Chapter 9 – Marks of Selection
The plaza did not return to normal.
It never did.
Even hours after the academy scout vanished and the barrier dissolved, the air still felt wrong—heavy with lingering mana, scorched stone, and the sharp metallic scent of blood. Slum dwellers moved around the aftermath cautiously, stepping around cracked ground and fallen bodies as if the space itself might retaliate.
Kairo stood alone near the edge of the ruined circle, academy badge hidden beneath his cloak.
No one approached him.
Not the wounded.
Not the desperate.
Not even the scavengers who usually stripped the dead within minutes.
They watched him instead—from doorways, broken windows, behind walls that barely counted as shelter.
Marks of selection.
Those who had survived the academy's trial were changed instantly—not in power, but in position. The slums had their own hierarchy, crude and brutal, and Kairo had just been pushed far above it without asking.
CIEL's voice remained steady.
[Behavioral shift detected.]
[Social isolation probability increased to 89%.]
Kairo turned and began walking.
He didn't look back.
---
The man who followed him was good.
Good enough that Kairo allowed it.
Footsteps echoed behind him, uneven and careful. Not trying to hide—trying not to provoke. Someone experienced.
Kairo took a sharp turn into a narrow alley where sunlight barely reached. He stopped.
"Come out," he said calmly.
The footsteps halted.
A breath.
Then a figure stepped into view.
A boy—older than Kairo by maybe three years. Tall, lean, skin marked with faint blue lines that pulsed slowly beneath the surface. His eyes glowed faintly, not with hostility, but focus.
"Aether Veins," Kairo noted instantly.
CIEL confirmed.
[Race: Human – Modified Bloodline.]
[Blessing: Flow Channel (B-rank).]
[Secondary Blessing: Enhanced Perception (C-rank).]
The boy raised both hands slowly.
"Not here to fight," he said. "Name's Reth."
Kairo studied him silently.
Reth swallowed. "You survived the plaza."
"So did you," Kairo replied.
Reth shook his head. "Barely. And only because you pulled the constructs away."
Kairo hadn't done it intentionally. He never did.
"That badge," Reth continued. "You got one, didn't you?"
Kairo didn't answer.
Reth exhaled. "Look… others saw it too. Word's spreading. Not just in the slums."
That aligned with CIEL's earlier analysis.
"Who else?" Kairo asked.
"Loan crews. Blood gangs. A couple of Noctyri scouts. And…" Reth hesitated. "Someone from the Academy's outer circle."
Kairo's eyes sharpened. "Outer circle?"
Reth nodded. "Not students. Support houses. Sponsors. They recruit early—especially anomalies."
That was new.
"Why tell me this?" Kairo asked.
Reth gave a bitter smile. "Because they already marked you. And because if they come after you, they'll tear the slums apart doing it."
Silence settled between them.
Kairo finally spoke. "What do you want?"
Reth didn't hesitate. "Protection. Information trade. Temporary alliance."
A rational offer.
CIEL evaluated instantly.
[Alliance viability: Medium.]
[Risk: Betrayal – 32%.]
[Utility: High.]
Kairo nodded once.
"For now," he said.
Reth visibly relaxed.
---
That night, the first attack came.
Not openly.
Not directly.
Kairo felt it the moment he stepped into his temporary shelter—a collapsed storage vault beneath an old transit line.
[Spatial tension detected.]
[Hostile intent confirmed.]
The shadows inside the room twitched.
Kairo didn't move.
From the darkness emerged three figures—faces wrapped, bodies lean, movements unnaturally smooth. Their eyes glowed faintly red.
Bloodline assassins.
[Race: Dhari – Subhuman Variant.]
[Origin: Second Continent.]
[Primary Blessing: Blood Step (A-rank).]
Kairo exhaled slowly.
"So the academy sent dogs," he said quietly.
One of them laughed. "Not academy. Buyers."
They vanished.
Kairo's world exploded into motion.
The first assassin appeared behind him, blade already mid-swing.
Kairo twisted, shadow flaring instinctively. The blade glanced off reinforced darkness instead of flesh.
[Copying: Blood Step – Partial.]
[Warning: High strain.]
Kairo stepped.
Reality bent.
He reappeared two meters to the left, just as another blade cut through where his neck had been.
The third assassin struck from above.
Kairo raised his arm—shadow thickened, muscles surged.
He caught the blade.
The assassin's eyes widened.
"Impossible—"
Kairo crushed the weapon with his grip and drove his knee into the assassin's chest. Bones shattered. The body hit the wall and didn't move again.
The remaining two retreated instantly, coordinating.
They used Blood Step in rapid succession, blinking through the room, attacking from impossible angles.
CIEL flooded Kairo's mind with simulations.
He stopped trying to react.
Instead—
He predicted.
Shadow spread across the floor like ink, mapping movement vectors.
One assassin emerged directly into it.
The shadow bit.
It hardened, coiling around the assassin's legs, torso, throat.
Kairo approached calmly and snapped his neck.
The last one fled.
Kairo let him go.
[Decision rationale?] CIEL asked.
"Fear spreads faster than corpses," Kairo replied.
He stood amidst the wreckage, blood dripping from his sleeve.
His heart beat steadily.
No exhilaration.
No panic.
Just adjustment.
[Blood Step integration complete: Evolved Variant.]
[Designation: Shadow Displacement.]
[Rank: A-Effective.]
Kairo closed his eyes briefly.
This world was escalating faster than expected.
And the academy—
It wasn't just a school.
It was a hunting ground.
Outside, the slums whispered his name again.
This time, with fear.
And somewhere far above, behind enchanted walls and ancient towers, forces far stronger than loan sharks or assassins were already preparing.
The selection had begun.