As soon as the final bell rang, Haruto stood up.
"Let's go. I need to get home immediately."
The group quickly pushed through the crowds to follow him. "What's the rush?" Bellona asked. "Are you going to train for the match?"
"No," Haruto replied, walking toward the gates. "Asobi told me once that our house has a hidden library. I'm not really a book person, but there's something I need to find. If the Academy's system can't recognize my 'Starchild' title or my HUD, the answer might be in those old records."
Toya looked surprised. "A secret library? I've heard rumors that the oldest families keep books from old times. You think your power comes from back then?"
"I think my power comes from a place this world has forgotten," Haruto said simply.
Haruto's walk home was anything but relaxed. He didn't have his usual bored stroll; he was moving with a rare, sharp focus, almost like he was chasing a deadline. As soon as they burst through the front doors of the mansion, he didn't even take off his shoes before calling out for Asobi.
"Asobi! The library. Now," Haruto commanded.
Asobi, always composed, led him toward the hidden entrance. But as she began the unlocking sequence, Toya came running in right behind them, panting from the rush.
Asobi's eyes flashed with instant irritation. Her aura flared, cold and sharp. She didn't like outsiders, and she certainly didn't like them trespassing into the private sanctum of the household without an explicit invitation.
"This is a private residence, not an Academy hallway," she snapped, her voice like ice as she began to scold the first-year Ace.
"Your status as a level 60 means nothing here and you lack manners."
Toya froze, realizing he had stepped over a line. Haruto, seeing Asobi about to truly tear into the poor guy, held up a hand.
"It's fine, Asobi. He's with me."
Asobi grumbled but obeyed, though her gaze remained murderous. The three Goddesses, however, were nowhere to be seen. They knew Asobi's temper better than anyone and had been warned long ago to stay out of the library when she was in her "head maid" mode. Instead of risking her wrath, they had quietly slipped away to the hot pool for a long soak, leaving the "research" to the boys.
The doors groaned open, and Haruto stepped inside. Toya followed, his jaw dropping. He expected a dusty, cobweb-filled basement, but thanks to Asobi's obsession with perfection, the library looked brand new. There wasn't a single speck of dust; the air smelled of fresh parchment and polished wood, as if the room had been built only five minutes ago.
Yet, the books themselves told a different story. The covers were made of ancient leathers and strange, metallic materials that radiated the weight of centuries.
"Toya, help me look," Haruto said, scanning the shelves.
"If you see anything that looks suspicious—anything that doesn't fit the logic of normal magic—tell me."
Haruto ran his fingers along the spines. He wasn't looking for a story; he was looking for the User Manual of his own existence.
Why a library? Haruto wondered.
He closed his eyes and stopped looking with his sight. Instead, he let his
[AURA CONTROLLED] passive expansion. He stopped suppressing the black static. Slowly, a faint, rhythmic pulsing began to emanate from his chest—a violet-black frequency that hummed against the room.
"Haruto, look at this," Toya whispered, pulling a small, black-bound volume from a shelf that seemed to hum with a low frequency.
"This book... it's not written in ink. The letter seems different too."
Haruto took the book. As his fingers touched the cover, his black HUD flickered violently, matching the pulse of the book
Haruto took the black-bound volume from Toya, his fingers feeling the strange hum vibrating through the cover. He looked at the younger boy, his expression uncharacteristically soft for a moment.
"Toya, thank you for the help," Haruto said, his voice low.
"But the truth is, I don't even fully understand what I am yet. If the world finds out what's written in here before I do, I don't know what kind of chaos it will bring. For your own safety, it's better if you don't see this. Go take a bath or head to your room and rest."
A genuine, relaxed smile spread across Toya's face. He snapped a playful salute.
"Alright, Captain. I'll leave the heavy reading to you."
Asobi, who had been waiting for the perfect moment to strike, didn't let the opportunity slide. She drifted over like a vengeful spirit, pointing toward the door.
"You heard the Boss! Move it. Your bath is ready and I've already finished cooking dinner so stop loitering in the sanctuary!"
Toya laughed and made a quick exit before Asobi could start another lecture. As the door closed, Haruto sat down at a polished wooden table and opened the book. Asobi hovered over him, playfully blowing a puff of smoke from her pipe right onto the pages.
Haruto didn't even cough; he just looked up, his eyes boring into hers. "Asobi, I'm serious. Stop the smoke and go outside. Go tease someone else or find a hobby. I need three hours of absolute silence. Don't let anyone disturb me. Not the girls, not Toya. No one."
Asobi froze. She had known Haruto, but she had never seen him this focused—this serious. The lazy, bored teenager was gone, replaced by someone who looked like he was about to defuse a bomb.
"Fine," she whispered, her voice uncharacteristically quiet.
"I'll keep the house silent. Don't push yourself too hard."
She drifted out and clicked the heavy library door shut. Haruto was finally alone. He turned his attention back to the book. As he looked at the "moving letters," they began to synchronize with the black static of his HUD. The words stopped shifting and locked into a language he could finally read.
Haruto flipped through the first few dozen pages with an annoyed scowl.
"This is all garbage," he muttered. The text was filled with philosophical nonsense about the "Balance of the World" and "Universal Laws"—the kind of flowery writing that felt like a low-budget RPG tutorial.
"Rules of the world? Equilibrium? This isn't a manual, it's a lecture," Haruto grumbled, his fingers moving faster. He was looking for code, for exploits, for the how-to of his existence, not a history lesson.
But as he reached the final section of the book, the parchment changed. The paper turned from yellowed wood-pulp to a pitch-black material that felt like it was made of solid shadows.
The ink on these final pages wasn't actually ink. It was a liquid form of the same Black Static that leaked from Haruto's HUD. The symbols didn't just sit there; they vibrated, matching the frequency of Haruto's heart.
As Haruto read the ancient script, the temperature in the library seemed to drop to absolute zero. The black static on his HUD began to pulse in sync with his heartbeat. This wasn't just history; it was the Origin Code of reality.
The text revealed that this world wasn't a natural evolution—
It was a construction by the Archons, the primal gods. Two beings, AETHERIS (God of Creation) and SIREHTEA (Goddess of Nothingness), had existed in the void together. They were opposites, yet inseparable. Together, they built this world, weaving a piece of their own souls into every living creature.
Haruto's eyes widened. He remembered Ivory—a literal Goddess—telling him that even the gods didn't know the true nature of the God of Nothingness.
He turned the page, his hands trembling slightly. The book described how jealousy had poisoned Sirehtea. She hated her role of destruction and craved the power to create. But her very nature made it impossible. So, she proposed a gamble to her brother—the very first Wizard Quest. A game where the winner could take anything from the loser.
The match was a cosmic stalemate. Aetheris won the mental battle, but Sirehtea dominated the physical one. It ended in a draw, and both were granted one wish as a reward.
Aetheris, the benevolent creator, treated it like a joke. He simply wished for a peaceful and happy life for his future descendants. But Stirthtera... her eyes were on the throne. She wished for—
"Are you kidding me?!" Haruto hissed, slamming his hand on the desk.
The next three pages were jagged, brutalized remains. Someone—or something—had violently ripped them out of the binding, leaving only a few stained fibers behind. The most crucial part of the legend, Stirthtera's ultimate wish, was gone.
Haruto leaned back, the black static over his eyes glowing a deep, dangerous violet.
(Inner Thoughts): "So that's why the system can't read me. Aetheris' wish for his descendants... it wasn't just a blessing. It was a protection protocol. If I have a piece of the God of Creation within me, then the Goddess of Nothingness—is the one I'm really up against. Kaelen is just a toy he doesn't understand, but the game he started... it's the same one the gods used to tear the world apart. I dont know if i am wrongbut i thin god is trying to give me training so in the further i will be able to recognise what is the wizard quest"
He looked at his hand. If he carried the spark of Creation, then his HUD wasn't "glitched"—it was the Master Key.
The library grew unnervingly quiet as the shadows in the room began to crawl toward the book, as if the darkness itself was hungry for what remained. Haruto's eyes traced the ragged edges of the torn pages, and there, at the very bottom of the ruined spine, he saw them.
Three lines of text had escaped the destruction. They weren't written on the paper; they were burned into the wooden backing of the book's binding, glowing with a faint, sickly white light that flickered like a dying star.
As Haruto focused, the black static on his HUD violently spasmed, forcing him to translate a language that existed before the concept of "words" was even invented.
Haruto stared at the final line, the words burning into his mind: "Sirehtea and Aetheris are still waiting for the one who can set them free... the one with the body to handle a God's power. The one who carries the title of Star-Child."
His mind went into overdrive. A thousand possibilities for those three missing pages flashed through his brain like corrupted data. If he was the descendant, was he the savior or the cage? Was his life a game, or was he the prize?
As he gripped the edges of the book, it suddenly shuddered and slipped from his hands. It hit the floor with a heavy thud, and as it fell, a small, intricate silver key slid out from a hidden pocket within the ancient binding.
The key didn't look like modern Academy tech; it looked ancient, forged from a metal that seemed to absorb the light around it. Beneath it lay a scrap of parchment, the ink as fresh as if it had been written seconds ago.
"Star-Child, your destiny was etched into the stars long before you drew your first breath. This house, this life—it was decided 1,000 years ago that they would be yours. I know you hunger for those three missing pages, but you are not yet worthy of the truth they hold. When your soul can carry the weight of the void, the pages will find you. For now, remember: the strength you seek is already within you. Do not break under the pressure of the game."
Haruto picked up the key. It felt freezing cold, yet it pulsed with a familiar rhythm—the same rhythm as his black HUD.
"A thousand years..." Haruto whispered, his voice cracking with a rare hint of emotion.
"So this isn't just a glitch. This is a Pre-Ordered Event. Pretty boring but for first time I am loving the scrip"
The weight of the mystery was heavy, but the boredom that had plagued him for years was gone. For the first time, the "Game of Life" had a quest worth completing. He stood up, pocketing the key and the note, and walked toward the library door.
"I will complete this game soon." He said
He didn't look like a bored Level 4 anymore. He looked like an Admin who had just found his login credentials.
Haruto's fingers moved like a blur, the silver key tucked safely in his pocket. One book wasn't enough. Five books were already scattered across the table, their ancient pages revealing fragments of a history that made the Academy's textbooks look like fairy tales. The initial three hours had long since bled into five.
Outside the heavy oak doors, the atmosphere in the mansion was thick with tension. The three Goddesses—Ivory, Lustra, and Bellona—had finished dinner in a restless silence. Nearby, the sounds of Toya pushing his limits in the training room echoed through the halls, the first-year Ace refusing to be a "weak link" in Haruto's game.
Finally, the Goddesses couldn't take it anymore. They approached Asobi, their faces stripped of their usual playful masks. They looked serious—possessive, even.
Asobi took a long, slow drag from her pipe, the smoke curling around her head like a silver snake. She looked at the three Goddesses, her eyes sharp and unreadable.
"Did something happen at the Academy today?" Asobi asked, her tone shifting from playful to cautious. "I've never seen the Boss this dedicated. He looks like he's trying to rewrite his own soul in there."
Lustra crossed her arms, a flicker of genuine irritation crossing her face.
"Some 'Princess' showed up with a hundred guards and almost proposed to him. Right in front of the whole school."
Asobi let out a sharp, dry laugh. "Marriage? Well, why didn't he go for it? How long do you three plan on keeping him all to yourselves?"
The air in the hallway turned freezing. Bellona's eyes flashed a dangerous red, and Ivory's mana began to hum with a low, threatening frequency. They were faking smiles for the "entry pass," but the jealousy was leaking through the cracks of their poker faces.
"He didn't go because he has better things to do," Ivory said, her voice like cracking ice. "Specifically, he's entered a Wizard Quest against a Level 8 named Kaelen."
The pipe almost fell from Asobi's hand. She stopped laughing instantly. Her face went pale, and the smoke she exhaled turned into a jagged, erratic shape.
"A Wizard Quest?" Asobi whispered, her voice trembling. "The soul-binding ritual? The one that was sealed away 150 years ago?"
The three Goddesses stepped forward in unison, pointing their fingers at her. "Wait right there, sister." Bellona growled.
"We'll give you every single detail of the mess we're in, but first, move aside."
"We're going in," Ivory stated, her voice cold and firm.
Asobi puffed on her pipe, blocking the way.
"The boss demanded absolute silence. He's in a deep calculation. If you disturb him now, he might get angry"
"If he stays in there any longer without eating or resting, he'll collapse," Lustra countered, her eyes narrow.
"We don't care if he's the 'Boss.' If he dies from overworking his brain, we lose everything."
Asobi looked at the three of them and saw that they weren't just serving Haruto because they had to—they were genuinely terrified of losing him. She sighed, blowing a thick cloud of smoke.
'Sorry,... I can't stop three Goddesses when they're in "worry" mode,' she thought.
"Fine," Asobi muttered. "But take his dinner with you. If you're going to break his focus, at least fill his stomach."
Asobi led them to the library. With a snap of her fingers and a puff of smoke, the heavy mana-lock disengaged. The three Goddesses marched in, carrying trays of food, their expressions like a storm front moving in.
Haruto didn't even look up. He was reaching for his sixth book, while five others lay open on the desk like a complex motherboard of information.
"Open the door," Haruto commanded, his voice raspy from hours of silence, not even realizing they were already inside.
He finally looked up and froze. The three Goddesses were standing there, radiating an aura of "You're in deep trouble" that even his God-level lineage couldn't ignore. He knew the lecture was coming, and for once, he had no counter-move.
Asobi stood by the door, watching Haruto's rare moment of helplessness, and let out a mischievous giggle. She blew one last puff of smoke toward him.
"Asobi, wait! Get them out of here!" Haruto called out, actually sounding a bit panicked by the sheer intensity of the girls' glares.
Asobi just winked and started to pull the door shut. "Sorry, Boss. I even know when to retreat. Can't help you with this one!"
—CLACK.---
The door shut, locking Haruto inside with three very angry, very protective Goddesses and a cold plate of dinner.
Haruto looked at the three of them, his hands hovering over the ancient sixth book. For the first time in his life, the "Admin" of the world looked like a player who had just walked into a boss room with 1% health. Seeing their unyielding expressions, he slowly raised his hands in surrender.
"Okay, okay... I'm sorry," Haruto muttered, his voice dropping. "I lost track of the clock."
Seeing the legendary, untouchable Haruto looking genuinely flustered and "scared" was a sight the Goddesses hadn't expected. The tension in the room snapped, replaced by a wave of smug satisfaction. Ivory, Lustra, and Bellona exchanged a glance, a mischievous glint returning to their eyes. They actually enjoyed seeing him like this.
Haruto slowly stood up, stretching his stiff limbs as the violet static around his eyes finally began to fade. He didn't say a word as he picked up the scattered ancient books, carefully returning each one to its precise place on the shelves. He moved with a calm, deliberate speed, his mind already locking away the secrets of the "Star-Child" and the "God of Nothingness" into a private folder in his brain.
If I tell them about the Key or the book now, Haruto thought, they'll go from "worried" to "fully panicked." Between Kaelen's duel, the Princess's marriage proposal, and the Wizard Quest, their stress bars are already at 99%. Adding "the end of the world as we know it" isn't a smart move for the team's morale.
Ivory stepped forward, her silver eyes scanning the empty spaces on the shelves where the books had just been.
"Knowledge is a resource, Haruto, but even you can't master it in five hours. You're trying to brute-force a library that's thousands of years old. It's inefficient."
Lustra stepped forward, setting the tray down. "We aren't actually angry, Haruto. We know this knowledge is important—it's the foundation for whatever comes next. But you forget one thing." She leaned down, her face inches from his. "Your mana is linked to ours. If you neglect your body and your mana falters, we feel the ripple. You aren't just putting yourself at risk; you're affecting the whole family."
"So," Bellona added, a predatory smile crossing her lips as she picked up a spoon. "A punishment is in order."
Haruto gulped, his red-glitched HUD flickering nervously.
"Punishment? Look, I'll eat, I'll sleep, just—"
"The punishment," Lustra interrupted,
"is that you don't get to feed yourself. Since you're so busy being a 'Mastermind,' we'll handle the motor functions for you. You're going to sit there, and you're going to eat every single bite—from our hands."
Haruto's face went pale, his "Admin" composure crumbling faster than a corrupted file. He stared at the spoon Lustra was holding like it was a cursed item.
"No way," Haruto muttered, backing up until his heels hit the bookshelf. "Absolutely not. You three need to go to your rooms. This isn't a game mechanic I'm interested in, and I have no intention of making it a habit."
Lustra didn't budge. She took a step forward, a playful but firm glint in her eyes. "Oh, but Haruto, you're the one who linked our HP and Sanity pools, remember? If you skip meals and your stamina drops, we feel the lag too. It's for the good of the team."
"It's about efficiency,"Ivory added, her voice calm but her eyes narrowing. "If you don't have to use your hands, you can keep your brain focused on your 'Mastermind' calculations. We're just optimizing your time."
"Sit. Down,"Bellona commanded, crossing her arms. She didn't look like she was asking.
Haruto looked at the door, but Bellona was blocking the only exit. He looked at the three of them—literal Goddesses who could dismantle armies—and realized that for the first time, his [FLASH] passive was useless. There was nowhere to run.
"I'm serious," Haruto said, trying to regain his bored tone, though his voice lacked its usual bite. "I don't need help with 'motor functions.' Go to sleep. We have a massive quest in less than 70 hours."
"We'll go once the plate is empty," Lustra insisted, bringing the spoon closer.
Haruto let out a defeated, heavy sigh. He realized that arguing with them was actually wasting more time than just giving in. He sat back down in the heavy wooden chair, looking like a captured King on a chessboard.
Haruto's face went pale.
"There's really no need for that! I have two perfectly functional hands—"
The three Goddesses immediately locked eyes with him, their divine auras flaring just enough to let him know that this was a non-negotiable command.
"Fine," Haruto whispered, defeated. "Do what you want."
For the next hour, the most mysterious and feared student in the Academy sat trapped in his chair while three literal Goddesses took turns feeding him bite by bite. Ivory offered the main course, Lustra handled the sides, and Bellona made sure he didn't skip the greens, all while teasing him about how "cute" he looked when he wasn't acting bored.
Haruto chewed silently, his eyes darting back to the books. Despite the embarrassment, the mana from the food—and the strange comfort of his "family" being there—started to stabilize the dark, cold energy he had absorbed from the Starchild records.