Chapter 128
Aldraya kept her gaze fixed far ahead, occasionally lifting her delicate chin whenever a concept in her mind seemed to take a new shape through the answer she had received.
There was no burst of emotion throughout that evening, only a silence occasionally filled by breaths and the short distance between sentences.
Yet it was within that very quietness that the intensity of these three figures intertwined in ways they did not fully understand.
When the sun finally dipped completely, leaving only a thin line of light behind, Aldraya rose without warning, her movements gentle yet firm, intending to end a ritual that had reached its limit.
"Until we meet again."
Hooooh!
The evening Aldraya had just left seeped slowly into the air, leaving behind a silence that seemed to close their long wordless conversation.
Theo nodded softly as he answered Aldraya's request to take her leave, and moments after, the silver-haired girl walked away without glancing back even once.
Her steps drifted lightly across the ground, yet every faint thud felt as though it left behind an echo whose meaning was difficult to grasp.
Within the fading streaks of dusk, Aldraya's back turned into a shrinking silhouette before finally disappearing between the curves of the path leading toward the academy building.
The wind passing through her trail seemed to be carried away with her, as if sweeping the remnants of her presence from that place.
Erietta remained seated, yet her eyes were empty, fixed on a point she wasn't truly looking at.
Once Aldraya vanished from sight, the tension that had settled deep within her slowly collapsed, replaced by contemplation she herself did not know how to begin.
Her heartbeat, which had surged earlier, now eased down, following the quiet rhythm that wrapped the training ground.
Theo, meanwhile, lowered his head slightly toward the small yellow book resting on his lap.
But it wasn't the writing on its pages he saw—rather, the faint impressions of Aldraya's earlier questions lingering in the air.
He pondered how thin the line was between tension and peace, and how two women who never got along could briefly exist within the same orbit.
Time seemed to slow after Aldraya's departure, giving both their minds space to wander without direction.
"What kind of relationship are you actually building with that Rotten Aldraya?"
The song of the night crept softly around them, ushered by the chirping of crickets that never truly ceased.
Amidst the rhythm of insects filling the air, Theo remained bent over his yellow book, attempting to finish the final scene he wished to immortalize before the day was buried by darkness.
His pen moved steadily for a moment, line by line nearly complete, but something in the silence made him stop.
He sensed a small change, some subtle tremor not born of wind or night, but from the person sitting on his left.
Erietta slowly lifted her face, which had been staring at the empty ground.
There was a long pause before her lips finally moved, as though she had to scrape away layers of doubt one by one.
In the dimness, her gaze shed its remnants of confusion, leaving behind something darker, something rawer.
The question slipped from her with a heavy tone, asking about the true closeness between her teacher and the enemy she despised without compromise, without mercy, without the slightest intention to understand.
Aldraya's name felt like a shard of glass thrown into the silence, shattering it into fragments that reflected Erietta's own anxiety.
Theo slowly turned his body, looking at his student with eyes that showed neither surprise nor haste.
There was a faint hue in his gaze, a kind of understanding that had long grown but was never spoken aloud.
Erietta's question was not mere curiosity—it was fear she didn't want to admit, fear that perhaps Aldraya understood her teacher more than she had expected.
The night embraced the moment tightly, making the distance between them feel both thinner and more dangerous.
Theo sensed that the right words had to be chosen, even if he hadn't formed any in his mind yet.
"Has my attention toward Aldraya diminished your interest in me as a woman, Erietta?"
Tsuuuf!
"Don't force me to cut you down right this moment."
In the golden remnants of evening light settling over them, Theo let out a short breath, almost swallowed by the sound of crickets.
That exhale carried something light yet not entirely honest, followed by a small smile—more like a mischievous flicker across a face usually calm.
He looked at his student, absorbing the mixture of emotions in Erietta's eyes, before turning the question back with a tone that carried no burden at all.
'Has my attention toward Aldraya diminished your interest in me as a woman, Erietta?'
The sentence fell softly, yet enough to stir something long hidden beneath his student's calm demeanor.
Erietta's reaction did not come in words, but in movement.
A swift, spontaneous, almost reflexive motion like a gust of wind cutting through silence.
Her small hand reached for her sword, and in an instant, the blade stood upright before her face, reflecting the dim shimmer of the stars.
The tip pointed toward the sky, but the tremor in her breath revealed that anger, embarrassment, and confusion were heating in her chest.
Her gaze locked onto her teacher, and even without raising her voice, her intent was clear.
Theo's question struck something she was not ready to face, triggering her combat instincts without warning.
A response belonging only to someone whose most vulnerable spot had been disturbed.
Theo did not move.
Even as the cold gleam of the sword reflected his face, he remained seated calmly on the ground.
There was no fear in his eyes—rather, a faint warmth, almost like amusement.
He understood well that Erietta's act was not a true threat, but an eruption of feelings she herself couldn't explain.
He let the moment unfold without interruption, giving his student space to react without judgment.
The evening wind slipped through the leaves, carrying the scent of damp earth that wrapped a situation strangely more intimate than dangerous.
The tension did not come from physical threat, but from something far subtler and profoundly human.
In the silence, only one thing was clear.
Theo's question had opened a door Erietta had long kept shut, and the sword she held high toward the sky was merely her way of masking the sound of her own racing heartbeat.
"Put away your crude sword.
Any attempt to harm me is as pointless as lifting a boulder without support.
Even with Aldraya's Authority, the enemies of Ilux Rediona, or the Administrators—you are nowhere near worthy."
Fiiiiih!
"All of them, including the Administrator Castle you all revere, are merely characters inspired by my pen.
I am the source, the hand behind the fame of Last Prayer."
'If Erietta still doubts and thinks all of this is nonsense, I challenge her—and her resolve—to face my Will and Ambition directly.
If she can defeat me, she may complain as much as she likes.'
In the dimming night closing around them, Theo let out a soft chuckle as though he shared a secret only he and the darkness understood.
The sound was faint, yet enough to assert that he felt no threat at all from the blade standing rigid near his student's face.
The smile that then curved on his lips was not a smile belonging to an ordinary man.
There was a strange thrill lurking beneath its shape—something that would seem terrifying to anyone who didn't know him, yet to Theo himself felt like a certainty long rooted within the depths of his being.
To be continued…