Huh?
"Not ’President.’ Call Rhea. Like your sister did."
Aurhea slowly rose to her feet, her voice soft but steady.
She tilted her head, that familiar teasing curl tugging at her lips as her gaze narrowed on .
"Again, I’m sorry it’s taken this long to finally et you, lil’ bro."
I stared at her, speechless. Then blinked, leaning back against my seat.
Next to , Ceres continued her ritualistic assault on her salad — separating every pea and carrot dice with surgical precision. The girl was in her own world. Unbothered. Unbent. Unmoved.
Her focus could be published in a research paper.
Just how much does she hate salad...? My thoughts drifted briefly before I caught myself.
I shook off the distraction and returned my attention to the glowing spectacle that was Aurhea.
For a single breath, I said nothing. Just watched her.
I needed a second. Just one beat to process the weight of her words.
Then finally, I inhaled — steady, deep — regaining enough calm to string thoughts into speech.
eting her gaze, Aurhea returned mine without flinching.
"So you really knew my sister?" I asked calmly.
Aurhea chuckled — a soft, lodic giggle, light as a bell.
"’Knew her’ is an understatent," she said, her golden eyes flickering with a distant glint.
"If that were the case, then who didn’t know the famous Adrienne Solvaine Bright, hmm? She was... hard to miss."
Her voice lingered on the na with a fondness that made sothing in my chest pull tight.
She continued, still standing over the table, posture graceful but firm.
"What I had with your sister was more than just passing acquaintance. I didn’t just know her na. We were almost inseparable."
A breath. Then, gently:
"To , she was just as much a big sister as she was to you. Adrienne... she was my role model." She added softly.
"..."
I silently regarded Aurhea’s words, my mind a ss.
Thoughts tangled, overlapping.
I wasn’t sure what to make of this.
Adrienne and I had been physically far apart ever since she won the Bloodline Ritual and got into the Academy, but we still shared a lot whenever we got the chance — if not everything.
Well... not everything.
I an, obviously.
I knew I never told Adrienne all of my secrets.
But I also knew she didn’t tell everything either.
Only, our reasons were probably very different.
While I held back because of obvious reasons about my secrets — whatever excuse I told myself — Adrienne? She held back to protect . I knew that.
I saw it in her eyes.
She didn’t want getting tangled in her ss. Didn’t want burdened by things she thought I couldn’t change. Things i didn’t matter in.
So maybe... it kind of made sense she never ntioned Aurhea?
But still.
Why?
If they were really that close — if Adrienne had ant that much to Aurhea — then why hadn’t she co up even once? Not in all those years?
I didn’t know.
And honestly? I wasn’t trying to think too hard about it.
Because, whether it made sense or not...
I looked at Aurhea, studying her closely.
...I didn’t think she was lying.
A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I rubbed the bridge of my nose with two fingers.
Well... it’s not that deep.
Despite the knot of confusion, my gut still told Aurhea wasn’t lying — and honestly, I couldn’t think of a good reason why she would.
Besides, if I really wanted answers, I could just confirm with Adrienne through my communicator later.
"So..." I asked, lifting an eyebrow, skeptical. "You’re not here to interrogate or anything?"
Aurhea blinked. Her expression shifted — surprised, a little amused.
She tilted her head, and a wave of gold-spun hair fell to one side as she regarded with curious eyes.
"Hm? Interrogate you?" she echoed. "Well, I am a little curious to hear what you’ve been through — your version of things. But if you’re referring specifically to the whole Dungeon incident..."
She trailed off slightly, then offered a small shrug.
"Unless there’s sothing you want to tell about it?"
Just like that, she casually bulldozed through the entire chain of theories I’d just been stringing together in my head.
I stared at her for a mont.
Then I exhaled — long and slow.
It was one of those sighs that started in your soul.
Suddenly, I felt the weight return — the sa exhaustion that had been crawling over since morning. My headache, which had briefly dulled, now throbbed back to life with renewed vengeance.
I must’ve been making a pathetic face — because Aurhea, clearly amused, let out a soft laugh as she rose to her feet.
But then she stilled.
Her smile faltered. Sothing wary slipped into her expression.
The shift in her usual charismatic, teasing air didn’t go unnoticed. I glanced up at her.
"...What?"
"I guess our ti’s up, Vic," she said lightly, scratching the side of her face with a sheepish smile. Then ca the sigh — quiet, resigned.
"Huh...?" I blinked, slow on the uptake.
Her golden hair caught the dim light as she looked down at , that small, strange smile still hovering on her lips — warm, but edged with sothing I couldn’t place. It made sothing stir oddly in my chest.
"Your sister used to talk about you all the ti when it was just the two of us," she said. "I always thought it’d be nice to et you one day. I even floated the idea of having you enrolled in the Academy to Adrienne... and ever since then, I kept looking forward to seeing you."
It sounded like a farewell. Or maybe just a confession she’d been waiting a long ti to make.
She sighed again, more deeply this ti.
"But... here you are. And here I am. Guess things didn’t quite turn out the way either of us imagined, huh? I ended up as Student Council President — buried under work and mind-numbing responsibilities. And you..."
She t my gaze with sothing softer than pity.
"You’ve been through your own kind of hell."
"..."
"I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you."
Reviews
All reviews (0)