Lian didn’t come to the library that day.
She never showed up.
At first, I didn’t think much of it. Sometimes she couldn’t come when she had an appointment at the temple. Classes sometimes ran long. Sometimes she had to go to the administrative building for paperwork. But she didn’t have any temple appointments scheduled for today. Her classes should have ended in the morning.
And then the sun set completely.
She didn’t come.
My hand, which had been turning the pages of a document, stopped. I realized I had read the same line three times. The seat across from me was empty. That was all. Just that. Yet today, that emptiness felt heavy, pressing down on me.
I stood up. I decided to stop by Lian’s room on my way back.
I headed toward Lian’s room.
As I walked down the corridor toward the first-year dormitory, I desperately tried to distract myself from putting my bad premonition into words. Putting it into words felt like it would make something definite. Maybe she just went out. Maybe she was just talking with a friend late into the evening. I wanted that to be the case.
But my steps quickened as I headed for Lian’s room.
I entered the first-year dorm. The hallway was dyed orange by the evening light. I stood before the door with her room number.
I knocked.
No answer.
I knocked again. A little harder this time.
No answer.
I opened the door. It wasn’t locked.
The room was tidy. Her belongings were still there. On the desk was a document left open. By the window, plant identification books were stacked.
But Lian wasn’t there.
The air in the room wasn’t stale. It hadn’t been long since someone was here. But she wasn’t here now.
I looked at the desk. There was nothing. No note.
So, she left in a hurry. Or—
An unpleasant feeling settled in.
I tried sensing. I searched for Lian’s magical energy. In this room, only a faint trace remained.
I stepped out into the hallway.
I called out to a passing student from the same year. “Have you seen Lian de Croire today?”
“She was in the cafeteria until just before noon. With Malette.”
Malette.
“And after that?”
“I don’t know. I saw them leave together.”
Leave together. Where to. Why.
I thanked the student and started walking.
Malette. Someone I thought was Lian’s friend. I thought she was a nice kid. But now, that name rang with a bad connotation.
I looked for Edvard.
He was in his research office. When I opened the door, Edvard looked up from his documents. Seeing my face, he seemed to sense something.
I explained the situation. Lian’s room was empty. No note. After finishing her morning classes, she left the cafeteria with Malette, and her whereabouts since were unknown.
Edvard stood up. The sound of his chair scraping back echoed.
“This could be serious. Lian is a Saint candidate. If her person were to be taken by an enemy nation, it would be a major incident.”
“Her whereabouts have been unknown since this afternoon.”
“We should report it to the faculty.”
“Wait.”
Edvard stopped.
“I want to search myself first.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to waste time.”
That was all. There was no other reason. Going through the faculty would be the proper procedure. But it would take time. Lian’s magical energy was somewhere right now. I wanted to find it before it grew weaker.
Edvard looked at me. His face was judging something.
“Do you intend to do this alone?”
“I need your help. Reporting to the faculty and checking the academy’s outer walls. I’ll search using sensing.”
“Can you expand your sensing magic that far?”
“I’ve never done it. But I will.”
Edvard nodded. His face looked like he’d swallowed his hesitation. “Understood. Let’s meet at the west gate in thirty minutes.”
I went out into the courtyard.
I stood by the Moonview Stone. This was the easiest place to feel the flow of magical energy. For three years since enrolling, I’d thought this every time I came here. There’s a legend that the stone reacts to the moon. I knew it was a place with high affinity for dark-attribute magical energy.
Tonight, the moon wasn’t out. It was cloudy.
I closed my eyes.
I expanded my dark magic sensing ability. Normally, the range was about one building. I expanded it. Spread it across the entire academy grounds. There was no pain. Just an increase in the volume of information. The presence of students, the presence of teachers, the flow of magical energy, the boundaries of the barrier. It all came in at once.
The information surged in like a tidal wave, and I instinctively pressed a hand to my forehead. Darkness, heat, and coldness mixed together in my mind. I tried to organize it. But I didn’t stop.
I searched for Lian.
I searched for the quality of light-attribute magical energy. I knew Lian’s light magic. I’d touched it many times during interference experiments. Within the darkness of my sensing, I searched for that warmth. Using the temperature from my memory as a clue, as if confirming it in the palm of my hand.
She wasn’t within the academy grounds.
I expanded the range. Beyond the outer walls.
The depths of my mind groaned. This was a range I’d never expanded too before. Normally, expanding dark-attribute sensing this far would start to affect the subconscious. But tonight, I couldn’t stop.
Mixed with the information, fragments of childhood memories flowed. A rainy day, Lian asking me to read her a book, Lian scraping her knee from a fall. At night, looking at the same moon, Lian saying she felt connected.
There.
It was weak. Far. But it was definitely there.
It was Lian’s light magic. That warmth reached me faintly from afar. Weak. Less than half its usual intensity. Either suppressed by something, or exhausted—either way, the situation remained unchanged: I had to hurry.
I checked the direction. Northwest. I remembered reading on a map that there was an abandoned factory about a forty-minute walk from the academy in that direction. A facility built on the site of an old mine, abandoned for over ten years.
I opened my eyes.
I released the sensing. The depths of my mind felt heavy. The recoil from expanding over a wider range than usual. For a moment, my vision blurred. It’s fine. I can move.
The Moonview Stone glowed white at my feet.
I ran.
I met Edvard at the west gate. Cyril was there too.
“You brought him?”
“When I explained the situation, he said he’d come,” Edvard said. Cyril looked at me and nodded. That was enough.
“Did you find her location?”
“Northwest, about forty minutes from the academy. I think it’s the abandoned factory.”
“Outside the academy’s barrier?” Edvard unfolded a map. “Here. A facility built on the site of an old mine. Abandoned for over ten years.”
“Let’s go.”
“Just the three of us?”
“Waiting for the faculty would take time. Those who can move should move first.”
Edvard and Cyril exchanged glances.
“Understood,” Edvard said. “But don’t do anything reckless.”
“I know.”
We started running.
The night road stretched before us. It was a moonless night. But that didn’t matter for the dark attribute. The darker it was, the sharper my sensing became.
As if following the lingering traces of Lian’s magical energy, I kept running.
It was weak. That light was weak.
It hadn’t vanished.
It was still there.
Confirming only that, I ran toward the light.