Late Night Office – The Knight's Wing
"Master Ramune..." Lyric mumbled, eyes barely open, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "It's already five in the morning… When will you stop?"
She wasn't wrong. They had started working at 5 p.m. the previous day, and now, the sun was preparing to rise again. An entire twelve hours of non-stop paperwork, strategic planning, and silently terrifying presence. Yet Ramune remained seated, calm, focused, graceful—as if this was merely the beginning.
"I warned you," Ramune said flatly, eyes never leaving the report she was signing. "You wouldn't last under me."
Lyric's once neatly styled hair now looked like a bird's nest. Her shirt was half untucked, her tie loosened, and her eyes bloodshot. And yet, somehow, even in that state, she managed to radiate a strange, sleepy sort of charm.
"Yeah yeah…" Lyric muttered, slumping into the chair like a defeated warrior. "I clearly made a mistake thinking I could keep up with you… Just five minutes… nap…"
She was snoring seconds later.
Ramune didn't even glance at her. But after a while, without looking away from her work, she reached into the nearby cabinet, pulled out a blanket, and draped it silently over the half-asleep Lyric.
For a fleeting moment, Lyric stirred. Still in her dreamlike haze, she smiled faintly. She might've just imagined the gesture. Maybe it was a sweet dream.
---
The Next Morning
Sunlight bled into the room through the tall castle windows, and Lyric blinked awake with a groggy groan. She shot upright.
"OH NO. That was NOT a nap—that was a coma!" she panicked dramatically, her voice echoing around the room.
The blanket slipped off her shoulders as she flailed, falling around her like a ghost shedding its skin.
Right then, the door creaked open and Edric entered, holding a tray with a teacup, looking as unbothered as ever.
"So you're the new 'student' she picked up?" he said with a smirk. "You look—"
He paused mid-sentence. His eyes squinted, scanning Lyric from head to toe. His expression twisted in slow confusion.
"...WHO are you?"
Lyric raised an eyebrow, still groggy. "I'm Lyric. Didn't she tell you?"
Edric's face contorted like someone just told him cats could fly. He glanced around, almost suspiciously, then muttered under his breath, "I thought you were a guy..."
"I'm not."
The way Lyric said it, calm but amused, made Edric freeze like a statue mid-sip.
---
"So… that's what happened," Edric muttered minutes later, now seated and sipping tea himself, trying to rebuild his composure.
Lyric leaned back smugly, arms crossed. "Told you. She accepted me as her apprentice. You're looking at the first student of Dame Ramune."
He scoffed. "Congratulations. You're in for a life of insomnia, vague death threats, and zero praise."
"I'm honored," Lyric said with a fake bow.
"Anyway, she's already left the castle," Edric added, standing up. "Probably off… slaughtering people or intimidating nobles—hard to say, really."
He waved off his own joke, then placed a delicate teacup in front of Lyric. "She told me to give you this before she left. Said it's... her way of welcoming you."
He smirked as he turned to leave. "Enjoy it. See you around—if you survive." He exited without another word.
Lyric stared at the cup for a moment. Then, cautiously, she lifted it to her lips and took a sip.
One second passed.
Two.
Then—
"COUGH—!!"
A splash of crimson hit the table as she doubled over, coughing violently. The teacup fell from her hand, rolling across the desk. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
"…blood..?" she wheezed, still gasping—but her lips curled into a smile. A grin of excitement.
"Aha… I see how it is..." Lyric chuckled darkly, staring into the half-spilled cup as if she could read it like tea leaves.
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"So you poisoned it… huh, Dame Ramune?"
She laughed again, almost giddy.
"I knew I made the right choice."
---
Ramune cast a glance back toward the castle, her dark green eyes narrowing faintly. Something—it was small, but undeniable—gnawed at the edge of her senses. A weight in the air. A soundless whisper.
She shook it off. "Just a feeling," she murmured.
She turned her back on the towering stone structure and descended into the depths of the southern forest—a place long ignored and conveniently forgotten, despite being a part of royal territory. The Forest of Thorns, as the old maps called it. A place that should not have been left untouched for decades… and yet, it was. Purposefully so.
Her boots crunched softly over dead leaves, the only sound accompanying her steady footsteps. Her hand hovered near her sword, not out of fear, but instinct.
Then—a rustle.
Without hesitation, she drew her blade in one fluid motion, pointing it toward the overgrown brush ahead.
"…Who's there?" she asked coldly.
A silence responded. Then a faint gust stirred the branches, and she moved.
With a swift slash, she cut through the underbrush—only to reveal the gnarled, decayed remains of a corpse, half-buried in the roots of a tree. The body had long since rotted—bones brittle, armor discolored with time—but one thing remained intact: the insignia faintly stitched into a torn cloak.
Ramune knelt slowly, her brows furrowing.
"This symbol…" she whispered, reaching forward and ripping the cloak at the emblem's edge.
It was the crest of the Oathbound Circle—a forgotten faction that had served the former king in secret. Their existence had been erased after the king's mysterious downfall, and not even the royal archives dared speak of them anymore.
She stood, fingers tightening around the fabric.
"This wasn't random… this body is connected."
A breeze stirred, but not a natural one. The air had shifted—thicker now, heavier with something… ancient. As she walked deeper into the forest, the sunlight dimmed unnaturally behind her. The trees grew closer together, vines twisting around branches like coiled serpents. Shadows fell in unnatural angles.
She did not stop.
No light pierced the path ahead—only darkness.
And then, as she stepped beyond the final ray of sun, her figure vanished, swallowed whole by the woods that should not exist.
The forest closed in behind her, and the silence returned.