Eira folded her arms as she examined the stack of letters scattered across her desk. Most of them had the same handwriting—uneven, nervous strokes repeating the same phrases again and again.
You're beautiful.Please notice me.I think about you every day.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"We should find Clyde now before things turn bad," she said calmly.
Aurelian nodded. "I'll check the dorms. Marlowe, head to the cafeteria. Eira, stay here and look for clues."
"Got it," Marlowe replied, pushing himself off the wall.
Within seconds they separated. Aurelian burst into motion first, sprinting down the corridor like a gust of wind. His footsteps echoed faintly as he rushed through the dormitory hallway, the curtains near the windows fluttering as he passed.
He reached the dorm wing quickly and checked Clyde's room.
Empty.
The hallway.
Empty.
Aurelian slowed down, frowning.
"Strange…"
Then a memory flashed through his mind. Earlier, when he had left the room, he had seen someone walking down the corridor toward Eira's dorm.
He stopped.
"…Wait."
Thin frame. Messy hair. Round glasses.
Cedric.
Aurelian's eyes widened slightly.
"Was he heading toward Eira?"
Without another second of hesitation, Aurelian spun around and sprinted back down the hallway.
Inside her dorm room, Eira remained seated at her desk. The letters were still spread across the table in front of her. Many of them were folded carefully, while others looked like they had been rewritten several times. Almost every letter ended with the same desperate sentence.
Please give me a chance.
Eira sighed softly.
Then came a knock.
Knock. Knock.
She stood up slowly and walked toward the door. Her movements were calm and controlled. When she opened it, Cedric stood outside.
Up close, he looked even thinner than before. His messy brown hair clung awkwardly to his forehead, and his round glasses slid slightly down his nose. But something about him felt wrong.
His face was pale.
Too pale.
And his body was twitching.
Small, irregular spasms ran through his shoulders and neck, like something inside him was struggling to move.
Eira's eyes sharpened.
Is he an Ichorborn?
Why is he twitching like that?
Is he turning into a Howling?
Without drawing attention, a slender dagger slipped quietly from her sleeve and into her palm.
Cedric looked at her. His eyes seemed strangely empty.
"Tell me something," he said quietly.
"Will you date me?"
"No," Eira replied without hesitation.
For a moment everything went silent.
Then she felt it.
Cedric's heart suddenly spiked with unstable energy. The blank card embedded within his heart began vibrating violently. Cedric's head jerked sharply to the side as his bones cracked with disturbing sounds.
His body began to change.
His right arm swelled unnaturally as the flesh stretched outward. Jagged spikes slowly pushed through the skin like thorns growing from inside his body.
Within seconds, Cedric lunged forward and swung the massive spiked arm toward Eira.
But she had already moved.
In a blur, she appeared behind him.
A silver flash cut through the air.
Cedric's mutated arm dropped to the floor.
Eira's voice remained cold.
"Didn't you know?"
She held the dagger loosely in her hand.
"Shroud Ichor grows stronger during a new moon."
Cedric's body convulsed violently. His mouth began to stretch open as the muscles around his jaw tore apart. His teeth lengthened into jagged fangs as his face twisted into something no longer human.
With a distorted screech, he lunged toward her again, his enormous mouth opening wide enough to swallow half her head.
But before he could reach her, the shroud ichor within Eira's heart flared.
Dark lunar energy surged through her veins.
She stepped forward once.
Her blade moved.
One clean strike.
Cedric's body split apart.
Before the corpse could collapse, Eira flicked her wrist and threw the dagger forward. The blade pierced directly into the blank card embedded in Cedric's heart, shattering it instantly.
Cedric's body convulsed once… then went completely still.
His corpse collapsed onto the hallway floor.
A moment later, hurried footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Aurelian arrived and stopped immediately when he saw the body.
"…Well," he said slowly, "that escalated quickly."
He crouched slightly and examined Cedric's distorted corpse.
"This is bad. Something is really wrong with this school."
Eira retrieved her dagger.
"This isn't the type of Howling Captain Aldric described."
Aurelian frowned. "Then what is it?"
"The Howlings Aldric warned us about corrupt a person's frequency," Eira explained. "Their emotional waves become unstable until they transform completely."
She looked down at Cedric's body.
"This one felt incomplete."
Aurelian scratched the back of his head.
"That's somehow worse."
"We should check on Marlowe."
Eira nodded.
"Agreed."
Meanwhile, inside the cafeteria, Marlowe walked slowly between the empty tables. Most of the students had already returned to class, leaving the hall strangely quiet.
Marlowe closed his eyes briefly.
Inside his chest, his Echo Ichor pulsed. A faint vibration spread outward like invisible waves—his form of echolocation.
He searched for Clyde's frequency.
After a moment, he found it.
"…There you are."
The signal was faint but clear enough.
Clyde had passed through the cafeteria not long ago.
But he had already left.
Marlowe opened his eyes and looked toward the hallway leading deeper into the academy.
"He left already…"
He slipped his hands into his pockets and began walking toward the corridor.
"Guess I'll go find him."
Far above, the academy bell rang softly, signaling the end of recess as the halls slowly began filling with students again. But beneath the normal rhythm of school life, something unseen continued to move quietly within the walls of Cristae Academy.