CHAPTER 103: ELF [1]

***

"We have to talk with the other races about this matter."

Emily’s voice carried a quiet weight that made the room feel colder.

She sat behind her desk, back straight, fingers interlocked as if holding the world together by will alone.

The soft rustle of papers and the faint ticking of the clock were the only sounds that dared to exist in that silence.

Across from her, Alicia and Ed exchanged uncertain glances.

Both had seen the look in Emily’s eyes before, the kind that meant the world outside their academy walls was about to shake again.

Shirone, standing near the window with his arms crossed, exhaled sharply through his nose.

He didn’t even bother to hide the tiredness in his tone.

"So... it’s going to be the same as that time, huh?"

Emily’s gaze flickered toward him, calm but edged with something unspoken, memory, maybe even guilt.

Shirone didn’t look at her; his eyes were fixed on the horizon beyond the glass, where the sun hung low, staining the clouds with a deep orange glow.

"That time,"

He continued, his voice low but firm,

"When the council tried to cover it up instead of acting. When they waited until it was too late to stop the bloodshed. Tell me, Emily... are we really doing this again?"

Emily didn’t answer right away.

She turned a page of the report lying open before her, Lyrium’s medical report, and the faint tremor in her hand betrayed her calm façade.

"This time,"

She finally said, each word measured,

"We don’t have the luxury of pretending it will fix itself. The signs are clear. The entity wasn’t random, Shirone. Someone, or something, sent it."

’And I Knows Exactly Who.’

"Uhmm..."

Shirone scoffed quietly, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"And the other races will listen now? You think the elves or the dwarves will sit at the same table after what happened in the Sleiphnir conflict?"

"Whether they listen or not,"

Emily said, her tone hardening,

"We’ll make them. Because if they don’t, this academy will be the first to burn."

"...."

Silence fell again, but this time it was heavier, like the weight of a storm gathering right above their heads.

Alicia’s voice trembled slightly as she broke it.

"Headmistress... what about Lyrium?"

Emily closed the report gently. Her eyes softened, but her tone did not.

"He’s stable. For now. But the readings in his body are unlike anything I’ve seen before. If my guess is right..."

She trailed off, then looked at Shirone again.

"That entity wasn’t after random destruction. It was drawn to him."

Shirone’s brow furrowed.

His expression darkened as he muttered under his breath,

"...Just like before."

Emily’s eyes flicked up sharply.

"Exactly like before."

And for a brief second, just a heartbeat, they all felt it.

The cold wind of déjà vu.

The same feeling that had haunted them years ago, before the first calamity struck.

Emily’s eyes flickered with a rare hesitation as she leaned back in her chair.

For a moment, her composure cracked, her knuckles tightening against the desk as the weight of her own words settled.

"But no,"

She began again, her tone lower now, more deliberate.

"It’s not going to be like that time, Professor. It’s going to be greater this time."

Shirone turned his head sharply, confusion furrowing his brow.

"Greater?"

Emily nodded, but there was no triumph in her voice, only dread.

"According to entity’s reading."

She swallowed, a bead of sweat tracing the side of her temple as her eyes twitched involuntarily.

"Its readings are beyond what we’ve ever come across before... terrifying, even. Whatever it is, its power doesn’t fit within any of the known classifications. It’s not something that should exist in this world."

"...."

The air in the office grew heavy.

Alicia’s fingers curled slightly on her lap, and Ed shifted uneasily beside her.

Emily continued, her tone stiff but unwavering, forcing herself to remain calm.

"That’s why I prefer to work under Ms. Emily’s suggestion."

"...."

"...."

"...."

For a second, Shirone blinked, then realized she was referring to herself, her words slipping under the pressure of her own thoughts.

The exhaustion was visible now, even to Ed.

"I guess,"

Ed finally said, breaking the silence,

"We don’t have any choice then. We’ll have to talk to them."

Alicia nodded faintly, though her face had gone pale.

"Even if it means reopening the old treaties..."

"Especially then,"

Shirone muttered under his breath.

Then...

He spoke up, his voice breaking the uneasy silence that had settled like fog in the room.

"Oh, right, didn’t I report to you about Eugene, Ms. Emily?"

He leaned back slightly, his tone more casual but edged with curiosity.

"Eugene wasn’t involved in the attack. Lyrium himself said it. And..."

He paused, raising an eyebrow,

"I heard there was some conflict between Henry Blackwood and Eugene."

Emily’s eyes flickered at the mention of that name, Henry.

For just an instant, her calm expression faltered, replaced by a shadow of tension that didn’t go unnoticed.

"Henry..."

She murmured softly, fingers tapping the desk.

"That man is broken, he lost his wife then, and now almost lost his son, it’s reasonable."

Before she could continue, Alicia chimed in, her tone steady but with a faint tremor of uncertainty.

"And there’s more. In the academy... there was an explosion."

Shirone turned to her.

"An explosion?"

Alicia nodded, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"We couldn’t identify what caused it, it happened near the upper corridors, but it was handled immediately by the head of the student council, Rihana."

Emily’s gaze sharpened.

"Rihana Blackwood."

"Yes, Lyrium’s sister."

Alicia confirmed.

"She evacuated the area before the mana surge spread further. From what we’ve gathered, she’s fine, but... there were residual traces of spatial interference."

"Spatial interference?"

Shirone muttered under his breath, his frown deepening.

"First the entity, then this... It’s like the world’s threads are tangling again."

Emily’s fingers tightened around her pen until it cracked slightly.

"No,"

She said quietly, her voice trembling with restrained realization.

"Not again. Not after what happened last time."

"...."

A heavy silence followed.

The ticking of the clock grew louder, echoing through the air like the pulse of an unseen heart.

None of them spoke further.

But in each of their minds, especially Emily’s, the same unspoken thought formed:

If the threads are crossing again... then something, or someone, has already started rewriting fate.

***

Lyrium’s POV:

I’m... back?

My voice echoed faintly into the desolate air, swallowed by the emptiness surrounding me.

It was the exact same place,the same cracked pavements, the same stench of metal and smoke, the same silence that could drive a man insane.

The place where was once, when i lost consciousness after using Ruler’s Loathing in the Black Market.

But why?

Why am I back here again?

I took a few slow steps forward, the crunch of debris beneath my boots the only sound that answered me.

The world looked... broken. Just like before.

No... worse.

The city was nothing more than a corpse now. Buildings had collapsed into themselves, streets were littered with bent lamp posts and shattered glass.

Even the sky seemed fractured, a gray dome split by streaks of faint violet lightning.

I couldn’t tell if this was still a city or the grave of an entire continent.

Dust swirled with every step I took, forming little spirals in the wind that danced for a moment before fading back into nothing.

Trash cans were overturned, their metal frames twisted as if crushed by invisible hands.

"This... this is the same place,"

I muttered to myself. My voice sounded too small for the world around me.

"But the mana density... it’s heavier this time."

My breath left a faint shimmer in the air.

Even the atmosphere vibrated unnaturally, humming faintly like a beast breathing beneath the ground.

I continued walking down what was once a road.

The cracks in the asphalt were glowing faintly with violet light, spreading like veins under skin.

Something was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

Every step made my heartbeat faster.

Every flicker of lightning above the broken skyline whispered something I couldn’t understand.

"This isn’t... a memory,"

I murmured, realization dawning slowly.

"It’s repeating... but changing."

The wind howled once, low and hollow, like the world itself was sighing.

When my eyes caught a faint shimmer of paper fluttering on a cracked pillar, I stopped.

A half-torn news poster clung desperately to the surface, edges burnt, ink smudged, the wind tugging it every now and then as if it wanted the world to see what was written.

The words, though faded, were still clear enough to read.

「Margaret Windsor, The Princess and soon-to-be Queen of Scotland, was found dead」

"..."

My breath caught in my throat.

For a second, I thought I had read it wrong.

My lips moved unconsciously, repeating the headline again, as if doing so would somehow change it.

Margaret... dead?

The world around me seemed to still.

The rumbling winds, the shifting dust, even the faint hum of mana, all of it stopped.

I stared at the poster, unable to look away.

The letters bled slightly down the page, crimson stains marking where the ink had melted into the paper, like the world itself had wept while printing those words.

A faint tremor ran through my hands.

No... this isn’t real.

It can’t be.

Margaret, her sharp tongue, her cold stare, her defiant arrogance, flashed before my eyes.

The way she always stood like a wall no one could climb.

The girl who refused to bow down even before the gods themselves.

And yet...

Dead?

I felt something hollow open inside my chest.

A deep, twisting ache that I couldn’t name.

My throat tightened, but no words came out.

***