There’s nothing left to do.

Sitting at that table, trying to anticipate infinite possibilities, only feeds the paranoia. If someone really is watching me, then the worst possible move is to keep looking like a cornered animal. Politics, war, and survival share one annoying similarity: perception is often worth more than the truth.

If someone believes they’re a step ahead of you, make it look like that was part of your plan too.

Even if it’s a lie. In fact, especially if it’s a lie.

I let the air out slowly and abandon the relaxed posture in the chair. My entire body shifts along with my expression—a subtle transformation that depends on no System skill at all, only presence. I let my own glow up surface naturally as I walk between the library tables, and it doesn’t take long for the first glances to appear.

Some students lift their eyes from their books.

Others pretend to keep reading while tracking my reflection through the side windows.

In the almost sacred silence of the library, the sound of my boots echoes clearly across the dark marble floor, and that’s good. The more people see me heading to the top floor, the better. Witnesses are useful when you don’t know if you’re walking into a trap.

I start climbing the spiral flights of stairs, observing the central void of the building. The library is absurdly tall inside; the circular floors stack around the main axis like the stands of a silent colosseum, connected by narrow corridors and bluish runic lights set into the walls.

I look up and sigh.

"The top floor... of course it had to be."

I keep climbing at a steady pace, without rushing. It’s only when I reach roughly halfway that I hear another footstep behind me.

I stop instinctively.

The sound stops with me.

My eyes immediately drop to the central railing of the staircase, searching for any silhouette on the lower floors, but there’s no one. Nothing above, either. Even so, the hair on my arm stands on end in the same instant.

’Someone’s here.’

The feeling is too strong to be paranoia.

I start climbing again, this time paying full attention to the environment around me. A few seconds later, the footsteps return. They walk when I walk. They stop when I stop.

My hand drifts near Eventide on reflex. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

My team should still be busy. Oliver is probably already recruiting drowneds for the LDP production, while Veric tries to convince his father to finance a commercial insanity that sounds like it came out of the mind of a corporate criminal.

So who’s following me?

I keep advancing calmly while letting the sound behind me close in little by little. The circular ceiling of the top floor is already starting to appear above the staircase when a side door catches my attention. Unlike the others, its frame is deeper, forming a small pocket of shadow—perfect for hiding someone.

[Archive Room.]—I read

I glance up quickly.

We are on the second-to-last floor.

Perfect.

I slip silently into the side arch of the door and push it just enough to make noise. I fake two quick steps inside the room before closing it again, staying motionless in the dark side of the frame.

I suppress my aura as far down as possible.

I control my breathing.

I control my heartbeat.

My entire body enters that strange state of absolute readiness I know far too well from the trench front. This is what we do when an A-rank monster patrol passes just a few feet from our perimeter.

The footsteps behind me speed up immediately.

Closer.

Faster.

The moment a shadow creeps across the floor, I lunge.

The long blood-red hair spins in the air alongside me, and the sapphire-blue eyes go wide so close to my face that for a second I think I’ve attacked a mirage. My arm passes automatically across the figure’s neck, pulling her back into a brutal lock before my brain even finishes recognizing who it is.

Freya.

I freeze.

So does she.

For an absurd moment, I’m holding Freya Gunnulf from behind while she looks more frightened than she did when Dean interrupted our duel. Her hands grip my forearm on instinct, but she doesn’t fight back. She doesn’t even try to channel an ounce of OXI. She’s caught completely off guard.

I release her immediately and shove her forward.

"Damn it, Freya!" I growl, more irritated with myself than with her. "What are you doing here? I could have killed you!"

She drops to her knees, coughing violently while clutching her throat.

"You... brute..." cough cough "...insolent..." She lifts her eyes, watering with rage. "How dare you..."

"Don’t blame me!" I shoot back immediately. "You’re the one who invited me here, and you were still following me!"

"You really are an ogre, Sands..." She keeps coughing while rubbing her reddened neck. "I didn’t invite you to anything."

My brain stalls for an instant.

"...What?"

"I just saw you climbing the stairs and came after you!" She raises her voice, irritated. "I wanted to know what you were scheming!"

I run my hand slowly down my face.

"Ah... so that’s it." I shake my head in disbelief. "Back to this stalking again, Gunnulf?"

She looks away, crossing her arms in a sulking silence that practically confirms my accusation.

For a moment I just stare at her sitting there on the floor, trying to recover my dignity after almost choking someone out in the middle of a library corridor.

Then the actually important thought hits me.

If Freya wasn’t the person who summoned me...

Then who’s on the top floor?

I look at her again. Now Freya stares back at me like someone waiting for a more convincing apology.

"...My bad, all right?" I offer her my hand to help her up.

She turns her face away immediately, clearly unsatisfied, and stands up on her own.

I ignore it.

"But since you’re here..." I think out loud as an idea begins to take shape in my head. "Want to join me for a business meeting?"

Freya stops brushing off her knees and blinks a few times, looking at me.

"...Did you hit your head harder than I thought during our fight?"