Chapter : 1413

  There was no signature. Just a small, drawn symbol of a lion's paw.

  Lloyd looked over at Isabella's table. She was gone.

  "This is ridiculous," Lloyd muttered. "She is the Commander of the Royal Guard. She is a Princess. And she is passing notes in the cafeteria like a spy."

  He tucked the note into his pocket. It was good intel. Scary good. She was using her network to help him. She was watching his back in the court politics he hated so much.

  Later that afternoon, Lloyd went to the faculty restroom. He washed his hands. He looked in the mirror.

  The door to one of the stalls creaked open. Lloyd tensed.

  Isabella stepped out. She was wearing her Academy uniform, but she had added a cloak that helped her blend into shadows.

  "This is the men's room," Lloyd pointed out.

  "I am inspecting the plumbing," Isabella said, not breaking stride. She washed her hands next to him. "You should be careful walking home tonight. The eastern gate has a loose cobblestone. You might trip."

  "Is that a threat?" Lloyd asked.

  "It is a weather report," Isabella said. She dried her hands. "Also, your tie is crooked."

  She turned and walked out.

  Lloyd looked at his tie in the mirror. It was crooked. He fixed it.

  "She's lost her mind," Lloyd decided. "Or she's found a new hobby. I think I preferred it when she wanted to stab me."

  He left the restroom. He had to admit, having a princess as a stalker was effective. It was just very, very unsettling. He felt like he was being guarded by a tiger that hadn't decided if it was hungry yet.

  The sun began to set, casting long orange shadows across the Academy grounds. Lloyd was walking back to the Old Tower, his private lab. The campus was mostly empty. The wind rustled the leaves of the ancient oak trees.

  Lloyd was thinking about the Golem Heart. He was thinking about mana frequencies. He was distracted.

  He passed a narrow alleyway between two lecture halls. It was a shortcut he often used.

  As he stepped into the shadow of the alley, he stopped. His instincts screamed.

  Standing at the other end of the alley was a student. But it wasn't a normal student. This boy was big. He was holding a wand that glowed with a sickly, unstable green light. His eyes were glazed over.

  "You," the student hissed. "Professor. You failed me."

  Lloyd recognized him. It was a student from the Elemental Theory class. Lloyd had given him a failing grade last week because he tried to summon a water elemental using fire runes.

  "Grades are final," Lloyd said calmly, his hand drifting to his belt where he kept a concealed dagger. "Submit a complaint to the administration."

  "I don't want a complaint," the student growled. The green light on his wand intensified. It was forming into a jagged spear of acid. "I want to melt your face."

  Lloyd sighed. "That seems like an overreaction to a D-minus."

  He prepared to activate his Void Steps. He could dodge. He could disarm the kid. But it would be messy. He didn't want to hurt a student, even a homicidal one.

  The student raised his wand. "Die!"

  Before the student could cast, a blur of motion dropped from the roof above.

  It was silent. It was fast. It was a figure cloaked in black.

  The figure landed behind the student. A gloved hand chopped down on the student's neck.

  Thwack.

  The student’s eyes rolled back in his head. The green light on his wand fizzled out. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

  The figure stood over him. It straightened up. It pulled back its hood.

  It was Isabella. Her red hair tumbled out. She looked annoyed.

  "Sloppy," she said, looking at Lloyd. "You were distracted. You were thinking about rocks again."

  Lloyd blinked. "I was thinking about engineering. And I had it handled."

  "You were going to use Void Steps," Isabella deduced. "Flashy. Unnecessary. A simple neck chop is more efficient. Less paperwork."

  She kicked the unconscious student gently. "He is not a threat. Just a disgruntled idiot. I will have the guards take him to the infirmary. We will say he fainted from... studying too hard."

  "You were on the roof?" Lloyd asked.

  "The vantage point is superior," Isabella said. "I could see the entire quadrangle."

  "You've been following me all day," Lloyd said.

  Chapter : 1414

  "I have been ensuring the safety of a valuable asset," Isabella corrected. "The King needs you alive. The Academy needs you alive. Therefore, I am protecting the investment."

  Lloyd looked at her. She stood there, defiant, proud, and completely unapologetic. She had moved from being his enemy to his rival to his... bodyguard? It was a strange evolution.

  "Why?" Lloyd asked. "Really. Why are you doing this? You don't take orders from anyone. Not even the King, half the time."

  Isabella crossed her arms. She looked away, a faint blush touching her cheeks. "You defeated me. On the cliff. You spared my life. By the code of the Royal Knights, when a warrior is defeated and spared, they owe a debt. A life debt."

  "I thought you hated debts," Lloyd said.

  "I do," Isabella snapped. "That is why I am paying it back. I will watch your back until the scales are balanced. Until I have saved you as you saved me."

  She looked back at him, her eyes fierce. "Do not mistake this for affection, Ferrum. I am simply clearing my ledger. Once we are even, I might throw you off a cliff myself."

  "Fair enough," Lloyd grinned. "But until then... thanks for the save. The neck chop was very professional."

  Isabella huffed. "Of course it was. I am the best."

  She turned and vanished into the shadows, moving with a stealth that was terrifying for someone who usually wore armor.

  Lloyd looked down at the snoring student. He shook his head.

  "This is my life now," he muttered. "I have a ninja princess living in my shadow."

  He stepped over the student and continued walking to the tower. He had to admit, it was nice having backup. Even if the backup was terrifying, judgmental, and stole his spotlight.

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  "Ken is going to be jealous," Lloyd chuckled. "He thinks stalking is his job."

  He reached the tower door. He looked up at the roof. He couldn't see her, but he knew she was there. A silent, fiery guardian watching over the monster she used to hunt.

  "Goodnight, Princess," Lloyd whispered to the wind.

  A single red rose petal drifted down from the darkness and landed at his feet.

  Lloyd smiled, picked it up, and went inside. The Shadow was on duty.

  The private lab in the Old Tower was humming with activity. It was a symphony of scratching quills, bubbling potions, and the soft clinking of metal. Lloyd stood at the main workbench, examining the chassis of the Aegis suit. He was trying to figure out how to mount the shoulder cannon without throwing off the center of gravity.

  Around him, his students—the misfits he had brought into his inner circle—were working on their own projects. He had turned the tower into an incubator for genius. Or madness. The line was thin.

  In the corner, Zeba, the shy engineering prodigy, was hunched over her desk. She was small, with glasses that were always sliding down her nose. She was brilliant with small mechanisms. Clockwork. Gears. Things that ticked.

  She was working on her masterpiece: a self-guiding drafting tool. It was a magical pen that could draw perfect geometric shapes based on voice commands. It was supposed to revolutionize architecture.

  "Professor?" Zeba's voice was small. Trembling.

  Lloyd looked up. "Yes, Zeba? Did the pen draw a rude picture again? We talked about the profanity filter."

  "No," Zeba said. "It feels... hot."

  Lloyd frowned. He put down his wrench and walked over to her desk.

  Zeba was holding the pen. It was a sleek silver rod etched with runes. But the runes weren't glowing blue like they usually did. They were pulsating with a sickly, reddish-black light. The metal seemed to be sweating a dark, oily substance.

  "Drop it," Lloyd commanded instantly. His instincts screamed danger.

  "I... I can't," Zeba whimpered. "It's stuck."

  Her hand was clamped around the pen. Her knuckles were white. The dark veins on the pen were moving. They were crawling off the metal and onto her skin. They looked like liquid shadows, burrowing into her flesh.

  "It burns," Zeba gasped. Her face went pale. "It's... cold. It's so cold."

  "Mina! Alaric!" Lloyd shouted. "Clear the table! Get the containment box!"

  He reached for Zeba's wrist. He tried to pry her fingers open. But her grip was locked tight, fueled by a unnatural, rigid strength.

  The corruption was spreading fast. The black veins shot up her arm, reaching her shoulder. Her eyes rolled back in her head. She started to convulse.

  Chapter : 1415

  "It's the curse," Lloyd realized with horror. "It found us. Even in the tower."

  He activated his [All-Seeing Eye]. He looked at the pen.

  The structure of the magic inside had been inverted. The mana crystal that powered the pen wasn't pushing energy out to draw; it was sucking energy in. It was a vacuum. A black hole. And it was feeding on Zeba's life force.

  "It's eating her," Lloyd hissed. "It's draining her soul to fuel the corruption."

  "Lloyd!" Mina ran over with a lead-lined box. "What is happening?"

  "The pen is cursed," Lloyd said. "It's bonded to her bio-rhythm. If I just rip it away, the shock could kill her."

  Zeba screamed. It was a terrible, high-pitched sound of pure agony. She slumped forward, her head hitting the desk. Her breathing was shallow. Her skin was turning grey.

  "She's dying," Alaric said, checking her pulse. "Her heart rate is erratic. Her mana levels are critical."

  Lloyd's mind raced. He couldn't use brute force. He couldn't use fire. He needed to surgically sever the connection.

  "I need to cut the flow," Lloyd said. He drew a small, fine chisel from his belt. "I have to break the rune sequence on the pen."

  He grabbed Zeba's hand, pinning it to the desk. The black veins were pulsing, pumping her life into the metal.

  "Hold her still!" Lloyd ordered.

  Mina and Alaric grabbed Zeba's shoulders.

  Lloyd brought the chisel down. He aimed for the central rune. He struck it with a hammer.

  Clink.

  The metal didn't break. It absorbed the blow. A shockwave of red energy lashed out, knocking Lloyd backward.

  "It defends itself," Lloyd gasped, getting back up. "Adaptive defense. It's smart."

  Zeba stopped screaming. She went limp. The silence was worse.

  "She is fading," Alaric warned. "We are losing her."

  Lloyd felt a surge of panic. He was a general. He was an engineer. He fixed things. But he couldn't fix this. He didn't have the right tool. He didn't have the magic.

  He looked around the room, desperate. And then he saw her.

  Airin.

  She was standing by the door, watching with wide, terrified eyes. She was holding a stack of books.

  "Airin!" Lloyd shouted. "Get over here!"

  Airin dropped her books and ran to the desk. She looked at Zeba, then at Lloyd.

  "What do I do?" she asked, her voice shaking.

  "Heal her," Lloyd said. "You have light magic. High-frequency restoration. The curse is dark. It's entropy. You need to flood her with life. You need to overload the parasite."

  "I... I've never done that before," Airin stammered. "I just fix cuts. I fix bruises."

  "You saved a village from a plague," Lloyd grabbed her shoulders. "You have power, Airin. Real power. Don't think about the spell. Think about her. Think about saving your friend."

  Airin looked at Zeba's grey face. She took a deep breath. She nodded.

  She placed her hands over Zeba's chest, right over her heart. She closed her eyes.

  "Light," she whispered. "Please."

  A soft, golden glow appeared around her hands. It was faint at first. Flickering.

  "More," Lloyd urged. "Push it. Give her everything you have."

  The pen on the desk hissed. The black veins throbbed, fighting back. The curse sensed the threat. It tried to expand, to consume Airin too.

  Lloyd saw the darkness creeping toward Airin's fingers.

  "No, you don't," Lloyd growled.

  He grabbed the pen again. He couldn't break it, but he could fight it. He channeled his [Steel Blood]. He didn't try to cut the metal; he tried to freeze it. He used his will to lock the mechanism, to hold the curse in place.

  "I've got the pen," Lloyd gritted out. "Focus on Zeba!"

  Airin screamed. A burst of blinding white light erupted from her hands. It wasn't a gentle healing glow anymore. It was a floodlight. It was pure, concentrated life energy.

  The light poured into Zeba. It chased the shadows. The black veins on Zeba's arm began to retreat, sizzling and evaporating like steam.

  The pen vibrated violently in Lloyd's hand. It was getting hot. Burning hot. The curse was starving. It was being pushed out by the light.

  "It's working!" Mina shouted. "Keep going!"

  Airin was sweating. Her face was pale. She was pouring her own life force into Zeba. She was draining herself to fill the void.

  "Airin, careful!" Lloyd warned. "Don't burn yourself out!"

  "I won't let her go," Airin said through gritted teeth.

  She pushed harder. The light intensified until it filled the room, banishing every shadow in the tower.

  Chapter : 1416

  CRACK.

  The pen in Lloyd's hand finally shattered. The metal couldn't handle the conflict between the Void seal and the Light flood. It exploded into shrapnel.

  The black smoke dissipated instantly in the light.

  Zeba gasped. A huge, lung-filling breath. Her eyes snapped open. The grey color faded from her skin, replaced by a healthy flush.

  Airin collapsed. Lloyd caught her before she hit the floor.

  "I got you," Lloyd said softly.

  He looked at Zeba. She was confused, weak, but alive. The corruption was gone.

  "What... happened?" Zeba whispered. "My pen... it bit me."

  "It's okay," Lloyd said. "It's over."

  He looked down at Airin in his arms. She was unconscious, exhausted. But she was breathing steadily. She had done it. She had beaten a Devil's curse with brute-force kindness.

  The room was silent. The other students were staring with awe.

  Lloyd looked at the shattered remains of the pen on the desk. He felt a cold fury rising in his chest.

  This wasn't an accident. This wasn't a random malfunction. Someone had targeted Zeba. Someone had targeted the weak link in his class to send a message.

  "They came into my house," Lloyd thought. "They hurt my student."

  He gently handed Airin to Mina. "Take care of her. Get her to a bed."

  He walked over to the desk and picked up a shard of the corrupted metal with a pair of tongs. He held it up to the light.

  "Valerius was right," Lloyd said to the room. His voice was terrifyingly calm. "There is a traitor. And they are close."

  He crushed the metal shard in the tongs.

  "Class is cancelled," Lloyd announced. "Everyone go to the dorms. Lock your doors. Do not touch anything magical unless I inspect it personally."

  The students hurried out, terrified.

  Lloyd stood alone in the lab with his inner circle.

  "This means war," Lloyd said. "They want to play with curses? Fine. I'm going to teach them why you don't bring a curse to a gunfight."

  He looked at the empty spot where Airin had stood. She had saved the day. But she shouldn't have had to. That was his job. And he had failed to protect them.

  "Never again," Lloyd vowed.

  He turned to his workbench. The Aegis suit loomed in the shadows.

  "We work faster," Lloyd ordered Alaric. "We finish the suit. And then... we hunt."

  The crisis with Zeba had passed, but the tension in the Academy remained high. The students were scared. The faculty was paranoid. But inside the Old Tower, work continued. Lloyd knew the best way to fight fear was with progress.

  He and Mina were in the Academy Library. They needed to cross-reference the energy signature of the curse with historical records. It was research, but it was also... nice.

  The library was vast, a cathedral of books. Sunlight streamed through stained glass windows, painting the floor in pools of color. Lloyd and Mina sat at a secluded table in the back, surrounded by stacks of ancient tomes.

  "Look at this," Mina said, pushing a book toward him. "A reference to 'The Black Rot'. It affected the mage towers in the Third Era. The symptoms match Zeba's condition."

  "Interesting," Lloyd said, leaning in. "Did they find a cure?"

  "They burned the towers down," Mina noted dryly.

  "Let's put that in the 'Plan B' pile," Lloyd laughed.

  He looked at her. The sunlight caught her hair. She had a smudge of ink on her cheek. She looked focused and brilliant.

  "You have ink," Lloyd said, reaching out to tap his own cheek to show her.

  "Where?" Mina asked, rubbing the wrong spot.

  "Here," Lloyd reached over and gently wiped the ink away with his thumb.

  Mina froze. She looked at him. Then she smiled. It was a warm, intimate smile. A smile that said, I know who you are, and I like you.

  "Thank you, Professor," she teased.

  "Anytime, Consultant," Lloyd grinned back.

  They laughed. It was a soft, shared moment of joy in the middle of a dark week. For a second, they forgot where they were. They forgot the eyes watching them.

  But the eyes were there.

  The library doors swung open with a loud bang. The sound echoed through the silent hall. Every student looked up.

  Princess Isabella stood in the doorway. She was wearing her full Royal Guard uniform, her red cape flowing behind her. She looked magnificent. And she looked absolutely furious.