Free Web NovelChapter 120: Eve of the Test
It was already night when the four of them were still training, blurs of movement beneath the dim courtyard lights, long shadows stretching across the ground, heavy breaths filling the air.
Each of them focused.
Each of them serious.
Haru defended with one eye open—literally. His left eye remained closed while his right read every intention before it became movement.
Kira dashed forward, beastkin speed that gave no warning.
Haru blocked with Vorath, but the impact still pushed him two steps backward.
"Kira!" Isabela shouted.
She filled her lungs and unleashed a massive crimson wave of fire, flooding the opening Kira had created.
"They’re not giving me room to attack. They know that if I get started, I won’t stop."
Haru vanished into his shadows.
[Shadow Steps]
He appeared on the opposite side of the courtyard.
Chains emerged, summoned by Lilithine—precise, elegant, aimed directly at an unprepared Haru.
They resembled the chains of the Codex Veritas.
Haru’s body reacted before thought.
Instinct.
Memory.
Golden platforms. Names read aloud.
He stretched out one hand.
The chains wrapped around empty air beside him.
Nothing.
As if someone was standing there who wasn’t.
"What!?" Lilithine exclaimed. "I missed!"
Kira felt a chill run through her body. Her ears flattened.
Predator instinct.
The feeling of encountering something she did not understand.
"Focus!" she shouted.
When they looked again, Haru was already in front of Isabela.
A Valtherion-flame-covered fist struck her abdomen.
Isabela flew several meters before rolling across the ground and ending up on her back, staring at the sky.
Kira came immediately afterward, slashing horizontally at his stomach with her right dagger.
Haru caught her wrist with a level of ease that was mildly offensive.
"No way..." Kira thought.
Her left dagger stabbed directly toward his abdomen.
It didn’t penetrate.
His skin felt like solid armor.
"The Master has been hiding his strength this whole time."
Lilithine attempted to approach from behind.
Three steps.
Then she stopped.
Her instincts told her not to continue.
Not fear.
Something more specific.
Like walking through darkness and sensing a presence you couldn’t see.
She retreated immediately.
Haru discharged enough lightning through Kira’s arm to make her release him.
She shook her hand.
"Ow."
"Told you," Haru said. "I said I was testing the lightning on you."
He turned toward Lilithine.
She was already standing still, arms crossed, expression carrying the authority of an executive decision.
"That’s enough for today."
"The only sensible one," Haru said.
"Not fair!" Kira pointed.
"Master was hiding his strength!"
"It’s training."
"Training means showing everything! Otherwise how are we supposed to improve!?"
"You improve by trying to surpass what you see."
"Not what exists."
Isabela got up from the ground, brushing dirt off her clothes.
Her hair was messy.
Her expression wasn’t anger.
It was a close relative.
"You said you’d go easy."
"And how was the punch?"
Pause.
"...Too easy."
"Let’s go again."
Isabela grabbed her sword.
"Let’s go again, Master!" Kira immediately readied her daggers.
"No."
"PLEASE..."
"No."
"JUST ONE MORE TIME..."
"No."
Lilithine gently placed a hand on Isabela’s shoulder.
Firm.
Calm.
"We trained all day."
"We deserve a bath and some rest."
"But—"
"Bath," she repeated.
"And rest."
Kira looked at Haru.
Then at Lilithine.
Then at the sky as if asking heaven for patience.
"The nun is the only sane person here."
"I’m not a nun."
"Master is thinking like an adult."
"I’m not an adult," Haru replied. "I’m seventeen."
"Then you’re the only one acting like one."
"That’s depressing."
Isabela still held her sword.
"One last round."
"No."
"Half of one last round."
"That doesn’t make sense."
"IT DOES."
"Isabela."
Lilithine used the tone.
Isabela sheathed the sword with excessive force.
"What was that?" Lilithine asked Haru, more serious now. "My chains stopped. It was like you were there and... not there."
"In a creepy way," Kira added, her ears still slightly lowered.
Haru looked at his own hand.
"The same thing that happened during the Veritas Resonance."
"I simply told one of the spirits inside me, using Mind Whisper: stay here."
"And it stayed."
"The same thing happened when Lilithine tried to attack from behind. A spirit occupied my place for a few seconds."
"But the skill isn’t complete yet. Right now I can only tell them to stay somewhere, and not for very long."
He smiled.
Didn’t elaborate.
"That’s annoying," Kira said.
"Very," Isabela agreed.
Lilithine simply looked at him for a second longer than necessary.
Then she turned away.
"Bath."
...
Later, Haru found himself sitting on the edge of the balcony, legs hanging over empty space.
Thinking.
About things that belonged to him and that he still didn’t understand.
He opened Vandris’s diary, searching for nothing in particular.
Letting the page choose for him.
It opened to one marked by an old folded corner.
Not folded by Haru.
The crease was yellowed with age.
He read:
"The Sarcophagus does not carry spirits."
"The Sarcophagus is the space in which spirits exist."
"The distinction is not semantic."
"A container can be replaced. A space cannot."
"When the host dies, ordinary spirits are released."
"When the Sarcophagus dies..."
The next line had been crossed out.
Three times.
With force.
Different ink from the rest of the page.
Someone had not wanted it read.
Haru stared at the scratches for a moment.
Then closed the diary.
Looked at his hands again.
"What exactly did I plant?"
...
Meanwhile, Isabela sat before a blank sheet of paper.
Pen in hand.
For ten minutes.
She started three times.
"Father,"
Crossed it out.
"Baron,"
Crossed it out.
"I’m doing well."
She stared at that line for a long time.
It was true.
She was doing well.
Maybe better than well.
For the first time in years, she wasn’t being measured against expectations she hadn’t chosen.
But writing that back home felt like betraying something she couldn’t name.
She folded the blank paper.
Placed it in the drawer with the others.
Extinguished the candle.
"I have to honor my father."
...
Kira slept curled around herself.
An old position.
From the days when there was no safe territory.
When sleeping openly meant being found.
The academy had walls.
Walls had smells.
And smells carried stories.
She woke during the night.
Not because of a nightmare.
Because of a scent.
The pillow smelled faintly of Haru.
Not strongly.
Just a trace.
From the time he had rested there.
Kira remained still, eyes closed.
Letting the scent simply be what it was.
"Haru Mizuki."
"My Master."
Then she fell asleep again.
This time with her arms less tightly wrapped around herself.
...
Yukihime was awake.
Her room had a small window facing south.
If she leaned at just the right angle, she could see a portion of the male courtyard between the rooftops.
She couldn’t see her father.
But she knew he was there.
On that side of the academy.
Breathing the same cold night air.
She thought about him before he had become a father.
The man she had met and understood without explanation.
She smiled to herself.
"What a strange family."
"But it’s mine."
...
Genius was still in the library at two in the morning.
On a floor that officially closed at ten.
The librarian had given up on throwing him out after the seventh attempt.
He found another edition.
Not the one Haru had borrowed.
An older one.
Printed forty years earlier.
Its margins contained notes left by an unknown student.
On page sixty-seven, one note simply read:
"Kitsune — see Appendix C."
Appendix C had been torn out.
Not cut.
Torn.
Jagged edges still remained in the binding.
Someone had removed it before the book ever arrived at the library.
But beneath it was a second note.
Written with a different pen.
Newer.
Perhaps decades newer.
"Transferred to Dead Archive. Sublevel 3."
Genius stared at the sentence.
Sublevel 3 did not exist on official library maps.
Which meant it existed on unofficial ones.
Which meant someone didn’t want it to be easy to find.
Which meant it was exactly what he needed.
He closed the book.
Looked up at the ceiling.
Not afraid.
Just recalibrating.
"Haru arrived too early."
"But I arrived with information he doesn’t have."
"We’re even for now."
He smiled.
"For now."
His butler arrived naturally carrying a letter.
"My lord, you need to rest... this is an academy."
...
At that same hour, Lilithine was praying.
Hands together.
Correct posture.
Correct words.
Correct intention.
She was present.
Just not entirely focused on God.
She stopped halfway through the prayer.
Removed her gloves slowly.
Finger by finger.
She looked at her hands in the darkness.
The meridian pathways still felt faintly warm where she had guided mana through Haru.
Not visible.
Only felt.
"Purple lightning came from his fingers."
"It passed through my hands first."
"And I felt nothing wrong."
"I should have."
The voice deep inside her thoughts.
Lilith.
Always Lilith.
Always waiting for an opening.
Said nothing this time.
It simply existed.
Closer than before.
More present.
Like someone who stopped knocking because they realized the door was never locked.
Lilithine put her gloves back on.
Returned to her prayer.
This time she finished it.
...
Golden slept on his back.
Expressionless.
Breathing steadily.
The guiltless sleep of someone who had done the math and liked the result.
A book rested on the bedside table.
Open.
Group Tactics in Competitive Evaluation Environments
Chapter 7:
"How to identify the strongest member of an enemy group before he identifies you."
The page was marked.
Golden slept on his back.
And smiled faintly in his sleep.
...
At dawn, the bell rang later than usual.
Not the activities bell.
Not the meal bell.
A longer bell.
A heavier bell.
The kind used for things important enough not to have their own bell.
Everyone woke at once.
The System notified them.
[IMPERIAL ACADEMY – ASTRAEUS ELDRATH]
◊ Adaptation Period: COMPLETED
◊ Evaluation Phase: BEGINNING
◊ First Test: Today, 09:00
◊ Location: Entire Academy
◊ Participation: MANDATORY
◊ Map Fragments Distributed at 08:30
◊ Good luck.
[System still updating]
[System Locked]
Haru read the notification.
Rolled over.
"Okay."
Then went back to sleep.
Golden stared at the ceiling.
Smiled wider.
...
Genius closed the final book.
He had spent the entire night in the library.
He hadn’t slept.
It didn’t matter.
He read the notification.
"Today."
Then stood.
...
08:30 – Central Courtyard
Every student had gathered.
Freshmen.
Veterans.
Everyone.
The supervising professor stood in the center beside a sealed wooden box.
"The First Test begins now," he announced without preamble.
"Each student will receive a map fragment."
"By itself, it is worthless."
"Combined with the correct fragments, it reveals the locations of evaluation crystals hidden throughout the academy."
A pause while the crowd murmured.
"There is only one rule."
"You may not steal fragments."
"You may negotiate."
"You may deceive."
"You may persuade."
"You may not steal."
He looked around.
"Direct violence results in disqualification."
"Damage to academy property results in disqualification."
"Everything else..."
He smiled.
The smile of a teacher who enjoys what he teaches.
"...is your choice."
The box opened on its own.
Fragments flew into the air.
Sheets folded like birds in flight.
Each landed in an open hand.
Haru caught his.
Opened it.
A corner fragment.
It showed part of the northeastern sector.
Incomplete.
Not enough context to identify anything on its own.
But it showed something he recognized.
A service corridor.
A basement floor.
An area frequented by janitors.
"I know this corridor."
"I know what’s in it."
"And what isn’t."
"And I can pretend I don’t."
Across the crowd, Genius opened his own fragment.
Southwestern sector.
Library district.
An area where he had spent the entire night.
He examined the numbers along the edges.
Coordinate markers.
A recognizable pattern.
"With this fragment and two specific others..."
He calculated.
"...I can deduce the location without completing the entire map." fгeewebnovёl.com
He looked around.
Hundreds of students.
Unknown faces.
Map fragments in hand.
He searched.
Didn’t find him.
"Tokyo is somewhere here."
"Holding some fragment."
"And I don’t know which one."
