Lune woke to the hard bite of concrete against his back.
Consciousness hit him like a sledgehammer. One moment, he was floating in an endless abyss, and the next, he gasped for air on solid ground.
He shuddered, every nerve screaming. Air back on Earth felt unreal. It felt fragile, weightless, and nothing like the Realm Beyond.
Above him, the dark sky stretched forever.
"I'm back…" he muttered, voice lost in the endless dark.
He looked around and realised he was in the Old City Square, the exact spot from which he had vanished on the day of the Harvest.
With no one around, it must've been the middle of the night. The usually busy square was deserted, consumed by complete silence. But Lune wasn't completely alone. Among that silence was another figure, her silhouette a stark contrast against the dark.
She was staring up, as if mesmerised by the only source of light, the Soul Devouring Tree.
She looked to be around his age, her black hair barely reached her neck as it swayed gently in the night breeze.
Unsure why, perhaps drawn by the shared solitude or the sheer strangeness of the moment, Lune found himself stepping toward her.
Each step was slower than the last, his boots barely making a sound against the cobblestones.
Then, just when he took the final step beside her, the girl spoke, her soft voice cutting through the quiet.
"Is it wrong to admire something so… vile?"
She didn't turn.
Her gaze remained locked onto the tree above.
Lune stopped, glancing at her side profile. In her eye, he saw the tree reflected in the pale light—a tree that had tormented humanity, taking lives from the moment it appeared.
The girl's question burned in his mind as he continued to stare.
Losing both parents to Expeditions, he knew more than anyone about how cruel the existence of that tree was.
And yet… now, looking at the reflection of the tree in the girl's eye, he couldn't help but feel mesmerised by its beauty.
Suddenly, the girl spoke once more, this time nothing more than a whisper, barely distinguishable despite the quiet that wrapped around them.
"Late as always…"
"Huh…? What?" Lune murmured in reply.
Suddenly, the girl turned around, her magenta eye locking onto him.
She was wearing a black leather eye patch on her right eye, but it was not enough, as he could still see the vertical scar that ran straight through the girl's eye.
'Wait…' Lune began to pay closer attention to the girl's looks.
'Young girl, short black hair and an eye patch covering a large scar… She's…' A sudden realisation struck Lune.
She was Elise Moreau. Daughter of the Leader of House Moreau, but even that paled in comparison to what she was truly known for. She was the first person in existence to be born with a technique, without having to acquire one through Expeditions.
He, as well as everyone, had heard the stories about how she had received that scar years ago, during the war between Houses Valcour and Moreau. Amidst the chaos, she ended up being cornered by two awakened of House Valcour at only 9 years old. When they found her, she was sitting in a pool of blood with both attackers dead beside her.
"How was it?" she asked, her voice louder now and directed clearly toward him.
Lune tilted his head, confusion clear on his face.
"Your expedition," she added, her magenta eye unblinking, fixed on him as if trying to read every thought in his mind.
'What? How does she know I just came back from an expedition? Could it be… did she also just come back from hers?'
"Good?" Lune replied hesitantly.
The girl didn't reply, and instead, she smiled.
It was a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Her mouth curved up, but her eyes... her eyes looked distant, as if lost in some faraway thought.
But there was also something else hidden behind that smile, something that Lune could almost recognise.
Loneliness.
Seeing it, he felt a strange tug at his chest.
Then, without saying another word and without giving him a chance to dwell on that feeling, she turned and left.
Lune watched as the girl disappeared into the shadows of the dimly lit street.
For a little while, he simply stood there.
The whole interaction felt like a fever dream.
But he didn't dwell long on that thought as he turned away to take one last glance at the Soul Devouring Tree.
Each look was as unnatural as the last. Despite seeing it every day, there was no getting used to it. That thing simply didn't belong here on Earth.
With a long sigh, he too turned away and began to walk.
Every person who returned from the First Expedition had to immediately register at the Central Academy.
It was far from the main city square, but Lune didn't mind the walk.
The night breeze of the familiar streets felt like a reward after the burning radiance of the sun he had experienced in the Realm Beyond.
Besides, if he can manage to settle things down at the academy tonight, he could go see his grandma in the morning.
Before long, he stood before the Academy's massive iron gates.
The walls around it stretched high above him, forming an enormous barricade, one that dates back to the time period known as Eternal Darkness, the few days after the sun had died and Soul Creatures ran rampant across the globe.
Behind those very walls was a place which used to be a university campus, at least that's what he's been told.
The academy gates were already open, and so he wasted no time entering the academy grounds.
No students walked around at this hour. Nothing but an eerie stillness filled the empty space.
Without delay, he entered the reception hall. The moment he stepped inside he was welcomed by polished floors and high ceilings, a stark contrast to the ancient stones surrounding the academy buildings.
He approached a desk at the end of the hall where an old lady sat, squinting as she studied a stack of papers before her.
"Hello," Lune said, trying to be as polite as possible despite the fatigue that was suddenly creeping up on him. "I just returned from my first expedition."
"Goodness gracious, another one?" she murmured, more to herself than to him, and instantly lifted her head to meet his eyes. "May I take your name, please?"
"Lune"
She scribbled it down, then flipped through a ledger. "Since it's the middle of the night, your orientation will be tomorrow. For now, here," she said, placing a simple metal key on the counter. "This is your room key."
Lune lingered for a moment before asking. "Where are the rooms?"
"Ohh, right. If you leave through that door," she said, pointing toward a heavy oak door to the side of the hall, "and turn left, you will see a tall building. That's where the student accommodation is."
Lune nodded.
"Thank you," he said with a polite smile, picking up the key. He followed the lady's instructions, pushing through the door and stepping back out into the cool night air.
The instructions, however, weren't so easy to follow as after taking the left turn, he was faced with two identical tall buildings, standing side by side.
There were no signs, no indicators that could direct him to the correct one.
Lune frowned slightly, his exhaustion making the decision feel monumental. Unwilling to trudge back and bother the old lady again, he simply picked the one on the right and entered.
The halls were clean and modern, very different from the building's old-style architecture on the outside.
Lune moved swiftly, wasting no time as the exhaustion began to take hold of him. His footsteps echoed faintly across the silent hall as he continued to look around.
He glanced down at his key, which had a small tag hanging from it.
"Room 206," it read.
Realising all the rooms on this floor started with one, he found a staircase and moved up to the second floor, scanning the numbers across all the nearby doors.
'203... 204... 205... There it is. 206.'
He wasted no time standing outside as he pushed the key inside and twisted the doorknob, opening the door with one swift motion.
What met him inside, however, was not an empty room. It was already occupied… and not by a male student.
Standing in the middle of a room, holding a hairbrush, was a girl with long, flowing silver hair.
She turned immediately as the door swung open, her eyes widened in shock.
The moment she saw him, a complete stranger standing in her doorway, she let out a long, piercing scream.