A blazing fire ignited in Frey's heart, his eagerness so overwhelming that he could barely contain himself. He wanted nothing more than to leave the school immediately and head to the Poison Miasma Forest to find the life-saving remedy for his mother.
Meanwhile, his teacher, searching for him in the dormitory, discovered that Frey had left in the middle of the night, violating school rules. With a slip of the tongue from one of his roommates, the teacher soon tracked him down to the school infirmary.
But the fire within Frey burned too fiercely for him to feel any guilt over breaking the rules. When he was brought before the headmaster and saw his father waiting there, he nearly leaped for joy.
"Dad! There are Thunder Dragon bones in the Poison Miasma Forest!" he exclaimed to Cloris, his voice brimming with excitement, expecting his father to share in his enthusiasm.
However, Cloris's reaction was far from what Frey anticipated.
Though visibly surprised, Cloris remained unnervingly calm—too calm. He didn't question the reliability of the information or ask where Frey had heard it. Instead, he simply said, "You cannot go."
Frey assumed his father was merely concerned for his safety. He quickly reassured him, "I promise I won't cause trouble! So, when are you setting out? Will you tell me the moment you find it?"
Looking into his son's hopeful eyes, Cloris was tempted to reveal the truth—that the Thunder Dragon bones had already been found and that his mother had received treatment and was now out of danger.
But the contract he had made with Lin Zhuo bound him—he could not, by any means, directly or indirectly let Frey know the truth. Deception was his only option.
"You have my word," Cloris finally said, attempting to soothe him. "But in return, you must withdraw your application to participate in off-campus activities and stay at school. Or…" He hesitated, the rest of his sentence dying on his lips.
Cloris couldn't bring himself to say it because if Frey were to come home, he would see his mother already healed, which would violate the terms of his contract with Lin Zhuo.
The strangeness of Cloris's behavior planted a seed of unease in Frey's heart. He tried to reason with him, "Dad, I'm not a child anymore. Besides, by the time the school leaves for the Poison Miasma Forest, you might already have found the bones. I'm just… just joining a normal school excursion."
Cloris met his son's determined gaze and struck straight at the heart of the matter. "And if we haven't found them by then? Can you promise you won't recklessly take matters into your own hands?"
Silence fell between them. Frey knew himself too well—if his father's team hadn't reported success by the time they reached the forest, he would find a way to break free from the school's supervision and search on his own.
At his age, confidence came easily—the unwavering belief that he could accomplish what others could not.
"I… I'll do my best to stay out of danger," he finally said, his eyes pleading for a chance.
Cloris swore that whatever patience he had in life had been entirely spent on his wife and son. "Listen to me, Frey. This could be a trap. You absolutely must not go. Do you understand?"
"A trap?" Frey was bewildered. He glanced between his father and the only other person present, Gullveig.
Gullveig remained silent.
Cloris pressed on, "That dragon from this afternoon—it was after you."
"Me?!" Frey was stunned. Only now did he realize why his father had come to the headmaster's office in the middle of the night just to see him.
He trusted his father's words, believed that the upcoming expedition could be dangerous, but at the same time, he also believed in what he had overheard—the Thunder Dragon bones were indeed in the Poison Miasma Forest.
His choices were clear—risk everything to find the bones or obey his father and stay put.
After a long pause, he finally spoke, his voice heavy with sorrow. "You have to find them."
Cloris embraced his son, offering his solemn promise. "We will. You have nothing to worry about."
The next day, Frey slumped over his desk, his frustration palpable as he confided in the twins, who were already in on the secret.
"I just know my dad is lying to me," he grumbled.
Castor raised an eyebrow. "And what proof do you have?"
Frey huffed. "Come on, I'm his son. Of course, I can tell."
Pollux smirked. "You said the same thing last time."
"Even if Lin Zhuo isn't actually my sister, I'm sure she was hiding something from me back then. And this time, it's the same. I just can't figure out what."
Castor shrugged. "And what can you do about it—"
Pollux completed his brother's sentence, "—since you already withdrew your application and won't be going to the Poison Miasma Forest?"
Silence settled over them.
Then, in a voice deliberately hushed, Frey muttered, "Who says I'm not going?"
If fear of danger was enough to make him give up the chance to save his mother, then he wouldn't be Frey.
The postponed expedition disrupted the teachers' schedules, so Headmistress Gullveig asked Miller to organize a faculty gathering as compensation.
When Miller came to find Lin Zhuo, she was in the midst of a frustrating problem with a magic circle. She had carefully proofed all the runes in the elven duke's castle, confirming there were no errors. But after refining the destination coordinates, she found an anomaly in one of the rune sequences.
Assuming she had made a mistake in her refinements, she reverted the circle to its original state—yet the anomaly remained.
Why?
She dissected the structure again, realizing the problem lay within the coordinates of the teleportation origin.
The origin—the current timeline.
At first, she thought she had miscalculated, but after double-checking, the temporal coordinates were correct. The issue wasn't part of the time positioning itself.
Then what was it…?
With a throbbing headache and rising frustration, she tried to pinpoint the flaw.
When Miller knocked on her door, Lin Zhuo turned with a gaze so intense it sent a shiver down Miller's spine.
Taking a moment to compose herself, she finally opened the door, having buried all traces of her irritation.
Miller, oblivious to her earlier demeanor, got straight to the point: "Faculty gathering. You coming?"
Lin Zhuo closed her eyes briefly before replying, "If there's no alcohol, I'm not going."
Miller frowned. "You're too young to be drinking like that."
Lin Zhuo stepped out, locking the door behind her. "I won't overdo it. Just a few drinks."
Miller would soon learn that Lin Zhuo's "few drinks" could bring down an entire room of experienced drinkers.
Later that night, in the unlit library, darkness and silence reigned.
At the top floor, in the dormitory where Abyss resided, Baldur sat at the foot of the bed, his back against the wall, reading.
The strands of silver hair that had fallen over his face were tucked behind his ear, and his golden eyes, stripped of their usual warmth, held only cold detachment.
If the ever-smiling Baldur was the image of an impeccable celestial, dazzling in both beauty and charm, then the true Baldur—aloof and remote—proved that icy arrogance could be just as captivating.
Pity that so few ever saw this side of him.
Only Abyss.
Turning a page, Baldur paused at an unfamiliar term. Instead of consulting a dictionary, he asked, "What does 'natural rune decoding' mean?"
Silence.
Abyss, who usually answered without hesitation, remained quiet for a few seconds before curtly replying, "Look it up yourself."
Baldur snapped the book shut. "I thought you had mastered controlling your emotions."
Abyss ignored him.
Baldur knew why. Yesterday, during swordsmanship class, Abyss had learned Lin Zhuo's other name—Belial.
And that changed everything.