Eventually, I reached the classroom.
And, of course...
I was late.
I checked the time.
7:10.
Ten minutes late.
To the most important class of my life.
Possibly the world's.
Fantastic.
I stood in front of the door, staring at the Vanguard insignia engraved into its surface.
This was one of four first-year Vanguard classes, but I knew I had the right one.
I hadn't exactly told Tias which class to put me in. Apparently, she'd figured out what I wanted anyway.
How did I know?
Simple.
I'd seen this door before.
Not through my own eyes, though.
Through Knight's memories.
He'd been in the same class as the main Constants.
And now, apparently, so was I.
I'd already accepted my role as a background character in this whole mess.
But ending up in the same classroom as the protagonist?
Now that was some true background-character status.
My condolences to me.
I let out a breath.
I was still pissed about what happened in the hallway. Carlos kept creeping back into my thoughts, along with the bastard who'd decided to spread everything around the academy.
There was a lot I needed to deal with.
Unfortunately, none of those problems were going anywhere.
And right now, I had something more important to worry about.
The main Constants were on the other side of this door.
This was where my plan would finally begin.
"You're looking a little nervous there, Seer."
Sleazy floated beside me, grinning.
"Hehe. What, all those important people have you shaking in your boots?"
I clicked my tongue.
"Of course I'm nervous."
I scratched the back of my head.
"Vanguard wasn't even a possibility for me a few weeks ago. Now I'm supposed to walk in there and act like I belong?"
Lazy floated above us, sprawled across the air like he was lying on an invisible couch.
I glanced at the door again.
"Besides..."
I hesitated.
"I'm about to meet the Hero."
Lazy looked down.
For once, his expression showed something resembling interest.
"Are you..."
He paused.
"A fan?"
I slowly looked up at him.
Sleazy's grin widened.
"Oh?"
"Is that true, Seer?"
I spun toward them.
"No!"
Too fast.
Way too fast.
"I'm not!"
Sleazy immediately burst out laughing.
I pointed at him.
"Stop laughing! These people were basically celebrities, alright?!"
Lazy stared at me.
"You're not helping your case."
"Shut up!"
I folded my arms.
"It's not like that. I respect them."
My voice grew a little quieter.
"The Hero especially."
I looked toward the door again.
"In my old life, everyone knew their names. They were the people fighting things normal mages wouldn't even think of approaching. Whenever something went wrong, people looked to them for help."
My mouth twisted.
"They were supposed to save everyone."
I paused.
"Even if they couldn't pull it off in the end."
Lazy watched me for a moment.
Then his eyes narrowed.
"You're blushing, Kamrik."
I froze.
Sleazy folded in half.
"I am not!"
"Oh my gods!"
He was practically rolling through the air.
"Our Seer is a fucking fanboy!"
"Stop encouraging him!"
I felt my face growing warmer.
I hated both of them.
"Where's Knight when I need him?"
No answer.
Of course.
The one ghost with enough dignity to make this conversation remotely bearable was nowhere to be found.
Sleazy wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.
"Look at his face! Bloody, you seeing this?"
Crimson mist gathered beside us.
Bloody emerged from it, wearing the same disgusted expression he usually reserved for anything involving my existence.
He looked me over.
"It makes sense."
I already hated where this was going.
"Maggots often look toward brighter lights."
His sneer deepened.
"They are far too weak to produce any light of their own."
"How disgraceful. To think I share an existence with something so pathetic."
...
My eye twitched.
"Thank you, Bloody."
"You're welcome, maggot."
"That wasn't gratitude."
"I know."
Sleazy started laughing even harder.
I dragged both hands down my face.
Wonderful.
Ten minutes late to the most important class of my life, and I was standing outside arguing with dead versions of myself about whether I had a crush on the Hero.
What a great start.
I slapped both cheeks.
"Alright."
Enough.
I grabbed the handle.
And opened the door.
The first person I saw was the professor.
Great.
Of course.
The universe apparently hadn't finished screwing with me this morning.
Standing at the front of the classroom was the same woman who'd overseen my admission assessment.
Vaylna.
At least, I was fairly sure her name was Vaylna.
She stood perfectly straight, hands resting behind her back, looking like someone had personally offended her by inventing bad posture.
Her instructor's uniform was immaculate. Not a single fold out of place.
And judging by the expression on her face, she'd already worked out exactly how late I was.
The room had been filled with quiet conversation a moment earlier.
Now?
Nothing.
Dozens of students turned toward the door.
Toward me.
...
Wonderful.
For a second, the embarrassment threatened to catch up with me.
Then came the nerves.
I shoved both aside.
No point worrying now.
I stepped inside like I hadn't spent the last several minutes outside having a crisis over meeting celebrities.
"Morning, Professor. Sorry I'm late."
I gave her my most harmless smile.
"New building and all."
Then, because apparently my lack of sleep had completely destroyed my survival instincts, I held out my hand.
Vaylna looked at it.
Then at me.
Then back at my hand.
...
Right.
Not a handshake person.
I slowly lowered it.
"Good talk."
A few muffled sounds came from the desks.
Someone was trying not to laugh.
Then the whispers started spreading.
"That's him?"
"The transfer student?"
"He was really in Studies?"
"I heard he..."
I resisted the urge to look around.
Ever since stepping inside, I'd been making a conscious effort to keep my eyes on the professor.
For good reason.
There were people in this classroom whose names I'd heard for years.
People whose victories had made headlines.
People whose failures had become history.
People I'd watched die through memories of a future I was desperately trying to prevent.
The last thing I needed was to make eye contact with one of them while looking like I hadn't slept since the invention of mana.
Unfortunately, curiosity won.
My eyes wandered.
And landed on someone familiar.
Lucinda.
Oh.
There she was.
I'd seen her once before, shortly before the expedition to the God Tree.
She looked about the same.
Long black hair spilled across her folded arms and onto the desk, messy enough to suggest she'd given up on fixing it sometime that morning.
Her Vanguard jacket hung over the back of her chair, leaving her in the white undershirt beneath.
And she was asleep.
Completely asleep.
Face buried in her arms.
In the middle of class.
Two small black feline ears poked through her hair, their tips curving slightly outward.
One of them twitched.
...
Was she purring?
No.
Surely not.
I was hearing things.
Probably.
Her eyes were closed, but I remembered them well enough.
Purple.
Sharp.
The sort of eyes that made someone look permanently irritated, even when they weren't trying.
Although, knowing Lucinda, there was a decent chance she genuinely was irritated most of the time.
My gaze shifted to the girl beside her.
And stopped.
Oh.
So that was Sylphie.
The hair gave her away immediately.
Cyan.
A shade so bright and clean I almost wondered whether someone had dyed it.
It fell past her shoulders in smooth strands, reflecting the enchanted lights above with a faint, glasslike sheen.
Her eyes were the same colour.
Bright cyan irises stared directly back at me, with tiny flecks of light suspended inside them.
Almost like stars.
Her skin was pale too.
Not ordinary pale.
The kind of pale that would make Bloody accuse someone of being a corpse.
Unlike Lucinda, though, she was wide awake.
And staring at me.
Unfortunately.
No smile.
No curiosity.
Not even a hint of interest.
She simply watched me with an expression so flat I became painfully aware of how long I'd been looking at her.
Sylphie Celmont.
The Hero's closest friend.
And somehow, the only commoner in Vanguard.
I'd seen her through memories before.
Heard her name more times than I cared to count.
But seeing someone through another person's memories and standing in the same room as them were two completely different experiences.
Especially when they were staring right back.
...
How long had I been looking?
Please don't let it have been long.
"Kamrik."
I snapped toward the front.
Vaylna was looking at me.
Right.
Professor.
Class.
My introduction.
"Of course, Professor."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Your lateness will be overlooked today," she said. "Your transfer was arranged on short notice, and you are still unfamiliar with the Vanguard wing."
Oh.
That was surprisingly generous.
"We will begin with your introduction. Afterward, you may take an available seat."
I nodded.
"Sounds good."
Her expression suggested she'd have preferred something along the lines of 'Yes, Professor.'
Too late now.
She turned toward the class.
"This is the transfer student I mentioned earlier."
Vaylna didn't raise her voice.
She didn't need to.
"He was previously enrolled in Studies before undergoing an awakening. He has since completed the Vanguard admission assessment and earned his place here under the same standards as every other student."
That shut a few people up.
Not everyone, but enough.
I raised an eyebrow.
Huh.
That was actually pretty good publicity.
Especially coming from someone who looked like smiling required written authorization.
Vaylna continued.
"From today onward, he is your classmate, your teammate, and another prospective pioneer who will train alongside you."
She turned slightly toward me.
"His name is Kamrik..."
"Kamrik."
The word slipped out before I thought about it.
Shit.
I thought I'd gotten out of that habit.
Vaylna stopped.
Then slowly looked at me.
I smiled.
Not the awkward smile from earlier.
A smaller one.
"Just Kamrik is fine."
Her gaze lingered on my face.
She knew I'd interrupted her.
More importantly, she knew exactly where I'd stopped her.
Before she got the chance to continue, I took a step forward and faced the class.
Might as well handle my own introduction.
"Like the Professor said, I'm Kamrik."
A dozen unfamiliar faces stared back.
Several familiar ones too.
I made a point of not looking directly at any of them.
Especially him.
"I was in Studies until recently. Then some... things happened. I awakened, took the assessment, somehow survived, and now I'm here."
I slipped one hand into my pocket.
"So..."
I looked around the room.
"I'm guessing this is the part where I'm supposed to give some inspiring speech about how excited I am to become a pioneer of the future."
Vaylna's stare practically burned a hole through the side of my head.
I cleared my throat.
"I am very excited to become a pioneer of the future."
Someone snorted.
I had no idea who.
My smile became a little more genuine.
"Anyway, I hope we get along."
I paused.
"Or at least avoid trying to kill each other before lunch."
Silence.
...
Right.
Maybe not my best joke.
Especially considering what had happened in the hallway ten minutes ago.
Somewhere behind me, Sleazy was struggling to hold back his laughter.
Asshole.
Vaylna sighed through her nose.
"Are you finished?"
"Yep."
"Good."
She gestured toward the desks.
"Take your seat."
I nodded.
"Gladly."
I turned and headed toward the right side of the lecture hall.
Luckily, I'd already decided where I wanted to sit.
In fact, I'd known for quite a while.
I started walking down the steps.
Most of the students had finally stopped staring by now.
Good.
I'd had enough attention for one morning.
...
Well.
That was a lie.
I was about to cause a little more trouble.
But first...
I saw him.
And stopped.
At the very back of the classroom, beside the window.
There he was.
Sora.
He sat with one elbow resting on his desk, staring out at something beyond the glass.
Messy white hair framed his face, catching the morning sunlight.
His skin was fair, almost glowing where the light touched it.
But his eyes were what caught my attention.
Gold.
Not yellow.
Not amber.
Actual gold.
Even from where I stood, I saw the faint radiance inside them.
As if someone had somehow managed to trap sunlight behind his irises.
Which was annoyingly appropriate.
The sunrise streamed through the window beside him.
And the bastard somehow looked brighter.
...
Also.
He was handsome.
Like, really fucking handsome.
Now, I liked women.
I was completely sure of that.
No doubts whatsoever.
But even I had to admit the guy was ridiculously good-looking.
His jawline looked like someone had spent an unreasonable amount of time sculpting it. His white brows rested above slightly downturned eyes, giving him this naturally sleepy expression.
Like the entire world was too boring to deserve his full attention.
And somehow, the look suited him.
Seriously?
This was bullshit.
Who looked this heroic while sitting at a desk doing absolutely nothing?
I knew his face.
Everyone did.
The Hero.
Sora Sornarius.
The Champion of Light.
Heir to the greatest House in the kingdom.
For as long as I remembered, his name had been everywhere.
Newspapers.
Broadcasts.
Recruitment posters.
Every conversation about humanity's future eventually found its way back to him.
In my old life, Sora Sornarius had barely felt like a real person.
He was the Hero.
The person everyone expected to succeed when nobody else stood a chance.
And now he was sitting twenty feet away from me, staring out a window.
Completely unaware some sleep-deprived idiot had stopped in the middle of class to admire his face.
...
Oh, gods.
If Sleazy noticed, I was never going to hear the end of it.
I dragged my eyes away and forced myself to keep walking.
Focus.
I had a reason for being here.
A seat I'd picked out long before setting foot in Vanguard.
Ever since my first soul dive, I'd known exactly where I needed to go.
The right flank.
Second row from the back.
Beside her.
Knight's memories had shown me this classroom enough times for me to know the layout by heart.
And if I wanted my plan to work, I needed to get close to the Constants.
Starting today.
As I approached the row, students began looking over again.
One guy leaned toward his friend and whispered something while staring directly at me.
I already knew why.
The row ahead was almost entirely empty.
Not because the seats were bad.
Not because everyone preferred sitting somewhere else.
No.
They were empty because of the person sitting at the end.
I swallowed.
There she was.
The most important person in this room.
Possibly the most important person in the entire academy.
Dark green hair flowed down her back.
Although calling it green didn't feel quite right.
The colour was so deep it almost looked black, revealing itself only where the morning light caught individual strands.
Even then, the green had a strange, muted quality to it.
Almost sickly.
Her skin was pale.
Porcelain pale.
Then again, nearly everyone in this classroom seemed unfairly attractive.
But she was different.
There was a stillness to her appearance.
She wasn't doing anything.
Wasn't trying to draw attention.
She simply sat there, facing forward, her Vanguard uniform neatly arranged around her slender frame.
And I couldn't stop looking.
Sora looked like the sort of person people built statues of.
She looked like the sort of person people ruined their lives for.
Then she shifted slightly.
Just enough for me to see her face.
And something inside me pulled.
I froze.
It wasn't pain.
Not exactly.
More like a sudden tug somewhere deep inside my chest.
No.
Deeper than that.
My soul.
For one brief moment, I felt as though something invisible had caught hold of me and pulled.
Then it was gone.
So quickly I almost convinced myself I'd imagined it.
Almost.
Because then I saw her eyes.
Black.
Completely black.
No visible irises.
No reflections.
Only darkness.
Looking into them felt strange.
Like staring down a hole without knowing how deep it went.
They should have frightened me.
Instead, something in my chest ached.
I knew those eyes.
That face.
That expression.
Nia Dawn.
The Harbinger.
The person who would one day mark the beginning of the end of the world.
And the entire reason I was walking toward this row.
Originally, I'd planned to kill her.
Same as Carlos.
Two people.
Two of the biggest reasons the world ended.
Get rid of both, and maybe the future would change.
Simple enough, right?
At least, I'd thought so.
Then Carlos happened.
...
Yeah.
Turns out killing someone you knew wasn't nearly as simple as deciding they needed to die.
Especially when they hadn't done anything wrong yet.
Carlos had wanted to become a hero.
He'd trusted me.
And now he was gone.
Because of me.
I didn't want to do that again.
Didn't want to look at someone who still had a chance to become something better and decide their future for them.
Not before giving them a chance.
Of course, I hadn't completely abandoned the idea.
If things went wrong, if Nia truly became the Harbinger and there was no other way to stop her...
I'd still kill her.
I had to be willing to.
The future was too important.
But I didn't want to.
More than anything, I didn't want another name weighing on my conscience.
Another person whose death I'd spend the rest of my life thinking about.
So this time, I wanted to try something different.
I wanted to... understand her.
And for that, I needed to start somewhere.
Somewhere small.
Like becoming her friend.
Which meant...
I was going to sit beside her.
Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to figure out my intentions at around the same time.
"He's not actually..."
Someone whispered behind me.
"No way."
"He doesn't know."
Oh, I knew.
Trust me.
I knew considerably more than they did.
I stepped into the row.
Nia didn't look over.
She continued staring toward the front, completely ignoring the situation unfolding around her.
I passed the first empty chair.
Then the second.
Then the third.
With every seat I ignored, the atmosphere grew more uncomfortable.
Honestly, I understood why.
This was basically the classroom equivalent of walking into an empty bathroom and choosing the urinal directly beside the only other guy there.
Except everyone was apparently terrified of the guy.
Or girl, in this case.
By the time I reached her, I felt half the classroom staring at my back.
Did he know?
Why her?
Was he stupid?
...
Okay.
Maybe a little.
But not about this.
I grabbed the chair beside Nia and pulled it out.
The legs scraped loudly against the floor.
Even Vaylna paused the lesson.
I sat.
Nia didn't move.
Didn't even acknowledge my existence.
Alright.
Step one.
I faced her.
Then held out my hand.
"Hello. My name's Kamrik."
Nothing.
I kept my hand there.
"What's yours?"
Still nothing.
I gave her my most charming smile.
"Hope we can be friends."
Then...
She turned.
Slowly.
Nia finally faced me.
And our eyes met.
A shiver ran down my spine.
...
Oh.
So this was why.
I'd known people avoided Nia.
Knight's memories had made that much obvious.
She barely spoke.
Never asked questions.
Rarely showed any interest in the people around her.
And despite all of that, she was still one of the strongest students in Vanguard.
Combat.
Academics.
It didn't matter.
She was better than nearly everyone here.
Someone like that would naturally intimidate people.
But this?
This was different.
The moment I looked into her eyes, something inside me screamed to look away.
Not a conscious thought.
Instinct.
The same instinct warning a person to run when something dangerous was nearby.
I understood now.
People weren't avoiding Nia because she was strong.
Well, not entirely.
They were afraid of her.
And the reason was staring right back at me.
My silver eyes had always been strange.
A mana defect had changed their colour and left me with an unusual side effect.
I was able to get a sense of what people were feeling by looking into their eyes.
Not perfect mind-reading or anything ridiculous like that.
More like catching a glimpse of what was happening beneath the surface.
Fear.
Anger.
Joy.
Sadness.
Even when people tried hiding their emotions, I usually sensed something.
I liked calling it my window to the soul.
A little dramatic, sure.
But the name fit.
And right now, looking into Nia's eyes...
I saw nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
No anger.
No curiosity.
No irritation over some stranger suddenly sitting beside her.
Not even indifference.
I frowned slightly.
'There's nothing.'
I searched harder.
Nothing changed.
It wasn't apathy either.
Apathy was still something.
A person who didn't care about anything still had a feeling behind their lack of interest.
With Nia, I couldn't find even that.
Only emptiness.
A complete absence of anything I recognized as human emotion.
...
Well.
That was disturbing.
People were supposed to feel things.
Even the coldest, most detached person had something going on inside their head.
Something.
Nia?
Nothing I could sense.
And for whatever reason, looking into those eyes made every instinct in my body tell me something was wrong.
Something deeply wrong.
I understood why the other students were scared.
Humans were pretty good at recognizing when something didn't belong.
Especially when the thing in front of them looked human but didn't feel like one.
Their instincts told them to run.
And considering Nia's strength, fighting wasn't exactly a smart alternative.
Even knowing about her beforehand hadn't prepared me for how unsettling the experience would be.
I forced my smile to stay in place.
Barely.
Before my expression had a chance to crack, Nia lowered her gaze.
Toward my hand.
I'd almost forgotten I was still holding it out.
For a moment, she simply stared.
Then Nia moved.
Slowly, she raised her hand.
Her fingers slipped into mine.
Soft.
I blinked.
Then she shook my hand.
Once.
A small movement.
Barely anything.
Her grip wasn't particularly firm nor soft either.
There was just no warmth in the gesture.
She applied the minimum amount of pressure needed to complete a handshake.
Then stopped.
That was all.
But behind me?
The classroom practically exploded.
"What?!"
"She actually..."
"Nia shook his hand?"
"Since when does she do that?!"
"Quiet!"
Even Vaylna looked momentarily caught off guard.
My smile widened before I stopped myself.
Nia released my hand and turned back toward the front of the classroom.
Just like that.
No introduction.
No smile.
Not even a word.
As far as she was concerned, the interaction was already over.
I looked down at my hand.
Then back at her.
...
Good.
Great, actually.
Step one.
Make friends with Nia Dawn.
I mentally checked an imaginary box.
A go.
...
Probably.
She hadn't told me to fuck off, at least.
And considering everything I knew about her?
I'd call that an overwhelming success.