r was the type of person who acted friendly—overly friendly most tis—smiling a lot, tossing off jokes, without ever revealing a single damn thing about herself.
A locked door painted with a smiley face.
Most people used that door for show; instead, r seed to use it like a shield.
Usually, Ignotus found those types annoying. They were a waste of thought. But not r.
She knew how to stay firmly on the other side of that line. She didn’t pry, so he didn’t pry.
It was a comfortable silence filled with noise.
Ignotus also liked her because she wasn’t fake about it, nor did she posture.
And so now, with him looking at her sitting in his room, he didn’t bother asking how she got in. Locks were suggestions to people like them, even in the Academy, and he wasn’t about to waste breath on the obvious.
Instead, he leaned back and asked again, straight to the point as always:
"Why are you here?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the playful mask r wore quickly lted away.
Her face turned dead serious, and she pulled out a chair next to Ignotus’s desk.
Sitting with a heavy thud, she gestured for him to do the sa.
"Hm."
Ignotus shrugged.
"Sure."
He sat across from her.
"Ignotus..."
r stared at him, her eyes searching for sothing on his face.
"Just how many secrets do you have?"
Ignotus paused and took a mont to actually think about it.
"Are you asking about secrets that explain my rapid increase in strength?"
He scratched his cheek.
"No, not really."
And that wasn’t too much of a lie. Sure, he had a System. He had extra stats. But honestly? The ’extra stats’ were mostly garnishes. The at of his strength, the reason he could swing a blade the way he did, ca from his Soul.
His System simply kept score and added to what he was lacking.
"Then..."
r sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"How?"
She looked down at the table.
"How are you so much better than we are?"
Ignotus said nothing and waited. He could tell she wasn’t done, and interrupting people when they were about to have a breakdown was... inefficient.
"Finally."
r gripped the edge of the table.
"Finally, I thought we could catch up. You’ve gotten stuck in that Synaxis step. Everyone gets stuck there, but for whatever reason, you did so for longer. Even though you were stronger than us without Synaxis, I didn’t think too much about it. I just thought, ’Okay, he’s human; he hit a wall. Maybe his rapid increase in strength is the cause. It’s not that we’re lesser...’"
She looked up, her pink eyes intense.
"But you’ve already gotten past it, didn’t you? It’s how you killed that spade-eyed Demon all by yourself. That... that is sothing only Shepherds can do. You skipped the line, Ignotus."
Her accurate words didn’t surprise him. Ignotus had observed r for a while. She was used to being the biggest fish in the pond. That was why she was so slothful—she didn’t have competition, so she stopped swimming.
Now, Ignotus was in her circle. He wasn’t just swimming; he was strapped to a tsunami, flying through the water. It had her realize that if she stayed complacent, she’d be left in the dust.
In other words, r was desperate.
She wanted so Divine pill, a secret technique.
Ignotus didn’t have much advice to give; he wasn’t a guru.
There was no talent breaker or sothing of the sort in this realm.
Could he tell her to push harder? No, ’just work harder’ was terrible advice.
It usually led to people breaking their bones or burning out.
But looking at her, he realized there was one thing he could say.
The absolute truth of his existence.
Ignotus had reached this point because he only relied on Ignotus.
His personality, his sense of responsibility... and his goals.
"You want to know how I got here?"
He took on a more serious deanor, and...
"Once... when I so desperately needed a helping hand."
He held up his hands.
"I realized I had two."
Such advice seed obvious, but not really. Malik was telling her not to look for a shortcut. Doing so was a waste of ti.
"Always look within yourself."
Instead, she had to simply work on herself.
"..."
r silently stared at him.
Usually, she would have cracked a joke. She would have called him cheesy or rolled her eyes. But she didn’t. She stared at his hands, then at her own, processing the literal and taphorical weight of his words.
She took his words incredibly seriously.
"Thank you."
r stood up, the slump gone from her shoulders.
"I’ll never forget this day."
After that, she turned and walked out of his room without another word.
Ignotus stared at the door she had just closed, smiling softly.
’That was surprisingly profound.’
Eris’s voice chid in his head, followed by a giggle.
’You should consider being a teacher one day. Professor Ignotus has a nice ring to it; I’m sure the wolves would agree.’
Her cat form purred while walking towards the training room.
"Maybe, though the tuition would be expensive~."
Ignotus stood up and followed her.
"But enough talking. It’s ti to work."
He had a new toy, his Synaxis, and he needed to figure out exactly what it did before he accidentally blew sothing up in a real fight.
Walking to the center of the mats, he sat down cross-legged, Eris joining him on his lap.
’Okay, let’s see what we can do. Stabilize first, explode later.’
Ignotus closed his eyes and focused inward.
But the mont his butt hit the floor, his eyes snapped open.
Danger! A primal scream was heard from every cell in his body.
His senses blared, slowing the world down to a crawl.
The dust motes in the air froze.
Sothing was wrong.
He tried to activate [Wise Fool].
He needed it to defend himself.
Alas...
He was too late.
It started with a small, soft pull on his back.
Innocuous, sothing akin to a toddler tugging on a pant leg, asking for candy.
’What in the—’
All of a sudden, what he thought was a soft tug for the tiniest of monts had transford instantly into a violent void, calling death its best friend. The force was imnse—strong enough to nearly snap Ignotus’s neck in half.
’Ah...’
Ignotus’s feet left the ground.
He began to float backward, his body distorting under the sheer gravitational pressure.
That was when he finally understood what had occurred.
’Ignotus!’
It was too fast to the point that not even Eris could save him.
Then... well, there was no ’then.’
Everything had occurred in an instant.
All that remained was a shaking cat in an empty training room.
Silence returned, heavy and confused.
Fshshshshhhhhh...
No... wait.
There was a new addition to the room.
A hazy, purplish portal dominated the space where Ignotus had just been.
It hung there for a mont, until eventually, the very thing that had caused Ignotus to disappear...
Whoosh!
...disappeared as well, leaving the room terrifyingly still.
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