Chapter 277
'If there were another alternative, I would choose it.
Without hesitation.
But in reality, at moments like this, the most correct path is precisely the most painful one.
That is, leaving her behind—and accepting that the burden of this sacrifice is mine alone.'
The moment Theo reached his familiar seat, he was immediately surrounded by curious stares and whispers he could not fully hear.
Several classmates, who had witnessed him leaving with Aldraya and returning alone with a darkened expression, approached him with veiled questions.
They wanted to know what had been discussed, why they had left together, and why Theo had come back with such a chaotic aura.
Theo, however, had neither the energy nor the desire to answer.
He merely shook his head briefly, avoided eye contact, and forcibly opened his textbook, as if the printed words were a fortress capable of shielding him from real-world interrogation.
His closed-off attitude drew dissatisfied murmurs, but in the end they understood and backed away, leaving him alone on his island of solitude amid the crowded classroom.
The school bell rang soon after, its sharp, mechanical sound slicing through the tension in the air and officially ending the break.
For Theo, that sound marked the end of a bitter relief.
Relief that he no longer had to face cornering questions.
Relief that the ritual of lessons would divert others' attention away from him.
Yet beneath that relief, uncertainty began to creep upward like a rising tide beneath the surface of his awareness.
He sat at his desk, staring at the teacher who had begun speaking at the front of the class, but not a single word reached his ears.
His mind was entirely submerged in an internal conflict far more complex than any lesson material.
For his anxiety was clear and piercing.
In his heart, honestly, he felt deeply awful toward Aldraya.
That guilt burned fiercely, carved even deeper by the memory of her flat gaze filled with disappointment and her firm steps as she walked away.
More than that, a strong and somewhat impulsive desire even arose within him.
A desire to take Aldraya along with him to oversee that date together.
Not merely to ease his guilt, but as a genuine act of care.
He imagined Aldraya confined in her dormitory room, perhaps doing nothing but reading book after book in eternal solitude, and the thought felt unbearably sad.
That surveillance could have been a shared activity, a small adventure that might have lightened the burden for both of them.
Yet on the other side of his cold, calculating reason, those worries still reigned firmly.
What if their disguise failed?
Erietta was not an ordinary person.
Her eyes were sharp, and her intuition might pierce through Aldraya's mask of indifference.
Or worse—what if an unexpected incident occurred?
What if Aldraya, with her protective instincts that he still only half understood, or her unpredictable reactions, stepped out of hiding for some reason?
Perhaps she might believe Theo was in danger.
Or perhaps she might misinterpret the situation between Ilux and Erietta as a threat.
The image of Aldraya suddenly appearing and challenging Erietta to a fight was a nightmare capable of ruining everything in an instant.
With profound regret, Theo ultimately chose to cling to his rational decision, bitter as it was.
He told himself, in his heavy heart, that if there were another option, if circumstances were different, he would certainly invite Aldraya another time.
That promise felt hollow in the face of the present reality.
The best choice—the only one deemed safe for the integrity of his greater mission—was still to leave Aldraya behind.
It was a deliberate sacrifice.
He sacrificed Aldraya's feelings, which might be wounded, in order to preserve the possibility of success for a date he regarded as a foundational stone in saving the world.
The decision was logical, yet it felt like a knife he drove into his own chest.
For in silence, he knew he had also hurt the one strange light that had begun to give him warmth in this world of endless scenarios.
'Today is finally over. I can breathe for a moment.'
Hhhh!
'I thought everything would calm down once the routine returned to normal.
Apparently not. So—'
"RWIA, what is Aldraya's condition?"
"Permit this servant to report, O Author. Her emotions are extremely unstable and chaotic."
"Out of control?"
"More than that, My Honored Lord. Analysis indicates destructive emotional waves with extreme fluctuations, exceeding normal human emotional limits based on our data."
"Is this my fault?"
"Regrettably, yes, My Lord. Your refusal to bring her along was more painful to her than the humiliation inflicted by Quil-Hasa, her own creator."
Time continued to flow mercilessly, sweeping away missed chances and words left stuck in the throat.
For the entire day, Theo was trapped in the meaningless whirlpool of Star Academy's routine.
Theoretical lessons droned on like hollow incantations.
Physical training drained sweat without nourishing the soul.
And the bustle of dormitory life felt increasingly suffocating.
Every second was measured by the clock's hands.
Every movement was watched by suspicious eyes.
Yet within this enforced order, he found a strange kind of relief.
Relief that, for a few hours, his overthinking mind could be distracted by simple demands, by memorized formulas and basic combat drills.
A false relief that the world was still turning on its familiar axis, even though within himself, a small earthquake had already occurred.
When the final bell rang, signaling the end of academic activities, and dusk began to paint the windows in grayish orange hues, that relief quickly evaporated, replaced by an urgent necessity.
The urge to check on Aldraya rose like a cold draft along his spine.
He could no longer postpone it.
The connection he had built through RWIA, originally intended as a safeguard, had now become a one-way channel of information that tormented him instead.
The fragment of RWIA embedded deep within Aldraya's consciousness, symbiotically linked to its core entity within Theo's mind, sent dark reverberations.
The data received were not words or images, but a raw and horrifying report of emotional status.
That report stated, with irrefutable clarity, that Aldraya's emotional condition after the rejection in the teachers' cafeteria was far worse, deeper, and more alarming than any of her previous lowest points.
Previously, the recorded nadir had been when her loyalty and essence were insulted and degraded by Quil-Hasa, the creator god and original architect of her existence.
That humiliation from the creator deity was a fundamental wound that shattered the foundation of her identity.
Yet the data surging from RWIA now showed that the waves of despair, confusion, and injury caused by Theo's rejection—the very person who was supposed to become her new place of refuge—had equaled, and were continuing to surpass, the depth of that cosmic wound.
'I hope she's here.'
Theo's journey toward the dormitory felt like a pilgrimage steeped in regret.
His feet carried him along paths now illuminated by garden lamps, past the grand buildings that housed the noble families of Star Academy.
At last, he arrived at a more secluded and elegant dormitory complex, its architecture classical and solid.
This was the private dormitory of the Eshura family, where he was permitted to stay due to his distant blood ties and special status at the academy.
Yet tonight, the grandeur of the building felt nothing like home.
It felt like a cold cage.
He did not stop to admire the scenery or breathe in the night air.
His steps went straight to the outer gate, passed through it swiftly, and continued toward the wing where his room was located.
To be continued…