Inside the grandeur of the Student Senate Room illuminated by a crystal chandelier, the silence of the night was broken only by the rustle of paper.
Lysandra Morcant, the Duke's Daughter serving as Senate President, massaged her temples gracefully. Spread out on her mahogany desk was the latest report from Head Instructor Alric Stormvale regarding the tightened security at all academy gates.
The death of Cadet Vane had caused the Nightbane faction to stir in silence.
"The air in this academy is getting suffocating," complained Lysandra softly, putting down her quill. She glanced toward the velvet sofa in the corner of the room. "What do you think, Selena?"
Selena Lune was sitting calmly, pouring hot chamomile tea into a porcelain cup. Thin, floral-scented steam wafted into the air.
"Physical gate security is indeed good to calm the frightened nobles," said Selena with a relaxed, melodious tone. She put down the teapot and looked at her best friend. "But if the Nightbane faction truly wants to play dirty, knights at the gate will not be enough. Lysandra, I suggest the Senate use our emergency authority tonight."
"Emergency authority?" Lysandra's eyebrows knit together.
"Activate the Mana Fluctuation Alarm across all dormitory areas and academy facilities to maximum sensitivity," proposed Selena with a sweet smile. "If anyone, be it a cadet or an intruder, casts magic above the basic tier tonight, the alarm will howl and wake the entire knight battalion."
Lysandra fell silent. Her sharp eyes stared at the black-haired girl before her, trying to find a crack in her perfect mask.
"Why are you so insistent on protecting that outcast youth, Selena?" asked Lysandra finally, her tone turning serious.
Selena tilted her head, pretending to be confused. "Who? Cadet Draven? I am merely proposing standard security measures, Lysandra."
"Do not play word games with me," interrupted Lysandra, letting out a long sigh. "If it were not for you whining and asking me personally the other day, I would never have been willing to step in and stop Sir Vance's sword when Draven took Darius hostage. I also would not have bothered manipulating the schedule so you could get into Group 4 for the Forbidden Forest expedition."
Lysandra leaned her back against the chair. "Those two things gambled my neutrality and risked triggering an open war between Morcant and Nightbane. I did it purely because I care for you as my best friend, Selena. But that cadet... Kael Draven... he is nothing but trouble. What do you see in him?"
Selena fell silent. The mask of the innocent and elegant girl she usually wore slowly faded. She placed her teacup down, then looked at Lysandra.
For the first time in that room, Selena offered a truly genuine smile. Not a diplomatic smile, not the manipulative smile she usually used to play with her prey.
"Thank you, Lysandra," said Selena softly. "I know you have taken great risks for me. I am very, very grateful."
Seeing that sincere smile, the harshness in Lysandra's eyes slowly softened.
"Regarding Cadet Draven..." Selena continued, her eyes staring out the window displaying the dark night. "It is not yet time for you to know why he is so important. But I promise you, Lysandra, he will be the key to destroying the boredom in this world. Please... trust me just this once."
Hearing the sincere request from the only person she considered a best friend, Lysandra let out a long sigh of surrender. The Morcant Princess pulled a Senate-stamped parchment, dipped her pen into the ink, and began writing the instruction.
"Only for tonight," decided Lysandra while affixing her signature. "I will order the guards to activate the mana alarm sensitivity. I hope you know what you are playing at, Selena."
The night wind blew cold, carrying a bone-piercing chill onto the roof of the South Dormitory.
The time was approaching midnight. I sat cross-legged in the dark shadow of a large stone chimney, merging my breath with the surrounding silence.
My body was still screaming in pain. Every time I took too deep a breath, my ribs felt as if pierced by hot needles. The "glass cup" inside my chest was still cracked. I knew for certain, my Sanguine Core could not be used tonight without killing me instantly.
However, a soldier who lost his cannon would not simply surrender his neck to the enemy. If I could not use magic, I would revert to being a dirty trench soldier.
I did not come to this roof empty-handed. Armed with past instincts, I had transformed this roof area into a makeshift kill zone.
In several shadow-covered blind spots, I had scattered window glass shards; their sound would inform me if anyone stepped on them. Near the stairwell door, I rigged a thin ankle-high tripwire. Meanwhile, hidden beneath my academy cloak, five standard military throwing daggers were neatly pinned, ready to be drawn in a millisecond.
While keeping watch over the dormitory courtyard far below, my eyes caught an anomaly.
The street lamp posts using mana crystals throughout the academy area suddenly glowed with a very fast and blinding rhythm. That glow was not for illumination, but an indicator. My tactical brain immediately spun.
The Mana Fluctuation Alarm had been switched to emergency sensitivity level.
Usually, this mechanism was only turned on when the academy was attacked by enemy forces from the outside. If anyone cast magic above the basic tier within this radius, those crystals would explode into a magical siren sound that would wake every elite knight within a one-mile radius.
The Instructor Council could not possibly turn it on without a clear reason. There was only one other institution with such rapid bureaucratic authority at night. The Student Senate.
My mind went straight to one name. Selena Lune.
My goosebumps rose. That psychopathic girl with an angel's face... somehow she knew an assassin was targeting me tonight. She deliberately altered this battle arena to protect me, or more accurately, to keep her "investment" alive.
However, that sense of horror was quickly replaced by a savage grin expanding on my lips.
I realized the tremendous tactical advantage of this alarm. An Assassin from the Black Tower relied heavily on high-tier elemental magic, especially shadow manipulation magic to infiltrate and kill silently.
With this alarm active, the Assassin had effectively been nerfed. If he used his shadow magic near the dormitory, he would trigger the siren and be surrounded by hundreds of knights.
The only way that Assassin could kill me tonight was to reveal his physical form and engage in a blade clash like an ordinary human.
I touched the dagger hilt at my waist. If this was a pure physical fight, stabbing each other at close range without involving magic... then the Assassin had just stepped into my territory.
I was the king of close-quarters combat inside narrow trenches.
Creeak...
The sound of a rusted iron hinge broke the silence.
My focus immediately locked onto the only access door leading to this roof. My heart beat one tempo slower. My muscles tensed, ready to explode into a deadly movement. I drew one throwing dagger from under my cloak, hiding it behind my wrist.
The sound of footsteps was heard climbing the final stairs. The steps were slow, trying not to make a sound, but to my veteran ears, those steps were too heavy and irregular for a high-tier assassin.
The door opened. A silhouette emerged from the dim moonlight.
I relaxed my stance, lowering the dagger in my hand. It was not the Assassin.
Virelith Ashryn stepped out onto the dormitory roof. The girl's breath was slightly ragged from having to climb five flights of stairs secretly. She wore her oversized gray cloak, her glasses slightly fogged from the cold night air, and both her hands hugged her parchment bag tightly in front of her chest.
Virelith stepped forward, then suddenly her steps halted.
The girl looked down, her sharp eyes behind the spectacle lenses staring directly at the thin wire stretched ankle-high, just an inch away from the tip of her shoe. She swallowed hard, then stepped over it with extreme caution.
She noticed it, I thought with a satisfied smile. Her vigilance instinct was not dull at all.
I stepped out from the shadow of the stone chimney, letting the moonlight illuminate my face. Virelith gasped in shock and reflexively took a half step back upon seeing me appear as if out of thin air.
"Right on time," I said breaking the silence, my tone of voice flat yet filled with a commander's authority.
Virelith's eyes shifted from the tripwire on the floor to the dagger I had just hidden back beneath my cloak. The pragmatic girl immediately realized that I was waiting for an enemy's arrival, not merely hanging out to enjoy the night breeze.
"You turned this roof into a war zone," hissed Virelith, her voice trembling between anger and fear. "You are truly being hunted, Draven."
"And you brought my bag of gold," I replied, glancing toward her parchment bag which looked much bulkier and heavier than usual. "I assume you have weighed the risks when you decided not to return that down payment to me this afternoon, Miss Ashryn."
The night wind blew stronger, lifting the edge of my academy cloak. I walked a few steps closer to her, letting the distance between us be close enough so she could see the absolute seriousness in my eyes.
"I do not have much time, and perhaps you do not either," I said coldly. "So, what is your decision?"
Virelith stared at me intently. There was no longer the resigned outcast female cadet from when her stone wall was destroyed by nobles. In her eyes, I saw the spark of rebellion from someone sick of being trampled on.
"Will you go back down to your room, becoming the dust swept and stepped on by nobles tomorrow morning..." I paused my sentence, throwing out the final offer that would change the girl's destiny forever. "...or will you stand on the front lines, and dig death with me?"
Virelith's hands gripped her bag strap tightly until her knuckles turned white. The girl took a deep breath, letting the cold air fill her lungs. She opened her mouth, preparing to deliver the one absolute sentence that would determine whether she would die a loser, or become the deadliest Combat Field Engineer in the Aethelgard empire.