After the cafeteria incident, Theo insisted they head back to the dorm.
Kael, stomach still half-full and mood pleasantly drowsy, followed without argument.
The walk back was quiet.
Theo didn't speak, his hands tucked into his pockets, his gaze distant and unfocused
He moved with purpose but without urgency, like someone walking toward a conversation they'd been rehearsing in their head for hours.
Kael noticed but didn't comment.
He just wanted to hit his bed.
Once inside their room, Theo closed the door behind them with a soft click that somehow felt heavier than it should.
He didn't sit down.
Instead, he stood in the center of the room for a moment, staring at nothing.
Kael flopped onto his bed, arms behind his head, watching him with lazy curiosity.
Bro looked like he had some kind of speech to deliver or something.
"So..."
Theo finally moved.
He walked to his own bed and sat down on the edge, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor like it held answers no one else could see.
The silence stretched.
Not uncomfortable, exactly.
Just... heavy.
Kael waited a few seconds.
Then: "You good?"
Theo didn't look up. His voice, when it came, was quiet but deliberate.
"Why are you here?"
Kael blinked. "You dragged me back, remember?"
Theo's jaw tightened.
He ignored the answer.
"Do you know how many kinds of people exist in the world, Kael?"
Kael tilted his head slightly. "...Uh. A lot?"
Theo held up one finger, his gaze still locked on the floor.
"One."
A pause.
"Predators."
He finally looked up, and his eyes—sharp, intense, almost too focused—cut through Kael's usual apathy like a blade.
"If you intend to survive here, in this academy, even for a little while, you need to understand something."
His voice was calm, but there was an edge to it.
"Nobody—and I mean no one—is exactly what they present to you on the surface. Everyone has an agenda. Good or bad, it doesn't matter." He leaned forward slightly, his hands clasped together, knuckles white. "And if yours doesn't align with theirs... they won't hesitate to crush you."
He paused, his gaze dropping again.
"Trust me on that."
Kael watched him quietly, his usual detachment softening just slightly.
Theo stood abruptly and walked to the window, cracking it open just enough for cool night air to filter in. The curtains stirred faintly, and the distant hum of the academy—muffled voices, the creak of stone settling—drifted into the room.
He stood there for a moment, his back to Kael, shoulders tense.
"I've had a special ability since childhood," he said slowly, carefully, "allows me to peer into the soul of a person."
Kael's eyebrows rose slightly, but he didn't interrupt.
"Not literally," Theo continued, his voice quieter now. "It's more like... sensing the shape of their will. Their desires. What drives them."
He gripped the windowsill, his knuckles white against the dark wood.
"Ever since I learned how to control this power, I've made a habit of 'reading' people. Mostly out of curiosity at first." His voice tightened. "Their goals. Intentions. Hidden urges. It all leaves a trace."
He turned halfway, not quite looking at Kael, his gaze fixed somewhere past him.
"And no matter how noble their ambitions seem on the surface... it's always the same underneath."
A pause.
"Stained. Twisted. Corrupted."
The words hung in the air, heavy and bitter.
"Over time, I stopped being surprised by it. I came to understand that it was just... human nature." He took a slow breath, his shoulders sagging slightly. "Everyone wants something. Power. Recognition. Revenge. Control. It doesn't matter what they say they want. What I see is always darker."
He turned now, his eyes finally meeting Kael's.
"But then I met you."
Kael blinked.
Theo's gaze was intense—not angry, not accusing, but searching. Like he was trying to solve a puzzle that shouldn't exist.
"When I tried to look into you yesterday," he said slowly, "I felt... nothing."
Silence.
"No goals. No dreams. No ambition. No hidden desires. No corruption." His voice dropped, almost to a whisper. "Nothing. It was like staring into a void where a person should be."
He crossed his arms, his posture defensive now, guarded.
"I've never seen that before. Not once. Not in anyone."
Kael scratched the back of his neck, unsure how to respond.
"...Is that bad?"
Theo's expression flickered.
"I don't know."
He turned back to the window, his silhouette framed against the faint moonlight.
"Maybe it's not a bad thing," he said quietly. "Wanting to live quietly. Free from the chaos and politics of this world. That's... fine. I get it."
His hands tightened into fists at his sides.
"But what I don't understand is why someone like that would come to a place like this."
He gestured vaguely around the room, as if encompassing the entire academy—the walls, the weight, the expectations.
"A place built on competition. Hunger. Conflict." His voice hardened. "A place where people like you get eaten."
He walked back toward the door, his movements stiff, almost mechanical.
"That's why I think you don't know the real reason you're here."
He stopped, his hand resting on the door handle, his back still turned.
"So let me give you one piece of advice."
A pause.
"Just leave."
The word was quiet.
"Find somewhere else. Somewhere safer. Somewhere that won't chew you up and spit you out before you figure out what you're even doing."
His voice dropped lower, becoming something almost desperate.
"A man without a purpose—whether good or evil—is a dead man. Find a goal. A reason. Even if it's small. Something that will keep you going when you feel like giving up. Something that will push you to become... something."
He turned slightly, just enough for Kael to see his profile.
"And remember: don't trust what people show you. Especially not here." His jaw tightened. "The prettier someone looks, the harder they've worked to hide their fangs."
He looked back one last time, his gaze piercing.
"I don't care what your story is. But if you want to survive long enough to figure it out... you need to start acting like someone who gives a damn."
He pushed the door open.
"I'll give you some time to think."
He was halfway through the doorway when Kael's voice cut through the silence.
"What about you?"
Theo stopped.
His hand froze on the handle.
Kael sat up slightly, his expression still lazy but his eyes sharper now.
"Doesn't that mean you also have a second motive? Giving me all this advice despite the fact that we barely know each other."
Silence.
Theo didn't turn around.
For a long moment, he just stood there, silhouetted against the dim hallway light.
And then—slowly—he glanced back.
And for the first time since Kael had met him, Theo smirked.
It wasn't friendly.
It wasn't warm.
It was sharp. Unsettling. Almost predatory.
"Do you think I'm this nice to everyone?"
And with that, he stepped out and disappeared into the hallway, the door closing softly behind him.
Kael stared at the closed door for a long moment.
Then he flopped back onto his bed, arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling.
"..."
Well...
'That was intense.'
He thought about what Theo had said.
The warning. The advice. The desperation hidden beneath all that calm logic.
Leave?
Kael almost laughed.
He wanted to leave if he could.
He'd wanted to leave since the moment he woke up in this world.
But the glowing screen at the edge of his vision had other plans.
[Main Task: Pass the Entrance Exam.]
[Penalty for Failure: Loss of Function – Left Arm.]
He sighed.
"Yeah. Not really up to me, buddy."
The screen didn't respond.
Kael closed his eyes, exhaustion pulling at him like a weighted blanket.
Theo's words echoed in his mind.
'A man without a purpose is a dead man.'
'Find a goal. A reason.'
Kael thought about it.
Tried to imagine something—anything—that might make him care.
Power? No.
Recognition? Definitely not.
Revenge? Against who?
Love? He hardly felt annoyed, let alone anything that complex.
He came up empty.
'Maybe he's right.'
'Maybe I am a dead man walking.'
He yawned.
'Oh well, even the dead need rest.'
And with that thought, he drifted off to sleep, unbothered and empty as ever.
Outside in the hallway, Theo leaned against the wall, arms crossed, staring at nothing.
His heart was still pounding.
He'd said too much.
Revealed too much.
Shown his hand when he should have stayed silent.
But he couldn't help it.
Because when he looked at Kael—when he saw that emptiness where a soul should be—he didn't see a threat.
He saw something even though not the same, similar to that of his mother.
Something that would be crushed if left at that.
And for the first time in years, Theo felt something he'd almost forgotten.
Hope.
Not for himself.
But for the possibility that maybe—maybe—not everyone was rotten underneath.
Maybe Kael was proof of that.
Or maybe Kael was just... hollow.
Either way, Theo couldn't look away.
He had to make sure Kael stayed alive long enough for him to find out.
He adjusted his glasses, his jaw tight.
"...Idiot," he muttered to himself.
And walked away into the darkened hallway.