As Liana basked in the warm morning sun, a faint smile played on her lips.

In fact, she woke up early almost every day just to watch the dawn. There was something special about those moments; when the first rays of light crept into the world and slowly dispelled the darkness of the night.

It always reminded her of what she had dreamed of as a child.

To be honest, she had always wanted to be like the sun; appearing whenever she pleased and disappearing whenever she pleased, without anyone restricting her or imposing a particular path upon her.

She saw in that freedom an indescribable joy, the joy of doing what she wanted when she wanted.

And although it was nothing more than a childhood dream, she saw nothing in it to be ashamed of. After all, it is childhood dreams that shape a person, even if they are later abandoned.

Perhaps her thinking was wrong.

Or perhaps not.

But who cares?

After all, she didn’t share these thoughts with anyone. And although she was very sociable, she kept certain aspects of her life to herself.

"That’s good... yes, it’ll be just right for today."

She muttered this as she carefully chose her clothes.

She put on a simple white short-sleeved T-shirt that fell loosely over her body, paired with practical black trousers that gave her a look that was both stylish and comfortable. Her white trainers were placed by the bed, as if waiting impatiently for her.

She tied her long red hair into a high ponytail.

She stood in front of the mirror for a few seconds, shook her head once or twice, then nodded with satisfaction.

She then made her way over to the desk in the corner of the room, next to the window.

She sat down in the chair and opened the laptop in front of her.

Her father had instructed her to do this every morning, so she never neglected it, even if she didn’t fully understand why.

"Why do I have to act like an old woman? I really hate this."

She complained every time, but she never stopped doing what her father had asked of her.

He always insisted that she had to keep up with world news constantly, claiming it was essential if she wanted to become a successful manager in the future.

To be honest, Liana couldn’t understand the connection between the two.

What does following the news have to do with running a company?

Perhaps there was some hidden wisdom behind it, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t figure it out.

So she came to a much simpler conclusion:

Her father was only doing it to annoy her.

After all, this wasn’t the first strange thing he’d done.

He would spend hours telling her how he’d built ’Lazmendos’ from scratch, and how he’d overcome difficulties to get where he is today.

He would repeat the same story at almost every family gathering.

Sometimes she wanted to tell him that the company was still classified as a start-up, but that would be a bit embarrassing, and she didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm.

In fact, if she was honest with herself, she didn’t even know what the company actually produced.

"It must be some imaginary company that only Dad and I know about."

She muttered this as she lazily scrolled through the news.

As usual, most of the headlines looked deadly boring.

And every time her eyelids started to droop, she would give her cheeks a light slap to stay awake.

"It’s torture... When will this end?"

Liana muttered wearily, but she soon furrowed her brow slightly when several video clips appeared before her, showing widespread destruction in a city.

"Strange..."

Those scenes prompted her to search for more details.

After a few minutes of reading and browsing various websites, she began to form a rough understanding of what had happened.

According to official reports, the city of Talarsim had been hit by an earthquake the previous night, causing widespread collapses and significant damage to the infrastructure.

However, that didn’t quite convince her.

The last recorded natural earthquake in the world had been thousands of years ago.

"It doesn’t seem natural..."

She muttered as she continued her search.

She was extremely curious, and since there were no classes today, and the expedition was due to start at ten o’clock in the morning, she had plenty of time.

So she kept digging for information.

Website after website.

News story after news story.

Until she came across pages she hadn’t even known existed.

And there, the picture began to become a little clearer.

Not everyone was convinced by the earthquake story.

According to some unofficial reports, the affected area was known for its prevalence of illegal activities, which led some people to believe that the destruction was the result of a battle that had taken place there.

Although that seemed absurd at first glance, the scale of the destruction she saw in the video clips made her hesitate.

If what she had read was true...

Then the people who had been fighting there must have been very high-ranking.

"Hmm..."

She tilted her head, deep in thought.

But before she could delve any deeper, her eyes fell on the clock in the corner of the screen.

Her eyes widened suddenly.

"Oh... looks like I’m going to be late!"

She quickly shut down the computer and stood up from her seat. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

She didn’t want to arrive late.

What if they waited for her for a while and then left?

That would be a real disaster.

She hurried out of her room, and as soon as she stepped outside, she was greeted by an unusually quiet scene.

There were far fewer students in the corridors than on previous days.

The reason was likely that today was set aside for extra-curricular activities, meaning that many students had already headed off to their clubs or meeting places.

"...I’m really late."

As soon as she realised this, she ran as fast as she could through the corridors.

Some students were giving her strange looks, but she didn’t care. Her destination was the main square, and she didn’t have time to worry about what others thought.

After several minutes of running, she finally arrived.

She slowed her pace as she approached the square, then began walking as if she hadn’t been running moments before.

As she made her way forward, her eyes fell upon a young man and woman sitting near the fountain, surrounded by colourful flowers on all sides.

They were kissing.

Her face twitched slightly.

’Disgusting...’

’Aren’t there designated places for that?’

Truly, she didn’t understand this sort of behaviour.

If they wanted to kiss, why were they doing it in a public place?

Hadn’t they come to the academy to study in the first place?

The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that she would never understand romantics.

So she shook her head and carried on her way.

A few moments later, she finally spotted Srin standing by the bus.

And standing next to her was Lewa.

Or rather... something that looked like Lewa.

He looked as if he’d suffered a severe emotional blow.

In fact, Liana felt that a single touch might be enough to knock him to the ground.

When she was a few steps away, Srin noticed her and waved, saying:

"Good morning."

Liana stood beside her and said:

"It was a good morning until I saw his condition. What happened to him? Why does he look as if he’s about to die?"

Srin let out a small laugh, then leaned in close and whispered:

"Because only three people have signed up for the club."

"Oh... so that’s how it is."

To be honest, I felt a little sorry for him.

Just a little.

But the situation was so funny that I burst out laughing without hesitation, and with every laugh, Liwa’s face grew paler, which made me laugh even more.

I only stopped when my eyes caught sight of something glinting near the front of the bus.

It piqued her curiosity.

She followed the source of the glint until she reached it, at which point she raised an eyebrow.

’What are you doing here?’

She bent down and picked up the silver trinity flower. She turned it between her fingers for a moment, admiring its quiet radiance.

But suddenly, she heard a strange murmur coming from nearby.

She raised her head and looked around, and saw Nero approaching from a distance, wearing a strange expression, as if he had been tricked.

Liana stopped fiddling with the flower.

’What’s wrong with him?’