Chapter 246: Charlotte Bladehaven

Chapter 246: Charlotte Bladehaven

I rested my chin in my palm and looked at the diagrams the professor had drawn on the board. I’d been staring at the same spot for about ten minutes, yet I had no idea what the lecture was about.

The notebook in front of me was no better. There wasn’t a single line beneath the date I had written at the top of the page.

Iris hadn’t spoken to me yesterday.

After leaving the arena, I had changed my clothes and found her. But whenever I tried to approach her, she remembered somewhere else she needed to be. If someone was with her, she gave them all her attention.

This morning had been no different.

I was sure she had heard me call her name outside the dorm. Even so, she had continued walking with Myra without so much as turning her head.

I let out a long breath through my nose.

It probably wouldn’t be long before the Eternal Night cult appeared. The conflict between Hades and Yavres would soon intensify as well. Based on the sequence of events I remembered, there were plenty of things I needed to prepare for, review, and, if necessary, intervene in.

Instead, I kept thinking about the same question.

How much longer was Iris going to refuse to talk to me?

I stopped twirling my pen between my fingers and set it on the desk. Being like this irritated me. I was no different from a teenage boy who couldn’t focus on anything because a girl was sulking.

And being aware of it didn’t help.

I tried to think about Hades, and Iris came to mind. I tried to remember the cult’s first move, and all I could picture was her walking past me this morning without looking at my face.

This was truly pathetic.

"Cassian?"

I glanced sideways at the whisper beside me.

Alicia was leaning slightly toward me. Most of the page in front of her was filled with notes, but right now, she was studying my face instead of listening to the professor.

"Are you okay?"

"No."

She must not have expected such a direct answer. Her lips parted, but she didn’t immediately ask another question. First, she looked at my empty notebook, then back at me.

I could see her thinking for a few seconds. She ran the tip of her pen along the edge of her notebook, then leaned a little closer as though she had made up her mind.

"Would you like to come to church with me after class?"

I turned to face her fully.

My gaze grew cold, and the red gleam in my eyes sharpened. The small smile on Alicia’s face froze. I saw her draw back slightly without realizing it.

’Church?’

I knew she meant no harm. Most likely, she was only trying to cheer me up. Perhaps she wanted to take me somewhere that helped her feel better.

But she had seen my soul.

Even if she hadn’t fully understood what she was looking at, she should have had some idea of what kind of person I was.

Church and me...

Had she really not hesitated before putting those two things in the same sentence?

"Um, it’s okay if you don’t want to come," Alicia whispered. "I just... thought it might help you feel a little better."

I noticed her fingers tightening around the edge of her notebook.

There was no point in looking at her like that. It wasn’t Alicia’s fault that Iris wasn’t speaking to me.

"I’m sorry."

I looked away from her and toward the window.

"Maybe another time."

After a brief silence, Alicia nodded slightly.

"Okay."

She turned back to her notebook. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that she didn’t write anything for a while, even after picking up her pen.

I continued looking at the trees outside.

For the rest of the class, I didn’t copy a single one of the new diagrams on the board into my notebook.

---

When the bell rang, I closed my notebook and stood up.

I was going to Iris’s classroom. I hoped that if we could talk for a few minutes, all this pointless silence would end.

The moment I stepped into the corridor, I noticed the looks directed at me.

I had attracted attention before, but this time was different. Two students walking side by side stopped talking when they saw me. A group farther ahead left a much wider gap than I needed to pass through.

I heard my name whispered behind me. Then Marven’s name came up.

I supposed that boy was more important than I had thought.

While listening to Celine’s warnings, I hadn’t expected so many people to care about him. Still, I wasn’t going to object to them clearing a path for me in the corridor.

When I reached Iris’s classroom, the door was open. A few students remained inside. Some were packing their things, while two were talking by the window.

Iris wasn’t among them.

I approached the boy by the desk nearest the door. He was slipping his bag over his shoulder, but the moment he noticed me, his hand froze on the strap.

"Do you know where Iris is?"

The boy looked at me, then at the corridor behind me.

"I-I..." He cleared his throat. "She just left."

"Where did she go?"

"She might have gone to the student council room. She’s usually there around this time."

"Thanks."

As I turned and walked away, I heard him let out a breath of relief.

I had only asked a question...

Expecting everyone to act more reasonably after yesterday’s duel must have been a mistake.

I went upstairs and headed toward the corridor where the student council room was. The noise from the lower floors had faded here. I passed notices on the walls and closed rooms before stopping in front of a door bearing the council’s emblem.

I knocked twice.

"Come in."

The woman’s voice from inside was calm and clear.

I opened the door and stepped inside.

The room was larger than I had expected. Daylight streamed through the tall windows on the right, falling across the long meeting table in the center. Shelves along the wall held books and thick, labeled files. A teapot and several cups sat on a small side table near the window.

A narrower door in the left wall seemed to lead into another room.

At one end of the meeting table, a girl with pink hair was sorting papers of different colors. Her short hair reached her chin in a fluffy bob, its ends curling outward and swaying slightly whenever she moved her head. She had rolled the sleeves of her council uniform up to her elbows and was holding a small stamp, ready to seal one of the lists in front of her.

The boy opposite her had laid several documents side by side and was comparing the numbers on them. His light brown hair fell over his forehead, brushing the top of his thin-framed glasses. He was tall and thin. One of his fingers was stained with ink, and his lips moved silently as his eyes followed the lines.

I couldn’t see Iris.

Instead, my eyes settled on the girl at the desk at the back of the room.

Her long black hair fell over the shoulders of her council uniform. An open file lay in front of her, but the pen in her hand wasn’t touching the paper. Her red eyes were fixed directly on me.

The student council president.

The strange familiarity I had felt in the arena yesterday returned the moment our eyes met. It was similar to what I felt near Nivelle, but there was a difference between the two that I couldn’t explain.

I frowned slightly.

What was it about this girl?

"Iris’s boyfriend!"

The pink-haired girl’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

She set her stamp on the table and hurried over to me with a broad smile. It was as though an old friend she hadn’t seen in ages had walked through the door, rather than someone she was meeting for the first time.

The boy with glasses also looked up. When our eyes met, he immediately lowered his gaze to the documents, but it was obvious he was no longer following the numbers.

"What was your name again? Casspian?"

"Cassian," the boy corrected without looking up.

"Yes, yes! Cassian!"

When the girl took another step closer, I instinctively pulled my head back a little.

"I watched you yesterday. The way you used your sword and that last move... God, you were amazing!"

She brought her hand down diagonally, imitating my final attack. Then she excitedly clasped both hands in front of her.

"First black flames, then white flames! I’ve never seen anything like that before. Do you use them both the same way? Or are they completely different powers?"

She didn’t wait for an answer.

"And your arm! It was broken, wasn’t it? I’m sure it was. But then it suddenly healed! Do you have a secret master or something? Or are you some kind of superhuman?"

What was wrong with this girl?

I didn’t even know her name, and in a few seconds, she had asked me more questions than Alicia had all morning.

She was being far too familiar.

"I—"

"Oh, right!"

The girl lightly tapped her forehead.

"I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Livia. Nice to meet you!"

Then she turned toward the boy at the table.

"That’s Edwin. He’s pretending he can’t hear you, but he’s listening to us right now."

The pen in the boy’s hand stopped.

"I-I’m not doing that."

His voice wasn’t loud enough for anyone to take his protest seriously. As he adjusted his glasses and looked at me, his shoulders grew a little tenser.

"N-nice to meet you."

I nodded slightly.

Edwin lacked the confident manner I had seen in most students at this academy. As he looked at me, he wasn’t trying to compare our strength or prove anything with his stare. He seemed to be waiting for the conversation to end so he could return to his paperwork.

He didn’t look like one of the students who stood out here for their fighting skills.

"And, of course, our president..."

Livia trailed off as she turned around.

The girl with black hair had already joined us.

I hadn’t noticed when she got up from her desk. While Livia’s nonstop chatter had occupied my attention, she had quietly closed the distance between us.

Up close, the calm expression on her face was even clearer. Without looking away for even a moment, she offered me her right hand.

"Charlotte Bladehaven. I’m the student council president."

My eyes widened slightly.

Bladehaven.

For a moment, my gaze moved from her red eyes to her long black hair, then back to her face. The feeling I hadn’t understood in the arena took on a different meaning the instant I heard her last name.

So that was why.

This girl was my sister.

I looked at the hand she was offering. As Charlotte waited, she watched me a little more closely.

I didn’t take her hand.

I turned to Livia.

"Where’s Iris?"

Her smile faltered for a moment. Her gaze moved from the hand left hanging between us to my face. There was no trace of her earlier chattiness.

"Iris?"

"Yes."

"Um... She just went back to her classroom. You’re a little late."

She was lying.

I could sense Iris’s mana. There was no way I could mistake the familiar presence behind the narrow door on the left for anyone else.

She was here.

She had probably heard my voice, too.

I looked at the door for a few seconds, then shrugged.

I supposed she really was determined not to speak to me for now. I doubted opening the door and standing in front of her would change that.

"I see."

I turned and headed for the exit.

Livia drew breath as though about to say something, but she stayed silent. I also ignored Charlotte’s hand, which was still held out.

The last thing I wanted to deal with today was another family matter.

The moment I took my second step toward the door, the air behind me changed.

I sensed sharp mana at the back of my neck and opened my right hand. Gripping the black hilt that appeared in my palm, I turned and raised my chaos sword diagonally.

Steel passed through the black flames and struck my blade.

The clash rang out through the room. Papers flew from the edge of the table, and teacups rattled on their saucers. As I took half a step back, the wooden floor beneath me gave a brief creak.

Charlotte stood in front of me.

The right hand she had offered me a moment earlier now held her sword. If I hadn’t blocked her attack, its sharp edge would have cut down from my shoulder and split my body in two.

Her calm expression hadn’t changed.

Instead of pulling her sword back, she pressed a little harder. As the two sharp edges scraped against each other, her red eyes looked straight into mine.

"Have we met before?"