[Analyzing genetic data... 100% match found in blood reservoir. Commencing Morphological Shift.]
My bones popped and cracked as I shed Miera's elegant form. My height stretched back out, my jawline hardened, and the long, silky gray strands of hair retracted, leaving the short, dark mess of Zenni Roy. I slipped into Josan's freshly tailored and repaired ivory-and-gold uniform, adjusting the collar. To erase any lingering, toxic trace of the Emerald Spire, I pulled out a small bottle of lavender perfume I had kept in my pouch and sprayed myself thoroughly. The sharp, clean floral scent instantly masked the sickly sweet aura of Lotus Dust.
[Visual confirmation: 100% accuracy. Heart rate, scent, and vocal cords successfully calibrated. Successfully shapeshifted into Zenni Roy]
I held up the brass key Zenni had thrown at me, tilting it toward the moonlight. Stamped into the metal was
Southern Dorm, Room C-1.
"Third floor, first room," I noted, mapping the academy's layout in my mind.
In context, the campus was strictly divided. The Northern District housed the girls' dorms, while the Southern District contained the boys' dorms, completely separated to maintain academy discipline. Right now, both districts are under total lockdown.
I approached the massive, towering perimeter fence of the Southern Dorms. The top was coiled with vicious, magically-infused barbed wire, and the heavy iron gates below were flanked by academy guards holding glowing mana lanterns. Curfew had passed hours ago. If a student was caught wandering outside at midnight, especially with the entire city on high alert for drug addicts and assassins, it meant immediate expulsion, or worse, an express ticket back to the knight station's cellars.
Waiting for the guards to turn their backs, I gathered my own agility stats in my legs and leaped smoothly over the perimeter fence. I cleared the barbed wire without making a sound, landing softly on the manicured grass inside the courtyard.
The main entrance doors to the dormitory facility were securely locked from the inside. Sneaking through the front lobby was out of the question.
I slipped around to the shadow of the building's brick facade, finding a blind spot away from the guard patrols. Looking up at the vertical wall, I began to climb. Using the structural ledges, window sills, and decorative stonework as handholds, I scaled the building with the effortless agility of an bounty hunter.
Within moments, I reached the dark exterior of the third floor. I shuffled carefully along the narrow concrete ledge until I reached the very first window of the wing, Room C-1.
Holding my breath, I slid my fingers underneath the window frame. Finding it unlatched, I carefully pried the glass open, letting the cool night air flow into the dark, silent room as I prepared to swing myself inside Zenni's true sanctuary.
I swung my legs over the window sill and slipped silently into the room, closing the glass panes tightly behind me to lock out the freezing midnight wind.
The room was pitch-black and freezing. I navigated the shadows by memory, finding a heavy brass lantern resting on a wooden side table. I uncapped the reservoir, carefully poured a fresh stream of kerosene inside, and struck a match. The small, warm flame caught the wick, and a soft amber glow slowly illuminated Zenni's true sanctuary.
It was exactly as he had said in the cellar. The room had been abandoned for at least a week. A heavy layer of dust coated the small wooden desk and the single cot in the corner. On the table, a half-eaten plate of academy rations had turned completely black, rotting and filling the immediate air with a sour stench. I picked up the plate, dumped the spoiled food into a nearby waste bin, and lit a small stick of incense to clear the air.
With the space finally clean, I unbuttoned my ivory blazer and pulled out the thick leather binder containing my Registry of the Condemned, the list of bounties and high-profile targets I needed to execute in this city. I set it down firmly on the center of the desk. Oksana's name was still at the very top.
Exhausted from the relentless chaos of the night, from the explosion on the bridge to the chaotic jailbreak, I walked over to the small, cracked vanity mirror hanging on the wardrobe to inspect my face and ensure the Zenni disguise was still perfect.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
I blinked, staring straight ahead. There was nothing. The mirror reflected the wooden wall behind me, the flickering lantern light, and the dust motes dancing in the air. But where my face should have been, there was an empty, unsettling void. I raised my hand to touch my cheek; I could feel the solid, physical flesh of Zenni's face, yet the glass showed absolutely nothing.
A cold shiver ran down my spine as a terrifying truth about my own power finally clicked into place.
Even though I was physically occupying this artificial Zenni persona, my true essence as Eirene Rynd, the phantom hunter, could not be truly replicated by regular optics. When I used my shapeshifting magic to fabricate a completely new identity rather than copying a living soul like Miera, the universe treated it like a ghost. I was a walking anomaly. I had no reflection.
It's all because of my fifth evolution, all my reflection were remained invisible. I stared at the empty glass, a wry, dark smile playing on my invisible lips. It was a terrifying curse, but the ultimate blessing for a killer. To the world, Zenni Roy was a brave, rising prodigy in the academy and the newly appointed apprentice to a drug empire. But in reality, he was nothing more than a ghost, a mirror with no soul, waiting for the perfect moment to shatter the Lotus Dust Queen into pieces.
The double life of Zenni Roy had officially begun.