[Nova Academy – Dormitory Hallway, Morning]
Deren stepped out of his room looking like he had just lost a fight with a nightmare and an ancient demon at the same time. Bed hair everywhere, pillow lines still creasing his face.
Kael was already standing at the door, grinning like a billboard ad."DEREN! You're on the morning news!""…Please tell me that's a lie."
Kael tapped his communicator, projecting a holographic headline:
[Headline: "Mysterious Cadet Activates Colosia, Saves Eterna!"][Subhead: "Who Is Deren Arkwright? Forgotten Asset or Secret Weapon?"]
Deren stared at the floating text for a moment."If I fake a seizure right now, think I can make it out the dorm window in time?"
Ryn appeared at the stairwell. "You're the talk of senior cadets and faculty. Word is, you accessed systems that no cadet should even know exist.""I didn't access anything," Deren grunted. "I got dragged. I'm a victim. Of my own failed technology."
[Nova Academy – High-Level Strategy Division Conference Room]
The room was filled with the clatter of pens, sighs of frustration, and flashing streams of data.
At the center of a massive oval table, a 3D hologram looped combat footage: Colosia on the brink of collapse, then a lone cadet entering and restoring emergency systems no one should've been able to touch.
Beneath the image, one name pulsed over and over:DEREN ARKWRIGHT – Cadet Level: C. System Access: Not Registered.
A military strategist from Valdheim snapped, "This is a security breach. A cadet—unauthorized—accessed a classified military system!""And saved Colosia from complete destruction," countered a tech officer from Eterna."That's not the point," said a monitor from Selvas. "The point is: he accessed a subsystem we hadn't even activated. Which means he knew a backdoor. Who gave him the blueprints?"A representative from Thalros chimed in with a smirk, "Or maybe… who sold the design to the black market first?"
The room heated up fast. Accusations quickly spiraled toward political agendas.
Nayra stayed silent, fingers gliding over her tactical screen—page after page of data logs: reactor energy spikes, override signatures, code structures.
Too clean.Too efficient.Not something built by any Nova or central military team.
A senior observer leaned into his mic. "Analysis concludes Colosia's system was likely modified. The question is—who allowed that to happen?"
Then, the head of Nova's oversight team spoke—quietly, yet firm."Not who allowed it. But who was genius enough to create it—without us even knowing."
Silence.
Finally, Nayra spoke. Her voice calm, but cold enough to cut through the noise."If you're afraid of him because he saved us using tech you don't understand... then maybe the thing you should fear isn't the boy."
All eyes turned to her.
Nayra stared directly at the screen. Deren's face appeared—messy, dust-covered, unreadable."He's not trying to control anything. He doesn't want power. And that's exactly what makes him dangerous."
A commander asked, cautiously, "Are you recommending… surveillance?"Nayra replied without pause, "Surveillance, yes. But not to restrain. We monitor him… because we don't know what he'll do when we're unprepared."
Then, more softly, like a monologue to herself:"You can't control someone who wants nothing from your system."
[Eidolon Special Monitoring Room – Underworld]
Silence filled the steel-walled chamber, save for the hum of servers and soft clacks of updating terminals.
Clarice stood in the center, dressed in black, no insignia. Before her, six screens flickered—one displaying the news headline, the others filled with hidden transmissions, Hybrid Metavore scans, and Core resonance readings from the battle.
On every screen, the name "Deren Arkwright" appeared.Cadet. Savior. Threat. Variable.
"You rose to the spotlight fast…" she muttered.
One feed replayed the Colosia scene in slow motion:Deren, standing in the heart of the reactor bay. One hand on the control panel. Flames behind him. Expression blank.Not heroic. Not proud.Just… like he was fixing a water heater.
She muted the video. Didn't need sound—his face told her everything.
A new alert popped up:[UNDERWORLD FORUM: New Thread – "Is Eidolon Behind the Colosia Incident?"]Comments poured in. Some claimed Deren was a secret pawn of Eidolon.Others were already offering money for "Arkwright-made tech."
Clarice sighed and rubbed her temple."They're trying to own him... before they even know who he really is."
She opened the internal command prompt and began typing:[Initialize Passive Protection Protocol – Target: D.A.][Status: Internal Priority Level 1. All assets instructed to maintain safe distance. Do not reveal association.]
Deren would hate this. He'd complain. Or more likely, disappear.But that didn't matter.
What mattered was—The more people noticed Deren…The less space he'd have to vanish.
Someone entered the room—pale, tense. A field strategist."Lady Clarice… we intercepted an encrypted signal. It mentioned the name 'Arkwright'. The source... it's not from this planet."
Clarice's eyes snapped to the screen. She didn't blink."We're late. But we can still control the board."
She pulled up Eidolon's operational grid. Red dots marked agents across every city."Call the neutral unit. Wipe all black market records linking Deren to any known tech. And make sure no one learns… he's the original creator."
The strategist hesitated. "But wouldn't that—""Protect him. Don't glorify him," Clarice cut in.
Then she looked to the last screen.A shot of Deren sitting on the dorm rooftop, staring at the night sky. Alone.
"You didn't ask to be at the center of anything… but the world's already chosen you, Der.""And if the world's going to pull you in… then I'll be the wall it crashes into first."
[Dorm Rooftop – Early Evening]
The sky above Nova Academy had turned a muddled canvas of deep orange and violet—like a painting unsure if it wanted to be peaceful or somber.
Deren sat at the rooftop's edge, back resting against an old comms tower long out of use.
A pair of Core birds flew by, low and whistling like wind through a broken bottle.In his hand, a half-empty can of coffee. Cold. He wasn't drinking it. Just holding it—like maybe its lost warmth could still calm his thoughts.
"This is all getting... weird."
He wasn't afraid. That wasn't the issue.The issue was—he knew he was becoming the center of something.Something he didn't even understand yet.
Footsteps.
Kael emerged from the stairwell, holding two more drink cans and a bag of roasted corn snacks. Always that flavor, somehow.
"Yo," Kael greeted cheerfully. "Figured you'd be in the lab, but then I remembered—nah, you're not that hardworking."
Deren didn't reply. Just took a can without looking.
Soon after, Ryn joined, sitting quietly to Deren's right. As usual, no words. Just presence.
For a while, only the wind spoke—soft gusts and metallic clicks from opening cans.
Kael finally broke the silence. His voice quieter now."Lots of people talking about you today, man.""Let 'em," Deren replied. "By tomorrow, they'll either forget... or need someone to blame when the system screws up."
Ryn turned to him. "You do know, right? You're not just 'some guy' anymore."
Deren sighed. Long and deep."I know. But I'd rather be the guy who doesn't get called when the alarms go off."
Kael chuckled. "You're a hero, Deren. Doesn't matter how many times you try to deny it—the world already sees it.""I can deny it. I just don't want to get charged for assaulting national defense protocols."
Ryn lowered his head slightly. "You know… it's not just the tech. When you activated Colosia... people saw something in you.Something they can't explain."
Deren looked up at the sky. His expression stayed flat, but his eyes traced the stars."I never asked to be seen. I just wanna make cool stuff, sell it to rich idiots, and sleep until noon."
Ryn gave a rare, faint smile. "Too bad. The world doesn't always follow the blueprint."
[End of Chapter 3]In the distance, wind scraped the academy's glass walls.
Inside rooms far from their rooftop view, emergency meetings raged.Data on Deren was compiled. Copied. Shared.Unseen hands began to draft plans.
But on that rooftop—Three cadets simply sat.
One wanted fame.One sought balance.And one—just wanted peace.
But the night sky knew more.
Between the stars, a single signal pulsed—moving quietly...toward a destination no one on Earth could trace.
And the name encoded within it…D.A – Galactic Priority Source, Observation Class 0.1