At the same time, somewhere else within Velcrest Academy, deep beneath the east wing in a dimly lit chamber lined with enchanted stone, a very important meeting was taking place—one that would unknowingly alter Rin's fate forever.
The room was circular, domed like an ancient war chamber, with a glowing crest of Velcrest carved into the center of the floor.
In that very big room, only Two figures sat in a ring.
One of them was chairman of the academy..
In chairman hand was a fragment of crystal—the same one retrieved from the ruins of the arena after the fortress incident.
chairman placed it in the center of the circle.
"It activated," she said, her voice calm, but laden with gravity. "For the first time in over a hundred years, the Tower responded. Just for a moment. And this was left behind."
The other figure, Lena, secretary of the chairman leand on her seat and said, "We still don't know how? Or who activated but during interrogation I found out that someone interested the tower."
Hearing that chairman frowend.
"Do you know who it is?"
"I'm sorry but we don't know have clue as of yet. The attack that happened to academy was something no one was expected, our professor and elite guard were blocked in the barrier and students were daying while others fighting others. It was Chaos so no had chance to look around the tower properly to identify the identity of the activator," Lena finished, her tone grim.
The chairman's fingers drummed silently on the floor beside the crystal. The gentle hum of its residual magic still pulsed, faint but undeniable. It shouldn't have been possible—this fragment had been inert for over a century, sealed by layers of enchantments and ancient protocols. And yet…
"Chaos is no excuse," the chairman said at last, her voice low, but sharp. "That tower was designed to remain dormant unless awakened by someone with specific resonance. Not just mana—resonance. Intent. Will."
She looked down at the fragment again, as if hoping it would whisper its secrets.
Lena folded her arms. "We're running tests on the energy signature. Tracing it to a specific individual is tricky, but not impossible. Still, it'll take time."
"Time," the chairman muttered. "Something we no longer have the luxury of wasting."
"The balance was already fragile," she continued. "If word gets out that the Tower of Conduction stirred, even briefly, the other academies will come sniffing. The Council too. They'll assume we're hiding something."
"And we are," Lena said, standing to match his posture. "Or rather, we will be… if we find out who did it."
The chairman didn't respond at first.
"Anyway, promote that guard who risked his life to save students while others were restricted by the beriar."
"Yes, chairman."
"Also, do you have any security footage of that incident?"
"This is the security footage, Chairman."
The Chairman leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand as the screen flickered to life.
"Hmm… A shame the quality isn't great. But it's enough to see what happened." She studied the grainy footage for a moment before smiling. "Good work. I imagine retrieving this wasn't easy."
Lena, gave a slight nod. "It wasn't, but it's been handled."
The footage played.
Grainy, with flickers of static—but clear enough.
Clear enough to see how how fortress in the sky shot down the lessor beam on the academy duel ground during the entrance examination.
Clear enough to see how how ground of the arena exploded.
Clear enough to see how Troll and other monster attacked students who managed to survive from the blast earlier.
Clear enough to show Kai Foster attacking the gaurd.
Clear enough to see how Kai was playing with both Ryen and Leo.
The Chairman's eyes remained on the screen, her interest piqued.
The Chairman's eyes narrowed as the footage slowed, zooming in on a particular frame.
Ryen, moved with terrifying precision, cutting through DeathFlame like it was nothing.
The Chairman tapped a finger against her lips, her ...expression unreadable.
"That movement…" she murmured, narrowing her eyes. "Ryen's fighting style has always been efficient, but this—this is something else. It's almost as if he was… guided."
Lena leaned in, squinting at the grainy screen. "That's the moment I was talking about. Look—right there, just a second before he makes his move."
The chairman followed Lena's finger, eyes sharpening as the screen paused on a single frame.
There—just barely visible through the debris and smoke—stood a cloaked figure.
The figure's hand glowed faintly for a split second, pulsing with energy that didn't match any known elemental signature. It was too precise, too controlled, too deliberate.
"That's not an accident," Lena said. "We checked. That glow doesn't appear on any other footage. Only here."
The chairman's voice dropped to a whisper. "Then someone interfered."
"Not interfered," Lena said quietly. "Directed."
A tense silence fell over the chamber.
The chairman stood, circling the crystal fragment once before stopping in front of it.
"Whoever that is," she said, "they enhanced Ryen's strength long enough to turn the tide of battle."
Lena, ever composed, gave a subtle nod. "Ryen's combat scores before enrollment were above average, but nothing remotely close to this level. That kind of strength should've triggered a dozen red flags. It didn't."
Chairman just nodded her head and looked at footage again.
She rewound the footage, watching again. And again.
No matter how many times she looked, it was undeniable—Ryen had not only withstood the DeathFlame, but severed it entirely, stopping Kai Foster, a known radical from the terrorist group Crimson Vow, in a single strike.
The DeathFlame wasn't just a flashy spell—it was a 6tth tier forbidden magic, banned from most civilized nations due to its destructive output. For a student to face that unflinchingly… it bordered on impossible.
"And yet," the Chairman muttered, "there he is. Not flinching. Not hesitating."
She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
Lena broke the silence. "Should I open an investigation into him?"
The Chairman didn't answer right away.
In that attack earlier, this was the only camera footage was not destroyed.
Meaning, If chairman wants to find something, she has to do within this footage of else evrything is going to be a mystery forever.
Then her eyes paused on a particular footage.
A shimmer from a figure standing just behind the chaos.
The Chairman zoomed in. The grain distorted even further, but she could make out the outline of a boy—slumped, then suddenly upright—his hand glowing faintly before the camera cut to static.
It lasted less than a second, but it was enough.
"...Who's that?" the Chairman asked.
A black-haired boy.
The low resolution made it hard to see his expression clearly, but there was one thing she was certain of—he wasn't afraid.
She studied the footage again, this time with narrowed eyes. Though the resolution blurred the finer details, there was something unmistakable about the timing of the glow. It hadn't come from Ryen—it came before he moved.
"He triggered it," the Chairman said quietly.
Lena tilted her head. "Pardon?"
"Ryen didn't just act on instinct. He moved because something enabled him. That boy—whatever he did, it changed the fight."
A pause.
Then the Chairman chuckled.
"Fascinating. The hero everyone's praising might not be the hero at all."
Ryen and Leo were promising students, no doubt. Talented. Strong.
But they weren't the real mystery.
No, that student—the one watching from the sidelines—he was the real mystery.
And mysteries, in her experience, were often the most valuable things of all.
The Chairman studied the grainy images on the screen, her sharp eyes narrowing as she analyzed the face of a cadet said to have fainted from fear.
Then, suddenly, something clicked.
A crucial detail surfaced in her memory.
Her expression shifted, and she quickly turned to Lena, a deep frown settling on her face.
"Lena," she said, her voice carrying a sharp edge. "Isn't this the cadet who claimed a villain attack was going to happen at the Velcrest Academy?"
Lena hesitated for a brief moment, as if processing the Chairman's words. Then, she nodded.
"Yes, Chairman. According to report from the gaurd that was …there when the cadet arrived—he did warn about an incoming attack. He claimed it would take place during the entrance examination."
The Chairman's eyes gleamed with intensity, her posture rigid.
"Now… who is this student?" she demanded.
Lena tapped a few keys on her console. The footage minimized, replaced by a report. She scrolled swiftly through lines of text before stopping, her eyes narrowing as she read aloud.
Lena cleared her throat. "He's a first-year cadet. No recorded achievements before enrolling in Velcrest."
The Chairman hummed, still watching the paused image of the boy on the screen. "No achievements… yet he predicted a terrorist attack and remained unfazed during it?"
Lena nodded. "That's correct."
The Chairman leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers. "Interesting."
Her gaze lingered on the cadet's face. A nobody, according to the records. But instinct told her otherwise. There was always a pattern, always a thread connecting the seemingly ordinary to something far greater.
She had seen it before—geniuses hiding in plain sight, only to shake the world when the time was right.
Was he one of them?
Or was he something else entirely?
Lena shifted uncomfortably. "…Should I request an interview?"
The Chairman didn't respond immediately. She simply stared at the screen, as if trying to see past the pixels, past the layers of uncertainty surrounding this cadet.
Then, she smiled.
"Not yet."
Lena blinked. "Not yet?"
"No." The Chairman's voice was smooth, confident. "If we bring him in now, he'll know we're watching." She turned her gaze to Lena. "And I don't want him to know that. Not until I understand what he is."
Lena hesitated before nodding. "Then… what should we do?"
The Chairman's eyes gleamed with quiet amusement.
"We wait."
It wasn't hesitation—it was patience. The kind of patience that came from knowing something valuable was just within reach, not yet ripe enough to pluck.
"But in the meantime," she added, tapping a finger against her desk, "keep an eye on him. Discreetly. I want everything—his behavior, his interactions, his habits. No matter how small."
Lena exhaled softly, already dreading the task ahead. "Understood."
The Chairman's smile widened.
This academy year had just become far more interesting.
---
Few hours later...
Elsewhere, in a surveillance room not far from the Chairman's chamber…
A young woman in uniform sat before a row of flickering screens, each one tuned into different corners of the academy. Her eyes were sharp, but there was a weariness in her expression that suggested she'd been watching for hours.
One screen was tagged with a glowing red marker: Subject #017 - Rin Evans.
She leaned forward, adjusting the view.
"Still in his room," she muttered, logging his position into the daily report. "Hasn't left since sunrise. No communication. No suspicious behavior… yet."
But even she could feel it.
This wasn't just any student.
"Who are you really?" she asked the screen quietly, as if expecting an answer.
Behind her, a figure stepped into the room silently.
It was Lena.
"You've been watching him?"
The young woman stood instantly. "Yes, ma'am. As instructed. He hasn't done anything out of the ordinary."
Lena stepped closer, arms folded, eyes scanning the monitor. She watched as Rin leaned against his desk, silent, brooding.
"…He will," she said simply.
Then she turned and left without another word.