Dominic hesitated, then asked, "Who are you, actually? How can you get me into the Academy that easily?"
Before answering, Felix's lips curled into a proud, almost smug smile.
"Because I work there," he said. "And I'm in a position that lets me get you in without tuition for the first half of your first year. You said you're poor, right?"
Dominic nodded slowly.
"For that first half-year, you won't pay a single coin," Felix continued. "But after that, you'll handle the tuition yourself. But by then, you'll be earning money. I'll make sure you have work."
Dominic fell silent, thinking.
Attending the Academy… that would mean leaving his grandfather alone. The thought twisted in his chest. He didn't want to abandon the old man. They only had each other.
But if he wanted to give his grandfather a better life, he needed this chance.
It wasn't a secret. People who graduated from the Academy—any Academy—secured good careers in the city, sometimes even in the kingdom's capital.
Even if someone graduated from a small city's Academy, if they showed incredible results, their reputation followed them wherever they went. Doors opened for them.
This was an opportunity he could never buy on his own.
And on top of that, Felix was offering to sponsor part of it and give him work that paid money.
Of course Dominic wanted to accept.
But then, a sudden thought struck him like a splash of cold water.
Why would this man be this nice?
Suspicion crawled in his heart, and Dominic glanced warily at Felix, wondering what exactly did this man want from him?
"Are you wondering why I'm this nice?" Felix asked suddenly as if able to read his thoughts.
Dominic stiffened. The thirteen-year-old boy nodded.
Felix sighed through his nose. "I'll be honest. I want to know more about your power."
He raised a hand before Dominic could recoil.
"But I'm not going to do anything bad to you. Even if I wanted to, I doubt I could. Your ability is… strange, and mysterious. I don't know what you can do, and I'm not stupid enough to prod something I don't understand for now."
He tapped the side of his leather-bound notebook.
"I just want to watch your journey and record it. There are still countless mysteries inside the Labyrinth even after thousands of years. And you—" he gestured at Dominic's marked hand, "—you look like you've become one of them."
Dominic frowned. "So you're treating me like… like some object to study?"
Felix nodded with an unapologetic smile. "Yes and no. I genuinely want to help you because I've been in your position before. But I also want to study you. And besides—" he shrugged, "I'm paying you. Think of it as working to earn money. Beggars can't be choosers, right?"
Dominic let out a long, defeated sigh. As much as he wanted to be offended, Felix wasn't wrong. For a poor commoner like him, even being offered work was already more than he ever had.
"Alright," Felix said, clapping his hands once. "You'd better eat. You need to replenish your energy. After that, we're heading toward the way out."
Dominic blinked. "Isn't this outside already?"
Felix barked a laugh. "Outside? No, kid. We're still inside the Labyrinth."
Dominic stared at the open sky and soft grass beneath him in disbelief, his mouth falling slightly open as his mind struggled to accept it.
—
A few minutes later, Dominic finished eating the jerky. It wasn't particularly good. It was dry, salty, and tough, but it filled his stomach, and that was enough.
While Dominic chewed, Felix explained the place they were in.
This wasn't the outside world at all. It was a part of the Labyrinth that produced illusions. One of many chambers capable of mimicking open skies, forests, plains, or stranger things.
This one was tame, Felix said. Some chambers created illusions so terrifying that even veteran explorers avoided them.
Dominic shuddered at the idea.
Felix only added, "You'll be entering the Labyrinth a lot, so get used to this sooner rather than later."
Once they were done resting, the two of them began walking across the fake landscape.
The sky never changed, the breeze never changed direction. It was unsettling once Dominic noticed the small details.
Eventually, he spotted a hole beneath a sloping hill.
"That's a way out to another part of the Labyrinth," Felix said.
They entered the opening, and the illusion vanished the moment they passed through.
Dominic now stood inside a long corridor of dark stone, the walls etched with ancient shapes and symbols just like what he saw before when he entered for the first time.
They truly weren't outside.
"Why don't we take the way I came in?" Dominic asked as they walked.
"That path's gone, kid," Felix replied. "That's just the nature of the Labyrinth."
Dominic's brows knitted. "And… what about the old man's voice?"
Felix's expression tightened immediately. "That… I'm not sure. But it might've come from the Archetype."
"The Archetype?" Dominic repeated.
"It's another kind of power inside the Labyrinth," Felix explained. "But unlike Signatures, it's far more dangerous. It comes from some existence that may be from the era when this Labyrinth was still above ground, before it sank and became what it is now. Something ancient and no Arcanist really understands until now."
Dominic swallowed hard. "So the man who called me…"
"Yeah," Felix said with a grimace. "I didn't want to tell you this because it'll scare you, but you'd find out eventually. So might as well."
Dominic's mind flashed back to the dream-like space he had seen.
The grey room, the floating dark orb, and the rift opening with those long, rotting green arms reaching toward him trying to grab him.
If not for the golden halo shielding the orb and swatting the arms back into the rift, he didn't want to imagine what would've happened.
That "old man"… that voice… It wasn't something good.
Dominic pressed his lips together. For now, he would keep those details to himself.
"We will face hordes of monsters after this," Felix said nonchalantly.
"Huh?" Dominic was dumbfounded.
—