Vale stood frozen near the white door of the locker room, his hand still hovering near the handle. His eyes followed Eskar as the boy stepped out from the shower area, steam curling behind him like a thin ghost. Eskar's expression was strange, sharp, unsettled, as if he couldn't decide which negative emotion to settle on. Rage? Envy? Disgust? Vale couldn't tell. It was all there, simmering.
Eskar walked toward him with slow, measured steps before sitting down on the wooden bench directly across from him. Now that they were face-to-face, the differences between them felt sharper. Eskar was slightly taller, with a sculpted build and tanned skin that almost glowed under the locker room lights. His bright red hair fell in wild, deliberate waves, as if chaos itself had been styled into perfection. His eyes—icy blue and utterly focused, held the kind of intensity that usually belonged to nobles or seasoned warriors, not students.
For a few long seconds, neither of them spoke. Only the dripping water from the showers filled the silence.
Then Eskar finally raised his head and stared directly into Vale's eyes.
"So… you got into the Rose family?" he asked. His tone was low, and strained. A brief pause followed, then his face twisted with a sudden wave of dark emotion. "Even though you've just arrived?"
Vale blinked at him, already sensing trouble. "Yeah," he answered carefully. "I did. Somehow."
Eskar inhaled sharply through his nose, his jaw tightening. Then, with surprising restraint, he lowered his head and spoke again.
"I apologize," he muttered. "I must look pathetic right now. But… the truth is, I resent you."
Vale's eyes grew wide. 'Resent me? You don't even know me,' he thought, stunned. But Eskar continued, his voice cracking only slightly as the bitterness poured out.
"You see… I was born into the great Oceanus dynasty." His expression twisted, not with pride, but with something closer to anguish. "But fate decided I would be tied to Pyrean, the plane of fire. And my parents, well, you can imagine how they reacted. My father refused to acknowledge me as his child. My mother couldn't oppose him. He was, and still is the head of the dynasty."
Eskar's fists trembled in his lap.
"When I was twelve, he got tired of me. Tired of my presence, my mistakes, my existence. So he sent me here. My mother made sure it looked like a 'prestigious assignment,' but we both knew the truth." He swallowed, clenching his teeth. "I worked every day to prove myself anyway. If not for my father, then at least for Rosemary Academy. For anyone."
Vale's expression softened without him noticing. He could feel Eskar's pain like a heavy weight in the air.
"But no matter what I did," Eskar continued, "all I gained was unwanted admiration from shallow students who only wanted to leech off the Oceanus name. I trained harder. Connected deeper with Pyrean. Tried to build something, to matter."
His voice dropped, thick with humiliation.
"And then I met her. Nym."
Vale stiffened. He could already guess where this was going.
"She demolished me," Eskar said flatly. "One strike. One. I trained for months after that, thinking I could close the gap. But no matter how much I grew, the distance between us never changed. She was always ahead. Always unreachable."
His smile twisted into something broken.
"And then you appeared."
Vale inhaled sharply.
"A boy with no history. No family. No reputation. Nobody knew anything about you." Eskar's gaze sharpened into a knife. "And yet you awakened from your first trial already marked by the Rose family. You accomplished in one day what I couldn't achieve in all those years."
He leaned forward.
"You beat Nym," he whispered. "You surpassed me. You surpassed everyone. And I," His voice cracked. "I hate that. I hate what it made me feel."
He spread his hands helplessly.
"Do you know what that feels like?"
Vale looked away, his jaw tightening in sympathy. "I don't," he said quietly. It was the only honest answer he had.
For a moment, Eskar said nothing. The quiet stretched between them like a blade held at both ends.
Then he stood.
His entire posture changed, tense and decisive.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Eskar murmured. "The act ends here."
A cold bead of sweat slid down Vale's temple. He took a step backward.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Eskar raised his hand.
Vale felt it before he saw it, the sudden, violent concentration of energy gathering in Eskar's palm. The Pyrean warmth he had felt earlier during the duel with Nym was nothing compared to this. This was heat gathered with hateful purpose.
"Thanks for letting me vent," Eskar said softly. "I really needed that."
His eyes hardened, glowing with murderous resolve.
"But now I'll kill you for the resentment you forced me to bear."
A blinding flare of orange ignited around his hand. Flames roared to life in an instant, expanding outward like a hungry beast lunging for Vale.
Vale threw the armor he was holding into the air and raised both arms to defend himself. The fire struck the armor mid-fall, exploding against it with enough force to rattle the room. The shattered pieces spiraled around Vale, and then something incredible happened.
The fragments of armor halted in midair, as though frozen by an invisible command. They trembled, then shot toward Vale, clamping around his body piece by piece. Metal plates snapped together over his limbs. A chest piece locked into place. His armor had almost fully covered him.
Within seconds, the armor he'd carried in his arms wrapped itself around him like a living creature,
shielding him completely from Eskar's raging torrent of flame.
Even with the armor shielding him from the inferno, the heat and raw force of Eskar's flames were overwhelming. The blast struck Vale like a battering ram, slamming him into the locker room door so violently that the hinges tore free. Wood and stone shattered around him as he was blasted through the doorway, crashing through part of the wall. Vale tumbled across the gymnasium floor, sliding several meters before coming to a shaky stop.
The gym was still full of students, and suddenly full of frozen silence.
Hundreds of eyes stared at Vale, wide with shock and horror. Dust drifted through the air from the destroyed wall. Eskar stepped out of the rubble a moment later, his expression twisted into something hateful and feral. Even Nym and Korin, looked stunned by his sudden arrival and the murderous aura pouring off him.
Vale forced himself up on one knee, coughing, vision spinning. His ears were ringing too loudly to make sense of the voices around him.
Across the room, Teacher Julian's voice shattered the silence.
"ESKAR!" His tone cracked like a whip. "WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
Vale couldn't hear it, not properly, but Eskar did. He jerked his head toward Julian, eyes blazing.
"SHUT UP!" Eskar's voice cracked with fury, resentment years in the making erupting all at once. "Do you have any idea how long I've had to endure this?! How long I've been a disappointment?!"
He took a step forward, flames flickering along his arms. His breathing grew sharp, shallow, frantic.
"I worked harder than anyone," he snarled. "Day after day, training, fighting, bleeding. And what did I earn? Nothing! No acknowledgment from my father, none from the Rosemary family, not even from the students here, just parasites wanting to climb the social ladder on my back!"
His hands clenched, flames gathering again, brighter and hotter.
"And then he shows up." Eskar pointed at Vale with a trembling, burning hand. "This stranger, this nobody, takes everything I ever wanted on his first day! He joins the Rose family, he beats Nym, he surpasses me in every way when I couldn't reach even a fraction of those heights in ten damn years!"
A bitter, broken laugh tore itself from his throat.
"And you expect me to stay calm?!"
His expression twisted into something desperate and violent.
"No. No more." His voice dropped, chilling and final. "I'll kill him. Even if I die doing it. Hard work clearly means nothing, so why should I care anymore?"
The flames on Eskar's arms ignited fully, brilliant orange, then blinding white at their core.
Vale staggered, still trying to regain his footing. His vision was blurry. His armor hummed with residual heat. He knew he couldn't dodge the next blast in time.
Eskar thrust his hand forward.
The flames roared across the floor like a living storm.
Vale braced for death, until something massive moved in front of him.
A broad back, a towering silhouette.
Korin.
He stepped between Vale and the inferno with nothing but his own body, planting his feet firmly as the flames engulfed him. Vale's eyes widened in horror.
"Korin! Are you insane?! You'll be killed!"
But the giant simply grinned, his voice calm even as fire washed over him.
"Don't worry," he said gently. "I'm just protecting my friend."
The flames raged on, swirling violently around him, crackling like a beast denied its prey.
Eskar, screaming in raw frustration, poured more power into the fire, only for shadows to rise beneath him.
Dark, writhing tendrils erupted from the gym floor like living chains. Eskar's eyes widened. He unleashed another burst of flames, attempting to burn them away, but shadows only recoiled briefly before tightening again, serpentine and unyielding. In seconds they wrapped around his wrists, ankles, torso, and neck, pulling him down until he was forced onto his knees.
His fire sputtered out.
Silence fell.
As the flames died, Vale rushed immediately to Korin. To his shock, the large man was… perfectly fine. Not a scorch mark. Not a single burn. Not even his clothing had been singed.
Vale stared. "How are you…?"
Korin gave a proud, almost sheepish smile. "My body is very tough."
Before Vale could reply, Nym sprinted across the gym toward them, her expression tight with worry.
"Vale! Are you alright?!" She grabbed his shoulders, eyes scanning him quickly. His armor, strangely, looked nearly untouched. She exhaled in deep relief when she realized he was unharmed.
Vale nodded, though his voice wavered slightly. "Yeah… I'm okay. I think."
Teacher Julian passed them without a word, heading straight toward Eskar, who remained bound to the floor by the dark restraints. The crowd of students parted for their instructor, their expressions conflicted, fear, pity, disbelief. Eskar, their model student, had just attempted murder before all of them.
Eskar's head hung low. His anger seemed to drain into exhaustion and bitter regret.
Julian stopped in front of him, shaking his head slowly.
"You know what happens next," the instructor said quietly.
His words echoed through the silent gym like a cold verdict.