The barking of the alarm clock dragged me from the depths of my intermittent sleep; its metallic scream was so sharp that I felt as if my eardrums had been pierced.
Before my mind could grasp the details of the room, my hand had lunged at it with blind instinct, hurling it with all the resentment I possessed against the wall.
Its noise did not subside until it shattered into scattered pieces, returning a false silence to the place.
I sat up in bed, my eyes still heavy with sleep, but my body was not entirely mine. I wasn't shivering from the cold, but from that strange rhythm invading my ribcage.
Damn it... it's his "cursed" heartbeat again.
Kaios's pulse was thumping in my chest so strongly that I could no longer distinguish between my own heartbeat and his.
The two rhythms blended into a symphony of chaos, as if his heart had colonized my body against my will.
A sense of disgust at this forced fusion took hold of me; I clutched my shirt over my heart as if trying to rip out its trace.
"Damn you, Kaios... and damn this heart of yours that knows no peace,"
I muttered bitterly in a hoarse voice as I struggled against my exhaustion to stand on my feet.
Despite the weight pressing on my eyelids, I moved with mechanical speed to get ready; I had no desire to waste another second feeling his presence permeating my blood in such a provocative way.
After a struggle with sleepiness, I stood before the mirror adjusting my uniform.
I pulled my rebellious bangs upward, securing them with a small black pin to give my features some clarity.
There was only one final touch left: I sprayed some of my favorite perfume into the air, inhaling its scent, trying to draw some serenity from it. I contemplated my face; my drowsy eyes betrayed my long night.
I sighed with suppressed indignation before leaving the room and the entire suite, leaving behind the remnants of an insomnia that had shown me no mercy.
I descended the spiral staircase with confident steps, and as soon as my feet touched the classroom corridor, my features changed completely.
The softness vanished, replaced by a sharpness as cutting as a knife the moment my eyes fell on him.
There, in that provocative posture of his, he leaned coldly as usual, passing the time by flipping a coin between his fingers with deadly boredom.
The "clinking" of that coin as it hit his hand was enough to set my nerves on fire.
"How many gold coins does this fool own?"
I wondered secretly as I glared at him with fiery looks.
"Should I really steal all his savings just to free the hallway from this nonsense?"
The way he played with that coin sparked an overwhelming urge in me to break something... or perhaps break his head.
I advanced toward him with steady steps, my eyes flashing with sparks of warning.
I knew for certain that he sensed my presence—that cursed bond between us leaves no room for privacy—yet he chose silence and didn't even bother to turn toward me.
"Fine... as you wish,"
I whispered within myself, a hidden evil smile playing on my lips. If he mastered the art of coldness, I was the master of ignorance.
I reached him, and instead of a confrontation, I bypassed him with all the coldness I could muster, as if I were passing a mirage that didn't exist.
My hands were clenched so tightly that my nails dug into my palms; it was a Herculeal effort to stop myself from turning around and landing a direct punch on that handsome, provocative face that irritated my nerves as much as it fueled my resentment.
Once I was behind him, I could no longer see him, but I felt him with all my senses. His gaze pierced my back—heavy, burning, like a blade sinking into my flesh to force me to turn.
I continued walking with my head held high, resisting the gravity of his gaze that was boring through me, trying to convince my heart—and his heart that lives within me—that his presence made no difference to me.
I finally reached the classroom, feeling as though I had crossed a track of patience.
I went straight to my usual seat and gave a morning greeting to Christoph and his companions in a tone I struggled to make sound natural.
I threw my tired body into the chair and rested my cheek on my palm, waiting for the teacher's entrance, which wasn't long in coming.
But right behind the teacher, that lunatic entered. He shot me sharp looks that almost tore the air between us, so I sharpened my own gaze and hurled it back at him with the same defiance.
"What is wrong with him now?"
I wondered with bitter irony.
"Did I kill someone from his family for him to stare at me like this?"
He didn't utter a word; instead, he walked with confident steps to occupy his seat directly behind me, as if insisting on remaining my annoying shadow and my disturbed pulse.
Christoph leaned toward me, whispering faintly:
"Why do you look like you stayed up all night?"
I let out a soft chuckle as I looked at him, saying with a cheerfulness that masked my exhaustion:
"You are a great sorcerer, Christoph!"
He smiled calmly and said:
"I'm not, but your drowsy eyes give everything away."
I sighed deeply and leaned my back against the chair, trying to ignore the presence of the person sitting behind me.
The teacher had begun placing strange stones on the table. I looked at them with boredom and thought sarcastically:
"What does he intend to do now? Does he want us to break stones that are rarer and harder? Or is this lesson a new type of torture?"
The teacher cut through my thoughts as he distributed his stern looks among us, saying:
"Now, let each of you come forward and choose your stone."
At that moment, I felt a slight surge of activity in my body, as if my curiosity had overcome my fatigue.
I stood up from my seat with three other students and headed toward the table.
The stones there looked like living creatures; energy stones pulsing with a magical glow, their colors dancing between sky blue and mysterious purple.
But amidst that clatter of colors, I was drawn to something completely different.
It was a black stone—still, not shining like the others, but radiating a hidden energy I felt in the marrow of my bones, as if it were whispering my name and calling me specifically.
I held it in my hand, examining it closely; it was cold and filled with prestige. I said to myself:
"I think this is an Insulating Stone..."
At that moment, I felt him approach.
He stood right beside me, so close that I could smell his provocative presence.
He extended his long hand toward a dull yellow stone that no one had noticed, and the moment his fingers touched its surface, the stone burst into a magical golden light that captured everyone's eyes, as if life had breathed into it by his touch.
Before he moved, his eyes turned toward my hand, where my black stone rested.
He leaned toward me slightly and whispered in a deep, resonant tone that pierced my calm before returning to his place:
"A good choice... Aria."
I stared at his back coldly for a brief moment, as if studying a faint trace, before moving behind him to return to my stronghold beside Christoph.
Christoph was holding a fiery red stone that glowed between his fingers with a warm flicker that suited his power perfectly.
I placed my silent black stone on the table while the teacher's voice rang out again to break my contemplation:
"Now, you are required to draw the energy from the stone... without it breaking."
I blinked several times in silent shock; the idea of drawing energy by my own will was completely foreign to me.
My energy had always rushed out like a flood on its own, rebellious and beyond control.
I watched the class around me; shouts of joy rose from those who succeeded, mixed with frustrated curses from others who ended up with a pile of rock dust on their tables.
I turned to Christoph and saw him calmly extending his hand toward his stone; with amazing smoothness, the red energy began to flow toward his palm without him touching the stone or scratching its surface.
I said with a sincere smile:
"You are truly talented, Christoph!"
He replied with a shy smile, wiping imaginary sweat from his forehead:
"It wasn't as difficult as I expected."
I returned my gaze to my mysterious black stone, feeling its moral weight upon the table.
At that moment, a pressing curiosity gripped me; if I were to turn now, what would I find the "Mr. Arrogant" behind me doing?
Had he absorbed his golden stone's energy with that provocative simplicity, or was he still amusing himself with his usual coldness?
I brushed those thoughts aside and made up my mind. I reached my hand toward the black stone, and as soon as I touched it, I felt its energy teasing my palm with a strange magnetic pull.
I closed my eyes and poured every ounce of focus in my body toward that dark center. I didn't expect for a moment that success would be mine on the first try, but the energy began to flow...
It started from my palm, then crept through my veins like a current of cold black ink, spreading through my entire body.
A wave of comfort and euphoria I had never known washed over me; it was raw, pure energy, repairing my tired cells and providing me with immense power.
I dived into the depths of that feeling until my connection with reality was severed, as if I had moved to a parallel world with no sound and no pain—even Kaios's annoying heartbeat vanished from my chest completely.
But that sacred solitude did not last.
A familiar voice pierced my silence, distant at first then screaming my name in a fragmented, panicked tone:
"Aria!"
I furrowed my features with intense annoyance; who dared to ruin this peace? But the voice came again, this time very close to my ear, whispering sharply:
"Withdraw your energy, Aria!"
I snapped my eyes open to the beat of my heart, which had returned to thumping madly, and the blood froze in my veins.
The classroom was not as I had left it; the place was drowned in pitch blackness. The "Void" energy that had come from me had lost control and become a thick fog swallowing everything.
I withdrew my energy quickly and all at once, as if I were absorbing death from the air.
As the blackness faded, gasps of terror and the suffocating coughs of students rose.
I saw them struggling to catch their breath, their faces pale and their eyes fixed on me in horror.
Amidst this chaos, I only spotted the teacher bracing himself, and Kaios, who was standing right behind me, his eyes carrying a look I didn't understand... Was it anger, or amazement at that dark power that had almost strangled everyone?
The silence that followed the fading of the Void fog was heavier than the fog itself. My hands were trembling on the table, and the black stone that had been pulsing with life was now just a piece of dead coal.
I raised my gaze slowly, my body still shaking from that euphoria that had turned into terror, only to find the classroom's eyes fixed on me as if I were a monster just unveiled.
The teacher stood stiff, his face pale to a terrifying degree, his eyes behind his glasses widening in a shock mixed with suppressed anger.
He placed his hands on the table to steady his balance, as if trying to grasp how a student could release an energy that almost erased the classroom walls and suffocated everyone within.
A heavy silence reigned in the hall, a silence that almost had a ring to it. The teacher opened his mouth; his lips were trembling with words that found no path to the air, as Kaios bound them before they were born.
Kaios didn't move from his spot, but his golden aura exploded in the surroundings like a silent hurricane, imposing its dominance over the place and freezing the blood in our veins.
He directed his burning gaze toward the teacher; his eyes were like two glowing embers piercing the soul, as if he were casting an unspoken threat:
"Dare only to speak, and it will be the last thing you do."
I saw the Adam's apple in the teacher's throat move with difficulty as he swallowed his dry spit.
He took a step back, shifting his gaze from Kaios to check on the students with suppressed terror, as if making sure we were still alive under the weight of that terrifying pressure.
I let out a powerful sigh that came from my depths, laden with all this tension.
I closed my eyes tightly, pressing my eyelids until I began to see colored ghosts, trying hard to control the cursed trembling of my limbs that had betrayed me.
I opened my eyes again and turned toward Christoph.
He was staring at me in total shock, shifting his scattered gaze between me and Kaios, who had returned to his seat with utter coldness, as if nothing had happened.
I heard Christoph muttering in a faint voice that was barely audible:
"Stupid... My God, Aria, you are evolving at a terrifying speed!"
I painted a faint smile on my lips and replied in a tone shrouded in mystery:
"Perhaps this evolution is what will turn me into a monster in the end."
I looked away from him quickly, my heart beating the drums of war inside my chest.
"Damn, I almost killed them all... damn me, I must be more careful,"
my thoughts screamed in my head. And while I was trying to collect my fragments, I felt it... those sharp, cold eyes piercing my back from behind.
I didn't need to turn to know who they belonged to; the weight of his presence was enough to tell me I was still under his microscope.
The atmosphere was still saturated with the scent of fear left by the tension. Even though Kaios had returned to his seat, his presence remained dominant over the hall as if he occupied every corner of it.
I felt his gaze piercing my back—not just a passing glance, but cold blades sinking into my spine, preventing me from turning and forcing me to remain stiff in my place.
While I was trying to calm my fear, I heard the movement of his wooden seat behind me; it wasn't a loud movement, but calculated and dignified.
I imagined him now... sitting in a comfortable yet domineering position, resting his back and leaning his chin on his hand, his golden eyes still hiding a storm that had not yet subsided.
This question was gnawing at my mind: Would he continue to watch me in this terrifying silence? Or was he waiting for the moment my defenses weakened to deliver his next strike?
Suddenly, I felt a cold aura approaching. He didn't stand up, but his voice dropped to a resonant whisper that reached my ears alone, bypassing the noise of the panicked students' breathing:
"This evolution of yours, Aria... is not the result of training; it is the result of suppressed anger. The monster you fear becoming... is the only one that guarantees your survival here."
I froze in my place. His words were like drops of ice falling on burnt skin. He wasn't rebuking me, nor was he encouraging me; he was just reading me like an open book.
I could no longer bear that weight sitting on my chest; his words and looks were suffocating what remained of my patience.
I turned to him suddenly, and with a swift movement that broke all rules of caution, I faced his coldness with my raging volcano.
I clenched my teeth so hard I felt pain extending to my jaw, and I hurled my words as if they were bullets aimed at his heart:
"Don't cross your boundaries, you cursed Prince!"
My voice echoed through the silent hall; it wasn't just a scream, it was a declaration of war.
At that moment, time froze; pens fell from the students' hands, and the teacher's face turned as pale as the wall.
Heads turned toward me with looks mixed with terror and shock; their eyes clearly said:
"She did it... she dug her own grave with her own hands."
For everyone knows that whoever dares to scratch Prince Kaios's pride does not live to see the next sunrise.
But Kaios? He didn't even blink.
He remained sitting with his provocative calm, crossing one leg over the other, his marble-like features unchanged.
Very slowly, his head tilted slightly to the side, as if my scream were nothing but the buzzing of a fly that disturbed his peace.
A terrifying silence fell for seconds that felt like an eternity, and then Kaios began to move.
He didn't get angry, he didn't scream; instead, a pale, cold smile played on the corner of his mouth—a smile that held no friendliness, but a threat wrapped in amusement.
He extended his hand coldly, and with his fingertips, he brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen on his forehead, then fixed his golden gaze directly into my eyes.
That look was enough to make my blood freeze in my veins; it wasn't the look of a killer, but the look of a hunter who had finally found a "game" worth the effort.
He said in a low voice, calm to the point of giving me chills:
"Boundaries? You speak of boundaries while you stand inside my own kingdom, Aria. The audacity you possess... I don't know if it's a rare courage or just a foolishness that will cost you dearly."
He rose from his seat slowly and began to approach me with steady, quiet steps, while the students around us retreated as if moving away from the center of an imminent explosion.
Every step of his pressed against my breath, and still, that coldness in his eyes told me one thing: he wasn't finished with me yet; he had only just begun.
I didn't take a single step back; on the contrary, I felt a strange euphoria creeping into my veins.
That crazy smile played on my lips—the smile that appears only when one decides to dance on the edge of the abyss.
I watched his confident movements, and in my chest, it was his heart that was beating! Thanks to that cursed contract, I could hear his steady, calm heartbeat thumping in my depths like a funeral drum—a provocative calm that made me want to tear him apart.
I stood tall and raised my head to face him with eyes dripping with malice and defiance, while he continued to stare at me with those cold yellow eyes, as if looking at an insect trying to rebel.
I couldn't help myself; I lunged toward him and grabbed his shirt collar with both hands trembling from the sheer force of anger, pulling him toward me with a strength that forced him to lean slightly to my level.
I screamed in his face, my breath mixing with his cold breath:
"To hell with you and your cursed kingdom! This audacity of mine, Prince... will end you before it ends me, remember that well!"
A terrifying silence reigned—a silence that made me hear the gasps of the students that had stopped in their throats.
Everyone expected him to rip my head from my body, or for his golden aura to burn me and turn me into ash.
But his reaction was stranger than fiction. He didn't pull my hand away, nor did he show any annoyance at my insult to his kingdom.
Instead, his yellow eyes gleamed with a mysterious flicker, and his tone dropped to a hiss dripping with pleasant poison.
He placed his massive hand over mine, which was clutching his collar, pressing down slowly, then whispered as he leaned toward my ear:
"Liar..."
He said it with lethal coldness, then continued while fixing his gaze deep into my eyes:
"Your heart, which trembles behind my ribs, tells me something else, Aria. You don't want to end me... you are afraid of the extent of the power you feel when I am near you. This audacity is nothing but a mask for your fragility."
Suddenly, he pushed me away from him lightly but with a force that made me stagger.
Then he adjusted his shirt collar with a provocative aristocratic coldness and added as he turned his back to me as if I no longer existed:
"Enjoy your madness temporarily... for the contract that binds us will make your death my death, and that is the only reason you are breathing right now."
His words left me in a state of shock and boiling rage; he had exposed my pretense and turned my suicidal attack into a mere amusing scene for him.
Words were no longer of use, for the blackness within me had begun to devour every remaining shred of reason.
I felt anger boiling in my veins like a surging volcano, its heat burning the walls of my heart.
I clenched my hands so tightly that my nails dug into my palms, and at that moment... the black Void aura broke free.
Shadows rushed from my body like serpents of dusk, surrounding me in a dark vortex that swallowed the light around me.
I could no longer see anything but Kaios's provocative face. Without thinking, my fist, charged with all that destruction, slammed down on the wooden table before us.
The sound of the explosion shook the hall; the table shattered under my hand as if it were dry paper, and its planks scattered as shards in the air, hitting some students whose terrified screams rose.
I didn't look back, and I didn't wait for a response.
I cursed him with the foulest words my congested soul could hurl and rushed out of the classroom with steps that shook the ground, fleeing from my overwhelming desire to turn the entire place to ash—fleeing before I committed a massacre that history would never erase.
While Aria was leaving like a hurricane, Kaios remained in his place, but his usual coldness cracked slightly to reveal something more dangerous.
Kaios didn't move to stop her; he simply watched the shards of the shattered table beneath his feet.
He wiped a small spot of Void dust that had caught on his clothes, and a strange dark smile appeared on his face.
It wasn't a smile of mockery, but a smile of recognition for his opponent's strength.
With a single word from him, he quelled the panic of the students and the teacher.
He said in a low, terrifying tone:
"Whoever utters a word about what happened here... will join that table."
Kaios rose with a provocatively slow pace, ignoring the teacher who was trying to collect his fragments.
Instead of returning to his seat, he began to walk behind Aria calmly, sensing the trace of the "contract" that binds him to her.
He knew that when the Void aura emerges, it leaves its owner weak or lacking control, and he would not miss the chance to see the "monster" collapsing.