Step. Step.
The hallway leading to Room Theta was far more quieter than the rest of the building.
After all, there was no presence of anyone except the staff member walking ahead of him as if trying not to look awkward.
Step.
After a few more turns, they finally stopped in front of a tall steel door marked with a single glowing word:
THETA
The staff took a breath before they knocked on the door.
Knock. Knock.
A voice responded from the other side.
"Enter."
The staff pushed open the door and motioned for him to step in.
"Good luck."
The staff muttered before bowing and walked away.
"..."
Step.
Seven stepped inside.
The room was dimly lit and the walls were a shade of deep gray.
In the center was a circular platform, and standing behind a desk a few meters away was a woman with a deep brown hair tied into a loose braid and wearing a long coat that flowed with her hips.
She had a pair of gray irises with silver rings.
|| Basic Information ||
|| Character: Cylinth dei Silverio ||
|| Age: 32 ||
|| Talent: ??? ||
But she did not look up from the folder in her hand.
"So?"
She said as she flipped a page inside the folder.
"You're the Unidentifiable."
"...I suppose."
Cylinth raised her head and finally looked at him.
Right now, she was previously a Vice Headmaster but now the Acting Headmaster as the former one suddenly disappeared a month ago without any notice.
"Name?"
"Seven."
"No surname?"
"..."
"..."
"...Hart."
She closed the folder and placed it neatly on her desk.
"Step onto the platform."
He walked over and did as told.
As soon as both his feet landed inside the second circle, a series of ethereal glyphs rose from the floor and spun repeatedly up and down his body.
Step.
Cylinth approached.
She circled him once. Then again. Then stopped directly in front of him as she held up a smaller scanning orb.
It hovered a few inches from his chest.
But nothing happened.
"...Interesting."
She muttered.
The orb flickered once, then dimmed.
"...?!"
She took a step back and raised her hand.
"I've seen unstable results. Conflicted ones. Dormant ones. Even suppressed ones."
She crossed her arms.
"But never… blank ones."
"...Sorry?"
Cylinth did not respond but just looked at him again. Then, with a faint sigh, she walked back to her desk and pressed her palm against a slate crystal embedded in its surface.
"I'll assign you a provisional status. You'll still attend the academy, but under anomaly supervision."
She gave him a sideways glance.
"That means regular reports, behavior logs, mandatory check-ins, and depending on how strange things get…
"Possible expulsion."
Seven shrugged.
"I wasn't planning on standing out anyway."
Cylinth smiled.
"That's usually what anomalies say."
"...?"
She handed him a black band with a small white crystal embedded on the side. It did not shine. It did not pulse. But when he held it, he felt… somewhat watched.
"Wear that. It'll track your Zaen fluctuations… assuming you start having them."
He took it and placed it around his wrist.
It adjusted automatically.
"Welcome to the academy, Seven Hart."
"…?! There's still the entrance—"
"Obviously."
Cylinth cut in.
"Just try not to fail. That would make paperwork annoying."
Before Seven could respond, Cylinth casually crossed two fingers.
A faint tug pulled at his spine like being yanked through a vacuum.
His vision blurred.
And when it came into focus, he was already standing before the obsidian gate of the Academy.
"The fudge?"
***
Inside the Room Theta
Cylinth dei Silverio.
Once hailed as the greatest talent of her generation (even the century) and an unmatched genius born within the continent.
But after the continental war against the Sixth Continent, something changed. No one knew exactly what happened on the battlefield, but the aftermath was clear.
She withdrew.
"Severe mental trauma," they whispered.
Instead of ascending further, she stepped down… and quietly took a teaching position at the Academy.
Just like that, the prodigy faded into the background.
Public opinion turned cold.
They called her "selfish" and said she had abandoned the continent when it needed her most.
And yet, during her quiet years as a teacher, she discovered someone.
Eden Hart.
The girl who would later be called the second greatest talent of the century.
Her personal assistant.
Her student.
Her pride as a teacher.
That discovery led to her promotion as the Vice Headmaster.
Over the years, members of the Hart bloodline enrolled in the Academy. Some bore promise while others bore ambition of becoming her personal assistant.
But none ever reached the line Eden had drawn.
None ever surpassed her.
Her siblings fell short. One after another.
Yet now…
Standing in Room Theta just a few seconds ago was someone she had never heard of before.
The seventh child of the Harts.
After all, that child was rumored to be exiled as no one knew his existence. Though in all honesty, even his name alone was unknown for more than ninety percent of the population.
'Interesting…'
She thought.
'I already dealt with your anomaly case and did my part.'
She walked back to her desk, pulled open the upper-right drawer, and took out a brown-paper-wrapped dessert.
'Don't make me waste all that effort by screwing up now.'
***
In the Main Hart Duchy
A single horse galloped toward the front gates. Atop it sat a woman with platinum-white hair tied into a high braid and her eyes that resembled the color of the ocean.
She passed through the gates without a word.
Eyes turned toward her: from citizens, servants, knights, and nobles alike but no one dared approach. Even the knights guarding the gate did not even bother to check her.
Eden Hart.
The one person no one in the Duchy wanted to provoke with the Archduke as the exemption.
Step.
She walked straight towards the mansion.
"Sister, you're—"
"Move."
She cut off one of her younger siblings who stood in her way with a single word. He stepped aside and almost tripped over himself.
Step. Step.
Her boots echoed through the polished halls until she stood before the Throne Hall where two knights stood on guard with their hands on their swords.
Just as she reached for the door…
Clink.
Two swords crossed in front of her and blocked her hand.
"L-Lady Eden…"
One of the knights spoke.
"We've been ordered not to let anyone in."
"Move."
"B-But Lady—"
Crackle. Cra—
A flicker of cyan Zaen flared across her body like a chaotic wind currents.
"Move."
She repeated.
But the knights did not budge and just swallowed a mouthful of saliva which ticked the ceiling of Eden's temper.
Slash.
In less than a second, both of their arms holding a sword dropped to the polished floor.
AaaAAaah!!
The two knights screamed as they clutched their stumps where blood poured out.
Though the mansion's healer could reattach their arms with no problem, that was only possible within the first seven minutes they were cut.
But Eden did not pay them any attention.
Thud.
She slammed both doors open.
But what met her eyes was an empty hall where no one sat on the throne nor knights that lined up beside the carpet.
Her hand tightened on the doorframe.
Then she turned.
The polished floor cracked under her heel as she marched back and grabbed the two knights by their collars and dragged them like sacks.
"Where is Father?"
But neither of them answered.
Their mouths moved, but no sound came out given that a heavy amount of Zaen pressure was crushing down on them along with an obvious killing intent.
The kind that made their skin crawl.
The kind that they knew their heads would be sliced open the moment they gave an answer she did not want to hear.
"Answer me."
Eden repeated.
"Where. Is. Father?"
The continent knew Eden Hart as a woman of few words.
The kind of person who did not smile.
Who did not yell.
Who did not let her emotions control her.
Who did not care… unless it had something to do with her youngest brother.
This was one of those times.
She unsheathed her blade and a hum of Zaen wrapped around it.
"Where is—"
"Calm down, Lady Eden."
Her words were interrupted by a figure wearing a half-faced mask with a wolf design who suddenly appeared behind her.
"Young Master Seven is safe."
That was the first piece of information. The one meant to soothe the storm she was about to unleash within the mansion.
But then came the second.
"The Archduke is currently retrieving the fourth Young Lady."