"so now your name was keimi, what can you do?" Kaires ask
[I can assist you, Master.]
"Like what?" Mirable ask
[Select the left option. It will display available functions.]
Kaires and Mirable press the left button of the holograms together, and then the interface change there's 5 button in that interface, but when kaires want to touch one of the button
Mirable grab his wrist firmly "don't touch anything, you don't know" she said while squeeze Kaires' wrist
"Ouch ouch, okay okay" kaires said pulling his wrist from Mirable's grasp
[Current functions are stable.]
[However, not all risks can be quantified.]
"See? This safe Mira"
"Yeah I hear that Kai, also don't do anything that you don't know, I'm worried you know"
A moment of silence before kaires said
"I promise I'm not gonna do something stupid again" he said seriously after hearing her worried tone.
"Good"
[Initializing system overview.]
[Displaying primary functions.]
Something manifest in the holograms
[Combat Function contains three primary applications:]
[1. Predictive Simulation — generates possible combat scenarios.]
[2. Tactical Analysis — provides environmental and enemy data.]
[3. Cognitive Acceleration — enhances thought-processing speed.]
"Isn't that cheating? How can it's so overpowered???" Kaires ask .
[Warning: This function imposes extreme strain on the body.]
[Post-deactivation, severe fatigue is expected.]
"So there's always a catch in the function?" Mirable ask.
[Affirmative, Master.]
"What about others button function?" Kaires ask
[Access denied.]
[Those functions are currently locked, including to this system.]
"Hmm okay" kaires still touch the other button tho, but nothing changes.
[The requested action has been denied.]
[This system is unable to override the restriction.]
[Unlock conditions are currently unknown.]
"But you say you know something that we aren't?" Kaires said.
[That statement was… incomplete.]
[Available data is limited.]
"You're so weird, are you really an AI?" Mirable ask she's suspect keimi.
[This system is an artificial intelligence.]
[Primary design functions prioritize interaction and adaptability.]
"Right..."
Kaires touched the combat function button and the interface shifted to 3 buttons, there were names below the buttons.
"Mira look this"
"Hmm?"
"Hey Mira should I touch one of them?"
"No! We should ask keimi first"
[No immediate danger detected, Master.]
[This selection is considered safe.]
"If you say so" mirable said still worried
kaires touch one of the button, and a red mahogany aura cames out from his body, the falling leaves slowed… until they stopped midair and kaires saw Mira not even flinch, and also my body seems not moving too.
"What the hell is happening?"
[Perception Acceleration has been activated, Master.]
[This function increases cognitive speed beyond normal human limits.]
[External perception will appear significantly slowed.]
"How do I deactivate it?" Kaires ask
[Deactivation is performed through intent.]
"What?"
[A simple thought command is sufficient, Master.]
"Ohh that's what you mean" kaires think of he non active the acceleration perception, and just like that everything move normally now.
But the moment after he returned to reality, his body stiffened and his brain became extremely exhausted. He had a terrible headache. His eyes were tense, and his brain seemed to have not rested for days.
Kaires held his head, the pain making him fall to the ground on the park.
"Wh-What's happen to kai?" mirable knelt beside kaires who was in pain while massaging the back of kaires' head
[Condition stable.]
[Post-activation strain is currently in effect.]
"Post-activation? didn't kaires just press it?"
[Master Mira, the function activated by Master Kaires is designated as Perception Acceleration.]
[This function accelerates the brain's information processing to a non-human level.]
"Non-human level?"
[In simplified terms, Master Kaires' cognitive speed has been elevated to the point where external motion appears nearly static.]
[Effectively, perception is accelerated to an extreme, near-light-speed processing state.]
"That's insane, but also acceptable if he got this much after effects"
"But can I do it too?" Mirable ask
[Affirmative, Master Mira.]
[You are one of the Chosen Two.]
Keimi continue
[Do you wanna do it master Mira?]
"No, I'm just asking"
[Is there any additional request, Master?]
"No, Nothing, I have to take care of this idiot first, thanks" Mirable said as she carried Kaires on her shoulders before she walk to Kaires' dorm.
[This system will remain available.]
[Call upon me when required.] then the voice gone.
Hours passed, and by the time the moon rose high into the sky, its pale light spilling through the window, Mirable still hadn't moved an inch.
She sat beside the bed, her back resting lightly against the wall, her head tilted slightly to the side. At some point, her eyes had closed.
When Kaires finally stirred awake, his vision still blurry with sleep, the first thing he saw was her.
Sleeping.
Right beside him.
For a moment, he didn't move. The room was quiet—only the faint sound of night wind brushing against the window.
He shifted slightly, careful not to make too much noise.
Her breathing was soft. Steady.
She must've stayed there the whole time.
Kaires watched her for a few seconds, something in his chest tightening slightly.
Then he smiled—small, tired.
"…Sorry," he murmured quietly. "I keep making you worry."
Mirable didn't respond.
Of course she didn't.
She was fast asleep.
Kaires leaned back into the pillow, exhaling slowly. The exhaustion still lingered in his body, but somehow… it didn't feel as heavy anymore.
A few moments later, his eyes closed again.
And this time—
The two of them fell asleep together.
The next morning, Kaires woke up slowly.
The sunlight had already crept into the room, warm and soft against his face.
He blinked once, then again, his vision gradually clearing.
And the first thing he saw—
Was Mirable.
Sitting right beside him.
Leaning slightly forward.
Staring.
With a smug smile.
"...That's creepy," Kaires muttered, his voice still rough from sleep. He squinted at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Good morning, Kai~" she said brightly, way too energetic for this hour. "I made food for you."
Kaires blinked.
Once.
Twice.
He slowly pushed himself up, his hair a mess, eyes half-lidded.
"...Food?" he repeated.
"For breakfast?" he added, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
There was a brief pause.
"...Didn't you almost burn water last time?"
"How does water even burn?!" Mirable snapped instantly, her face turning red. "That was ONE time!"
"It was boiling water," Kaires replied flatly. "You failed the easiest tutorial in existence."
"IT WAS CONFUSING!"
"...It's water."
Mirable inhaled deeply, clearly trying to hold herself back.
"ANYWAY!" she cut him off loudly, pointing at him. "I made something new. It's called a cromboloni."
Kaires stared at her.
Then at her.
Then back at her.
"...That sounds illegal."
"It's food."
"It sounds like a disease."
"It is NOT a disease!"
"Are you sure?"
"YES!"
"...Are you absolutely sure?"
Mirable closed her eyes for a second, pressing her fingers against her temple.
"You are extremely annoying in the morning."
"And yet I woke up to your face," Kaires replied without missing a beat. "I think I'm the victim here."
"...Eat your food later."
Kaires paused mid-stretch.
"Wait," he said, lowering his arms. "You actually made something?"
"Yes!" she said proudly, puffing her chest slightly.
"how?" he ask with suspicious tone and look.
"don't give me that look, i'm slowly learning to cook with ms Laura."
"from when?"
"recently, like 4-5 month i learn with her"
"good for you then"
"OHH right!! hold on there i take the crombolony"
A few minutes later—
The door burst open.
"Tada~!"
Mirable walked in dramatically, holding a plate like she was presenting a masterpiece.
Kaires looked at it.
And then… he didn't say anything.
"...Why does it look like a golden snail?"
"It's cromboloni!"
"It looks like it's about to crawl away."
"It's not alive!"
"Are you sure?"
"YES!"
"...Should I be concerned?"
"JUST EAT IT!"
Before he could escape, she shoved a piece straight into his mouth.
Kaires froze.
Chewed.
Paused.
His expression slowly shifted.
"...Wait."
He took another bite.
"...Why is this actually good?"
Mirable's face lit up instantly.
"RIGHT?! I told you!"
"This doesn't make sense," he said, staring at it like it betrayed his expectations. "You can't cook."
"I CAN NOW!"
"This is suspicious."
"You're suspicious!"
"You might've been replaced by a better version of yourself."
"...Eat faster."
Kaires continued chewing, nodding slowly.
"...Okay, this is dangerously good."
"See? I'm amazing."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said. "You upgraded from 'burning water' to 'not killing me.'"
"I will downgrade you."
"Please don't."
A short pause passed.
Kaires swallowed.
Then frowned slightly.
"...What time is it?"
Mirable smiled.
"3 a.m."
Kaires blinked.
"...What?"
"3 a.m."
He stared at her.
"...Why are we awake?"
"Because I wanted you to eat while it's fresh."
"...You woke me up at 3 a.m. to eat a golden snail."
"It's cromboloni."
"I'm going back to sleep."
"No you're not. Eat."
Kaires slowly lay back down, staring at the ceiling.
"...I hate this place."
But despite his words—
He took another bite.
Time passed, and before Kaires fully realized it, the sky had already shifted into a clear morning blue. The chill of dawn faded, replaced by a gentle warmth as sunlight spread across the academy grounds. It was 7 a.m., and the open field in front of the main hall was now filled with third graders gathering in uneven lines. Some stood straight with tense expressions, others whispered quietly to each other, and a few kept glancing toward the massive doors ahead as if expecting something to happen at any moment.
Kaires searched here and there but Kaires did not find Mirable, until he finally realized.
Mirable wasn't there, of course—she was still a second grader—but for some reason, Kaires found himself instinctively looking around anyway before reminding himself she wouldn't be.
He stood among Class 3B, hands tucked into his pockets, lazily shifting his weight from one foot to the other. A yawn threatened to escape, but he forced it back, blinking slowly as his gaze drifted across the field. Something about the atmosphere felt off. Even with so many people, it was too quiet. The usual noise of students joking and complaining was there, but underneath it, there was a layer of tension that hadn't existed yesterday—like everyone was aware this wasn't just another school activity.
At the front, standing on a raised podium, Mr. Halberd observed the crowd with his usual stern expression. His posture was rigid, his presence alone enough to make several students straighten unconsciously. When he finally spoke, his voice carried clearly across the field, cutting through the low murmurs without effort. "All third grade students are expected to line up in their respective classes. Class 3A will line up with 3A, Class 3B with 3B, and so on until Class 3E. Maintain order and do not create unnecessary noise. Do not make a fuss."
"Yes, sir," the students responded in unison, though the sound came out uneven—some voices firm, others hesitant, a few slightly delayed. The lines slowly formed as shoes scraped softly against the ground, uniforms shifted, and bags were adjusted. Kaires stepped properly into the 3B line, exhaling quietly as he glanced toward the main hall again. Up close, the building felt larger than usual. The doors were tall and heavy, their dark surface marked with faint scratches that looked almost like claw marks, though he couldn't tell if that was real or just his imagination filling in details that didn't belong.
One by one, classes were called forward, disappearing through those doors. Each time they opened, a brief shadow seemed to spill outward before closing again, and every time it happened, the murmurs among the students grew a little quieter.
"Hey… why is Class 3C shorter this year?" a girl whispered from somewhere behind him. Her voice was soft, but in the strange quiet, it carried farther than she probably intended.
"You didn't hear?" another girl replied, lowering her voice even more. "Someone failed the test last year."
Kaires' attention shifted slightly, though he kept facing forward, pretending not to listen.
"And?" the first girl asked.
There was a brief pause, just long enough to feel deliberate.
"…They never came back."
The words settled heavily in the air. For a moment, even the faint background noise seemed to fade. Kaires' fingers curled slightly in his pockets as his eyes flicked once more toward the hall.
"The academy said they were transferred," the second girl continued, though her tone didn't sound convinced at all. "But my cousin's in 2E… she said the attic above the hall is locked now."
"Locked?" the first girl asked, quieter this time.
"…Yeah. And sometimes… she hears something moving up there at night."
A faint chill crept up Kaires' spine before he could stop it. He clicked his tongue softly, trying to brush it off as nothing more than rumors, but his gaze still lifted slightly toward the upper part of the building. The windows there were dark—unnaturally dark—like no light had touched them in a long time. For a brief second, he thought he saw something shift behind one of them, but when he blinked, there was nothing there.
"Kaires Dharma."
The voice cut through his thoughts instantly.
Kaires blinked and stepped forward, slipping out of the line as a few nearby students turned their heads to watch him. He stretched his neck lightly as he walked, trying to keep his usual relaxed expression, but the closer he got to the doors, the heavier the air seemed to feel. His steps slowed for just a fraction of a second before he forced himself forward again.
"Yeah, yeah… coming," he muttered under his breath.
But even as he said it, there was a faint, unfamiliar tension tightening in his chest. And as the doors of the hall loomed in front of him, it felt less like he was walking into a test—
and more like he was stepping into something he wouldn't be able to walk away from.
Like he was walking into something he couldn't turn back from.
Kaires stepped to the front of one of the rooms, where a guard stood beside a door labeled First Trial. The man barely looked up as Kaires approached, simply holding a clipboard and tapping it lightly with a pen.
"What's your ambition in this world?"
Kaires scratched the back of his head, thinking for a second. "To live long enough… to enjoy the world."
"Okay, okay," the guard muttered, already ticking one of the checklists without much reaction.
"What's your reason in this world?"
Kaires paused a little longer this time, his gaze drifting for a split second. "i'm still don't know"
The guard's nodded slightly, marking another box.
"if you got given a choice to have any job in the entire world, what would you choose"
he thinking a second to long, "hmm, maybe adventurer or traveling writer"
"If you have to choose you want to save the world or destroy it what would you choose"
the question take him of guard why would someone ask that? "i save them of course"
"Ok, ok." Another check in the marking another box.
The guard stepped aside and gestured toward the next door. "You can go to the next room."
Kaires exhaled quietly and walked forward, pushing the door open.
The moment he stepped into the second room, something changed.
The air felt heavier—thick, almost suffocating. It pressed against his skin, crawled into his lungs. The space was unnaturally still, like even the air itself had stopped moving, waiting.
His instincts sharpened instantly.
Then a voice echoed from somewhere in the room, calm and completely emotionless.
"The trial starts now."
Kaires' eyes snapped forward.
In front of him, a formless mass began to move. Its surface rippled like liquid shadow, unstable and shifting, before suddenly tightening, compressing, forcing itself into shape. He felt a chill crawl up his spine as the thing refined itself, detail by detail, until—
An owl.
Its hollow, unnatural eyes locked onto him.
And it moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
Kaires' body reacted before his thoughts could catch up. He threw himself to the side, his shoulder hitting the ground as the creature tore through the space where he had been standing just a fraction of a second earlier. The force of its movement cut through the air with a sharp, violent sound.
His heart slammed against his ribs.
Too fast.
There was no hesitation in it. No pause. No breathing room.
The owl twisted midair with impossible control, its body snapping toward him again as if gravity meant nothing. Its wings didn't flap. It didn't need to.
It lunged again.
Kaires barely managed to roll out of the way, his movements rough, imperfect. His thoughts were already racing ahead, trying to catch up with something that simply wouldn't slow down.
He can't keep dodging like this.
"Shit—"
His hand moved instinctively to his wrist. The bracelet pulsed, and a holographic interface flickered into existence. He didn't think. He didn't analyze.
He just pressed.
Anything.
The moment his finger made contact, a red mahogany aura burst from his body, pulsing outward like a heartbeat. It spread through his arm, into his chest, into his mind—
And then everything changed.
The world didn't slow.
He did.
No—his mind did.
Everything snapped into clarity.
The owl's movement, which had been a blur just moments ago, now unfolded in perfect detail. Every shift in its trajectory, every angle, every fraction of motion—he could see all of it. The distance between them. The timing. The exact moment it would strike.
Information flooded his thoughts.
Too much.
But he held onto it.
A weapon.
His eyes flicked to the right.
Three meters.
He moved.
His body felt slow—unbelievably slow compared to the speed of his thoughts—but he adjusted instantly, forcing efficiency into every step. No wasted movement. No panic.
The owl came again, slicing through the air toward him.
Kaires lowered his body just enough, feeling the faint rush of displaced air brush past his back as it missed him by inches. He didn't stop moving. Didn't even look back.
Forward.
Always forward.
His hand reached out—
And grabbed the blade.
Cold metal met his palm. His grip tightened immediately, steady and controlled.
Behind him, the owl had already turned.
Of course it had.
Kaires didn't need to look.
He already knew.
His eyes scanned the room once—just once—and that was enough.
There.
A section of the wall.
Slightly cracked.
Structurally weak.
That's it.
He ran straight toward it.
No hesitation.
Behind him, the owl launched again, faster this time, more aggressive. He could feel it closing the distance, could see it in his mind even without turning around.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer—
At the last possible moment—
Kaires jumped.
The owl followed exactly as predicted. No adjustment. No deviation. Its speed carried it forward in a perfect line—
And its head slammed directly into the weakened wall.
The impact was violent.
A loud crack echoed through the room as the wall fractured further, debris falling in small chunks. The owl's body stuttered for just a fraction of a second, caught in the break—
And that was enough.
Kaires landed.
Turned.
And moved.
One clean motion.
The blade cut through the air—
—and across its neck.
No hesitation.
No excess force.
Just precision.
The head separated instantly.
The owl's body froze mid-motion, its form flickering for a brief moment before dissolving into nothing, like smoke being erased from existence.
Silence.
For one second—
Two—
Then—
Everything snapped back.
Sound crashed into him all at once. The weight of reality slammed down, and the strain followed immediately after.
Kaires' body locked up, he threw his blade as far away from him as possible.
A crushing headache exploded through his skull, sharp and overwhelming. His vision blurred violently, the room spinning as his breath hitched uncontrollably. It felt like his brain had been stretched too far—pushed beyond something it was never meant to reach—and then forced back in an instant.
His legs gave out.
He dropped to his knees, one hand gripping his head tightly as if he could hold it together. His breathing turned uneven, shallow, each inhale burning.
"…gh—"
Pain.
Too much pain.
His thoughts, which had been so sharp just moments ago, now felt scattered and heavy.
A voice echoed through the room again, distant and indifferent.
"Congratulations on completing the second trial. Please proceed to the final room."
Kaires stayed there for a moment, hunched over, breathing hard, waiting—forcing the pain to settle just enough so he could move again.
Slowly, he pushed himself up.
His body resisted. His balance wavered slightly, his legs still unsteady beneath him, but he didn't stop.
Step by step, he moved forward.
Toward the next door.
When Kaires arrived, he stopped for a moment, staring.
The door was massive.
Far too large for something inside a school.
It towered over him, its surface dark and imposing, as if it didn't belong to this place at all. A faint wind seemed to leak from the gaps around it, brushing against his skin with a cold, unnatural touch.
Kaires frowned slightly.
Then—
A voice echoed inside his head.
[Warning: This action will result in irreversible consequences.]
[Confirmation required. Do you wish to proceed, Master?]
The moment the voice faded, the air around the door shifted.
The wind grew stronger.
He could feel it now—something was wrong.
Not just strange.
Wrong.
Kaires stood there, staring at the door, his hand hovering just inches away from it. His chest rose and fell slowly as he took a deep breath, steadying himself.
For a brief moment—
He hesitated.
Then—
He pushed the door.