"The leg is badly sprained…" Olivia said pitifully.
Erwin understood at a glance. The leg was unusually swollen, dark spots had formed on the skin, and the veins were clearly visible as if the pain inside could no longer be hidden. He breathed quietly, calmed his mind, then carefully extended his hand.
He held the ankle firmly with one hand, supporting the bottom of the foot with the other. In an instant, he understood the right angle and turned the foot with a sudden but controlled pull.
The girl's body trembled. Unable to handle the intensity of the pain, her right hand suddenly landed on Erwin's left shoulder, and in an instant she gripped it tightly. Erwin could sense how deep the pain was from the pressure of her fingers.
She said nothing, just finished the job. After a few seconds of silence, he said in a calm voice, "It's done. Now you can rest a little. The pain will subside after a while, and then you can walk."
There was a certain confidence in his voice, and that confidence seemed to slow the girl's breathing a little.
"Thank you." The girl said the words in a sincere voice. Although the pain was still on her face, there was a look of relief in her eyes. With that single word, the tense silence in the room loosened a little.
Erwin looked at the books politely and said, "Where is your class? I'll leave the books there."
His voice was calm, almost cautious as if he didn't want to cross the line unnecessarily. The words spread through the air, breaking the silence of the empty room.
"I'm in first class." The answer was brief, but clear. As soon as it reached Erwin's ears, he understood the girl was his junior. This little piece of information strangely made the situation more normal.
At that moment, a voice came from behind, "What's going on here?"
Erwin was startled. The voice was very familiar to him. He turned around and saw Adlof standing there, with two other boys. Adlof had that familiar look of amusement and suspicion in his eyes, which silently tightened the situation again.
"Brother" Erwin was slightly startled as soon as he heard the girl's voice. With one word, all his previous doubts suddenly became clear. Adlof's gaze fixed on her for a moment, then turned to the girl.
The girl calmly began to explain everything the sudden push, the fall to the floor, the sprained leg, and how Erwin helped her up. There was no complaint in her words, but rather she arranged the events one after another like an impartial truth.
Erwin stood silently. The books in his hands seemed to be the only support at the moment. He didn't say anything, just listened to everything attentively, trying to keep his presence as inconspicuous as possible.
When everything was over, Adlof took a deep breath.
"Oh!"
A small word but inside it there was surprise, calculation, and some thoughts that he did not express with his mouth.
"This is my classmate, Erwin Feulgen."
Adlof looked at the girl and introduced himself. Erwin immediately bowed his head politely and said in a soft voice, "Hello, miss." There was no exaggeration in his manner, just the natural courtesy of an educated gentleman.
The girl was still sitting in the chair. She sat up slightly, then introduced herself in a calm voice, "My name is Emina Nelin."
As soon as the name reached her ears, a flash of surprise flashed in Erwin's eyes. The Nelin family one of the richest and most influential families in the city. He instantly remembered the strange looks, whispers, and silent curiosity around him.
Adlof also introduced the other two boys who were with him. The tall boy standing to his right caught his eye at first sight, with his fiery red hair and deep blue eyes. "That's Felix Mayer, my younger brother." Adlof said. Although he was younger, he surpassed Adlof in height; almost the same height as Erwin, about one meter eighty-seven centimeters a tall body with a kind of confident posture.
The boy standing on the other side was more calm. Black hair, sharp blue eyes, and a resemblance in his face like a familiar shadow. His name was Enem Nelin. The uncanny resemblance of his appearance to Adlof was striking.
Erwin noticed at a glance the four of them had the same eye color. The same blue, as if flowing from the same source. In an instant, he understood that they were not just friends or classmates; they were tied to each other by invisible threads of family, blood, and power.
"So you are the one," Felix said with a slight smile, "who escaped death."
The words in his voice seemed simple, but there was a strange sharpness hidden inside irony, or awe-inspiring admiration for fate, Erwin himself could not understand.
He only felt that behind that smile, some secret hint flickered that could be bad for him in the future.
He silently bid farewell to the four of them. Then, putting Emina Nelin's books in their proper place, he slowly walked towards the university classroom. As soon as he sat down, the noise around him reached his ears.
After a while, Erwin saw Adlof entering through the classroom door. He slowly crossed a few rows of benches and sat down on the seat next to him. This unexpected proximity suddenly made Erwin's chest feel as if he was holding his breath. In his previous memories, Adlof had never sat so closely to him, and even in ordinary conversations, he always maintained a certain distance.
This sudden behavior sent a wave of discomfort through his mind. The suspicion hidden in the corners of his eyes and the unknown fear combined to create a strange weight. He muttered to himself "Is he suspecting me?"
Just then, a young man with long, thick black hair came and stood next to their bench. He was wearing a dark black suit, and a contemptuous, almost mocking smile played at the corners of his lips. In a cold voice, he said,
"You didn't go to the palace yesterday."
The words sounded to Erwin not just as a question, but as a kind of accusation. This young man was his classmate Stephen Panor.
In a moment, his fabricated excuse for not going to the palace spread like wildfire throughout the entire class. Who heard it from where, who told it to whom he himself couldn't figure it out. He only felt that the air around him had suddenly become heavier. The classroom was filled with whispers; a mixed tone of suppressed curiosity, disbelief, and secret excitement kept ringing in his ears.
Erwin lowered his head and stared at the pages of his book. Although the letters were before his eyes, his mind was not there. Every whisper seemed to point to him a voice that seemed to be asking questions, spreading suspicion, yet no one dared to say anything directly. He sat in silence, turning page after page, trying to calm his restless breathing.
The whispers gradually became clear words, as if secret curiosity and jealousy had begun to speak through the silence.
"Oh, he's so handsome and tall… Why haven't I noticed him before?"
"He must be the son of a royal family. There's such a nobility in his face!"
"But his surname is Feulgen… I've never heard of that name. Then he must be from a commoner's family. And yet he's so handsome!"
"You noticed her eyes. I heard that only one in a million have such eyes. Completely green."
"I've read in most ancient myths that such eyes are only for those born with extraordinary powers given by God. Ah, it's just a myth."
Suddenly, Olivia's voice rose like a scream, strained with annoyance and jealousy
"These stupid girls! Why are you being so extravagant?"
But no one except Erwin heard her.
Then the flow of the conversation took a different turn, a shadow of fear and mystery in her throat.
"Do you know, five people from our class were invited to that palace ceremony. But now only she is alive... because she didn't go there."
"I think that those who went... are all dead."
Another added in a whisper,
"We are children of a noble family, yet we didn't receive any invitations."
"I've heard," another voice chimed in, "that none of the sons and daughters of the prominent families here have received invitations from the Welsen family, not even those with whom they had close ties."
"So the banquet was only for ordinary family members?"
A moment of silence. Then someone began to say in a hesitant voice
"Wait… the Welsen family has disappeared. And what about this palace banquet"
The conversation never ended. The incomplete sentence hung in the air, just as unknown fears and unresolved mysteries hung over the entire classroom.
"Conspiracy…"
Erwin uttered the word in his mind, as if he himself had drawn the final line with invisible letters in the gap between the incomplete sentences.
Just then, the classroom door opened. The professor's arrival stopped the whispering for a moment, and the air became heavy with silence. The lesson began as usual, but Erwin's mind was not on the pages of the book. Those words were swirling inside him death, disappearance, palace, and the shadow of some invisible conspiracy.
The class ended as soon as the bell rang.
Adlof silently stood up from the bench next to him. He didn't even look up, he just walked forward and left the classroom. That unfamiliar distance made Erwin feel uneasy.
After a while, Erwin put the book he was holding on the classroom shelf. With the thought that there would be no more classes today, he slowly walked towards the door.
But the moment he stepped out, he felt eyes on him from all sides.
Some were looking directly at him, some from the corner of their eyes. Those eyes were filled with curiosity, but also with hidden fears, doubts, and unspoken questions.