Vale stood before Bianca, giving a small, polite bow. After a quiet breath, he lifted his head again, a grateful smile softening his pale features. Bianca returned the look with her usual tired gentleness, but before she could speak, Vale straightened.
"Well," she said at last, brushing a lock of grey hair behind her ear, "you should get going. I still have quite a mountain of work to finish."
Vale nodded. "Alright, i will."
He turned and took a few steps down the hallway before something nudged at the back of his mind, Evelyn's voice reminding him to thank Bianca properly for all the time she'd spent on his documents. He paused, glanced over his shoulder, and raised a hand in a polite wave.
"Thank you for looking out for me," he called back.
Bianca didn't reply with words. She simply looked up from her desk and offered him a small, exhausted smile, one of those smiles that said more than speech could. She nodded once, as if placing a quiet blessing on him.
Vale chuckled under his breath and continued onward.
After a while, he lifted the phone in his hand and stared at it. The thing hummed faintly, but he realized, rather belatedly, that he had absolutely no idea how to use it.
"It might've been better to ask her before I left…" he muttered to himself. The device stared back at him blankly, unhelpful and silent.
He sighed. "Fine. I'll just try it myself."
Clearing his throat, as if preparing to address a dignified guest, he held the phone at eye level. "Can you guide me to the garden?" he asked.
To his pleasant surprise, the black screen pulsed once, then turned white. A set of dark arrows appeared, floating like ink strokes that pointed down the corridor.
"Nice," Vale murmured, pleased with himself.
He followed the arrows through the labyrinthine academy, passing countless white hallways, doors sealed with strange glyphs, and windows revealing the moonlit courtyards outside. Now and then students drifted by, their faces a blur of exhaustion and curiosity, but none stopped to speak to him.
Then, something caught his attention.
A massive door loomed to his right, large enough for a giant to walk through without ducking. It was decorated with golden inlays and an emblem Vale didn't recognize.
He stopped. "What's this…?"
He glanced at the phone's arrow, then shrugged. "A small detour won't hurt."
With a gentle push of power, the door responded, surprisingly easily. It swung open without resistance.
Behind it stretched a vast library.
Vale's breath caught. Endless shelves of varnished wood rose like carved cliffs. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of books were stacked and organized with loving precision. The place carried the warm scent of old paper and polished oak, a whisper of dust and history floating in the air.
"Amazing…" he whispered, stepping inside as if afraid he might disturb the hush.
He wandered a few steps between the towering shelves, losing himself in the warm glow of golden lamps and the soft rustle of pages turned somewhere far within.
Then a voice called out from behind him.
"Sorry, can I help you with anything?"
Vale turned, ready to explain himself, but the moment he faced the speaker, his words faltered.
Before him stood a towering man, nearly two and a half meters tall, with the build of someone carved from bedrock. His hair was a deep, heavy brown; his eyes a crisp, crystalline blue. A man who looked as if gravity worked slightly harder on him.
"Ah, I was just looking…" Vale paused, momentarily taken aback. "…around." He forced the rest of the sentence out.
The giant of a man bowed slightly. "I see. Sorry for interrupting."
As he straightened, Vale's gaze drifted to the small name tag clipped to his white shirt.
Korin.
Vale's eyes widened. 'Korin? Bianca's son? This mountain of a human?' It didn't make sense at first, Korin was supposed to be his age. This man looked twice that. But when Vale studied his face more carefully, he saw Bianca in the subtle shape of the eyes, the arch of the eyebrows.
Korin turned to walk away, but Vale spoke quickly.
"Excuse me!"
The large man paused. Vale swallowed and continued, "Are you… by chance, Bianca's son? Korin?"
The giant blinked, a flicker of surprise crossing his face before he raised a hand and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Uh… yeah, I am. Do you… know my mother?"
Vale hesitated for a moment, not out of doubt, but simply from the shock of reconciling Bianca's gentle image with the enormous man before him. Finally, he nodded.
"She took care of me for a bit," he said. "My name is Vale."
Korin's eyes widened with recognition. "Oh. You're Vale. I heard about the price of your plane, " he trailed off, grimacing in sympathy. "Sorry about that, man."
Vale blinked. 'Price of my plane?' He wasn't entirely sure what Korin meant, but he assumed Korin was referring to his memory loss.
"Do you mean my memory?" he asked
Korin nodded. "Yeah. Must be rough not remembering anything."
Vale let out a small laugh. "Well… kind of. But I don't really have anything to remember either."
Korin looked startled for a heartbeat, then nodded with awkward acceptance. "Yeah… I guess that's one way to see it."
Despite Bianca's worries, Vale found Korin surprisingly gentle, and strangely respectful for someone built like an avalanche.
Which made him wonder 'why doesn't he have friends?' There had to be more to it than the missing enigma.
Vale thought for a moment, remembering his promise to Bianca. Then he looked up at Korin with a careful, hopeful smile.
"Hey… Korin?"
The giant looked down. "Yes?"
"I was heading outside for some fresh air," Vale said. "Would you like to join me?"
Korin froze, blinking once. Then twice. He opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry, but I h-"
He was abruptly cut off by a small voice.
"Yes! Big brother Korin would love to go with you!"
A girl suddenly popped into view, no older than twelve or thirteen. Tiny compared to Korin, barely reaching his ribs. She had soft brown hair, bright eyes, and Bianca's facial structure, unmistakably. She latched onto Korin's arm with the confidence of someone who had been dragging her giant brother around her whole life.
Vale blinked, startled. 'So they're siblings…' that explained the resemblance.
The girl beamed up at him. "Take him with you! He needs to rest!"
Korin buried his face in one hand, mortified.
Vale watched the two siblings for a moment, trying to place the young girl's name. He was sure he had heard it before, Bianca had mentioned it, hadn't she?, but it dangled just out of reach. As he observed the girl clinging fiercely to Korin's side like a tiny guardian beast, the memory finally surfaced.
He lowered himself slightly to her eye level. "You're Maelis, right?"
The little girl blinked, thrown off balance. She loosened her iron grip on Korin and tilted her head, studying him with frank suspicion. "Yeah… how do you know?" Her eyes narrowed further. "Wait, don't tell me. Are you an agent sent by Mom?"
Vale's eyes widened in surprise before a quiet laugh escaped him. "Something like that," he admitted. "Your mother told me your names. I only came here out of curiosity, though."
Maelis scrutinized him as if trying to decide whether he was a spy or a piece of suspicious furniture. Then she abruptly lifted her head and turned to Korin with the solemn authority only younger siblings possess.
"Korin," she declared, "make sure you make this guy one of your friends. You need more."
Korin's expression twisted into something tightly wedged between embarrassment and resignation. "You don't have to say that out loud, you know," he muttered, voice awkward and small compared to his towering frame.
Maelis offered no verbal answer, only a merciless, unblinking stare.
After a few seconds of this silent pressure, Korin sagged and let out a defeated breath. "Fine."
He turned back to Vale, recovering a hint of composure. "I'll grab my coat. Please excuse me for a moment."
Vale nodded, offering a gentle smile. "Take your time."
Korin walked off, boots thudding softly against the pathway. Vale shifted his gaze to Maelis, who still stood like a tiny sentinel.
"So, uh… Maelis," he ventured, "how is your brother so tall? And how does someone like him have only one friend? He seems likable, good-mannered even."
Maelis's expression darkened. The change was small but sharp, like a cloud passing over the sun. She sighed, far too world-weary for someone her size, and answered his first question with blunt honesty.
"His plane warped some of his genes," she said. "Made him grow… a lot."
She paused, the weight of the next explanation pulling her eyes down briefly before she met his gaze again.
"And he doesn't have many friends because people are scared of him."
Vale's brows lifted, his curiosity deepening. He had more questions, many more, but just as he opened his mouth to continue, Korin's voice called from behind them.
"All right, I'm back."
Vale straightened and turned, his unfinished question dissolving into the air. He gave Korin a polite nod. "So," korin asked, "is there anywhere you'd like to go?"