Shattered Innocence: Transmigrated Into a Novel as an Extra

Chapter 1045: Greetings! My name is -

The first clash — that oppressive pressure she hadn’t felt from anyone else — told her she had underestimated him beyond reason.

She blinked the memory away, jaw tight.

”...That was different,” she muttered.

Lucavion lifted a brow. ”Was it?”

Valeria didn’t respond. Couldn’t, not without revealing too much.

Because he was right.

She had judged him through the sword first — and it had overturned every assumption she held. She had walked into that duel confident, disciplined, certain of her technique. She had walked out breathless, shaken, and forced to acknowledge a truth she hadn’t wanted to name:

He was not someone she could measure with words.

Elowyn observed the shift in Valeria’s posture — the small curl of her shoulders, the slight downturn of her lashes — and glanced subtly toward Lucavion, as if trying to understand what ghost he’d stirred up.

Lucavion didn’t miss any of it. His smile softened, just barely.

”See?” he said lightly. ”The sword speaks cleaner than conversation. It always has.”

Valeria let out a measured breath. ”...Fine. Yes. The sword speaks cleaner.”

Lucavion’s smile grew, but before he could press the advantage, he shifted his focus—subtly, deliberately—back to Elowyn, mischief flickering in his eyes.

”So,” he said, ”did our frost mage here cooperate as elegantly as she performs in a duel? Or was she as troublesome as she was during our spar?”

Elowyn’s spoon halted midair, her expression flattening. ”You set the ground on fire.”

”I recall that being an accident.”

”It was not.”

Lucavion hummed thoughtfully, as if conceding nothing.

Valeria, however, seized the opportunity to redirect the conversation. ”You sparred with her,” she said, ”but how do you know how it feels to fight beside her? You spoke like you already experienced it.”

Lucavion paused.

It was slight—barely a breath, a hitch in timing—but Valeria caught it. Elowyn did too. Something had nudged him, even if just for an instant.

Then Lucavion leaned back with a smooth, careless shrug.

”I envisioned it.”

Valeria blinked. ”...Envisioned?”

”Yes.”

He said it as casually as if he were describing the weather.

Valeria considered the answer, then gave a slow nod. ”Knights do that often. Simulating battle conditions. Predicting formations. Visualizing how someone moves.”

”Exactly.”

”But you’re not a knight,” Valeria added before she could stop herself.

Lucavion raised an eyebrow, amused. ”You say that as if it prevents me from imagining a battlefield.”

”That’s not what I meant.”

”Mm. Still sounded like it.”

Valeria suppressed a sigh, though her thoughts unraveled quietly behind her composed expression.

He envisions combat scenarios.

He studied her technique enough to simulate coordination.

He speaks as if their abilities complement each other naturally...

She tried not to linger on the image of Lucavion fighting beside Elowyn—how that pairing would look, how it must have played out in his imagined scenarios.

But the thought pressed against her ribs anyway.

Elowyn, for her part, offered no reaction. She simply took another calm sip of soup, though Valeria noticed the faint tension lingering in her shoulders—the same tension from earlier.

No, it was more than that.

’.....What is with this reaction?’

Lucavion’s gaze drifted to her again, lightly testing. ”It’s rather fun, isn’t it? Imagining how someone moves beside you?”

Valeria cleared her throat. ”It is a necessary skill.”

Lucavion tilted his head. ”Necessary. Yet also telling.”

Lucavion let the silence hang for a moment, then shifted his attention toward Elowyn with a look that was far too knowing for Valeria’s comfort.

”And you,” he said, gesturing lightly with his fork, ”must have had quite the morning.”

Elowyn raised an eyebrow. ”Because of the trial?”

”Because of her,” Lucavion corrected, tilting his head toward Valeria.

Valeria blinked. ”What—?”

Lucavion continued as if she hadn’t spoken. ”Let me guess. She introduced herself politely. Stood very straight. Looked like she wanted to measure the distance between you down to the millimeter.”

Valeria’s mouth opened, then closed again.

Elowyn hid a small smile behind her cup.

Lucavion pressed on. ”Then she probably said something formal. Something stiff. Something like...”

He straightened in his chair, cleared his throat dramatically, and lowered his voice into a rigid imitation:

’Greetings. My name is Valeria Olarion. I look forward to cooperating with you in this assignment.’

Valeria’s jaw dropped. ”I don’t— I didn’t sound like that!”

Lucavion raised a hand. ”My apologies. I forgot the exact intonation.”

He corrected himself, repeating in an even more rigid tone:

’Greetings. My name is Valeria Olarion. I look forward to cooperating with you efficiently.’

Valeria stared at him in horror. ”Lucavion!”

Elowyn actually choked on a sip of soup.

Lucavion leaned back, smug. ”Am I wrong?”

Valeria’s hands curled around her cup. ”I don’t sound that stiff.”

Valeria’s grip tightened around her cup. ”I don’t sound that stiff.”

But the words lacked conviction.

Because suddenly she was aware of the way she sat. The straightness of her spine. The symmetry of her posture. The exact placement of her hands. Years of knightly discipline, drilled and reinforced until it shaped every gesture.

Do I really look that rigid?

Is that how others see me at first glance?

It couldn’t be right... could it?

Lucavion watched her spiral for a single heartbeat too long, then nodded to himself with solemn certainty. ”Yes. Absolutely. That is exactly how you sound.”

Valeria exhaled a quiet, defeated breath.

There was no winning against him.

Not in conversation.

Not in teasing.

Not in absurd imitations that made her aware of every flaw she never asked to reflect on.

Before she could recover, Elowyn gently set her spoon down and spoke—calm, steady, earnest.

”It wasn’t unpleasant,” she said. ”Working with you, I mean. You were composed. Clear. Predictable in a good way. And very strong. It made coordinating with you easier.”

Valeria blinked.

A slow warmth unfurled in her chest, replacing the embarrassment that had been threatening to consume her. Compliments were one thing. But coming from someone like Elowyn—someone who fought with precision and saw the battlefield with that strange, quiet intelligence—it felt different.

She straightened just a little.

Lucavion’s eyes drifted toward her sword, leaning against the side of the table. His expression shifted; the mischief faded, replaced by something sharper, hungrier.

A fighter’s curiosity.

”It would be interesting,” he murmured, ”to test that blade again.”

Valeria’s breath caught.

She knew that look. The glint that belonged to the version of him she’d faced in Rackenshore—the version that moved like lightning and struck like instinct honed into steel.

She felt the same stirring in herself.

That desire to clash.

To gauge.

To grow.

They never finished that duel. Not properly.

Before Valeria could respond to the unspoken challenge in Lucavion’s eyes, Elowyn—of all people—cut in with a question that dropped into the conversation like a pebble into still water.

”Speaking of tests,” she said, looking directly at Lucavion, ”what are you doing in the dining hall at this hour?”

Valeria blinked.

It was a fair question.

Actually... a very fair question.

They had simply accepted his abrupt appearance because Lucavion had a talent for appearing anywhere as if he belonged there by default. But now that Elowyn said it—

Why was he here?

Her mind moved quickly.

Did he follow them?

No... he wouldn’t—

...would he?

Lucavion raised both hands immediately, as if warding off accusations before they could form.

”Don’t imply I was following you,” he said.

Elowyn’s expression didn’t change. ”I didn’t imply anything.”

”You did.”

”I did not.”

”...Yeah, yeah,” he muttered.

He exhaled, leaning back as though settling into a story he had no intention of dramatizing—yet inevitably would.

”I have my oral exam at noon,” he said. ”And before heading there, I decided I might as well eat something. The dining hall is on the way.”

Valeria narrowed her eyes slightly.

Convenient explanation.

Too convenient.

But Elowyn’s brow lifted, something clicking behind her calm gaze.

”I have my exam at twelve as well.”