fast—maybe too fast.
Today?
Surprise test day.
The lecture hall was quiet, save for the occasional scribble of quills and the soft ticking from the arcane clock floating above the professor's desk.
Sheets of enchanted parchment glowed faintly on every desk—runes crawling across the edges to prevent cheating. The questions on the test? Not kind. Mana theory, Pacta compatibility algorithms, and historical analysis of Ætherial Veil ruptures.
Basically: pain in paper form.
Yuxin sat near the window, a pencil twirling between her fingers. Her brows were furrowed as she stared down the first essay prompt like it personally offended her.
"Compare and contrast standard Channeling-type Pacta behavior to hybrid Hexing-Perception cases."
She sighed, then muttered under her breath.
"Why the hell would anyone want to hex their own eyeballs...?"
Still, she started writing.
Messy at first. Her answers weren't perfect, but she knew enough to bluff through half and fight the other half head-on. Typical Yuxin.
A few rows up, Ruka was hunched over her paper, lip caught between her teeth. Her eyes darted across the questions, then back to her notes, then up to the ceiling like maybe the answer would be engraved up there by a merciful god.
She didn't give up though.
Every few seconds, her quill would move—slow and careful. She paused often. Rewrote even more.
"...Was this part even covered in class?" she whispered to herself.
Meanwhile, Blanche sat straight-backed and composed, one hand supporting her chin as the other glided across her test page like she was writing a formal letter to the King. Her answers were precise, clean, almost elegant in structure.
No scribbles. No hesitation. Just calm mastery.
Even her breathing felt organized.
And then there was Vila.
Expression unreadable. Eyes half-closed in deep focus.
She didn't even look up once.
Her hand, however?
Didn't. Stop. Moving.
She wrote like her life depended on it—line after line, the feather of her quill dancing so fast it barely touched the page. It wasn't frantic, though. It was rhythmic. Almost like she wasn't thinking with words, but instinct.
A few desks away, someone glanced at her and visibly recoiled.
"...That elf is scary."
Vila didn't react. She was already halfway through the next question.
Time passed.
The room stayed quiet, but the tension hovered thick in the air—four people, four minds, four different battles playing out in the same exact room.
And outside the window?
Clouds rolled in slow, casting drifting shadows over the academy grounds like the sky itself was watching.
The moment the final bell chimed, students practically exploded out of the classroom, a collective sigh rolling down the hallway like a tidal wave of despair.
Yuxin pushed the door open with her shoulder, her test paper still clutched in one hand like it owed her money.
"I swear, if the next question asked me to derive mana flow ratios while being actively hunted, I was gonna walk out."
Blanche walked beside her, arms crossed, still calm—though she did let out a quiet exhale.
"It was manageable. Though... not pleasant."
"Manageable?" Yuxin snapped.
"You were writing like you were penning a love letter to the Headmaster."
"At least I didn't threaten to eat my own test sheet," Blanche replied dryly.
Behind them, Ruka trailed with her bag slightly slouched, head down.
"I... don't even remember what the last question was. I think I blacked out halfway through."
Vila walked in silence beside her, as usual. But even she looked slightly more tired than usual—her brows faintly furrowed.
"The phrasing was inefficient," she murmured.
"Question three contradicted the mana structure explained in Lecture 11.3."
Yuxin squinted at her.
"Is that your way of saying it was garbage?"
Vila didn't answer. But her silence said plenty.
They turned the corner and entered the cafeteria, which—thankfully—wasn't full yet. The floating food carts had just started rolling out, each one stacked with trays of warm rice, flavored mana bread, and questionable glowing soup.
Yuxin grabbed a tray and immediately filled it with carbs.
"If I die from whatever this yellow paste is, tell the Council it's their fault."
Ruka quietly chose the most normal-looking food she could find. Blanche opted for a clean fruit salad and a cup of jasmine mana-tea like some kind of noble ghost. Vila? Just took whatever was closest and sat.
They found a table near the window.