Lyra reacted purely on instinct.
Instead of freezing, she threw her weight sideways, dropping low to the floor.
The heavy rodent missed her entirely, slamming hard into the solid wooden bookshelf directly behind her.
Thick reference books came crashing down everywhere, scattering pages across the floor.
Students screamed in surprise, scrambling away from the aisle.
From across the hall, the elderly librarian shouted at the top of his lungs, “Stop this madness immediately! No beast summoning in the library!”
The boys completely ignored him, focused entirely on Lyra.
“Get her!” the leader barked.
The Stone Rat scrambled out from the fallen books and charged across the floor again.
This time, Lyra didn’t let the panic take over.
She watched the beast’s movements carefully, tracking its approach.
She noticed that right before it launched itself into a strike, it always lowered its snout and dug its rear claws into the wood.
The exact millisecond it sprang forward, Lyra simply stepped fluidly to the side.
The rat missed its target a second time, its momentum carrying it straight into another massive bookshelf.
*CRASH!*
A cloud of ancient dust filled the air as the heavy shelving rocked.
The rat’s owner frowned deeply, his face twisting with frustration as his beast struggled to stand up.
“Stand still, you coward!”
Lyra shook her head, her stance firm.
“No.”
Why would she do that?
She wasn’t stupid.
Outside the library doors, a sharp security whistle suddenly sounded, echoing through the high rafters.
Two city guards came hurrying inside, their hands resting on their batons.
“What is happening here? Who started this?”
The three boys immediately pointed their fingers directly at Lyra.
“She did! She attacked us first with her beast!”
Before the guards could even turn to her, several student witnesses at the nearby tables immediately objected loudly.
“No, she didn’t! They’re lying!”
“The girl didn’t even attack, she only dodged them!”
The guards frowned, looking at the structural damage and the scattered books.
After taking a few minutes to question the surrounding crowd, the undeniable truth became entirely clear.
The three boys were forced to dismiss the rat and received a severe, stern warning from the authorities, their names logged into the city registry.
The leader protested loudly as he was escorted toward the exit.
“But she’s weak! She’s just an insect user!”
One of the guards looked back at him with a cold, piercing glare.
“And you think that gave you permission to attack her in a public sanctuary?”
The boy instantly lowered his head, his face turning red.
“No, sir…”
A few minutes later, the crowd dispersed, and Lyra sat completely alone on a stone bench just outside the library entrance.
She winced slightly, rubbing a dark bruise that was already starting to form on her left elbow from her quick dive.
“…That was really scary,” she muttered to herself.
“Yet you observed,” a familiar, resonant voice suddenly echoed inside her mind.
Lyra smiled softly, not even looking up from her arm.
“I knew you weren’t far away.”
Myrmor slowly crawled out from a small crack beneath the stone bench, climbing up onto the seat beside her.
“I was watching the entire drama, it was quite interesting, I must say.”
“You completely abandoned me,” she accused gently.
“I trusted you’d be able to take care of yourself,” Myrmor corrected her, his tone as steady as ever.
“There is a vast difference between abandonment and trust.”
Lyra let out a quiet sigh, leaning back against the stone.
“I honestly thought I was going to lose for a second there.”
“Without a doubt, you would have if you had tried to match its physical strength.”
She looked down at the tiny entity.
“…Thanks.”
“For not helping me back there.”
Myrmor tilted his head slightly, his tiny antennae twitching.
“Explain your reasoning, my Queen.”
“If you had jumped in and saved me the second they drew that rat,” Lyra said softly, a genuine smile returning to her face, “I would’ve grown up believing that I needed you to protect me every single time someone laughed. But today… I figured something out on my own. I can still fight. I can still survive. Even if I’m considered weak by their standards…. Maybe everyone’s standard.”
For the very first time since their contract had been forged, Myrmor gave a small, distinct nod of approval.
“A ruler who depends entirely upon the strength of others to survive will eventually lose everything they hold dear,” the Ant Sovereign intoned with deep pride.
“You took your very first true step today, Lyra.”
As they began the long walk back toward the eastern district, Lyra suddenly paused, a thought striking her.
“…Wait a minute.”
“What is it?”
“That Stone Rat was vastly stronger than me in every measurable metric,” Lyra noted, looking down at her hands as they crossed the street.
“Why did it keep missing me so easily, the more I think about it the more I feel it was so very easy?”
Myrmor answered simply, his voice echoing cleanly in her mind.
“Because you watched its habits. You adapted to its movements. Raw physical strength alone does not win battles, Lyra. Strategy and perception do.”
Lyra quietly repeated those words to herself as they walked, letting them sink deep into her mind.
‘Watched.
Adapted.’ She liked the sound of that.
Very much.
That evening, as the crimson sun finally dipped below the distant city horizon, the black invitation resting quietly on the desk inside Lyra’s bedroom suddenly began to pulse with light.
Bright silver letters slowly began to draw themselves across the metallic surface once more.
*Arrival Date Confirmed.
*Three Days Remaining.
Beneath those stark words, a shifting, glowing map began to intricately sketch itself into the dark fibers of the paper.
It didn’t show the familiar streets of Silvercrest, nor did it depict any territory or kingdom that Lyra had ever recognized from her school books.
The map lines converged tightly, showing only one final, isolated destination deep within uncharted borders:
*Astral Academy.
Far, far above the thick layer of clouds masking the upper world, a massive pair of ancient, hidden eyes slowly blinked open in the dark.
And somewhere completely beyond the reach of ordinary human knowledge, a figure smiled into the ether.
“She’s ready for the next step, I hope she doesn’t die early.”