Some storms never show themselves on the outside....
they rage only within, tearing through the soul of a person who appears unshakable to the world.
Kai carried such a storm inside her.
Not because of her bloody work.
Not because of the countless shadows of death that followed her footsteps.
But because of one place.
Because of The Gentle Heart Institute.
A single question refused to leave her mind:
"Why does that place feel so familiar?"
It was this very question that stole her sleep and gnawed at her sanity.
It was this thought that left her restless every time her eyes caught a single name....
A name she had once read in a magazine.
The magazine had written endlessly about the sacred Miss Fate Tree.....how people treated it as their everything, how they whispered their deepest secrets to it, how their lives seemed bound to it.
And among those words, she had read a single name.
Talotkan.
The one to whom that tree belonged.
Every time her mind echoed with that name, her soul yearned desperately to meet her. Her eyes filled with an unnamed sorrow, and her heart beat strangely...like the sudden jolt one feels when touched by someone they secretly long for.
That was exactly what Kai felt.
The magazine never left her car. It always remained there, as though waiting for the day she would gather the courage to follow the pull of her heart.
---
Kai had already completed the task her father had assigned to her.
Now she wanted to pursue her own mission.
When she told her father she wished to go to The Gentle Heart Institute, he raised no objection.
Why would he?
That place was nothing more than a temple in the eyes of the world.
There was nothing suspicious there.
So he let her go.
Unaware of what Kai truly intended to do.
---
After finishing her business, Kai returned to her car, where Teanguan was already waiting for her.
The moment she slid into the driver's seat, his voice broke the silence:
"They only admit children who can't afford an education. They check every single background thoroughly before letting anyone inside… so what are we going to do?"
Kai's lips curved into a faint smile.
"One word," she said.
"Deception."