Noah left the class, leaving Mei Renho behind, and quickly caught up to Sirius, who had already reached the door, and together they headed out to the garden.
In the hall, where Noah had left Mei Renho, the professor stood in place, excitement filling her as her crimson eyes glowed with a flash of hope and joy.
"The potential of that boy is astonishing when it comes to "Lingua mortuorum"... I think I was a little hasty when I offered him to become my assistant. It's only his fourth day at the university, and yet, I didn't expect him to accept so quickly... I'm excited to see what he will offer me in the future, Noah Grace," Mei Renho thought to herself as she looked at the blue sky outside through the open hall window. She felt the breeze of freedom passing around her, and today's sunlight seemed like a glimmer of hope she had long sought.
Outside, Noah and Sirius walked through the corridor heading toward the university garden, where they usually met Enel and Neriah. But an uncomfortable silence filled the air.
"S-Sirius, what's wrong?" Noah asked worriedly, noticing Sirius's sudden change of mood.
"You abandoned me just because a woman asked you to stay. How could you have the heart to do something like that to me?" Sirius said dramatically, pouting a little, causing his cheeks to puff up.
"His pout reminds me of Yana..." Noah thought to himself, noticing the similarities between his younger sister and Sirius, which made him chuckle lightly.
"Why are you laughing?" Sirius asked, now annoyed that Noah wasn't trying to comfort him but was instead laughing.
"I'm sorry, it's just... I never thought I'd have a friend I could have such a silly conversation with," Noah said, looking into the horizon, a gentle smile forming on his lips.
"Our conversation isn't silly!!" Sirius protested, pouting even more, but his annoyance disappeared the moment Noah turned to him with a warm smile.
"Sirius, let's go join the others," Noah said with a warm, tender smile — a smile Sirius had never seen from him before, which stunned him for a moment. It seemed so genuinely warm and caring that it felt like a trap — but even if it was, Sirius was ready to fall victim to it.
"Yeah, let's go," Sirius said, his pout disappearing, replaced by his usual ridiculous grin.
At the garden, around 1:22 PM, Noah, Sirius, Enel, and Neriah were sitting together on one of the benches under a pink cherry blossom tree. The breeze carried falling petals, creating a calm and soothing atmosphere.
Noah explained to everyone the offer Mei Renho had made to him and his decision to accept it.
"So that's what happened? That's amazing. Becoming the personal assistant of one of the professors — especially someone like Professor Mei Renho — on your fourth day at university is truly impressive," Neriah said in amazement, resting his hand on his right palm while glancing at Noah with admiration from the corner of his eye.
"But I'm surprised. I didn't know you were good with "Lingua mortuorum". They're really hard to master. It's said that fewer than a hundred people can speak 'Eletheran.' That's an incredible achievement," Enel said, expressing his admiration, though his words carried a bit of exaggeration, especially about the number of fluent speakers.
"They're really weird... I feel like my tongue peels off when I try to pronounce the letters, like it's a cursed language," Sirius said, sticking his tongue out in annoyance and twisting it to mimic what he described.
"It's not a big deal. I was just lucky enough to learn it, that's all. It's nothing amazing," Noah said, smiling quietly, downplaying his ability to master such a difficult field.
"Don't belittle yourself, man! It's amaz—!" Neriah began, trying to lift Noah's spirits and make him proud, but his sentence was suddenly cut off by a sharp voice that sounded like a scream of fear and a cry for help from a girl in the distance, drawing everyone's attention toward the source.
"W-What was that?" Noah asked, confused and worried, thinking someone might be in trouble.
"...I have a bad feeling about this..." Neriah said while the others remained silent, puzzling Noah further.
Behind the university's main building, in an area surrounded by tall willow trees, where students had just gathered, a girl had fallen to her knees on the ground, surrounded by students wearing expressions of confusion, fear — some even vomiting.
There was a boy with thick black hair covering his eyes and freckles on his cheeks, his chest bleeding so heavily that a small pool of blood had formed near him.
The girl beside him cried uncontrollably, her eyes filled with despair and fear, shaking his body desperately.
"Ellie, please wake up... Ellie... Ellie...!" the girl said, her voice trembling as she tried to hold back her tears, shaking Ellie's dead body in the desperate hope he would wake up.
Noah, Sirius, Enel, and Neriah rushed to the scene and, upon getting close enough, clearly saw the horrifying sight:
The poor girl crying in despair, shaking the corpse of a boy who was still bleeding profusely, as if trying to wake someone from sleep — though this was far from the truth. That boy was obviously dead.
Noah's eyes widened as he saw the miserable scene before him. In an effort to suppress his nausea, he covered his mouth to avoid vomiting.
Enel's eyes welled with tears from fear, and he hid behind Neriah.
Meanwhile, Neriah and Sirius were the only ones who maintained their composure — though each in a different way.
Neriah stayed calm and cold to avoid scaring the trembling Enel behind him, while Sirius wore his usual nonchalant expression, unaffected — not out of forced calmness, but because scenes like this were normal for him in daily life.
[The host's calm is maintained by the negative effect "Frozen Mind."]
[The host's mind is shaking violently.]
Noah covered his entire face with his hands, his pupils dilating in terror and confusion. His mind was on the verge of collapsing from what he was seeing:
There was a dead person.
The impact on his mind was greater than expected — after all, it's not every day you see a corpse in front of you.
[The negative effect "Frozen Mind" on the host has greatly increased.]
Noah's mind calmed down for the moment. He lowered his hands from his face and stood straight after taking a long breath to relax a bit.
Sirius gently patted Noah's shoulder to reassure him, which helped more than Noah had expected.
"...Was this person murdered?" Noah asked worriedly, even though he already suspected the answer given the heavy bleeding.
"...Yeah. Actually, this has been happening for a while now," Sirius said calmly, looking at the distant corpse.
"This started happening about two weeks ago. A series of murders inside the university — and no one has caught the killer or even discovered their identity.
Each murder targeted students whose presence was faint, unnoticed by others.
Maybe the killer thought that if he killed such people, no one would mourn or care," Sirius said coldly.
His last sentence particularly stung the girl crying over Ellie's corpse.
Some of her classmates tried to pull her away, but she clung tightly to him.
Noah remained silent, observing the nature of what was happening before him:
A serial killer targeting people with faint presences — background characters in a grand story.
The whole thing felt suspicious, confusing, and terrifying.
At that moment, an ambulance arrived. Professors rushed out along with a team of medics carrying a stretcher and emergency medical equipment.
They carried the boy into the ambulance using the stretcher, while the girl watched from afar.
The ambulance left as quickly as it had arrived, disappearing from sight.
"What the hell is going on here?!" one of the professors remaining in the area said in worry and confusion.
Just then, Noah heard a buzzing sound from above.
He looked up and saw a drone flying over the area — but he remained silent about it.
In Sector 11, inside one of the buildings where first-year students lived, Cyprian was lying on his bed, holding a tablet device.
The tablet was connected to the drone, displaying on its screen the live footage of what was happening at the crime scene.
"He sure took his time, didn't he?... Anyway, I got some interesting data. What a fascinating reaction, Noah. I didn't expect you would almost vomit just from seeing a dead body for the first time... Was I wrong about you?", Cyprian thought to himself with curiosity.
At that moment, a shadow extended across the room, and from it emerged a man wearing a tattered cloak and a red oni mask — the same man Cyprian had met a few days ago.
Cyprian stood up, elegantly dusted off his non-existent dust, straightened up, and looked at the man.
"Did you steal it?" Sibarian asked, tilting his head curiously.
The man nodded without saying anything, exuding an aura of darkness and silence with every movement.
"Well, I hope it's useful to you. But this isn't fair, you know. You steal such an important thing and you're being paid from my own pocket, so go easy on me," Cyprian said sarcastically, feigning dramatic sadness — but the man showed no reaction, silently staring at Sibarian.
"Well, you did your job, so it's fine. The new family member got his warm welcome, and I got important information. The results are acceptable — but I won't tolerate any further delays. You really took your time this time...
You may leave," Cyprian said, his tone shifting from gentleness to sharp seriousness in the blink of an eye.
The shadow behind the man extended and swallowed him completely.
He disappeared — as if he had never existed at all.
"...How annoying."