A few days ago...

At the Helios Academy Infirmary, cadets filled the corridors, moving from one to the next, most visiting friends and relatives who had come away from the first-year citadel raid with severe injuries. But among all of them, there was one thing on everyone’s lips...

"I heard he died... but he’s alive."

"How is that possible? His name was on the obituary list, wasn’t it?"

"Well, I don’t know. But it’s clear he’s the Apostle of Death."

"Spare me the bullshit, Cindy. How can a corpse be alive?"

"The Goddess is watching over him. He is her chosen servant, after all."

Around her, the passersby did nothing but gossip. Raine sat nearby, rocking slightly as she tried to calm herself down to no avail. Then she caught sight of a nurse closing in on a ward, quickly pulled her white hair up into a ponytail, and made her way toward her.

"How is he... is he really alive?"

She blurted it out, crimson eyes drilling into the nurse’s with such force that the woman found herself unable to do anything but stop and spare her a moment.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"I assume you are talking about Calamity Leomaris."

The nurse looked saddened.

"His situation is quite peculiar. He is technically dead, yet still alive."

Raine frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"I don’t know either, but I’ve never seen anything like this before. His heart rate is so low that even his own body cannot register it. As a result, his entire body has shut down, effectively treating him as a corpse."

Relief coursed through her all the same, though she kept her thoughts guarded. Her mind was still very much on Leomaris’s well-being.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Can you heal him?"

The nurse hesitated and then exhaled deeply.

"Treating his injuries and patching him up would be easy. His current condition actually benefits us in that regard. However, our only hope of reviving him is forcing his heart to increase its beating frequency."

"What do you need... lightning or something?"

The nurse came close to smiling, though the expression on Raine’s face suggested there was nothing humorous about it. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Well, something like that."

In an instant, she decided to give Raine her full attention. She turned, faced her squarely, and locked eyes.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Calm down a little. We have highly experienced doctors who can handle this situation. Not only is he a Calamity, but also the son of a Duke. I doubt the academy would take his condition lightly."

The nurse held her smile, said her piece, and excused herself. Raine knew all of that, and yet she couldn’t stop worrying. She couldn’t stop blaming herself for what had happened to Leomaris.

Leaving was something she couldn’t manage for long — whenever she did, she always ended up back in the same spot, waiting for Leomaris to wake.

—

Raine’s POV:

Present day...

"Have you eaten chocolate today? You smell like chocolate."

Leomaris said with a soft smile, leafing through the book in his hand. As though deliberately taunting her, he crossed one leg over the other and settled back in his seat.

"Are you going to keep looking at me like that forever?"

Raine sneered, though a part of her genuinely wanted to know. She lifted her uniform to her nose, sniffed, and frowned.

"I don’t smell like chocolate... what do you want?"

The answer she had been expecting went unheeded, her attention had already shifted to Ren, and she pulled her into a tight hug once more. Nearly a month had passed since they last saw each other, and she couldn’t hold herself back.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"When are you going to consider what I asked?"

Leomaris’s attention shifted toward Ren.

"For one, Ren is already in support of this."

A surprised look crossed Raine’s face, and she pulled back from the hug at once, holding Ren at arm’s length.

"Is that true, Ren?"

Still working through Raine’s snacks without a care, she offered nothing but a nonchalant shrug.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Why wouldn’t I? The only reason I’m alive is because of the Runerth family. And what the young master is proposing will help us get revenge on the churches."

Raine’s expression stayed unreadable. The five days since Leomaris woke had been consumed by one thing: establishing his faction, the Mercy of Death, within the underground community. One organisation in particular, one that sought no alliance but dominance.

’I don’t oppose a connection to the underground world. I want to restore my family’s honor, and I believe it will help me greatly. But dominance is my issue... we are weak and could end up being killed.’

Her gaze narrowed and settled on Leomaris once more. He sat there looking perfectly at ease, as though he hadn’t a care in the world, turning page after page without a sound.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’One thing about this is how elusive Leomaris has become recently. I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to this faction than we know.’

After recollecting her thoughts, she finally spoke.

"So what do you need my ability for, and how will that help the faction?"

Leomaris’s expression gave nothing away as he briefly lifted his gaze and spared her his attention.

"Do you really want me to say it again? It will help me get stronger."

"How is that even possible? How can I infuse my ability into weapons?"

A soft smile tugged on Leomaris’s lips.

"Have you ever wondered how artifacts are created? Who created them? And why they are created?"

Raine frowned.

"How would I know that? Aren’t they obtainable through Rune Realms?"

Leomaris smiled, the smile of someone who knew far too much, and as his gaze drifted quietly back to his book, he spoke. "You really know nothing."

Raine’s face contorted at the arrogance Leomaris was putting on display, but she kept herself composed. She had wanted to be nice to him, genuinely, but she couldn’t.

She hadn’t told him the person who stabbed him from behind was a Calamity, nor had she told him that she knew about Emerald’s plan to kill him and had done nothing.

Part of her believed that telling Leomaris any of it would only push him toward greater danger, and if she was being honest with herself, she had begun caring for him more than she had ever intended to.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’I believe the only way I can protect him is by agreeing to this underground domination. I can’t afford to see him near death again.’

Just as the words were forming, a knock came at the door, and it eased open. Her heart skipped. Before her stood one of the Calamities, dark-haired with soulless eyes, and beyond her rank as a Calamity, she had openly tried to kill Leomaris.

It was Charlotte Greenwood.