Approximately eighteen hours earlier, around 8:20 PM, at the Ministry of Magic...
An impatient Ryumu Ren stood before the nine Ministerial Mages. They had kept him waiting for nearly forty minutes before seeing him, and now they were attempting, with a solemnity that bordered on the absurd, to wrap him in a thick layer of bureaucracy.
The mages sat in ostentatious white seats within a grand circular hall. The luxury was excessive: walls decorated with gold-leaf reliefs and a polished marble floor so clean it reflected the vaulted ceiling with near-perfect clarity.
"First and foremost, we are deeply grateful, Director Ryumu, for taking the time to..." began one of the highest-ranking mages, adjusting his embroidered robe.
Ryumu, with an expression of absolute weariness, cut him off sharply before he could finish the courtesy.
"Spare me the lecture, alright?" he said, holding the crumpled letter in front of them as if it were a piece of trash. "I just stopped by to say hello. I don't need the technical details or your cardboard gratitude."
As he spoke, Ryumu allowed a fraction of his natural mana pressure to leak into the room. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible movement, but the effect was devastating. The air in the hall seemed to turn liquid; the Ministerial Mages—men and women who boasted of being the country's elite—began to gasp in unison, clutching their chests as sweat started to bead on their temples.
"I see our friends, the Magic Knight and the Minister of Magic, are absent... again," Ryumu commented, stretching his arms over his head with the lazy elasticity of a cat. "How rude of them..."
The mages felt Ryumu's mana not as that of a person, but as an avalanche of snow slowly burying and suffocating them in their own luxury seats.
"Ryumu Ren!"
A sharp cry from a young voice tore through the oppressive silence.
"When are you going to learn to be more respectful?" the voice continued with indignation. "The Ministerial Mages are the ones who maintain this country's stability. Have some decency!"
Ryumu brought a hand to his mouth, hiding a mocking smile while narrowing his eyes with amusement.
"Well, if it isn't Dwarf Lumine," he said with a tone of mock surprise.
The young mage's face flushed red like fire, not just from the insult, but from the fury the man's attitude provoked.
"It's Luminen Danatt!" she shouted, attempting to walk toward Ryumu. However, every step cost her ten times more than the last. Her boots thudded heavily against the marble as if her legs were made of lead. "Stop saying it wrong on purpose!" she snapped, managing to stand before the Zenith Director with great effort.
"What's wrong, kid? You look like you're having trouble breathing," Ryumu said, looking down at the girl who couldn't be more than seventeen.
Luminen was already panting openly, her hair disheveled and a bead of sweat running down her forehead.
"It's... it's your fault... You're playing with the density of your mana..." she managed to grit out.
"Heh..." Ryumu leaned in slightly, looking at her from his height. "Actually, I'm holding it back. I know weaklings like you couldn't handle it if I relaxed too much. It would be a mess to clean so many fainted mages off the floor."
Before the girl could reply to the insult, Ryumu simply ceased to be there. There was no magic circle, no flash of light, no gust of wind. Only a void where his presence had been.
"By the way, no need to send more reinforcements. I'll be fine on my own," the echo of his voice bounced off the marble walls, gradually losing strength. "If the other four aspirants are still alive, I'll leave them somewhere safe. See ya, Vice Brat."
The terrible mana pressure vanished as quickly as he did, allowing oxygen to rush back into the lungs of everyone present. Luminen fell to one knee, bracing herself against the floor to keep from collapsing entirely.
"That bastard..." she whispered, staring at the empty space. "One day... one day I'll make you shut that mouth."
However, the silence of the hall was the most eloquent response. Ryumu Ren was already on his way to Latries.
Latries, 9:00 PM. Moments before Ryumu left the Ministry.
The four aspirants in the small city were in a critical situation. The air smelled of burnt flesh and the stale static of forbidden magic.
"This is madness," said the youngest among them, Elara Shade, bringing her hands together to generate a fireball. "The more time passes, the stronger they get."
She launched the spell at an undead warrior who, until moments ago, had been a simple zombie. The attack, despite hitting dead center, failed to destroy the creature completely; the monster began to regenerate using the scraps of bodies lying around it, absorbing organic matter to close its wounds.
"What kind of undead are these?" asked Gideon Thorne, a healing mage, while carrying Lara Nox, who was gravely injured. Sweat soaked his face as he tried to keep a stabilization spell active.
"Everyone into that building! We'll entrench ourselves as much as we can!" ordered Cedric Valois, the captain of the aspirants.
This is bad... we have no way out of this town, at least not all of us... Cedric thought bitterly as he kicked open the door of a stone mansion.
"Everyone upstairs!"
After reaching the upper floors, Cedric destroyed the stairs with a pulse of seismic magic to buy time and delay the ascent of the horde scratching at the exterior walls. Reaching the highest floor, Cedric moved a heavy oak wardrobe and several trunks to improvise a barricade against the attic door.
"Gideon, use your magic on Lara until she can channel mana. Elara, prepare a teleportation circle," Cedric instructed, unsheathing a runic short sword that glowed with a dim blue hue. "I'll buy you time."
The sound of claws scratching wood and inhuman moans began to seep from the floor below.
"I know. You guys will be the ones using it. Once I'm alone, I'll be able to escape on my ow—"
The sentence was interrupted by a thunderous tremor that made the mansion's foundations groan. Cedric looked out the window and turned pale. A massive undead, formed by an amalgam of twisted bodies the size of a house, was crawling toward them. The creature let out a guttural scream that bit deep into the group's bones, eroding their morale.
Crap, that thing is huge. Trying to destroy it is useless if I can't disintegrate it entirely. What I can do, though... he thought as he gathered a massive amount of mana in his palms.
"Prepare the circle, Elara!" he shouted while launching a concentrated seismic spell at the monster's feet.
The earth opened like a hungry mouth, swallowing the amalgam's limbs and partially burying it under tons of rubble and packed dirt. Elara began channeling the teleportation circle with renewed desperation, while Gideon continued pouring his mana into Lara Nox's wounds.
Four minutes... that's all we need. In that time, Elara will finish the portal and they'll escape, Cedric allowed himself to think with fleeting optimism.
However, the captain's thought vanished as he reacted to the presence of something terrible right above them. The roof of the house was destroyed in a burst of wood and stone by a second monster of dead flesh that fell from the heights. Cedric reacted by instinct, projecting an energy barrier to protect his companions from the debris.
Despite having that flesh aberration in front of him, Cedric's gaze now reflected a calm that completely contradicted his situation.
He's here, Cedric thought with relief.
The massive creature prepared a devastating attack, but before it could strike, a sphere of white fire that seemed to have fallen from the sky itself pierced the monster's chest, reducing it to ashes instantly.
"Heh... looks like you guys are having a rough time," said a familiar voice.
Ryumu Ren appeared out of nowhere, placing a hand carelessly on Cedric's shoulder. The Zenith Director wasn't even looking at the monster's remains; his attention was on the young captain.
"I have to admit, Cedric... I'm surprised you noticed my presence before impact. Not bad."
Elara Shade was in shock; she couldn't believe her eyes. The man who had just appeared was responsible for the security of the most prestigious academy, yet his attitude was that of someone who had just arrived at a boring party.
"Sorry for the delay. I stopped by to say hi and they left me in the waiting room. You can blame your superiors later for the minutes lost," Ryumu said, totally unconcerned. "Heavens, you can't see the show well from here."
In a blink of silver light, the perspective shifted drastically. The four youths were now on the terrace of another building, safe from the horde surrounding the previous mansion.
"Now pay attention and you might learn something... or maybe not." After finishing the sentence, Ryumu vanished from the terrace and reappeared instantly in the middle of the mass of undead flooding the main street. "Good grief, you smell worse than you look."
The undead around him simply incinerated. A circle of bluish fire came from nowhere, surrounding Ryumu. Seeing the threat, the undead in front of him quickly amalgamated, deforming to form two imposing Death Knights encased in armor of bone and hatred.
"Death Knights... this is crazy. They are the second strongest undead creat—" before Elara could finish her sentence, Ryumu had already disintegrated the creatures with a lazy gesture of his hand.
"Simple fireballs. Not to brag, but I don't think I'll use another spell today," Ren commented. Despite the humble name of the spell, Ryumu's spheres were a blinding bluish-white, indicating a temperature that defied the laws of magical thermodynamics.
He arrived by teleporting, eliminated a giant undead in one hit, moved us all, and now he's destroying those monsters without paying them any mind... no chants, no circles... No, that's impossible, Elara thought, trying to process that her entire academic training was being trampled before her eyes.
"Don't think about it too much," Gideon said as he finished stabilizing Lara. "The first time I saw Ryumu, I also tried to understand how it was possible. The answer is simple: it isn't."
Lara Nox finally woke up, clutching her head with a groan.
"Dammit... if we're still here and we're alive, I guess that guy is here," Lara said, massaging her forehead as the glow of Ryumu's explosions lit up her face.
Gideon sighed in relief. "Lara, I'm sorry, because of me you—"
The emotional moment was mercilessly interrupted by an explosion of white fire that exclusively consumed a dozen undead trying to climb the building wall.
"Sorry, not intentional... or maybe it was," Ryumu's apology—appearing among them again—was a sad parody with no intention of sounding convincing. "Save the cheesy moments for when you're in the capital."
"You... you teleported here just to say that... B-b-but a teleportation without a circle or prior charge should leave you completely out of mana," Elara stammered, on the verge of fainting from the shock.
Ryumu watched her for a moment, trying to recognize her face. "This kid is new, isn't she?" he asked, looking at Cedric.
Cedric dropped to the terrace floor, finally letting out all the exhaustion accumulated after days of non-stop combat.
"Yes, this is only her third mission as an aspirant," the captain said, no longer hiding his fatigue.
"It's not very professional of you, Captain, to drop like that in the middle of combat," Ryumu mocked, clearly enjoying the situation.
"I'm not going to pretend we're in danger if you're already here, Ren."
Ryumu rubbed his hands together as he stepped in front of the aspirants with a lazy stride, watching how the rest of the city buzzed with macabre activity.
His eyes flashed silver for an instant—a flicker so brief the aspirants missed it—as he activated one of his perception skills.
"Flow Vision"... Hmm, seems there are some survivors left. Evacuation? My foot. Those misers at the Ministry call evacuation 'the civilians who managed to escape on their own'... if any actually did, he thought, without dropping his mask of disinterest.
"Heavens... how you love to kill the tension."
"Simple fire circle."
After saying that, what Ryumu called a "circle" manifested as a tornado of white flames that began to expand throughout Latries, disintegrating only the undead and ignoring the aspirants, the few hidden civilians, and the town's structures.
After finishing, Ryumu approached Elara and crouched until he was face-to-face with her.
"Well... looks like exhaustion is winning," he said, placing a finger gently on her forehead. "Sleep."
Ryumu settled the sleeping young aspirant and then turned to the other three, whose tension was only beginning to fade.
"There are no undead left on the surface, but that structure is fascinating and I'd like to explore it," Ryumu commented, pointing to the architectural anomaly at the center of the town.
The three conscious aspirants immediately understood Ryumu's intentions.
"If you're going to explore, I'd like to go, Ren. Besides, someone has to 'watch' you," Cedric said, winking despite his exhaustion.
Ryumu covered his mouth with a fake cough. "Cough, cough, cough..."
"Yes, state the protocol. Someone must handle that terrible bureaucracy," Ryumu continued. His attempt to sound serious was a terrible performance, devoid of any intention to be convincing.
Lara and Gideon looked at each other for a moment, recognizing there was no way to argue with the Director. Ryumu hoisted Elara over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes.
"Lara, you're pretty tough. I'm sure you can help Gideon with the survivors. I'll leave this brat in a safe place and come back."
After saying that, Ryumu vanished. He reappeared just ten seconds later, dusting off his hands with a triumphant air.
"Sorry for the delay. Left the brat with the Dwarf at the Ministry and took the chance to annoy her a bit."
Lara and Gideon nodded and prepared to tend to the survivors starting to peek out of windows, while Ryumu and Cedric finally headed toward the silent structure.
◆◆◆
Back in the present, that same afternoon at "The Golden Bean"...
Nalia's speculations filled the conversation between her and Veridia, while the aroma of freshly brewed coffee floated over the table.
"Why would Ryumu exclude them?" Veridia's question hung in the air for a moment, loaded with genuine confusion.
Nalia adjusted her glasses and pulled out a notebook densely written in her neat, angular handwriting.
"I've summarized what I investigated," Nalia said, flipping through her notes quickly. Veridia, seeing the amount of information gathered, swallowed hard.
"Ryumu Ren arrived at Zenith five years ago. But he officially took the position of Director only three years ago, after a... 'meeting' with the Ministry of Magic." Nalia brought a hand to her chin, analyzing the data. "Knowing Ryumu's chaotic nature, I'd venture to say he took the position by force..."
Veridia was about to speak with her mouth full of pastry again, but seeing Nalia prepared to give her another tap on the forehead, she stopped. She took a necessary moment to chew and swallow politely before responding.
"I don't think Ryumu has bad intentions," Veridia stated, scratching her cheek. "He just doesn't seem like that kind of person to me."
"What are you basing that on with such certainty?" Nalia asked, trying to find the logical thread in her friend's mind.
"Well, it doesn't seem... But if you force me to think, hmmm... being so strong, what would stop him from doing something bad if he really wanted to?" Veridia's answer was as transparent and simple as a child's, but it was precisely that approach that gave Nalia the perspective she needed.
If Rizo got these documents from Ryumu's office, it's very possible he left them there to be found. Ryumu arrived at Zenith five years ago...
"Five years..." Nalia whispered, after which her eyes snapped wide. Veridia saw her friend's expression and smiled; she knew that look of discovery well.
Nalia searched feverishly through her notes and the documents Rizo had handed her.
"The Gray Hand..." she murmured, covering her mouth with a hand.
Veridia was noticeably confused.
"Weren't they supposed to be just a myth?" asked the emerald-haired aspirant.
Nalia pulled a folded piece of paper from among all the official documents. It had no seals, no marks, no signatures, but it had been intentionally left among the most sensitive reports.
"The Gray Hand is real." Nalia showed the sheet to Veridia. It was written on the same paper as the others but lacked any official backing. "Ryumu Ren... he left or handed these documents to Rizo specifically for us to read them."
Veridia turned pale as she processed the implications.
Real disappearances. People like me. Like Kenji, Toro, and Rizo... "Then Ryumu... is he protecting us?" she whispered.
"The rumors about disappearances at the academy stopped five years ago, exactly when Ryumu appeared out of nowhere after an eight-year absence," Nalia concluded with a somber voice. "If Ryumu left this paper, it's his way of telling us the rumors... aren't rumors."
A heavy silence fell over the table. Veridia looked at the paper in Nalia's hands—those four simple words that changed everything.
The Gray Hand is real.
"Then the guys... Kenji, Toro, Rizo—" Veridia swallowed. "Were they in danger too?"
Nalia nodded slowly. "And they probably still are. If they leave Zenith, if Ryumu isn't around..." She let the sentence hang, unnecessary to complete. Veridia clenched her fists under the table.
Kaelen, from her shoulder, noticed the tension and let out a low snort.
That's why they're here. That's why they act that way. That's why... "That's why Ryumu protects them," Veridia whispered, finally understanding.
"He is protecting them," Veridia whispered, looking toward the window.
Nalia stared into Veridia's eyes and, after a moment, sighed.
"I know that look, and in my opinion, it's not prudent," Nalia expressed, even knowing that at this point it was almost impossible to change her friend's mind.
"If they gave you those documents revealing part of their past, I think they should know a bit of ours," Veridia said, giving her friend a smile. "Besides, our past doesn't contain information as sensitive as theirs."
Faced with that simple but devastating logic, Nalia could only let out a long sigh, surrendering to the evidence.
"Your way of being is truly problematic, but when you set your mind to it, you can say coherent things..."
"It's decided then—we'll tell them!" Veridia declared. Finishing the sentence, she took a generous sip of her mocha and finished her pastry with determination.