I hate my luck.

I stared at the sheet of paper in my hand—one single line standing like proof that the universe got a kick out of screwing me over.

My expression was grim; my thoughts, darker still. Beneath the stillness of my face, something simmered, sharp and volatile.

I know your secret.

The words sat there in black ink, born from nowhere, wrapped in an unmarked envelope that had found its way to me. Now I sat in the thick, suffocating quiet of my room, trying to drag meaning out of it.

Despite being alone, the air felt colder—like someone else was here, watching. The paper's slick surface might as well have been the edge of a blade — pressed against my neck — each word carving into me with uncertainty and slow-brewing dread.

The moment my pulse steadied, I forced my awareness outward. My senses snapped into razor focus, stretching far beyond the walls of my room—enough to sweep almost the entire floor.

One of the few advantages I'd gained since reincarnating into this body was my heightened perception. Sharper instincts than most. A rare talent.

Still… it felt almost pointless now. The faint echoes of the empty hallway reached me—doors shut, lights dim, the sterile hush of the dorm floor pressing in. Nothing unusual. No footsteps, no hurried breaths hiding just beyond my reach.

A humorless breath slipped out. Hah.

What was I expecting? That whoever slipped me this cursed envelope would still be lurking nearby?

For all I knew, the letter could have been sitting at my door for hours before I returned. Maybe longer.

It was almost curfew now. Cadets were tucked away in their rooms, scattered voices muffled by walls. No one stood out. No presence prickled the back of my neck.

And yet… the words burned in my head.

I know your secret.

Okay, let's calmly analyse this.

At this point, it sounded like I'd repeated myself so much, my mouth's about to fal off — a mysterious letter arrived in front of my doorstep.

There was no sender's name or address. No seals. Nothing at all.

Even the letter itself was blank, except for a single mysterious sentence not longer than the four words written in black ink.

The following questions were...

Who, what, why, how, and when.

The questions came naturally:

Who sent it?

What did it mean?

Why now?

How did they know?

And the one that gnawed at me most—

How long had they known?

Some questions weighed heavier than others.

If this letter wasn't just a cruel prank — which I doubted — then taking those words at face value could mean I'd just stepped into dangerous territory.

Just when i thought things couldn't get any worse today...

So, I started to pick it apart — what I knew versus what I didn't, accordingly.

My door was locked.

The quiet pressed in around me, sharpening every flicker of awareness. Alone, sitting motionless in my room, I began peeling back the layers of my situation, one thought at a time.

If I took these words at face value, then whoever sent them wasn't just playing around — they had a purpose. I could guess at a few possibilities, but none I could nail down with certainty.

And that was the problem.

That thin, grey line between what I knew and what I didn't — it was the very thing that made this feel so… dangerous.

Because yes, it was unnerving. It's not every day you come back to your room to find a letter screaming I know your secret in bold letters.

But who…?

"Aurhea…?"

My brows knit as the memory of my brief, almost surreal meeting with the Student Council President replayed in my mind. It wasn't strange that she was one of the first people to surface in my thoughts. After all, earlier today I had the distinct, prickling sense that she'd been onto me… though I'd convinced myself otherwise.

Even so, I wasn't entirely sure.

But something about it didn't fit.

From the short glimpse I'd gotten of her — the golden poise, the sharp charisma — Aurhea didn't strike me as the kind to tiptoe around a confrontation. If she'd wanted to come at me, she'd have done it face-to-face. No theatrics. No cryptic notes.

Especially considering the way she more or less did by confronting me in person. Although it was seemingly for a different reason than i thought...

And then there were the things she said at the end—about me and my sister.

The way her tone shifted… the weight behind her words.

Through the whole vague, oppressive exchange, with Aurhea's smile hanging between us like a fog spun to conceal more than it revealed, it was only in that moment—when she spoke of Addriene and me—that I felt I caught a fleeting glimpse beneath all that charm.

She seemed genuine.

But I knew part of that was my own emotions coloring the moment.

Logically, Aurhea was still a prime suspect.

I knew next to nothing about her, while she seemed to know far too much about me—whether truly through my sister… or not.

I couldn't be sure.

But if not Aurhea… then who?

The thought was barely formed before a list surfaced in my mind, uninvited and all too familiar:

Ceres. Alexander. Deandra. Chelsea. Trise. Don…

Pretty much everyone I'd spoken to, however briefly, since arriving at the Academy.

"Hah…" I almost laughed at myself. I was being ridiculous, wasn't I?

…Was I?

Because right now—honestly—no.

Right now, I suspected every single person whose name I knew. Every contact I'd made. Check latest chapters at Nove1Fire.net

No exceptions.

A humorless laugh scraped from my throat as I crushed the letter in my fist.

Suddenly, the air felt different—thicker. My skin prickled with the awareness that I might be surrounded by enemies I couldn't see. No name in my life felt safe anymore.

What the hell was this? How cliché could my situation get?

Was that the sender's goal—to reduce me to some stock character in their little game, to rattle me into paranoia?

If that was the case, they'd already scored a point.

This felt like a psychological play, plain and simple.

And if I read between the lines, the words I Know Your Secret could just as easily mean:

I'm always watching.

I see you.

For obvious reasons, that thought didn't feel far-fetched at all.

Well… quite a troublesome situation you've landed yourself in, Vic.

I let out a dry chortle, the weight of the entire day finally pressing against my shoulders as I collapsed back onto my bed.

Whoever sent this clearly wanted something from me. And if I hadn't binge-watched one too many crime-mystery dramas, I'd guess the culprit would be showing themselves to me sooner or later. Either that, or I'd be receiving a follow-up.

Of course, there was still the chance this was a prank — or some kind of sick joke.

Earlier today, when I ran into Aurhea before meeting Ceres, I thought that weird, bizarre senior coming at me like that was just another inventive form of bullying. Very creative… and very weird. So maybe this strange letter was the same?

Okay, fine — maybe I was being a little too unrealistic. But the possibility couldn't be completely dismissed, no matter how slim it seemed.

And besides… the content of the letter made me wonder.

What secret of mine did they supposedly know?

Not to brag, but I was basically a walking, breathing bag of contradictions and secrets.

You walking up to me and saying, "I know your secret" could make my pulse spike for one too many reasons.

I mean—what secret exactly do you know? Ever heard of being specific? Hello?!

That was probably why this letter rattled me so much.

Unless it was just a wild guess—a probing shot in the dark meant to unsettle me. Maybe the sender suspected something and wanted to throw me off balance, keep me paranoid enough to slip up. To make me reveal something—evidence.

And that gave the culprit behind this letter one label in my mind: someone suspicious of me.

Aurhea's name crept in again, uninvited, but I shoved it aside to consider other possibilities. My head started to pound, a dull ache that throbbed harder with each thought.

Given the timing of the letter's arrival, I couldn't shake the feeling it was connected to the Karma mark on my left hand. Either that… or someone knew I was the masked stranger who killed Nicodemus.

But the latter felt unlikely. I had both Murmur's Mask and the Ring of Solomon's Enchantment active. Unless someone had watched me put on that black mask right before assuming the persona, there was no way to connect me to that… thing.

The moment my thoughts reached that point, a single name surfaced.

Don…?

My brows knit.

Don was the closest to someone who might've seen me wear it.

No, no… I halted the thought. I'd made sure to knock the black-haired boy out before he could fully wake.

But… could he have seen me then? Would that explain his odd behaviour when we crossed paths again yesterday?

The tips of my fingers trembled as the pieces began to align.

Suddenly, Don Clyde sat at the very top of my suspect list.