Morning light brushed the Grand Magic Academy with a tender hand, golden rays slipping through the tall windows and glinting off pale grey stone walls etched with protective runes. The main corridor hummed with students, deep-blue robes fluttering as they walked. Some whispered excitedly about the Royal Magical Season Event; others pored over spell tomes with fierce concentration.
Chester Kerl stepped inside, satchel slung over one shoulder, robes faintly creased. Eyes stabbed at him from every side: some sharp with contempt, some openly mocking, a few merely curious. The label of chronic truant still clung to him like a curse, yet beneath the practiced sneer, Akira's soul wrestled with the suffocating secret of his repeating days.
During recess he moved through the crowded hallway like a man walking on broken glass. The phantom agony of last night's blades still throbbed in his back and eye, making his heart hammer against his ribs.
Who was it?
One name rose above the rest: Liane. That enigmatic half-smile, those secretive glances. They had always set his nerves on edge.
The voice last night sounded exactly like hers.
His fists clenched until knuckles whitened.
Like clockwork, the morning ritual unfolded. Alise Antoinette Seraphim appeared with Marcia and Liane in tow. Marcia, red ponytail flicking like a banner of war, planted herself in his path, emerald eyes blazing.
"Well, well, if it isn't Chester Kerl again," she sneered, hands on hips. "Out of every decent student in this academy, they pick him."
Chester forced his trademark crooked grin. "Morning to you too."
He brushed past. For a heartbeat his gaze locked with Alise's. She regarded him with that same unreadable calm, sapphire eyes like still water hiding depths he couldn't fathom. Liane lingered at her side, offering the faintest curve of a smile that made the hairs on Chester's neck rise. Marcia's scowl could have curdled milk.
He slipped into the lecture hall and claimed his usual back-row seat by the window, close enough to daydream while pretending to listen. Sunlight pooled across the oak desks; the front board shimmered with today's glowing runes. Charts of Elemental Manipulation lined the walls beside the academy crest: an open book cradling a golden eagle.
Across the room, Alise and Alexandre Brookhaven leaned together, voices low and earnest. Alexandre's copper hair caught the light as his hands sketched quick patterns in the air; Alise nodded, jotting notes in her small leather journal.
Chester's chest tightened with something sharp and unwelcome. I wish I could talk to her like that.
Madam Elvira swept in, emerald robes billowing. Grey hair pinned in a severe bun, she carried the quiet authority of someone who had seen generations of students come and go.
"We resume Elemental Fusion Barriers today. Page 142."
The lesson unfolded in its familiar rhythm: demonstrations of shimmering shields, furious scribbling, students called forward to test their constructs. Chester tried to focus, but his mind kept circling back to Liane and the cold kiss of steel.
The afternoon bell chimed like a gentle sigh. Students spilled into the corridors, some heading for the library, others for the training fields.
Chester shouldered his bag and made for the main gates, pulse heavy with suspicion. There they were again: Alise and Alexandre walking side by side, Marcia and Liane nowhere in sight.
He slowed, ears straining.
"Café Lilith tonight, eight o'clock," Alexandre said, voice bright with excitement. "We have to lock down the strategy for the Event."
Alise smiled softly and nodded.
Chester's jaw tightened. Not this time.
He caught Frookvolt at the gate. "Tell father I'm meeting friends tonight. I'll find my own way home."
The driver's eyes twinkled. "Friends, eh? Enjoy yourself, Young Master."
Chester melted into the evening crowds of Razack, hood up, footsteps silent. Ten minutes later Alise and Alexandre reached Café Lilith: warm yellow mage-lights, wooden tables spilling onto the street. Chester took a shadowed corner outside, face hidden, heart drumming.
Half an hour of quiet conversation and occasional laughter. Then they stepped out and parted ways.
He followed Alise.
The streets narrowed, lamps casting long pools of gold and black. Every alley mouth felt like a threat.
Then the air turned cold.
A metallic whisper sliced the night. Chester twisted instinctively as an iron chain tipped with a spearhead flashed past his stomach, missing by inches.
He spun, wand already in hand.
Liane stepped from the darkness, cloak fluttering, brown eyes glittering with lethal calm. The same wide, cruel blade from his memory gleamed in her grip.
Chester's voice came out steady despite the tremor in his chest. "I won't let you kill Alise."
Liane's smile was thin and icy. "So you finally noticed. You really are an annoyance, Chester Kerl."
Chains rattled like angry serpents. She attacked without another word.
Chester dodged, wand slashing the air. "Earth Wall!" A crude barrier of stone erupted between them, shuddering under the impact of her chain. Sparks flew where metal met rock.
She pressed relentlessly, chains whipping and coiling like living things. Chester parried with bursts of flame and stone, but every block cost him. Blood seeped from a dozen shallow cuts. Liane barely had a scratch.
She's too fast. Too trained.
Memory flashed: the novel's brief footnote about Liane once being a battle slave before the Seraphim household took her in. He was fighting a killer, not a schoolgirl.
Liane's eyes narrowed. "This ends now."
The chain spear hurtled toward his exposed stomach.
He had no strength left to dodge.
A bronze flash cut across his vision. The chain shattered mid-air with a deafening clang.
Marcia stood between them, copper spear planted in the ground, red hair wild in the wind, emerald eyes blazing.
"I just heard someone wants my best friend dead," she said, voice low and furious. "Even if that someone is my other best friend, I won't forgive it."
Liane's mask slipped for the first time, shock flickering across her face.
Marcia's spear levelled at her. "Step away from him, Liane. And start talking."
The night held its breath.