The academy dormitories slept, the usual noise of the students suppressed to a gentle hum. The torches lining the corridors burned with fading light, shadows stretching and narrowing on the stone.
Lucian leaned against the doorway, his arm resting on the frame. Seraphine stood there before him, her golden locks shining softly in the moonlight streaming in through the windows of the corridor.
She wasn't supposed to be here.
Her amber eyes, wide and unblinking, locked onto his.
"Vale," she whispered. Her voice was both strong and vulnerable, an unlikely mix. "I'm not leaving until you give me an answer."
Lucian stared at her silently. Shadows at his feet struggled and moved, like they reflected his unease.
An answer to what?
His tone was even and detached, but his chest tightened.
"You know what," she persisted. She moved closer, close enough for him to smell the blush on her cheeks, the tight clasp of her hand on her hip. "That beast… you didn't fight against it like the rest of us did. You called up something darker. I could sense it, Vale. Not mana, not the way the academy would have you think. Something else. Something… awful."
Her voice trembled on the last word, but her gaze didn't waver.
Lucian's lips curled into a slight smile. "And yet here you stand before me, insisting on the truth."
Seraphine clamped her lip between her teeth, annoyance crossing her expression. "Because I must know. You've rescued me—twice now. I want to trust you, but I can't do that if you keep concealing everything."
The words pierced him more deeply than he had expected. He had vowed to restrain himself, to bury the truth for the moment. But she was standing there in front of him, the person most he wanted to shield, pushing against the barriers he had constructed.
Lucian closed the door halfway and walked out into the corridor. His shadow cast unnaturally long, curling against the stone like spilled ink on parchment.
"Faith is danger," he whispered. "The more you know, the greater the burden."
Seraphine's breathing caught. "Then let me carry it. Do not carry it alone."
There was a moment of silence between them.
Her words hit something raw within him—a memory of her blood on his palms, her lifeless eyes looking up at him in the other world. He swallowed with difficulty, shoving the image away.
He wanted to trust her. He wanted to believe in her. But the truth of what he was. the Shadow Monarch. was something he could not tell her. Not yet.
Instead, he raised a hand. The air grew thick, and the shadows coiled around his fingers like trained dogs. They curved and bent, forming a blade of hard black.
Seraphine gasped, her eyes wide.
"This is what you wish to learn," Lucian told her, his voice low. "It is not mana. It is not fire or wind or light. It is older. Something the academy would never teach. These shadows listen to me, and me only."
The dagger dissolved, back into nothing.
Her hand trembled at her side. "That power. it's alive. Like it's looking at me."
"It is alive," Lucian replied. "But it only listens to me."
Seraphine hesitated, then advanced until she was almost in arm's length. "And what will you do with it, Vale? Hide forever? Or use it?"
Her voice was sharp, but her eyes—her eyes were pleading.
Lucian smiled faintly, but it never quite reached his eyes. "That depends on whether the world forces me."
The words hung between them like a blade.
For an instant, they did not stir. The silence was heavier than the shadows themselves. And then, with reluctance, Seraphine fell back.
"I do not know you anymore," she whispered. "But I do know this—you're not the same boy everyone else knows."
Her footsteps receded down the hall as she spun and departed, her figure swallowed by darkness.
Lucian stood there motionless, the faintest ache writhing in his chest.
You're right, he thought with bitterness. I'm not.
The next morning, the academy buzzed.
Whispers of the dungeon spread, fed by distortion. By class time on the first day, Lucian's name was being spoken on every lip.
"Did you hear? He didn't even fight with a sword—just shadows."
"They say he's cursed."
"No, no, I heard that he's the bastard son of some noble. That's why he hides his power."
Lucian tuned out the whispers as he entered the lecture hall. But when he sat, he felt the stare—hundreds of eyes—bearing down upon him, judging him, fearing him.
Seraphine sat two rows ahead of him, her shoulders squared, her face calm. But when their eyes met, for an instant of time, he glimpsed the storm in hers.
And he knew last night's fight was not over. It was just beginning.
A bitter voice resonated through the room.
"Of course, this is the infamous Vale?"
Slowly, Lucian turned. In the back of the lecture hall, a nobleman stood with his retinue. Silver hair glinted in the light, emerald eyes crinkling with amusement.
The room went still. Students gasped his name in awe and fear.
Caius Everhart.
The heir to the Everhart Duchy. A prodigy of the academy's crème de la crème.
Caius sneered, his gaze locked on Lucian like a hunter spotting prey. "I heard some interesting rumors about you. E-rank, but you slaughter monsters that surpass A-ranks." He leaned to one side, feigning interest. "So tell me, Vale—was it luck, or do you have secrets?"
The class stopped breathing. Everyone stared at Lucian.
Lucian leaned back in his chair, expression impassive. "Believe what you want."
Murmurs erupted at once. Some mocked his arrogance, others whispered at his defiance.
Caius's smile widened. "Oh, I do. In fact, I think a demonstration is called for."
He stepped forward, his aura exploding out from him, pressing against the room like an unwavering weight. A few students went pale, their breath caught.
Caius's voice was silk over steel. "A duel, Vale. Tomorrow, festival grounds. Unless, of course, you'd rather run."
The challenge lingered there, irrefutable.
Seraphine's knuckles whitened on her desk. Her amber gaze snapped back to Lucian, pleading silently that he not take the bait.
But Lucian… Lucian's lips curled into the slightest of grins.
"Fine." His voice was firm, unruffled. "Tomorrow."
Gasps echoed through the hall.
Caius chuckled menacingly. "Good. Let's see how your shadows protect you then."
As class went on, the room buzzed with rumors of the coming duel.
But Lucian was silent, his mind already shifting.
This was more than a duel. It was the beginning. The shadows had stirred, and the world was starting to take notice.
And soon, there would be no hiding at all.