A week ago, Lira was looking at the academy park at night, watching Aeren fight against the D-class students.
Lira thought, Aeren is just playing around with D-class students. She showed no emotion as she continued watching the fight, but then she saw something that shocked her.
Lira had never imagined that Aeren would kill a student while everyone was watching him.
She had always believed that Aeren couldn't be understood by simple logic—she didn't understand him at all—but what he did just now was reckless.
Lira thought, Aeren is strong, but I don't think he can defeat Principal Valerius.
She continued watching everything with her cold eyes and didn't react much to Aeren's actions. She had assumed that since Aeren couldn't defeat Valerius, that was why he did nothing and let the others take him away.
Lira ignored the incident and went to her private training room.
She looked at her training room with cold eyes, surveying all her weapons and artifacts, and thought, All these weapons and artifacts are useless without power.
She trained the entire night, destroying many weapons and artifacts in the process. Having lived with Aeren for two years, she had also learned not to sleep at night, using those empty hours to train her body and mind.
The sun rose outside her room, and her system beeped, signaling time for class.
She left the training room and went to wash herself.
After returning from washing, she put on her academy uniform and went to Elenya's room.
Elenya had been her replacement when Aeren was done with her—he had started experimenting on Elenya instead. Lira had thought she was going to die, but when she saw someone had taken her place, she became curious about who it was and wanted to see this person when Aeren wasn't there.
Lira crawled to reach Elenya Verya. When she arrived and saw Elenya, she started crying because the girl looked even younger than herself. Her organs were scattered all over the place, and though Elenya's eyes were wet with tears, she was still alive.
Lira crawled closer to Elenya and began healing her. To her surprise, her healing worked, and Elenya regained consciousness, though she couldn't stand or sit up from where she lay.
Lira looked at Elenya and asked, "Hey, who are you?"
Elenya didn't reply to Lira—she just stared into the darkness surrounding them. She couldn't even speak. She had screamed so much that her throat had given out, and her lips wouldn't even part.
Elenya couldn't even move her neck to see who was asking.
Lira didn't expect her to answer. She simply sat silently and took Elenya's hand in hers to assure her that she wasn't alone. Day passed outside, but inside the room, darkness remained unchanged.
Night emerged outside, and Lira didn't realize it was time for Aeren to return. Hours later, Aeren entered the room.
When Lira saw Aeren, she panicked, thinking this would be her last day alive—she had given up on life. But to her surprise, Aeren didn't even look at Lira and went straight to Elenya.
Aeren pierced Elenya again, and she screamed: "AHHHHHHHHHH! S...orry... I... won't... ahhahh... go... with... ou... ahhahhahha... per...mission..."
Elenya cried, begged, wept, and showed regret while Lira watched them.
Lira didn't know what to do to save Elenya, so she went to Aeren and started biting his leg.
Aeren looked down at Lira, shook his leg, and threw her away to a corner.
Lira started crawling again toward Aeren, but the second time she couldn't even reach him because something was blocking her. She could hear Elenya's screams, and Lira began crying too.
"AHHAHHHHHAHHA! H...e...l... ahhhhhhh...p..." Elenya looked at Lira, expecting help, but Lira couldn't do a single thing and didn't know what to do.
"Please, don't do this to her. You can do anything to me again, please... sob... leave... her... sob..." Lira started begging for Elenya, but Aeren didn't stop whatever he was doing.
"Please, please, please, please, please, leave her, please leave her, please leave her!" Lira kept pleading, but it was no use.
The night passed with both Elenya and Lira crying, begging, and pleading, but nothing affected Aeren at all.
When Aeren finished his nightly routine and learned what he wanted from Elenya, he looked at Lira, approached her, and said, "YOU ARE USELESS."
Lira heard Aeren's words, and then he disappeared. Her eyes widened as she looked at Elenya, then went to her and started healing her.
Elenya was healed again but didn't move or speak at all. Her screaming had taken everything from her, leaving only fear of Aeren.
Lira looked at Elenya and started remembering her own days when she had begged and pleaded with Aeren but couldn't do anything. She couldn't let someone else feel the same things she had gone through.
Lira's body began regenerating faster and faster until she was fully healed by night. When Aeren came again, before he could reach Elenya, she raged fire at him. But her attacks didn't reach Aeren—he walked through the flames and reached Elenya.
Lira kept attacking Aeren but hit nothing while Elenya cried and begged. Lira still couldn't do anything to Aeren and started burning the whole place, but the room didn't react—as if Aeren controlled everything around them.
Lira couldn't put a single scratch on Aeren and couldn't affect anything in their surroundings.
Lira began thinking of herself as useless, and when Aeren finished whatever he was doing, he came to her again.
Aeren looked at Lira and said again, "YOU ARE USELESS."
Then Aeren left.
Lira looked at Elenya again, went to her, and healed her.
But this time, Elenya returned to normal. She started to look human again, and she could speak.
Elenya hugged Lira and started crying. Lira patted her head and said, "Let's run away."
Elenya looked at Lira with surprise—she had never thought of escaping from Aeren. She nodded urgently and grabbed Lira's hand.