The sun dipped low over the academy's training grounds, the fading light casting long shadows across shattered stone and scorched earth. Dust still hung in the air from the duel, stirred by the quiet wind.
Rin sat on the ground, breathing heavily, his uniform torn along the sleeve. Kazuya leaned against a broken practice wall, ribs rising and falling in shallow rhythm. Euphemia knelt between them, her palms glowing faintly as water Essence flowed through her touch, knitting bruises and easing the sharp ache of strained muscles.
"You two nearly killed each other," she scolded softly, though her tone carried more worry than anger. "This was training, not a battlefield."
Rin gave a faint, prideful smirk despite the cut on his lip. "If he could keep up, it wouldn't have dragged out so long."
Kazuya's pale blue eyes narrowed. "Keep telling yourself that, Rin."
The words cut sharper than they should have. Not because they hated each other, but because they didn't. Beneath the bite lingered years of rivalry, friendship, and something neither had ever dared put into words.
Flashback
When they had first awakened their Essence, the world had felt different.
For Rin, it had been during exams — the moment he surpassed every expectation placed on him. His affinity marked him as special, a future leader, the pride of the academy. Nobles whispered his name with approval; instructors wrote reports of his limitless potential.
Kazuya's awakening had been nothing so grand. Spirit — the most common Essence. Soldiers, swordsmen, and guards wielded it by the thousands. It strengthened the body, sharpened reflexes, and made blades deadly. It was dependable, yes… but ordinary.
And Kazuya hated how the world looked at him because of it.
"They think Spirit is weak," he had told Rin once, beneath the old oak that shadowed the training yard. "But I'll prove them wrong. I'll show them that even someone like me can change everything."
But that hunger had deeper roots — darker ones.
Kazuya had been twelve when his world fractured. His parents, noble-born but of a forgotten branch of the royal line, had been slain in an attack disguised as a breaking-and-entering. Officially, it was a crime of theft. No culprit named. No justice given. But to those trained in shadows, it was clear: assassins had struck. Their orders came from somewhere higher. Someone powerful.
His sister had survived only because she was in the hospital that night. The memory of her screaming in his dreams haunted him still. That night, Kazuya began to see the world differently. People were not noble. Not righteous. They were parasites — draining life, power, and hope until nothing remained.
And yet Rin… Rin seemed untouched by such darkness. His pride, his certainty in his ideals, burned brighter than ever. That only fanned Kazuya's jealousy. Rin had everything — strength, recognition, respect. And Kazuya had nothing but the will to prove him wrong.
That was when Charlotte appeared in their lives.
She'd come from another province, her accent marking her as foreign-born, her energy as fiery as the affinity that awakened in her not long after. Fire Essence burned bright in her veins, a rare gift that made her a spectacle during combat drills. Her green eyes were quick, her freckles catching the sunlight whenever she smiled.
"You two are impossible," she'd teased that day, hands on her hips, brunette hair messy from sparring. "Always brooding under this tree. Come on, classes are starting."
Rin had laughed. Kazuya had smiled faintly, though his gaze lingered on her longer than he meant to.
Charlotte would later follow them into the military, training beside them, rising with them. She was part of their circle as surely as Rin and Euphemia, though she never said out loud why she always drifted closer to Kazuya.
And Euphemia… her story was different. She was born to nobility, her family's bloodline tying her distantly to the throne itself. Forty-fourth in line, far enough to live with freedom yet close enough to carry weight in every conversation. That heritage was why the academy instructors treated her with quiet deference, and why whispers followed her down the halls.
Present
The flash of memory faded. Rin blinked back to the present as Euphemia finished binding his arm, her golden hair brushing against his shoulder.
"You've both changed," she said quietly. "But you're still fighting for the same reason, aren't you?"
Neither boy answered.
Kazuya looked away, jaw tight. "Im not powerless anymore—rin"
Rin's pride stung at the words, but Euphemia spoke first. "Change doesn't come through destroying each other."
Kazuya didn't reply.
The air shifted as footsteps approached. The heavy training gates creaked, and a voice broke the tension.
"There you are."
Charlotte stood framed against the evening sky, her braid tumbling over one shoulder, the fire of her Essence still lingering in her presence as though she carried embers wherever she went.
"You two are hopeless," she said with a grin. "Every time I turn around, you're beating each other half to death."
"Charlotte," kazuya" said, standing straighter.
Her gaze lingered on Kazuya, green eyes softening. "The chief wants you. Summons, and it sounds serious."
Kazuya frowned. "The chief?"
Charlotte nodded. "Yes. And when the chief sends for someone, it isn't without reason." She gave him a small, knowing smile. "Better not keep him waiting."
The Summons
The four of them walked together across the courtyard, boots clicking against the stone. Evening bells echoed faintly over the academy walls.
Kazuya's thoughts churned. Why him? The chief never summoned cadets without cause. Had word of his fight with Rin already reached the higher ranks? Or was it something else?
The chief of training, Commander Varick, was a massive man with scars carved deep into his jaw. A veteran of countless campaigns, his name was enough to silence any cadet. His office loomed at the far end of the grounds, torches flickering at the entrance.
As they stepped inside, the heavy door groaned shut behind them.
"Cadet Kazuya," Varick's gravelly voice rumbled. "Step forward."
Kazuya did as told, his shoulders squared. But before he could speak, the commander's fist clenched.
Without warning, Varick drove his arm forward — a brutal punch straight into Kazuya's stomach.
The air blasted from his lungs in a single choked gasp. Pain thundered through his body, and his knees buckled.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Rin's shout cut through the chaos. He surged forward, lightning crackling along his arm, only for guards to seize him by the shoulders, slamming him back against the wall.
Charlotte screamed, struggling against the soldiers holding her. "Stop this! He hasn't done anything!"
Euphemia's voice rang sharp, her noble tone carrying authority even here. "Commander Varick, by what right—"
But the chief ignored her entirely.
Kazuya's vision swam, his body collapsing to one knee. The world spun as darkness tugged at the edge of his sight.
Another trap, he thought bitterly, as the blur of Rin's furious struggle and Charlotte's terrified face faded into shadow. Another hand pulling the strings.
And then he blacked out.