The Academy halls felt strange after the Inter-Class War. Students were everywhere, but the atmosphere was wrong.

Ronan passed several Class B students on his way back to the dorms, nodding when they greeted him and returning brief congratulations when they mentioned Elara’s performance. He kept his posture relaxed, his tone casual, and his face neutral as he spoke.

Once he reached his room, Ronan locked the door and checked the privacy runes he’d installed – simple things, not suspicious, but they were nice to have.

Only then did his smile fade, changing into a blank expression.

He opened the system screen and reread the Demon Leech warning.

[Estimated time to full host override: 394 days, 17 hours]

Ronan stared at the countdown. It didn’t frighten him, but it made him uncomfortable in a way he didn’t like.

Usually he only felt like this at a loss of control in his life... but perhaps this was exactly what this was. After all, it felt so forcing.

Before, his weakness had been a problem he was willing to put off. Sure, he was weak, but strength would come naturally as long his plans went half well.

Now it was a deadline. He didn’t have a choice anymore. He had to get strong, fast.

He tested the second heart carefully, willing it to move from his abdomen to his chest.

It shifted smoothly, too smoothly, like an extension of his body rather than an actual organ.

He moved it to his shoulder, then back down again.

Aura called it the first stage of host override.

But if someone were to stab him in the chest, would he truly die anymore? Perhaps he would. But there was something telling him that it wouldn’t. The same thing that let him instinctively know that this foreign object in his chest was actually a heart, and he shouldn’t panic over it.

Ronan sat on the edge of his bed and reviewed the war from start to finish.

His goal had been straightforward. Create enough chaos to draw out the Refinement Leech, use the battlefield as cover, acquire a dangerous shortcut to strength, and let the Academy believe all damage came from student conflict.

He had pushed Elara into leadership, fractured Class C and D, destabilized Class A, used Aura to steal Class B’s node, had Marcus killed to shake Class S, bound Freya, and triggered a final battlefield where every class had incentive to fight.

It all went well for the most part.

It should have been pleasing.

Instead, Grace won the war despite his interference. The Refinement Leech never appeared. The system forced him toward Luca. His refusal ended with a Rank 5 Demon Leech inside his body, and turned his body into a ticking time bomb.

Ronan leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

But it wasn’t a failure. Failure implied nothing was gained.

Freya was bound to him. Sapphire had proven more useful than expected. Aura remained tied to him through their contract, even if knew she was going to grow a lot more difficult to handle. Grace had revealed more of herself through her actions, and the Academy would almost certainly treat Ronan differently after the exam.

There were gains.

The issue was that the board had changed in a way he had not predicted, and that bothered him.

Ronan pushed away from the wall and left his room, partly because he needed to see how Class B was recovering and partly because staying alone with the second heartbeat for too long would make him think in circles.

The Class B dorm area was filled with exhaustion.

Students sat on the floor instead of going to their rooms. Some compared injuries. Others talked quietly about the final battle and how close they had come. The mood was not victorious, but it was not defeated either.

Class B lost the war, but something in them had hardened. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Too bad half of them wouldn’t be here to really relish in it.

He saw Sapphire first.

She sat apart from the others with her hands wrapped in bandages, her rune tools beside her in a half-open case. A few tools were cracked. Several pieces of runic paper were burnt at the edges. Her expression was not dramatic, not broken, just hollow in the way craftsmen looked when something they poured themselves into had been destroyed.

Ronan watched her for a moment longer than necessary.

Her runes had bought Class B time. Her work had been destroyed, exploited, traded, and turned into weapons. Ronan did not feel guilt the way others might, but he recognized damage when he saw it. Sapphire’s talent was a resource, but her willingness was more fragile.

Befriending her and staying on her good side would prove useful.

Mira was nearby, injured and exhausted but being spoken to with new respect.

Several students thanked her for holding off Irene and helping Elara reach the statue.

Mira looked uncomfortable with the attention, but not displeased.

Darius stood farther away, treated respectfully but no longer as the only center of Class B.

His expression was calm, yet Ronan could tell he understood what changed while he was gone. Class B had not rejected him, but it had learned to move without him.

Then Ronan noticed Cole.

Cole stood near the edge of the hall, bruised, angry, and staring directly at him. There was no confusion in his eyes, no uncertainty. Cole believed what he saw. He believed Ronan attacked Darius to keep him from escaping. He believed Ronan abandoned them.

And unlike the rest of Class B, Cole did not look ready to move on just because the war ended.

Ronan met his gaze for a second, then looked away first. Not out of fear, but because responding would give Cole importance he had not yet earned.

Elara approached soon after. She looked exhausted, bandaged, and badly burned in places, but the students around her kept glancing her way before making decisions.

Leader, Ronan thought. Not officially. Not yet. But the word had already attached itself to her.

Kazuma was with her, and Ronan actually almost forgot he was in the class for a second. His impact throughout the war had been the exact same as a background character, and Ronan honestly couldn’t tell what he’d done the entire war.

That was a little alarming now that he thought of it. But for some reason, he didn’t feel the need to look into it more.

It was unnatural, logically he knew that. He was the type to notice inconsistencies like these. But there was something stronger telling him there was no point in investigating.

He couldn’t explain why he felt this way.

So he let it be.