The moment Ivory's panicked shout echoed through the circle, a heavy, suffocating silence fell over the desk. Toya, Bellona, and Lustra completely froze as the pieces of the puzzle violently snapped into place in their minds.
"Oh, no..." Toya whispered, his face turning pale as he gripped his own hair. "Yesterday... after the match... he didn't say a single word. He just stood there looking totally blank before he passed out. How did we miss this?!"
"That monster of a goddess..." Bellona gritted her teeth, her fists trembling with a mix of rage and absolute dread. "She actually went ahead and wiped his files!"
Realizing the act was completely blown, Haruto slowly lifted his head from his arms and sat up straight. He looked at his friends with his mismatched eyes, his face an absolute, unmoving mask of stone. He felt nothing—no sadness, no fear, no despair—just that same cold, calculated logical processing. He slowly and firmly nodded his head in confirmation. Yes. It's true.
Seeing that silent nod, the group felt a cold shiver run down their spines. Lustra covered her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes at the sheer horror of what their captain had sacrificed to win that duel.
But before anyone could speak, Lilith stepped forward, her expression completely serious as she looked directly at Haruto.
"Wait..." Lilith said, her voice shaking slightly but filled with certainty. "So you're telling me that yesterday, when you transformed into that terrifying entity... the price for returning to your human form was this? You got these cool white strands and that red eye, but in exchange, the system completely locked away your speech and deleted your emotions?!"
The moment the words left Lilith's mouth, time seemed to stop.
Haruto, Ivory, Bellona, Lustra, and Toya all stiffened, a massive wave of absolute shock electrifying the entire group. Haruto's single crimson eye widened to its absolute limits as his hyper-observant brain experienced a massive logic error.
Wait a single second... Haruto's mind raced at a million miles an hour, his internal data crashing. How does she know about the transformation? How does she know about the entity?! The God of Nothingness explicitly stated that she had executed a total, continent-wide memory block on the entire crowd! No one was supposed to remember a single detail of the divine intervention. So how the hell does Lilith know exactly what happened?!
Lilith looked around at the group, her confusion growing as she saw the sheer shock plastered across their faces. She shifted uncomfortably under their intense stares. "What? Why is everyone looking at me like I just muttered a curse word? Did I say something wrong?"
Ivory took a deep breath, stepping closer to calm the rising tension. "Haruto, give us two minutes," she signaled silently before turning her full attention to the princess. "Lilith."
"Yes?" Lilith blinked.
"How exactly do you remember all of those details?" Ivory asked, her voice dropping to a low, serious whisper.
"What do you mean 'how'?" Lilith scoffed softly, throwing her hands up. "It happened right in front of my eyes! The transformation, the light, everything. The entire royal box watched it happen."
"No, Lilith, you don't understand," Ivory interrupted, her expression dead serious. "The memory of every single person in that stadium was completely wiped. To the rest of the world, Haruto just stood up in a flash of light, and the next second, the match was resolved. The entire middle section of the fight—the divine presence, the rewriting of reality—is entirely gone from their minds. How is it that you still remember the process?"
Lilith froze, the color draining from her face as the weight of Ivory's words sank in. "Wait... are you serious? The others don't remember?"
Watching her reaction, Ivory's mind raced. She genuinely has no idea, Ivory realized. Lilith acts so innocent, but she completely doesn't know that she carries the baseline of a God Slayer within her. Her inherent resistance to divine authority is likely the only reason her mind rejected the memory wipe.
But Lilith wasn't foolish. As she connected the dots, a cold realization washed over her. The terrifying entity she had witnessed on the track yesterday—the sheer, unholy pressure that had crushed Kallen into the dust—wasn't Haruto at all. It was a god using him as a vessel.
Before Lilith could voice her thoughts, Ivory's eyes widened as another crucial piece of information clicked. Wait, Ivory thought, her gaze snapping over to the silent Haruto. Aetherna was up in that VIP box with them yesterday. And this morning, she was desperately trying to tell Haruto something important before she walked out in a huff. If Lilith's memory survived the wipe... then Aetherna knows exactly what happened too
Ivory took a sharp step closer to Lilith, her expression growing incredibly tense. "Lilith, think back to the moment Haruto started changing. When the light erupted from his body, did something strange happen around you? Did a yellow, glowing barrier form around your seating area?"
Lilith furrowed her brow, desperately sorting through her memories of yesterday's chaos. "Yes..." she whispered, her eyes widening as the recollection surged forward. "Yes, exactly! A massive, glowing yellow sphere wrapped entirely around us right before the pressure hit."
"And how far did that yellow glow reach?" Ivory pressed, her voice trembling slightly. "How many people were enclosed inside that barrier?"
Lilith swallowed hard, looking a bit panicked by Ivory's intense questioning. "It... it covered the entire VIP box. Every single person inside it was enveloped by that yellow light."
Oh, no. This is bad, Ivory thought, a cold sweat breaking out on her neck. Aetherna's defensive shield had been so powerful that it accidentally insulated the entire royal circle, completely protecting them from the goddess's memory wipe.
"Lilith, tell me exactly who was sitting inside that box," Ivory demanded.
"It was the King, Commander Fredrick, myself, Rutherford, Seraphine, and..." Lilith paused, looking confused. "...and that's it."
The moment the name left Lilith's mouth, the entire group went rigid.
"Wait..." Ivory's voice completely cracked, her head snapping backward. "Seraphine?! Our classmate, Seraphine, was sitting inside the royal VIP box?!"
Hearing the confirmation, Toya, Bellona, and Lustra all spun around to look toward the back of the classroom. Haruto slowly raised his head as well, his single crimson eye narrowing. He wasn't surprised at all; his hyper-observant mind had already deduced her identity from the physical gestures he logged yesterday, but hearing it out loud cemented the threat level.
"What in the world was Seraphine doing up there with the King and high command?!" Ivory asked, completely bewildered.
Lustra blinked, looking between Ivory and Lilith. "Wait, you guys really didn't know? Seraphine is Commander Fredrick's daughter!"
"What?!" Toya shouted, his jaw dropping to the floor. Even Bellona looked completely stunned by the revelation.
"Oh, right," Lilith nodded, realizing the secrecy surrounding her classmate. "I forgot most people don't know. It's an absolute top-secret matter. Commander Fredrick keeps her identity entirely hidden from the public and the nobility so that his political enemies don't target her. She's an incredibly powerful fighter—her actual strength is somewhere around Level 15—but she uses a heavy disguise and acts completely ordinary at the academy to keep her cover intact."
Haruto sank back into his seat, his mind spinning into overdrive. The situation had completely escalated out of control.
On one side was the King, who now knew his entire secret. Then there was Commander Fredrick, arguably the most powerful man on the continent, who also witnessed everything. And to top it all off, Seraphine—the girl whose strange, protective behavior had been bothering him since day one—was actually Fredrick's daughter, sitting just a few desks away.
But as Haruto stared blankly at the blackboard, he realized that their knowing the truth wasn't even the biggest crisis. The absolute worst part of this mess was his own complete isolation. Seraphine was right there in front of him, but he couldn't ask her a single question because his voice was entirely locked.
He tried to focus inward, desperately reaching out to establish a telepathic link with Ivory to explain the situation, but nothing happened. The mental connection was completely dead. The severe physical weakness crushing his chest had cut off his ability to channel his energy, leaving him unable to even spark a basic mind-link.
He was completely cut off. He couldn't speak, he couldn't use his abilities, and he couldn't share the tactical data rushing through his head. He was trapped in total silence while the most dangerous political players in the kingdom surrounded him, watching his every move.
Ivory looked at Haruto with sheer panic in her eyes, her voice trembling. "What do we even do now? Haruto can't speak, everything is completely messed up, and the most powerful people in the kingdom are watching us!"
Before anyone could answer, the sharp ring of the academy bell echoed through the room, signaling the start of the next period. Haruto didn't waste a second. He quickly raised his hand and gestured firmly toward their desks, signaling everyone to get back to their places before the next instructor arrived. Though their hearts were heavy with anxiety and tension for him, Toya, Bellona, and Lustra reluctantly nodded and walked back to their seats.
As it turned out, the incoming professor was absent, leaving the class with a free study period. The room quickly filled with the low hum of students chatting and minding their own business.
Seeing Haruto sitting there in absolute silence, Lilith's dramatic anger completely melted into a wave of teasing pity. She quietly dragged her custom desk right back over, gluing it to his side. She leaned in close, her eyes glittering with mischief as she looked at him.
"Hey," Lilith whispered, her voice dangerously low as she gestured toward the front of the room. "Look around. We're sitting in the very last row, and absolutely everyone is caught up in their own work. No one is paying attention to us."
She leaned in even closer, a playful, confident smirk growing on her face. "Since your mouth can't even utter a single word right now, it's pretty much useless for talking, isn't it? But you know... that just means you can use it to kiss me instead."