Chapter 49

They were inside a lounge tucked into a corner of the campus.

Mikhail, Julien, and Edwin sat around a table, deep in discussion about heading to their first request destination.

"Hmm, so the first stop is Colton Winery. We leave in three days? And as for how we're getting there—"

"The school provides carriages. But..."

Mikhail left the tail end of his answer hanging and stared at Edwin sitting across from him.

Edwin squirmed under the pointed gaze, clearly unsure what to make of it, and opened his mouth in a wary tone.

"...What? Why are you looking at me?"

"Think you could charter one of your guild's carriages? We're going to have a lot of luggage."

Mikhail spoke in an easy tone, then glanced sideways at Julien.

The moment the words left his mouth, Julien's eyes lit up and he leaned forward eagerly.

"Charter? You can do that?"

Edwin rolled his eyes blankly between Mikhail and Julien, then nodded.

"Uh, yeah. That's not hard or anything... but isn't it against the rules for family connections to get involved in missions?"

"Only for carrying out the request itself. Arranging transportation falls within what's allowed."

"Oh, well, in that case..."

Edwin trailed off, rubbing his chin, then gave in without a fight.

"Sure. I'll have one arranged."

"Wow! Thank you!"

Julien lit up and let out a burst of excitement.

Then, as if something had just occurred to him, he turned to Mikhail.

"Oh, Mikhail—do you have a lot of stuff to bring too? Want me to help you move things?"

Mikhail shook his head.

"No. Don't worry about it. What I'm bringing is a bit bulky, sure, but they're not exactly hard to move."

"Huh?"

Julien blinked, completely lost.

Mikhail tilted his head, raised both hands, and drew a large circle in the air.

"Two fluffballs about this big... they'll come on their own."

"...Fluffballs? Come on their own?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. You'll understand when you see them."

Julien still looked baffled, but didn't seem inclined to press further.

Without adding anything else, he curled the corners of his mouth into a small grin.

"Now I'm curious. I'll be looking forward to it."

Mikhail gave Julien a nod, then turned his gaze toward the window on the wall.

Signal fires announcing the night were climbing from the edge of the sky. The time he'd arranged to meet Ethan was drawing close.

Mikhail pulled his eyes from the view outside and rose from his seat.

"...?"

Julien and Edwin both looked up at him, puzzled.

Mikhail paused where he stood. He glanced between the two of them and spoke in an even tone.

"Sorry. I've got somewhere to be, so I need to head out first. There shouldn't be much else to discuss beyond what we've covered. Pack your supplies, go over the mission manual. And..."

He trailed off, letting a brief pause hang.

Then his eyes drifted to Julien.

"Whatever needs doing before the trip—best to get it finished tonight."

Julien's shoulders gave the faintest tremor, but his face stayed perfectly calm.

He let out a short, thoughtful hum, then nodded without resistance.

"Yeah. That's probably for the best."

Mikhail withdrew his gaze from Julien, gave both of them a respectful nod, and stepped out of the lounge.

Click.

The door latched shut with a clear, crisp sound.

Mikhail crossed the corridor and turned toward the path leading outside.

---

After roughly ten minutes of walking.

The fading sky had stained the top of his head red, and the dormitory building at the campus outskirts came into view on the horizon.

"—Kang!"

He'd just reached the front of the building when a familiar cry stopped him mid-stride. Mikhail turned his head to the right.

Yipping echoed from the clearing beside the building.

The calls of two sky foxes—a sound he knew by heart.

Mikhail changed course immediately and headed around the side of the building.

Rustle.

The moment he stepped into the clearing, what greeted him was a bench facing away from him—and the boy seated on it.

Mikhail gazed at the seated figure's back for just an instant.

Sensing someone behind him, the other boy turned to look.

"......"

Their eyes met across the open air.

Watching the gray irises narrow by a fraction, Mikhail spoke slowly.

"You came. Ethan."

---

The air currents sweeping through the deserted outskirts were especially dry.

Mikhail rose from the bench and watched Ethan approach to stand across from him.

Ethan planted himself firmly in place, leveled that gray gaze, and spoke first.

"Mikhail Senit. I'm not here to have a long conversation with you."

"Yeah. Let's stick to business and be done with it."

When Mikhail fired back in that utterly unruffled voice, Ethan's eyes twitched and narrowed.

Mikhail stared right at him, then cracked a grin.

"You weren't expecting a thank-you or an apology to come out of this shameless bastard's mouth. Right?"

Ethan's hand, hanging at his side, clenched hard. A low growl edged into his voice.

"I wasn't expecting anything."

"Good. Then let's get straight to the point."

Even with the sharp spike in Ethan's tone, Mikhail didn't flinch. He simply crossed his arms and tilted his head.

"There's nothing left to hide. You and I both have unusual abilities—that's a fact. Ethan. You think my eradication ability could be used to suppress your regeneration. Am I wrong?"

Ethan's eyebrow twitched, and his mouth pressed shut.

Mikhail recognized the silence for what it was: confirmation.

He let a small laugh slip through and continued.

"Your hunch is right. But how, exactly? What, are you going to swallow my mana whole?"

Mikhail spoke with an easy curl of his lips, but the expression on his face gradually settled into something more serious.

He moved his left hand forward and gathered mana above his outstretched palm.

Tsst.

With a flash, dark blue mana materialized and condensed into a sphere.

Mikhail tilted his palm slightly and let the mana drop to the ground.

Ethan shot him a look of plain distaste but couldn't help following the mana downward with his eyes.

Bubble, bubble...

The mana hissed like boiling liquid, blackening and erasing everything it touched on the ground's surface.

While Ethan's gaze locked onto the sight—

Mikhail glanced at the sword strapped to Ethan's back and continued in a level voice.

"The free mission period that's coming up. After you've finished two missions, link up with me at the end. I'll make you something useful in the southeast."

Ethan tore his eyes from the blackened ground.

He fixed Mikhail with a sharp stare and spoke.

"And why should I believe a word you say?"

Mikhail made a show of deliberating. He crossed his arms, rolled his eyes around, even let a short hum leak out.

But soon enough... he smiled, wearing the face of someone who couldn't care less either way.

"Then don't. I'm under no illusion that anything I say right now is going to convince you."

---

Creak. Creeeak.

The clearing Ethan had just left was quiet as always.

Mikhail sat on the rickety old bench with its loose hinges, swinging his feet idly, and slowly tilted his head back.

Behind the image of Ethan spinning on his heel and striding away, a single thought drifted at an unhurried pace.

Well, minor variables don't matter. As long as the main storyline progresses without a hitch.

---

Meanwhile, at that same hour.

Evening birds were stirring awake, their long, shadow-like cries beginning to thread through the air.

Ethan pushed through the undergrowth with long, forceful strides.

He had no destination in mind. He simply followed the deserted paths, moving where people weren't.

"Hh... hah."

The truth was, he was too furious to think straight.

Mikhail's effortless composure as he smiled and said then don't believe me.

His own inability to find a single word to throw back in that moment.

Every last detail of what had just happened... sat wrong with him.

Crunch. Crunch.

He trampled through the undergrowth for a long while.

When he finally looked around, a bitter laugh escaped him, and his gaze fixed on what lay ahead.

The ground beneath his feet was a place he'd visited once before.

Rustle.

About ten paces ahead. Three white lantern trees stood clustered together, their leaves trembling in the faint breeze.

Nestled behind a particularly dense thicket, almost impossible to spot unless you knew where to look.

And the place where, near the end of his first-year spring—

His relationship with Mikhail had spiraled to its worst.

Ha, of all places, why did I end up here...

Ethan breathed out a heated sigh and raked a hand through his hair.

The absurdity of arriving at the worst possible place on top of the worst possible mood was almost funny.

He spun around. No interest in souring his mood any further—he'd retrace his steps and leave.

Crack-crack.

A faint fracturing sound reached his ears. Ethan snapped his head toward the source.

The noise seemed to originate from exactly where those three lantern trees stood.

Crack. Crack-crack.

Once noticed, the sound only grew sharper. Ethan stood still and let out a low, contemplative hum.

This stretch of campus, even if technically on school grounds, was an outskirts corner where prying eyes rarely reached.

A place where delinquent students brawled from time to time. Where bullying and hazing happened out of sight.

It seemed wise to find out what was going on.

"......"

Ethan took one step forward—and his gaze, sweeping the area out of habit, snagged on something out of place.

A small beacon sat hidden among the dense leaves, casting a faint glow of mana.

A proximity detection tool? If someone went as far as setting up something like that... this is beyond suspicious.

Ethan narrowed his eyes and studied every detail of the beacon's exterior.

The color of the mana light it emitted, its angle of projection, the simple detection pattern—he cataloged all of it.

From the look of things, it wasn't a sophisticated device.

"......"

Before long, Ethan rose to a crouch and moved. He memorized the range and pattern of the mana light, then advanced along its blind spots.

Crack-crack.

The fracturing sounds continued the entire time. Soon, Ethan stood behind the thicket growing near the lantern trees.

The source of the noise had to be just beyond.

Without a moment's hesitation, he raised his hand and parted the branches blocking his view.

Rustle.

The pink hair that appeared belonged to a classmate he'd barely exchanged two words with.

Scattered around the boy's seated figure were piles of shattered debris and weathered relics spread across the ground.

Amid the wreckage, busy fingertips were already reaching for another relic.

Ethan drew his brows together and let a puzzled sound escape.

"Julien? What are you—"

"—AAAAAHH!"

Whoosh!

A thunderous shriek erupted alongside Julien's arm flailing through the air, and the relics caught in the blind sweep toppled in a cascade.