The days settled into a routine.
Wake before sunrise.
Study before class.
Attend lessons.
Train until sunset.
Read until sleep.
Then repeat.
Weeks passed in that rhythm.
For Kael, every day was another opportunity to improve.
He had long accepted that he lacked a Path.
If he couldn't bridge the gap through talent, then he would do so through discipline.
While other students spent their evenings relaxing in the dormitories or wandering into the city, Kael could almost always be found in one of two places.
The library.
Or the training grounds.
His training was simple.
Running.
Bodyweight exercises.
Balance drills.
Footwork.
Without a weapon or a Path, his own body was all he had.
So he strengthened it.
One day at a time.
---
"...There he goes again."
Kellis watched from the classroom window as Kael crossed the courtyard with another stack of books tucked beneath one arm.
"He seriously has nothing better to do?"
Brann shrugged.
"He studies."
"He trains."
"He studies again."
Rhett barely looked up from his seat.
"If that's how he wants to waste his life, let him."
Kellis frowned.
"...He's a No-Path."
"So?"
"He should know his place."
Rhett finally looked at him.
"You care too much."
Kellis looked away without answering.
---
The first incident was small.
Kael returned to his desk after lunch.
His notebook was gone.
He searched calmly.
Nothing.
Several nearby students shrugged.
"I didn't see anything."
He nodded once.
Then took out a fresh notebook.
Everything he'd written that morning...
He rewrote from memory.
Word for word.
Diagram for diagram.
When class resumed, his notes looked almost identical to the originals.
---
Two days later...
The history book he'd reserved from the library had disappeared.
"The reservation was cancelled," the librarian said.
"I didn't cancel it."
"I know."
The old librarian frowned.
"But according to the records..."
He paused.
"...someone did."
Kael simply selected another book instead.
Knowledge rarely existed in only one place.
---
By the following week...
His desk had been overturned before morning lessons.
Papers scattered across the classroom floor.
Several students looked over.
One or two laughed quietly.
Kael crouched.
Collected every page.
Straightened the desk.
Sat down.
Without saying a word.
The room slowly lost interest.
---
"...Why won't he react?"
Kellis clenched his jaw.
Every day.
The same thing.
No anger.
No shouting.
No revenge.
Nothing.
It irritated him more than any argument could.
---
That evening...
Kellis stood alone outside the dormitories.
The cool night air drifted quietly through the academy grounds.
His thoughts wandered somewhere they rarely did.
Back home.
His sister.
Lena.
She had been seven years older than him.
Patient.
Kind.
The sort of person who believed anyone could become better if someone simply refused to give up on them.
She had taken work at a rehabilitation institute.
Their family had worried.
She always smiled.
"They're people," she'd said.
"They deserve another chance."
Months later...
The institute had fallen silent.
One prisoner escaped.
A No-Path.
By the time the Royal Knights arrived...
It was too late.
Kellis still remembered standing beside his parents as the officials delivered the news.
No body.
Only a name.
His sister never came home.
The murderer was eventually hunted down.
Killed.
But none of that mattered.
Nothing brought Lena back.
People used to pity No-Paths.
His sister had pitied one too.
Kellis never would again.
---
The next morning...
Kael arrived early as usual.
His seat was already occupied.
One of the D-Class students smirked.
"Wrong classroom?"
Kael glanced toward the timetable.
"No."
"Looks full."
Kael simply walked to another empty desk.
When the lesson began...
He paid attention exactly as before.
---
Later that afternoon...
As students left the library, two boys passed behind Kael.
"...He's always here."
"Think he'll ever give up?"
A quiet voice answered from somewhere among the shelves.
"Probably not."
"Then maybe he needs a better reason to."
The conversation ended there.
By the time Kael looked up from his book...
The speakers had already disappeared into the rows of shelves.
Not far away...
Tovin closed the book in his hands.
His expression remained as bored and unreadable as ever.
Without a word, he slipped the book back onto the shelf and walked away.
---
The following morning...
Someone had poured ink across Kael's notebook.
The pages were ruined.
Several students glanced toward him, waiting.
Waiting for frustration.
For anger.
For anything.
Kael quietly sighed.
Not because he was upset.
Because rewriting everything would take time.
He set the notebook aside.
Opened a new one.
Then began writing.
Again.
Across the room...
Kellis watched.
His fingers tightened against the edge of his desk.
"...Why?"
he muttered under his breath.
"Why won't you break?"
Kael never heard him.
He was too focused on copying the first line onto a clean page.
Outside the classroom window, the academy carried on as though nothing had happened.
Lessons continued.
Students laughed.
Instructors taught.
Life moved forward.
And somewhere beneath the surface...
Something unseen had begun nudging events ever so slightly in a direction only one person seemed to expect.