Chapter 19:

  Rin was sitting on a small wooden chair, old enough to let out a faint creak whenever she shifted. The light filtering through the high windows drew golden lines across the stone floor, turning the dust suspended in the air into remnants of a time that refused to settle. Beside her sat the four—Kenta, Souta, Miho, and Ayumi—in an uneven half-circle, as though they had gathered for a council whose purpose had yet to be declared.

  Miho scoffed, folding her arms across her chest.

  “Seriously! I haven’t stepped into the clan school in years!”

  Kenta nodded slowly, his eyes wandering through the wide corridors as if summoning an old memory.

  “Yeah…”

  Then he turned to Rin, a trace of unease in his voice.

  “What is Moli thinking, asking us to wait for him here?”

  Rin lifted her shoulders in light mockery, a strand of hair slipping before her eyes without her bothering to brush it away.

  “Don’t look at me. I don’t know him—just like you.”

  Ayumi gave a sideways smile, the kind that was always half teasing, half provoking.

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  “What do you mean? Despite the magical contract binding you two, he’s extremely kind to you… unlike the rest of us.”

  Miho repeated the question, but this time her tone was stripped of sarcasm, replaced with heavy seriousness.

  “Yes… what do you mean?”

  Rin exhaled slowly, as though releasing air she had held for a long time. She leaned back against the chair and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again.

  “I don’t know whether this is classified information or not, but I’ll say it because I honestly don’t care… and they don’t seem to care either.”

  Souta pulled his chair slightly closer, his voice barely above a whisper.

  “What?”

  Rin spoke with terrifying simplicity, as if stating a number from an old record.

  “They were frozen for ten thousand years. Just Sez’s estimate.”

  Her expression did not change as she continued in the same calm tone.

  “As far as I know, they’re like the sentient demons I read about in your library…”

  Miho gasped, shock cutting clearly through her voice.

  “Pre-system beings.”

  Rin nodded in confirmation, her eyes passing over their faces one by one, as though ensuring her words had truly landed.

  “I don’t know whether they were human or not, but they lived in a time that predates history itself… in a world completely different from the one we know.”

  A heavy silence fell—the kind that does not break easily. Even the walls seemed to be listening.

  Rin broke it herself, her tone edging toward faint mockery.

  “So yes… I don’t know about him any more than you do. A gentle court herald toward ladies.”

  Ayumi nodded slowly, as if the words had yet to settle in her mind.

  “But even so, it’s unfair to strip the personal nature from whatever exists between you.”

  Rin shook her head calmly, without emotion.

  “I didn’t strip it away… I just never acknowledged that it was personal either.”

  Then she let out a short laugh—more painful than sarcastic—and lowered her gaze to her intertwined hands resting in her lap.

  “To me, he is everything… but I have no idea what I look like in his eyes.”