Maren nodded warmly, her expression soft but attentive, as if she had already sensed that something more than a routine report had brought Lia here this early in the morning, and gestured toward the chair in front of her desk with quiet familiarity.
"Of course you didn't bother me. Come, sit."
Lia walked forward at a measured pace, her steps slower than usual as if she were unconsciously buying herself time, then lowered herself into the chair beside Maren, keeping her posture composed even as a faint tension lingered in her shoulders.
Maren removed her spectacles with deliberate care, folding them neatly and placing them on the desk before turning her full attention to Lia, her gaze sharp yet calm, carrying that quiet perceptiveness that made it difficult to hide anything from her for long.
"So…" she began, her tone casual but her eyes observant, "he really was a B-ranker after all."
For the briefest moment, Lia's body reacted before her mind could catch up, a subtle flinch running through her as guilt rose uninvited in her chest, tightening her throat, yet she forced herself to steady her breathing and keep her expression under control.
"Are you asking about Ashan?" she replied, her voice carefully measured, though a slight hesitation slipped through. "Well… it's…"
Maren leaned back in her chair with a soft exhale, as though she had already pieced the answer together long before Lia spoke.
"Since you didn't come rushing to inform me right after the evaluation," she said calmly, her tone almost matter-of-fact, "I already had my answer. If he had been anything above that, you wouldn't have waited."
Lia swallowed quietly, then nodded, forcing herself to commit to the lie she had already chosen.
"Yes… you're right. He's a B-ranker."
"Haa… I see," Maren murmured, her brows knitting slightly, not in doubt, but in thoughtful curiosity.
"That boy really doesn't stop surprising me. It seems what he claimed wasn't entirely empty talk."
She tapped her fingers lightly against the desk, her thoughts clearly moving ahead.
"But even then, it doesn't add up. A B-ranker with that kind of performance… and those skills…" she continued, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"Tell me, did you notice anything unusual? Something beyond what we already know?"
Lia's heart skipped for a fraction of a second, but she kept her composure.
"…No," she answered carefully, choosing each word with precision.
"Nothing beyond what we expected."
Maren studied her for a brief moment longer, then sighed lightly, letting the matter rest, for now.
"Well, regardless, his case is still extraordinary," she said, shifting slightly in her seat.
"After all, he possesses something that shouldn't exist in the first place."
Lia's eyes sharpened immediately. "What do you mean?"
Maren met her gaze directly.
"He can alter his own skills."
The words landed heavily.
Lia blinked, genuine shock flashing across her face before she could suppress it.
"…Alter them?" she repeated, her voice carrying disbelief that this time wasn't an act. "What exactly does that mean?"
Maren folded her hands together on the desk, her tone turning more serious.
"It means exactly what it sounds like. He can mutate, reshape, and improve his original abilities into entirely different forms," she explained, her voice steady but laced with quiet amazement.
"Not enhance them in the usual sense, but fundamentally change their structure."
Lia felt her thoughts stumble for a moment.
"That… shouldn't be possible," she said slowly, trying to process it.
"It shouldn't," Maren agreed without hesitation. "And yet, we have proof. Recorded data from his previous fights clearly shows that he can transform a lightning-based attack into something like a spear construct, among other variations."
"Lightning… into spears?" Lia echoed, her brows furrowing deeply. "That's not just modification, that's completely rewriting the nature of the skill."
"Exactly," Maren replied, leaning slightly forward. "Which is why we've been keeping this information restricted. The fewer people who know about it, the better."
A quiet silence settled between them for a moment.
Lia's thoughts raced.
'So even this… even this is already known…'
Her gaze slowly dropped to her own leg, where smooth, newly regenerated flesh had replaced what had once been lost, and for a fleeting second, warmth spread through her chest, a quiet, almost overwhelming sense of relief and gratitude surfacing despite everything.
'Then… what he did for me… wasn't just healing.'
'It was something far beyond that.'
Her fingers curled slightly against her lap as her expression grew more complicated.
'Maren only knows this much… but I've seen something far worse… or far greater.'
'If all of this comes together… then he's not just dangerous… he's unpredictable.'
A faint unease settled deep within her.
'I just hope… he's truly on our side.'
Her thoughts drifted briefly, and then something else surfaced, Ashan's final words to her before he left.
A quiet, unfamiliar emotion flickered across her face.
"…Maren," she said after a pause, her voice softer now, carrying a hesitation that hadn't been there before, "there's something I want to ask you."
Maren tilted her head slightly, curious. "Go on."
Lia lowered her gaze, her fingers unconsciously brushing against each other as if grounding herself.
"Don't think too deeply about it," she added quietly. "I just want an honest answer."
Maren's expression softened. "Alright."
There was a brief silence before Lia spoke again, her voice lower than usual.
"…Do you think I'm still attractive?"
Maren froze.
"…What?"
Lia let out a faint, self-conscious breath, her eyes drifting slightly as she forced the words out.
"As a woman… I mean," she clarified, though her tone carried a fragile edge that was completely unlike her usual confidence.
"Do I still have the right to call myself… beautiful?"
The question lingered in the air, heavier than it should have been.
Maren stared at her, genuinely stunned, as if she had just heard something completely out of place.
"Lia… what kind of question is that?" she asked, her voice filled with disbelief. "You're one of the most beautiful women I've ever met. Why would you even doubt that?"
Lia's lips curved into a faint, bittersweet smile, though her eyes didn't quite follow.
"You really think so?" she murmured. "I know I look young… my body hasn't aged much… but time is still passing."
Her gaze drifted slightly, distant.
"No matter how it looks on the outside, the truth doesn't change. I'm getting older… and the older a woman gets, the less she's valued."
Maren's expression tightened slightly, and without hesitation, she stood up and moved closer, sitting beside her instead of across the desk, closing the distance in a way that felt more personal.
"Lia…" she said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder, "hearing this from you of all people is honestly surprising."
Lia let out a quiet breath, her usual composure slipping just a little.
"I guess… I've just been thinking lately," she admitted. "Watching people around me… seeing what they have…"
Her voice softened.
"Families… relationships… something real."
Maren didn't interrupt.
"I always told myself I didn't need any of that," Lia continued, her tone quieter now, more honest than before. "But… maybe I was wrong."
A faint smile appeared, but it carried a trace of loneliness.
"I think… I want that too."
Maren's eyes softened deeply as she gently pulled Lia's head against her shoulder, letting her lean without resistance.
"You always said you'd never settle," she murmured.
"I know," Lia replied with a quiet sigh. "But I never met anyone who felt… right."
She paused.
"I don't care about strength or status. I just want someone who sees me as a normal woman… not as an S-ranker."
Maren's hand moved gently through her hair.
"So that's why none of the matches worked," she said softly.
Lia nodded faintly.
"They were all the same," she admitted. "They saw what I had… not who I am."
A brief silence followed.
Then Lia spoke again, more hesitantly this time.
"…What if that could change?"
Maren blinked. "What do you mean?"
"If… I could become normal again," Lia said slowly, choosing her words carefully, "if I could age like everyone else… do you think I could live a normal life?"
Maren's eyes widened slightly.
"You found a way?"
Lia immediately shook her head. "No, it's just… a hypothetical."
Maren studied her for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully.
"If that were possible… then yes," she said firmly. "It would make things much easier. You'd be able to build something real, something stable."
Lia lowered her gaze slightly, absorbing that answer in silence.
And then,
The quiet atmosphere inside the office shattered without warning as the phone on Maren's desk suddenly rang out, the sharp, grating tone far louder and more urgent than a normal call, cutting through the air in a way that immediately set both of them on edge.
Maren's brows drew together the instant she heard it, a faint frown forming as her instincts kicked in, already sensing that something was wrong before a single word had been spoken.
"An emergency call…?" she muttered under her breath, her tone tightening slightly. "What could it be at this hour?"
She rose from her chair without hesitation, her movements quick and precise, and reached for the receiver, bringing it to her ear as her expression hardened into full focus.
"Hello, who is this?"
"Senior… it's me. Kaelen."
The moment the voice came through; familiar, yet strained and rushed in a way she had never heard before.
Maren's eyes widened slightly, her posture stiffening.
"The Bloodmoon headmaster?" she responded immediately, surprise slipping into her voice despite her control.
"What happened? Why so sudden?"
On the other end, Kaelen didn't waste even a second.
"It's an emergency," he said quickly, his tone tight, almost breathless. "I'll keep it short. A golem-type dragon has emerged from one of our controlled dungeons after completely annihilating the raiding team inside. It destroyed everything in the surrounding area… and then it escaped."
The words landed like a blow.
For a split second, Maren couldn't respond, her mind struggling to process the scale of what she had just heard.
Beside her, Lia had already risen from her seat, drawn in by the urgency in Maren's voice, and since the call was loud enough to be heard clearly, every word reached her just as sharply.
"A dragon…?" Lia stepped closer, her voice tense, disbelief and alarm mixing together. "Tell us everything. Where is it now? How strong is it?"
There was a brief pause before Kaelen answered, and that hesitation alone was enough to make both of their expressions darken.
"That's the problem," he said. "It's massive. I can't give an exact classification yet… but based on what we've seen, it's at least S-rank."
A beat passed.
"…Possibly even higher."
Silence fell over the room.
Maren felt her grip on the receiver tighten unconsciously, while Lia's eyes widened, the color draining slightly from her face as the weight of those words sank in.
"S-rank…?" Maren repeated under her breath, her voice low with disbelief.
"This is insane…"
She forced herself to refocus immediately.
"Have you informed the others?" she asked sharply.
"I was about to," Kaelen replied, "but I had to contact you first."
Maren's gaze sharpened. "Why?"
There was no hesitation this time.
"Because it's heading straight toward the academy."
Both women froze.
Kaelen continued, his voice urgent. "At its current speed, it won't take long to get there. You need to prepare immediately. I'll notify the rest right now."
The line went dead.
For a fraction of a second, neither of them moved, the silence that followed feeling unnaturally heavy, as if the entire room itself had gone still in anticipation of what was coming.
Then Maren moved.
Without wasting even a breath, she slammed the receiver down and turned sharply, striding toward the wall where the emergency switch was mounted, her expression completely transformed, calm replaced by cold, decisive urgency.
Her hand struck the button without hesitation.
In the very next instant, alarms exploded across the academy, loud and relentless, echoing through every corridor and hall, shattering whatever peace the morning had held.
"Lia," Maren said, her voice firm and commanding as she turned back, already thinking several steps ahead, "go and inform all the professors immediately. Gather every available combatant, every S-ranker, and as many capable A and B rankers as you can find."
Lia straightened instinctively, the earlier emotions gone, replaced by sharp focus as she nodded without question.
Maren's gaze shifted toward the window for a brief moment, her eyes narrowing slightly as if she could already sense the approaching threat.
"This…" she said quietly, her tone heavy with certainty,
"…is going to be a difficult fight."