Chapter 4: The Boy Within the Silence
All whispers in the classroom suddenly stopped. The silence was more disturbing than the noise. Alicia stood up slowly.
Her legs felt like jelly, but she didn't break her posture. She put on that expressionless mask she had practiced for years.
As she walked down the aisle, the classroom's silence gave way to low giggles and whispers.
"Here she comes... The last representative of the cursed lineage," whispered a voice from the left. "The Witch's daughter," said another, chewing the word as if it had a disgusting taste.
"I bet she won't be able to summon anything. Her mana channels are clogged with her mother's sins."
"Or she will summon a demon out of control and try to kill us all. Just like her mother." "Seraphina is right," said a mocking voice. "Watching this will be enjoyable."
Alicia heard every one of these poisonous words but showed no reaction outwardly. She fixed her eyes only on her target, the ancient runes carved into the floor.
However, she couldn't help but pause as she passed Seraphina in the front row. Seraphina sat like a queen in that flawless, silver embroidered academy uniform.
In her lap lay the S Rank spiritual fox she had just summoned. The animal's fur shone like moonlight, its three tails swaying lazily.
Seraphina slightly lifted her head while stroking the fox's ears. That familiar, cruel, and contemptuous smile hung at the corners of her lips.
Her eyes didn't speak, but her gaze screamed: 'Come on, freak. Give me a show so I can watch your humiliation.'
Alicia took a deep breath and continued on her way. She reached the center of the circle, that cold and destiny determining spot.
The obsidian floor left a cold sensation under her feet.
The Professor standing at the podium did not give her that fatherly, encouraging look he showed other students. In his eyes was a special weariness reserved for Alicia, and perhaps a slight disgust.
Tapping his fingers rhythmically on the wooden table, he impatiently signaled with his head for her to begin.
Alicia picked up the black obsidian dagger lying on the altar. Her hand trembled involuntarily, betraying her will. 'Calm down,' she told herself.
Dark crimson, warm blood drops slid from her palm. They fell onto the silvery runes on the floor.
Drop. Drop. Drop.
Alicia closed her eyes tightly. She focused with all the power of her mind. "Come. Please come. Hear me. Anyone... You don't have to be strong. Just come."
One second passed. Two seconds. Five seconds.
There was no expected hum. No explosion of light. No wind. No smell of ozone.
The silence in the class gave way to a restless murmur. "What is happening?" "Is it broken?" "I told you, there is no talent in that cursed blood."
Alicia waited for the light behind her closed eyes, but there was nothing but darkness.
A minute passed. This meant eternity for a summoning ritual. Her heart clenched with fear. No... It cannot be... Nothing? Not even F Rank?
She opened her eyes with anxiety. Her blue eyes trembled with fear and panic. She looked directly at Professor Valerius.
Even the Professor looked surprised; his brows were furrowed, he had slightly raised the staff in his hand, as if he thought something was wrong.
"Professor, I..." Alicia's voice came out shaky.
"Wait," said Valerius suddenly, his eyes locked on the center of the circle.
When Alicia turned her head and looked down, her breath caught in her throat.
There had been no beam of light, no smoke, nor any sound. It was just... there. As if it had always been there but Alicia hadn't noticed.
Right in front of Alicia, in the exact middle of the rune circle, where the blood drops had fallen, was a figure sitting cross legged.
This was not a scaled monster. It was not a demon breathing fire or a magnificent spirit animal.
This was a human child.
A boy estimated to be eight or nine years old.
Alicia froze where she stood. The mocking laughter in the class cut off like a knife.
It left its place to a deep silence.
Even Seraphina had stopped squeezing the fox in her lap and leaned forward with eyes wide open.
The fox hissed restlessly, fluffing its fur.
On the child were black rags, faded in color, from an indeterminate era, torn in places and covered with strange, dark mud stains.
His clothes looked old and tired, as if they had waited under a grave for centuries.
His skin color was as pale as Alicia's, even paler; a dead whiteness, smooth as marble but lifeless as a corpse.
His veins appeared like faint purple webs under his skin. His thick hair falling to his shoulders was black as night, messy and dirty; veiling part of his face.
But the most terrifying thing was his face. Or that absolute lack of expression on his face.
The boy lifted his head slowly, with a fluid movement that was almost mechanical but didn't look human either. His hair fell back from his face.
When Alicia met those eyes, she felt a primal chill penetrating deep into her soul, into her marrow. Her legs were about to give way.
The boy's eyes were completely black. There were no irises. No whites of the eyes. No glint reflecting the light.
There was only a vast, deep darkness where one who fell in could never get out again. Not a well, but an abyss. A void.
There was no anger in those eyes. No sadness. No curiosity or fear. There was nothing in those eyes. And this "nothingness" was far more terrifying than any emotion.
The boy was looking only at Alicia's face with those frightening empty stares, as if Alicia wasn't there, as if this classroom, this academy, this world, even this universe didn't actually exist.
His gaze pierced through Alicia's skin, touching directly to her soul.
The air inside the room suddenly turned ice cold. This coldness was not a physical coldness caused by ice magic.
This was the coldness of graveyards, abandoned temples, and death. It was a shiver brought by existential fear.
Professor Valerius stepped back, the tip of his staff trembling. No one in the class could speak, no one could move. Time seemed to have stopped.
Alicia's lips trembled uncontrollably. Her voice spilled from her mouth in a whisper that sounded foreign even to her own ears. "What... What are you?"
The boy did not answer. His lips didn't even move. Just slowly tilting his head to the right without taking those dark eyes resembling bottomless wells off Alicia for a second.