Shattered Innocence: Transmigrated Into a Novel as an Extra

Chapter 1097: Quietly

The meal ended gradually rather than all at once.

Aurelian was the first to rise, mostly because he possessed enough discipline to remember that Marian still had an examination that afternoon before Marian herself did. That prompted Marian to check the time, Selphine to remind her that complaining about an assessment would hardly make the walk toward it shorter, and Toven to begin another argument about whether a student could reasonably claim intellectual exhaustion as a medical condition.

Within a minute, the comfortable disorder around the table had turned into chairs sliding backward, coats being retrieved, unfinished cups abandoned, and several different conversations competing over where everyone intended to go next.

Elara remained seated for several seconds longer.

Her attention followed Lucavion.

He had eaten enough to satisfy whatever abyss had opened inside his stomach after the Mana Control Trial, and he now stood beside Caeden while fastening one of his cuffs, apparently listening to Toven insist that an afternoon nap constituted legitimate preparation for tomorrow’s Etiquette Evaluation.

Tonight’s arrangement returned to Elara’s thoughts.

Second bell after dinner.

Western Library.

Private Room Four.

They had established the place, the hour, and even the broad subjects she intended to cover.

They had overlooked one rather important detail.

’People.’

Elara’s gaze passed over the group.

Selphine was collecting her things two seats away. Marian had turned toward Mireilla. Caeden and Toven were already moving toward the aisle, while Reilan waited near the end of the table with the practiced patience of someone accustomed to Elara finishing whatever she was doing before following.

If any of them saw Lucavion entering a private library room with Elowyn Caerlin shortly after dinner, questions would follow.

If Selphine saw it, questions would reproduce.

Rapidly.

Elara stood.

Lucavion had begun turning toward the others.

She moved before he could leave.

Two steps carried her beside him, and another placed her considerably closer than she would ordinarily have chosen. With Marian shifting behind her and Toven blocking most of the view from the opposite side, Elara edged beneath the line of Lucavion’s shoulder until the side of her arm nearly rested against his.

Lucavion glanced down.

His eyebrows rose.

Elara ignored that expression and leaned closer.

Her voice dropped until it barely escaped the space between them.

”Tonight.”

Lucavion’s eyes changed immediately.

Understanding first.

Then amusement.

Dangerous.

”Yes?”

”You will come alone.”

His mouth threatened to curve.

Elara continued before he could use it.

”And quietly.”

”Quietly?”

”Yes.”

Their voices had become little more than breath now, hidden beneath chairs scraping against stone and Marian arguing with Aurelian several steps away.

Lucavion leaned slightly closer.

Elara realized too late that whispering had created a problem of distance.

His face was near enough that she could feel the warmth of his breath beside her ear.

”How quietly?”

She turned her head.

That made it worse.

Their faces were suddenly separated by very little at all.

Lucavion’s black eyes carried unmistakable amusement.

Elara’s cheeks warmed.

She refused to retreat first.

”Quiet enough that nobody sees you entering.”

”My.”

His whisper softened further.

”How scandalous.”

Elara’s eyes narrowed.

”It is a study session.”

”Then why are we whispering like conspirators?”

”Because I do not want people knowing.”

”That sounds even more scandalous.”

Her jaw tightened.

Lucavion’s smile widened by a fraction.

”You invited me into a private room after dinner, ordered me to come alone, and now you’re pressing yourself against me while telling me to avoid witnesses.”

Elara went still.

Then she became acutely aware of exactly how close she had moved.

Her shoulder touched his upper arm.

The edge of her sleeve rested against his side.

From any distance, it probably looked less like a secret conversation and more like—

She stepped away.

Immediately.

Lucavion’s eyes gleamed.

”Coward.”

Her cheeks grew warmer.

”You are insufferable.”

”You came to me.”

”To prevent you from causing a scene.”

”I haven’t caused one yet.”

”That is why I am warning you.”

He leaned down by the smallest degree, forcing her either to answer at the same volume or abandon the contest entirely.

”What exactly do you imagine I’ll do?”

Elara studied him.

There were too many possibilities.

”You’ll arrive loudly.”

”I can walk.”

”You’ll speak to someone.”

”Occasionally.”

”You’ll provoke the librarian.”

”That depends on the librarian.”

Her stare hardened.

Lucavion’s shoulders moved faintly with restrained laughter.

Elara lowered her voice even further.

”You will enter the Western Library without drawing attention, go directly upstairs, and wait until the corridor is clear before entering Private Room Four.”

Lucavion blinked.

”That sounds rehearsed.”

”It is now.”

”And if someone sees me?”

”Improvise.”

His eyebrows rose.

Elara realized what she had said.

Lucavion’s smile became radiant.

She regretted everything.

”You’re giving me permission?”

”To leave.”

”Very different.”

”Lucavion.”

”Elowyn.”

The name came softly.

Too softly.

The humor remained, yet something about hearing her false name spoken from this distance produced another faint warmth across her face.

Elara drew one slow breath.

”Second bell after dinner.”

”I remember.”

”Do you?”

”Yes.”

His answer came easily this time, stripped of teasing.

That gave her enough reason to stop.

Elara straightened her coat and restored the distance between them to something respectable before anyone turned back toward the table.

”Good.”

Lucavion tilted his head.

”You’re very secretive for a teacher.”

She looked at him once.

”You make secrecy necessary.”

Then she turned away.

Lucavion’s quiet laughter followed her for several steps.

Elara ignored it.

Or attempted to.

The warmth along her cheeks took longer to disappear than she preferred, and she was already reconsidering whether Private Room Four had enough distance between its chairs.

Behind them, the group continued dispersing without comment.

Marian had noticed nothing.

Aurelian was occupied with his schedule.

Toven was still speaking.

Reilan had already begun walking.

For one brief moment, Elara allowed herself to believe the exchange had passed unseen.

Albeit—

A pair of eyes had noticed.

The owner of those eyes said nothing.

She merely watched Lucavion from across the thinning dining hall, then shifted her gaze toward Elowyn’s retreating back.

And smiled.

*****

”>

Elara closed the final notebook and rested her palm over the cover for a moment, mentally going through what she had prepared.

One introductory text on conventional mana circulation.

Two notebooks.

A collection of simple structural diagrams she had copied earlier that afternoon, deliberately choosing examples taught widely enough that even a poorly educated student should recognize some portion of them. She had also marked several pages dealing with auxiliary sequences and spell anchors, though she doubted they would reach either subject in much depth tonight.

The first lesson mattered less for what Lucavion learned than for what Elara learned about him.

She needed to find the borders.

How much formal theory did he actually possess? Which concepts did he understand only through experience? Where did unfamiliar terminology block knowledge he otherwise seemed to carry? More importantly, when something stirred those fragmented memories of his former education, what caused the reaction first: the word, the diagram, the principle beneath it, or some association she had yet to recognize?

Trying to answer all of that in one evening would produce little except confusion, so she had forced herself to keep the preparation basic despite the increasingly crowded list of things she wanted to test.

Elara glanced toward the extra notebook she had nearly added, hesitated, then pushed it back onto the desk.

’Enough.’

She gathered the remaining books against her chest and left the room.

The residential corridor had become busier since dinner. Some students were returning with loosened collars and the dull expressions of people whose examinations had consumed whatever social energy they possessed, while others were heading out toward evening study halls, training chambers, or one of the Academy’s countless facilities that apparently considered sunset irrelevant to operating hours. Doors opened and closed along the corridor, carrying brief fragments of conversation into the flow of footsteps.

Elara joined it easily.

Or she would have.

”Miss Caerlin?”

Her step slowed.

Three girls stood near the central staircase, two of whom she vaguely recognized from the Magicians’ Block. The third wore the green-trimmed uniform of the Alchemical Faculty and looked at Elara with the unmistakable brightness of someone who had already decided they were acquainted through reputation.

Elara turned with a polite smile.

”Yes?”

”I thought it was you.”

The taller of the two mages approached first. ”Lianne Morvel. We haven’t properly met.”

Her companion introduced herself immediately afterward, followed by the alchemy student, whose name Elara caught as Helise.

The conversation should have ended there.

Instead, Lianne’s eyes dropped briefly toward the books in Elara’s arms before returning to her face.

”I was in Crystal Hall when you took your affinity test.”

Of course.

Elara’s smile remained in place.

The event had spread farther than she originally expected. Frost by itself would have attracted little attention at the Imperial Academy, where unusual affinities appeared often enough to prevent every talented student from becoming gossip. The delayed manifestation had changed that. Frost first, followed by the strange silver Light after the artifact had seemingly finished its reading, had given people something much more valuable than talent.

It had given them a puzzle.

Cassiar Vermillion had already proved how quickly puzzles attracted attention.

”You were remarkable,” Helise said. ”The second manifestation especially. I’ve never seen an affinity sphere react twice like that.”

”Neither had I,” Elara replied.

Truthful enough.

The girls laughed softly.

”I heard you studied privately before coming here,” the other mage said. ”For several years, wasn’t it?”

Elara nodded. ”My education was rather isolated.”

That much belonged to Elowyn Caerlin.

A minor coastal barony. Several years spent away from wider noble society under private magical instruction. Enough isolation to explain why few people recognized her, and enough ambiguity to discourage questions about where exactly she had acquired her skill.

Or so the cover had been intended.

The problem was that unusual results encouraged people to look harder at otherwise satisfactory explanations.

”Your tutor must have been excellent,” Lianne said.

Elara’s fingers shifted almost imperceptibly against the spine of the book.

’You have no idea.’

Instead, she smiled.

”I was fortunate.”

No name.

No lineage.

Nothing that could lead toward Eveline Draycott.

The conversation moved on before the silence around that answer could become meaningful, passing toward the examinations, instructors, and the increasingly widespread belief that half the Academy’s assessments existed primarily because previous generations had suffered through them and refused to let future students escape.

Elara contributed where appropriate, asked enough questions to keep the exchange balanced, and allowed herself a restrained laugh when Helise described one examiner as having ”the emotional range of a filing cabinet.”

It was useful.

That was something she had needed to remind herself more frequently since arriving.

Attention carried danger, but obscurity carried limitations of its own.

Elara had not come to Arcanis merely to hide until the moment revenge became convenient. She needed strength, information, access, and eventually people willing to move when she did. Connections opened doors that magical power alone sometimes could not, while reputation made it considerably harder for enemies to erase someone quietly.

Fame was another kind of power.

She understood that.

She simply preferred power that did not stare at her while she walked down a corridor.

Lianne’s gaze moved toward the books again.

”Are you going somewhere to study?”

Elara’s thoughts stopped.

A small problem presented itself.

’Where are you going?’

Western Library.

Private Room Four.

To secretly tutor Lucavion.

She became acutely aware of how obvious the books looked.

One introductory theory text.

Two notebooks.

Several sets of prepared diagrams.

Materials suited suspiciously well for teaching someone.

’...Perhaps choosing the library was a mistake.’

The thought arrived somewhat late.

Libraries contained students.

Students possessed eyes.

Some possessed curiosity.

Selphine possessed enough for several people.

And, as the Academy had demonstrated repeatedly, unusual students tended to collect attention simply by moving from one room to another.

What if one of these girls decided to accompany her?

Surely they wouldn’t.

That would be absurd.

”I wasn’t entirely satisfied with my Written Evaluation,” Elara answered smoothly. ”There were several points I wanted to review while they’re still fresh.”

Lianne’s expression immediately changed.

”You weren’t satisfied?”

Elara nearly regretted the wording.

Helise laughed in disbelief. ”You finished before most of our section.”

”Finishing quickly and answering well are separate things.”

The other mage gave her an appreciative look.

”That is an annoyingly responsible answer.”

”I’ll take that as praise.”

”You should.”

Lianne smiled. ”Still, studying again tonight after Tier II? I wish I had half that discipline.”

Elara inclined her head slightly, accepting the compliment without allowing it to grow into another subject.

If they wanted to believe Elowyn Caerlin was simply excessively diligent, that explanation suited her perfectly.

”I should go before that discipline disappears,” she said.

Fortunately, the line gave the exchange a natural ending. Helise wished her luck, Lianne made a joking request that Elara leave some marks available for everyone else, and the three gradually continued toward the stairs.

Elara waited until they had gone several paces before resuming her route.

Her grip shifted around the books.

’That was one corridor.’

The Western Library was several buildings away.

She had been so occupied with ensuring Lucavion arrived discreetly that she had apparently forgotten the other half of secrecy.

Herself.

Perhaps she should have chosen somewhere less public.

Then again, private study rooms existed precisely because students used them. Entering the Western Library was hardly suspicious by itself, and she had just established a perfectly reasonable explanation for carrying several books there after an examination.

Everything was fine.

Nobody was following her.

Nobody had reason to suspect anything.

Elara reached the end of the corridor and turned toward the outer stairwell.

”Elowyn?”

She stopped.

The voice came from behind her.

Calm.

Familiar.

Far too curious.

Elara slowly turned her head.

Selphine stood several steps away.

Her eyes moved once toward the books gathered in Elara’s arms.

Then back to her face.

”Where are you heading?”