After Dinner: Shadows in the Reading Room
After dinner, in the dormitory's first-floor common reading room. I'd claimed a table in the corner by the window and was drafting the "official incident report outline" for yesterday's incident in the Beast Forest. Choosing just the right words to most perfectly sidestep any blame. The brutal administrative grind from my previous life—ten years of drafting, erasing, redrafting statements and proposals—was flowering like art from the tip of my pen.
Facility Damage: Complete terrain annihilation due to external factors.
Mental Trauma: All 1st-year Class 1 cadets reported extreme psychological distress from the illegal barrier.
My fountain pen hovered over the blank space in the final section. "The entity that erected the barrier. And their objective." I couldn't just scribble in my guesses here. Tomorrow, I'd have to confirm the Academy's official stance on the mastermind who set this trap—through Elarra.
The heavy door to the reading room creaked open. Assistant Professor Arthur walked in. In his hand were two bottles of the cheapest, most bitter "low-grade mana potion" sold at the Academy shop. Without a word, he approached my table, plunked one bottle down in front of me, pulled out the chair opposite, and slumped into it.
I kept my eyes fixed on the report, skipping even a greeting. Arthur bit the cap off his potion with his teeth and took a long swig. Then he pulled a crumpled stack of papers from his pocket—the aggregated scores from today's beast subjugation evaluations for the students—and picked up his pen.
In the wide, quiet reading room, the only sound was the scratch-scratch of two men scraping away at parchment, filling the silence. Outside the window, the streetlamps lighting the Academy grounds flickered on one by one as night deepened.
About an hour later, Arthur let out a weary sigh, set down his pen, and leaned back deeply into his chair.
"Evans."
"Yes, Professor."
"How many times is this now? The report."
I lightly tapped the line count on the report with my fountain pen. "Thirteen, by official record. Twenty-one if you count the unofficial drafts I scrapped myself."
Arthur slowly blinked his hollow eyes. "And you've been at the Imperial Academy for less than two months."
"Tell me about it."
He lifted the remaining potion to his lips again, the liquid sloshing. One swig. Two. Grimacing at the bitterness, he spoke in a low, gravelly voice.
"Evans."
"Yes."
"That demon from the forest yesterday."
I kept writing, but opened my ears quietly.
"I went back this afternoon with the investigation team to recheck the residual mana traces at the scene."
"……."
"It seems the thing was summoned in a state where its original mana was sealed."
My scratching pen stopped dead on the parchment. I slowly raised my head to meet Arthur's fatigued gaze.
"Not its full form. More like a partial avatar, with most of its power suppressed."
A deep shadow fell over Arthur's voice. "If it had been at full power…… before the young lady even stepped out of the tent, we would've been……"
A heavy silence crushed the air in the reading room.
"Meaning."
"This won't be the end of it. They'll come again."
I dropped my gaze back to the report and moved to the next section.
"Evans."
"Yes."
"How was your day?"
I capped my pen and set it neatly on the desk. The streetlamps outside had been fully swallowed by the night's darkness.
"Exhausting."
At my honest answer, Arthur twisted his lips into a wry smile—the kind of desolate, hollow laugh only a burned-out office drone could muster.
"Same here."
He drained the last of his potion. With a clack, he set the empty bottle on the table and stared at me steadily.
"You, Evans."
"……."
"You're the type who can admit it outright when you're scared: 'I'm scared.'"
I said nothing.
"That's rarer and harder than you'd think. Courage, in a school full of these oversized egos."
Arthur gathered his papers and slowly rose from his seat. He pushed in his chair and lightly tapped the edge of my table twice with his finger.
"Don't toss the potion I bought. Drink it before you go. Hits the spot for fatigue."
He opened the reading room door and vanished into the hallway. Listening to his heavy footsteps fade, I picked up the lonely green potion bottle on the table. I uncapped it and tossed back a gulp.
Bitter. The nasty, tongue-root-scraping tang unique to cheap mana-replenishing swill.
I folded the report twice, slipped it into its envelope, grabbed my bag, and stood. As I glanced at the thick darkness outside the window, yesterday's chilling scene flashed through my mind. Right before it vanished, Cassius's golden eyes weren't fixed on Reina in the air—they were locked on me at the tent entrance. That grotesque grin, like he'd confirmed whatever he wanted.
I still didn't know exactly what that misdirection meant. But instinctively, I could feel it: just as Arthur said, this was only the prelude to a tenacious, unending bad fate.
I turned off the reading room lights and stepped into the dark hallway. The corridor to Room 101 Royal Suite was deathly still as I walked. As bedtime approached, the lights leaking from the 1st-year cadets' doors winked out one by one.
Dormitory Room 101. At my door, I reached for the handle but froze. A faint glow seeped from under it.
Meaning the uncontrollable beast inside hadn't gone to sleep yet.
Click. I opened the door and stepped into the living room—and swallowed a shallow breath.
There, curled up on the sofa in the middle of the room, was Reina in comfy loungewear, nodding off drowsily. Her hands were snugly encased in her Dragon Leather Gloves, as always before bed.
At the sound of my footsteps, her silver lashes fluttered. Her hazy purple eyes turned toward me in the doorway.
"……You're late."
"Had some backlog paperwork."
Reina staggered up from the sofa and shuffled toward me. Then, without a word, she stopped right in front of me—so close our breaths mingled—and bowed her head deeply.
Offering up her silver crown. The feral beast's blatant, blind signal: praise me, pet me.
I set my bag on the floor and cautiously placed my hand on her soft hair. A faint lavender scent seeped between my fingers. As I gently ruffled and stroked, the tension melted from her shoulders. Her gloved hands quietly gripped the hem of my uniform shirt sleeve.
"Dinner……?"
"Yeah."
"Alone?"
"Grabbed something quick in the reading room with Assistant Professor Arthur."
That was the moment. Her grip on my sleeve tightened—just a fraction. But even through the thick Dragon Leather Gloves, the heavy pressure was unmistakable. This wasn't her usual whining when we were apart or her clingy puppy instincts. It was drier than jealousy, more desperate than a tantrum—like clutching in fear of something.
The feral beast's cold instinct, anxious at the mere fact of my solitary existence beyond her reach.
I felt that unfamiliar, precarious shift in strength fully—but pretended not to notice as I withdrew my hand from her hair.
"Go to bed."
Reina lifted her head to gaze up at me. Her clear purple eyes trembled faintly. Her lips parted and closed repeatedly. Like she was struggling to voice some massive anxiety she couldn't even define for herself—but in the end, all that escaped her cherry lips was a short acquiescence.
"……Okay."
She turned with reluctant steps toward her bedroom. As she reached for the doorknob, she glanced back at me. Those fixed purple eyes held no childish whine.
"Cadel."
"Yeah."
"Tomorrow…… eat with me too."
It was obvious. We ate every meal stuck together, after all. But the temperature of her voice was off from usual.
I pressed my lips shut and stared at her a moment.
"……Of course."
Only then did her purple eyes curve into pretty crescent moons. But it wasn't her usual satisfaction. It was a parched smile laced with relief. The kind of eye-smile that wouldn't bend so desperately if she'd taken my presence for granted from the start.
Reina slipped into her room, and the door clicked shut.
Click. Alone in the empty living room, I picked up my bag from the floor. The heavy sensation of her grip still clung vividly to my forearm.
As always, I tried to brush it off as "typical jealousy from a 17-year-old beast." But the label wouldn't stick.
I swallowed the thought and entered my room, flicking on the light. I set the envelope on the desk and hung my rumpled jacket on the rack. The Academy night beyond the window was annoyingly serene and peaceful.
I pulled out my chair, sat, and drew the half-finished report from the envelope. Uncapping my fountain pen, I added a single line at the very bottom margin.
Additional Investigation Required: Summoner and target of the demon unclear. Intent behind sealed-state summoning needs clarification.
I set the pen down on the desk with a clack. In my mind, Cassius's final golden gaze from the heart of the Beast Forest yesterday slithered up. That spine-chilling smile aimed not at Reina, but at me.
"This won't be the end."
Arthur's weary voice echoed in my ear.
I knew why Reina had clutched my sleeve so anxiously tonight. The uncontrollable beast had instinctively read that horrific exchanged glance I'd tried to keep secret and was on guard for my safety.
The real storm that would trample my peaceful retirement had only just sprouted.
Only the cool glow of the streetlamps blinked quietly in the deep night's silence outside the window.