Classes ended at noon, and Takeshi stepped into the hallway alongside Aoi. The building filled with students within seconds. Some headed toward the cafeteria, others toward the courtyard, and a small group ran past them.

Takeshi looked toward the south wing.

"Let’s go to the library."

Aoi was already walking in that direction.

The library was on the second floor of the east wing. It took them three minutes to get there. When they entered, Takeshi scanned the room. The tables were occupied by different students, some alone and others in groups, but none of the heads he saw had the distinctive reddish hair, nor the sign that read Solynmar Nyx.

Aoi looked around as well.

"She’s not here."

"That’s not good."

Takeshi checked the tables in the back, including the reserved one where Nyx usually sat, and it was empty.

"Maybe she’s somewhere else."

"Should we split up to cover more ground?"

Takeshi nodded.

"I’ll check the south wing and the east stairwell while you check the courtyard and the cafeteria."

"Alright."

Aoi turned and left the library without adding anything else.

Takeshi headed down the hallway toward the south wing. It was an area of the building he used less than the north wing, where his classroom was. The hallways were narrower, and most of the doors he came across were closed. He passed two empty classrooms, a storage room with the door half open, and the entrance to a secondary staircase that led directly down to the ground floor.

He went downstairs and took the main first-floor hallway toward the south side. There were fewer students there than in the rest of the building. Some walked alone with their bags slung over their shoulders, while others stood in small groups near the windows.

Takeshi kept walking.

When he reached the intersection with the side hallway leading to the laboratories, he heard voices. Someone was speaking to another person in a way that didn’t sound like a normal conversation.

He stopped at the corner and looked down the side hallway.

Nyx was standing against the wall with her bag on the floor and a paper bag in her hand that Takeshi assumed was her lunch. In front of her stood an elf significantly taller than she was. He had pale hair, almost white, pulled back behind his head. He wore the academy uniform, but with slight differences in the details that marked him as an upperclassman. His ears were pointed like Nyx’s, but longer.

Takeshi didn’t move. He chose to wait a few seconds.

"You keep coming here as if you actually have some right to."

The elf spoke in a calm tone, almost as if he were bored.

"Do you know how ridiculous that is?"

Nyx didn’t answer. She only stared at the floor.

"Nothing to say?"

The elf tilted his head slightly to the side.

"Just like always."

He took a step toward her, but Nyx didn’t back away.

The elf looked at the paper bag in Nyx’s hand. He took it effortlessly and dropped it onto the floor. The contents, a juice box, something wrapped in paper, and what looked like a sandwich, scattered across the ground.

"I can’t believe they see anything useful in a disgrace like you..."

The elf began speaking, and his tone changed for the first time, losing its boredom and becoming more direct.

"Because of you, my mother is..."

"Hey."

Takeshi interrupted the "conversation," and both elves turned toward him at the same time.

"Leave her alone."

Takeshi ordered.

The elf looked at him, not with surprise, but with disdain. His eyes were a pale gray, and they swept over Takeshi from head to toe.

"And who are you?"

"Someone telling you to leave her alone."

The elf kept his calm expression for another second before finally deciding to respond. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Do you know who you’re talking to?"

"No..."

Takeshi answered firmly.

"And I don’t care."

The elf stared at him for a moment before speaking with deliberate clarity, as though he wanted to make sure every word stuck.

"I see first-years are remarkably ignorant. Given the situation, I suppose I’m obligated to tell you my name. I am Sylion Solynmar."

The chat exploded with comments at the edge of Takeshi’s vision.

[THAT’S NYX’S BROTHER!!!]

[FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT]

[tell him if he doesn’t want his sister he should give her to you]

Takeshi recognized the name immediately, and he knew Sylion had reasons for wanting Nyx to miss the voting.

"Takeshi Fujimoto..."

Takeshi said without his voice wavering.

"And I still think the same thing."

Sylion looked at him appraisingly.

"Fujimoto."

Sylion repeated, as if committing the name to memory.

"You’re not from any prestigious house."

"No."

"Then you have no context for what’s happening here."

"It doesn’t take much context to see what’s happening here."

Takeshi replied.

"And whatever context you have doesn’t give you the right to treat people like this."

Sylion didn’t answer immediately. He stared at Takeshi for a few more seconds, then briefly glanced at Nyx. The expression on his face wasn’t that of someone who had lost an argument, but of someone who had decided the conversation no longer interested him.

He smiled briefly, without warmth.

"You don’t really know who you’re protecting."

Sylion finished.

He didn’t wait for a response. He turned and walked down the hallway in the opposite direction from where Takeshi stood, without quickening his pace, with the same calmness he’d arrived with. He turned the corner and disappeared.

The hallway fell silent.

Takeshi waited a few seconds to make sure Sylion wasn’t coming back, then turned toward Nyx.

She was crouched on the floor, picking up what remained of her lunch. She picked up the juice box, which had remained intact, and set it aside. Then she picked up the paper wrapping, now empty because what had been inside had fallen directly onto the floor. The sandwich lay on the ground with its filling scattered everywhere. She looked at it for a moment before wrapping it back up in the same paper to throw it away.

Takeshi crouched down and picked up the empty paper left behind.

Nyx looked up at him from below and said nothing.

"Do you have any more food?"

Takeshi asked.

"No."

Takeshi stood back up.

"Then let’s go get lunch."

Nyx looked at him for another moment before picking her bag up from the floor, slinging it over her shoulder, and standing.

The chat was still active at the edge of Takeshi’s vision.

[what a letdown, no fight happened]

[at least he found Nyx]

[that elf’s definitely gonna want revenge later]

Takeshi headed back down the hallway toward the main building with Nyx beside him and mentally searched for the nearest place to get food.