She poured the cracked eggs into the hot pan. The edges set quickly, so Selpe lifted the pan and gave it a light shake, letting the soft centre slide. With a small tilt of her wrist, she pushed the omelette forward, letting it fold over itself as it cooked above the stove flame.
Just then, to her surprise, the doorbell rang—twice.
She wondered who would come this early.
The clock on the kitchen wall pointed straight up. It was 6:00 AM.
She gave the pan one last shake, set it gently back on the stove, then turned the knob slightly anticlockwise. The flame shrank to a thin blue line. She flicked her hands in the air to shake off the extra oil, then wiped them on her apron in quick, rough strokes.
She walked to the door and opened it calmly. Her eyes widened the moment she saw who stood there.
A tall man. Long black hair. Purple eyes behind neat glasses.
The president of the School of Thoughts and Perseverance—Seraphus De Steelheart.
'What is the president doing here? This early? Wait… did our identities get exposed?'
Her heart thumped as the thought hit her.
But it was only a guess. It wasn't the truth.
The president gave a warm smile.
"Congratulations on ascending to the Master Branch, Miss Selpe. Now then—won't you offer some tea?"
'Huh? I forgot!' She almost broke into a sweat at what she had overlooked this time. She had ascended to the Master Branch of her Mark. She couldn't reject the rules of the school; after ascending to Master, one became Sanctified. She had denied the privileges and fame until now, but she couldn't anymore. Being Sanctified gave exceptional privileges—and also one special royal duty: protecting the King and Generals in the City Above the Heavens, where only royals lived.
Seraphus waved a hand in front of her, pulling her back to her senses. She stopped staring and stuttered, "O-oh, why not, thanks, come in."
She motioned her hand, inviting the president inside.
She guided him to the second floor, into the guest room where Ibaan was standing with an eccentric stone tablet in his hands. His eyes widened.
"Please sit here, I will bring the tea and omelette."
"Thank you!" the president said without even looking at Selpe. He froze. He was staring at Ibaan, eyes widened. Ibaan had already dismissed two strange stone tablets he had been studying.
*
As Selpe was about to reach the kitchen, Ibaan had already followed her quickly from the guest room and asked in a very curious manner, like a child tugging at a sleeve for answers,
"Selpe, why is the president here?"
Without looking back, she moved to the stove and placed the omelette into one of the utensils, where another omelette was already resting, and replied in a calm but confused tone, "As you already know, I have ascended to the Master Branch. I've become Sanctified already."
The moment the words left her mouth, Ibaan's eyes flickered and he smirked slowly behind her. He already knew what happened when someone became Sanctified.
And it helped him even more—she would now live in a royal place, and he would get plenty of time without any trouble, without disturbance, without anyone bothering him in his plan to investigate matters. He could easily take over the identity of Clami Almond.
However, he also had a disadvantage when it came to investigating Selpe's true identity, though he could still connect the points. Still, that wasn't the only reason he wanted to become a private detective.
As Selpe cracked another egg on the edge of the shelf, her hands slowed. "I can't deny it," she said softly. "You might have to live alone for a while." She poured the egg into the pan. "But… I'd still want you to stay with me too. I would ask the president for that, but it may take time."
She paused, looked at him, and gave a small smile. "You don't have to worry."
'Huh? Like I care?' Ibaan sighed inwardly, though he didn't show it. "It's alright," he said.
His mind shifted instantly to the mission—the mission to wipe out Sin of Sincerity—and he continued quietly, almost like a whisper, lowering his tone so the man upstairs couldn't hear. He knew the president could hear from a distance, just like vampires.
"Stay in touch… and find a better companion if you can."
She nodded and muttered a bit louder, "Please go to the guest room. How would the president feel, being left alone by us?"
Ibaan blinked, a little taken aback, his brows lifting. "Oh… alright."
He remembered clearly the moment the president walked in—the way his eyes locked onto the tablet, the way he froze—yet Ibaan had assumed the president had no idea what the tablet really was.
Anyway, Ibaan's mind now felt clear as fresh air after three days and three nights of rain. Clean. Sharp. He didn't feel sleepy at all; every bit of fatigue and every wound he had worn earlier had vanished. The thought stirred both euphoria and melancholy in him, because right after returning from the mission, they had all collapsed into sleep without a second thought.
But that was only the case with Selpe, not Ibaan. He was technically asleep under the gaze of the world, but in truth—within the fabric of reality—he had been standing in the fabric of time itself. In the moment when millions of star constellations were born across the real cosmos, he traveled countless hours, in the Realm of the Dead Eye of the Fallens and came back in the same time being.
Yes, you heard that right. After facing the countless gazes of the Dead Eyes, he had once again found himself in the same tower where he had defeated the tower's boss.
And to his surprise, he saw the same stone tablet he had discovered at the Iron Knuckles' ritual base—the one that had automatically entered his relic. The relic fused with school sustem itself was strange in every way, because whenever an item was left behind by someone who once wielded the School's system—more precisely, the system created by Totla—it would remain stored in space, and whoever touched it next would receive it in their own system.
Now he had two of the same stone tablets, though each looked slightly different. He had been about to study them, but the president had arrived, delaying everything. Still, he was eager—because he could feel a powerful, unmatched energy radiating from both stones.