Chapter 815: He Knows
Chapter 815: He Knows
The Magic Department was almost deserted by the time Liam reached it.Compared to the dining hall’s restless noise and the tense quiet of Tactical Espionage, the department felt strangely hollow at that hour. Most of the day’s lessons had already ended, and whatever students remained were either leaving late, collecting forgotten materials, or passing through on their way to another part of the academy.
The lamps along the walls had already brightened for evening, casting steady light over polished stone floors and tall archways marked with department sigils. Doors that had been open during lesson hours were now closed. A few students moved in the distance, their voices low and fading quickly through the branching halls. It was not empty enough to feel abandoned, but it was close enough that footsteps carried farther than they should.
Among the few students still there, Lucian Kellor walked calmly down the corridor leading away from the Earth Magic classrooms.
He had light brown hair that fell neatly around his face, though a few strands had loosened from whatever order he had forced into them earlier that morning. His brown eyes were lowered slightly, attention turned inward as he walked with a book tucked under one arm and a narrow folder held in the other hand.
His uniform was neat, his posture composed, and nothing about him suggested he expected trouble. He looked like any second-year heading back to his dorm after the final lesson of the day, tired enough to want the day over but disciplined enough not to drag his feet.
Then he looked ahead.
A figure was walking toward him from the opposite end of the corridor.
Lucian slowed without meaning to.
Liam Hunter.
Of all the people to appear in the Magic Department at this hour, Liam was one of the last Lucian expected to see. He had never been someone who wandered this side of the academy, especially not after classes had ended. He had Fire Magic, yes, but that was earlier in the day. By now, there was no obvious reason for him to be here.
Lucian’s first thought was simple and immediate.
’Why him?’
The second was worse.
’Why now?’
Liam approached with the same calm pace he always carried, though the cold outside still clung to him in small signs. His coat shifted slightly as he walked, and there was a faint trace of irritation around him that had not been present during lunch.
He looked like someone who had crossed the open grounds in weather he personally considered offensive and had found the world guilty for it. When his red eyes settled on Lucian, his mood seemed to tighten further, not dramatically, but enough that Lucian felt the air between them change.
Liam stopped first.
Lucian stopped because continuing forward would have meant walking directly into him.