Free Web NovelChapter 34: Chapter 34: The Shadow at the Window
The moment Professor Valerius’s black gauntlet caught her training sword, the crimson haze vanished from Lina’s vision, the blood-red color draining from her eyes felt like waking from a nightmare.
One second she had been standing over Nick with the overwhelming urge to strike, and the next she was staring at her own reflection in the polished steel of Valerius’s armor, her breathing became uneven.
The broken remains of Nick’s sword were scattered across the arena floor, and the noble student himself lay several meters away, coughing violently while clutching his chest.
Around them, dozens of students stood frozen in stunned silence, no one seemed capable of processing what they had just witnessed, as Lina’s fingers loosened.
The training blade slipped from her hand and struck the stone floor with a sharp metallic clang. The sound echoed through the arena like a judge’s hammer announcing a guilty verdict.
"I-I’m sorry!"
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Lina took a stumbling step backward, her face turning pale, looking at Nick now, she couldn’t understand what had happened to her. A few moments ago she had genuinely wanted to drive that blade down. The thought alone made her stomach twist painfully.
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. "Professor, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to..." Her voice shook. "I didn’t mean to do that."
Several academy healers hurried into the arena, while they rushed toward Nick, the surrounding students finally seemed to regain the ability to breathe.
Whispers immediately erupted across the training grounds, some stared at Lina with fear, others looked impressed and a few of the noble students seemed unable to accept what they had witnessed.
Nick wasn’t weak. He was one of the stronger fighters among the first-year Class A students yet Lina had shattered his weapon with a single strike.
Among the crowd, Marcus looked worse than anyone.
The noble boy sat stiffly in his seat, staring at Lina as if she were some horrifying creature wearing human skin. Ever since the incident inside the ravine, he had been unable to look at her normally.
Watching her nearly kill someone had only deepened that fear.
The image of the blood-drained Gore-Boar remained permanently burned into his memory, and the brief crimson flash that had appeared in Lina’s eyes moments ago seemed to have connected directly to that nightmare. His hands trembled visibly beneath the desk and several nearby students noticed.
"Why does Marcus look more scared than Nick?" ƒreewebɳovel.com
"Didn’t they say Lina beat him during the entrance evaluation?"
"What’s wrong with him?"
The whispers spread rapidly.
Valerius ignored every single one of them.
His golden eyes remained fixed on Lina, like the other students, he wasn’t interested in the broken sword or the injured noble.
He was studying the mana lingering around her body as ancient symbols appeared within the depths of his divine appraisal ability.
Information flooded his vision as he examined every trace of energy left behind by her sudden outburst.
Beneath the surface, Qhuin’s masking routine immediately went to work, false readings blended seamlessly into the residue surrounding Lina.
To Valerius’s senses, the answer appeared straightforward, the surge resembled an unstable mana-core feedback reaction caused by an abnormal contract, rare and dangerous, difficult to control, but possible.
Even so, something bothered him.
The explanation felt complete, yet somehow incomplete at the same time.
The strange feeling lingered in the back of his mind before eventually fading.
For now.
"Student Lina."
The arena instantly fell silent again, Lina straightened instinctively.
"Y-Yes, Professor?"
"You will return to your dormitory."
She blinked in surprise.
Valerius continued speaking in the same cold, emotionless tone. "Your mana instability has become a liability. Until your condition improves, you are prohibited from engaging in combat exercises without direct supervision."
Lina immediately lowered her head.
"Yes, Professor."
Valerius gave a small nod before turning toward the healers. Nick was already conscious and complaining loudly about the humiliation he had suffered, his injuries would heal, but his pride would take much longer.
Without another word, Lina picked up her carry-bag and quietly left the arena.
The walk back to her dorm felt far longer than usual.
Students moved aside when she approached, conversations stopped whenever she passed, some stared openly while pretending not to while others lowered their voices and whispered behind their hands. Lina hated every second of it.
She had spent most of her life trying to avoid attention, yet somehow she had become one of the most talked-about students in Aurelius Academy within a matter of days.
Inside her bag, Qhuin remained silent until they reached the dormitory sector.
Only after Lina finally entered her room and locked the door behind her did his voice appear inside her mind.
"Your form was correct."
Lina stared at him.
The tiny white rabbit sat calmly on the desk as if nothing unusual had happened.
"What?"
"Your control was terrible," Qhuin continued. "Your emotions dictated your movement, your instincts overwhelmed your judgment, but the strike itself was efficient."
Lina looked horrified.
"I almost killed him."
"You almost lost control."
"That’s not better!"
Qhuin’s ears twitched slightly.
"In combat, those are two different mistakes."
Lina dropped onto her bed and buried her face in her hands. She wanted to argue. She wanted to yell at him, but instead she simply sat there while the memory replayed itself over and over inside her head.
Eventually, Qhuin hopped down from the desk.
"Enough self-pity. Sit on the floor."
Lina groaned.
"Snowy..."
"Floor."
The familiar command in his voice left little room for negotiation.
Several minutes later, Lina sat cross-legged on the mahogany floor while Qhuin supervised from the edge of the bed.
The moon gradually climbed higher outside the dormitory windows as another brutal training session began.
Unlike normal academy techniques, the circulation method Qhuin taught focused on moving mana through every part of the body rather than simply storing it within a core.
The process was exhausting, every mistake caused painful pressure to build inside her channels, and every interruption forced her to start over.
More than once she accidentally cracked the floor beneath her.
Twice she shattered pieces of furniture.
Once she sneezed and launched enough mana into the room to send three books flying off a shelf.
Qhuin criticized every mistake with relentless precision.
By midnight, Lina was mentally and physically exhausted.
For the first time, however, she began noticing genuine improvement, the overwhelming strength flooding her body no longer felt completely uncontrollable and the violent bloodlust that had surfaced during the sparring match seemed slightly more distant.
As Lina entered a deeper state of meditation, the room gradually fell silent.
Qhuin watched her for several minutes.
Then his ears turned backwards his felt a strange sensation brushed against his senses.
At first, he ignored it, a few seconds later it appeared again this time he paid attention.
The feeling was subtle, hidden beneath the countless mana signatures spread throughout the academy grounds most people would never notice it.
Qhuin did.
Slowly turning his head toward the balcony doors, he focused on the disturbance.
The sensation grew stronger, and curiosity replaced his boredom.
Without disturbing Lina, who remained completely absorbed in her training, Qhuin slipped from the room and stepped onto the balcony.
Cold night air greeted him immediately.
The academy grounds stretched beneath the moonlight. Defensive barriers shimmered faintly around the campus perimeter. Patrol constructs marched through distant courtyards. Everything appeared normal.
Then Qhuin spotted the source.
A dark figure crouched near the outer edge of the academy’s barrier system.
The man wore black leather armor beneath a hooded cloak. In one hand he held a thin crimson needle covered in blood-colored runes, each time the needle touched the barrier, tiny sparks appeared before quickly fading into the night.
Qhuin remained hidden in the shadows of a stone pillar and observed.
The intruder moved with patience and experience, it wasn’t a reckless student sneaking out after curfew, nor was it an ordinary thief.
Whoever the man was, he clearly understood how magical barriers worked.
Qhuin’s attention shifted toward the energy moving through the stranger’s body, something about it felt oddly familiar.
The more he observed, the more interested he became.
The man’s mana carried traces of an ancient lineage Qhuin recognized all too well.
A vampire, an actual vampire living within this world.
For the first time since his rebirth, Qhuin found himself staring at someone connected to the same cursed bloodline.
The discovery alone was enough to keep him watching.
After several minutes, the intruder finally paused and glanced around.
His gaze swept across the surrounding balconies before briefly landing on Qhuin.
The two locked eyes, then the man turned away, completely dismissing him entirely and continued carving through the academy barrier as if the rabbit didn’t exist.
Silence settled across the balcony.
Qhuin stared at the back of the man’s head.
A low-ranking vampire had just looked directly at him and decided he wasn’t worth paying attention to.
For several long moments, Qhuin said nothing, then something ancient and prideful stirred deep within his chest.
The intruder continued working, completely unaware that he had just made a very unfortunate mistake.
