Croy woke up in the infirmary. His head throbbed with pain, his thoughts were jumbled, and his body felt as if he had just eaten Bunny's cooking - absolutely dreadful.
This time, however, unlike the last time he had awoken in a hospital bed of the army, he somehow recognized, despite the headache, that he was at the academy.
And unlike the last time, when he had awoken under a plain white ceiling, this time he was greeted by the beautiful sight of a princess with auburn hair.
She stood beside the bed, looking down at him expressionlessly.
He looked up at her silently and glanced briefly down at himself. As before, he was shirtless.
With a mischievous grin, he looked up at the princess, though as he did so, a sudden sharp pain shot through his jaw.
Still, he had to say something; Princess Kadutor's piercing gaze was starting to make him uneasy.
"Enjoying the view, Your Majesty?" he asked with a roguish smile.
She didn't respond. Her face was turned toward him, but her eyes were focused on his chest, scanning it intently. She didn't even look up when he spoke.
Croy suddenly felt his cheeks grow warm. It was quite something to have a beauty like her - no matter how ruthless her character might be - examine him so closely. With Bunny and Cookoff, it was different; they were more like parents or older siblings. Family.
Finally, the princess broke her gaze from his chest. She blinked, sighed, and looked a bit startled when she noticed that he was watching her. Croy furrowed his brow.
'Did she not even notice me?'
He wanted to scratch his head, but his arm didn't obey; when he tried, a sharp pain flared in his shoulder. Stifling a pained groan, he focused his attention back on the princess.
But before he could say anything, the memories suddenly came rushing back.
Everything that had happened. They had been in the middle of a battle - he, the princess, young Lord Jradan, and Inera. Then, suddenly, Hisama had appeared... and killed him.
At least, that's what should have happened. He remembered the feeling of a Mana bullet piercing through his chest... yet now there was no wound where it should have been.
He looked up at the princess, confused.
"What happened?"
She seemed to finally regain her composure, but at his question, she looked at him with a confused expression.
"That's what I wanted to ask you!"
She sounded agitated.
"Were you able…" Croy paused, trying to decide which question to ask first. There were so many.
"Were you able to stop His- the man?"
"...you were dead."
That wasn't the answer he had expected.
Dead? He was dead? What was she talking about?
"Did someone at the academy heal me?"
There were certain spells capable of reviving a heart that had recently stopped beating, but few Spellcasters could perform such wonders. And Croy had never heard of it working with a bullet lodged in the heart.
Princess Kadutor shook her head.
"You were dead... That man, whoever he was, had undoubtedly killed you. Then he turned on me and Lord Jradan. He knew who I was, and yet he still intended to eliminate me."
According to her, Hisama had only come to kill him. The princess, Inera, and Lord Jradan had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Guilt started to gnaw at Croy.
'At least they're unharmed,' he thought, relieved.
Or at least, the princess seemed unharmed.
"What happened to the others?"
She was silent for a moment.
"Lady Clayford is safe. She was here just before I came. You've been asleep until now, late into the night. Lord Jradan wasn't so fortunate. The Spell missed his heart by mere centimeters, but it looks like he'll make it. But what happened at the end-"
Croy's eyes widened.
"The bullet? Did you manage to stop the man-"
"Listen to me now!"
She suddenly flushed with anger. Croy would have drawn back had his body not been immobilized by pain.
Princess Kadutor took a deep breath, then grasped his shoulders and leaned in, staring intensely into his eyes.
"What in the world are you, Croy Belmont?!"
Croy lay still, processing her words. Confusion and shock warred within him, along with a hint of embarrassment.
'Her face is so close.'
Involuntarily, he held his breath. He could almost feel the intensity in her gaze, and then gradually, her expression softened.
With a faint blush coloring her cheeks, she pulled back slightly, cleared her throat, and asked quietly:
"I mean… what did you do out there?"
Croy didn't have an answer. Whatever had happened, he couldn't remember - or at least not clearly. But there was something, a shadow of a memory, a whisper.
"The voice in the void," he murmured, lost in thought as he tried to piece together the fragments surfacing in his mind.
"What did you say?" she asked, her tone both curious and wary.
He gave a small shake of his head.
"Nothing… I just know I don't remember anything after Jradan hit me. Please, what happened?"
His eyes met hers. Somehow, he felt she might hold the answers he was missing.
Princess Kadutor studied him, as if weighing how much to reveal. At last, she began to speak in a low, cautious tone:
"We fought that man. But… we didn't stand a chance, not even remotely. Who was he, Belmont? Did you know him?"
Croy gathered his thoughts, considering how much to disclose. The consequences of his actions were right there in front of him - because of him, they had nearly died. He owed them the truth, at least as much of it as he himself understood.
"I don't know much either. He calls himself Hisama, though that might not even be his real name. We crossed paths in the old archives. He said he was a former soldier, like me - but that can't be the whole story. And whatever he's after, it's important enough to risk eliminating even a princess of the Kingdom of Al'Kadutor."
After Croy told the princess much, but not all, about Hisama, a long silence fell between them. Croy sank into his thoughts, feeling a confusion deeper than anything he'd ever experienced. His mind wasn't just spinning around the mystery of the man who called himself Hisama but also the Void - and the humming, the voice that reached out to him from it.
The Void… that was what he called this strange place of nothingness, an abstract world that had haunted him for the first time shortly after he joined the war. He had been thirteen back then, freshly recruited, raised and trained by Spider and the other soldiers.
While they were out on missions, he stayed back, training with other young soldiers and learning to hold his own. Initially, their eyes were full of skepticism, a distrust toward a boy in a world of warfare. But he quickly convinced them otherwise - mostly through sheer stubbornness that couldn't be broken.
In those early months, he knew nothing but training. The pain of losing his parents, the burning hate, and the gnawing yearning for his lost home had driven him to the edge. Casting spells was the only thing that helped him cope. His talent for them and mana manipulation grew faster than most, and after only six months, he could cast spells in ways that even surprised the seasoned soldiers.
Then, one day, he was taken on his first mission. On the battlefield, he used his skills for the first time against real enemies. And somewhere in this chaotic period, the Void appeared for the first time.
He couldn't recall the exact moment - only that it had been there, suddenly. It wasn't like a regular dream but more like a gap in his awareness, a space where nothing surrounded him.
There, in this Void, he met his parents again.
At first, they were clear and recognizable, almost as real as they had been in life. They were the same, loving, strong, as they had always been.
He had cried the entire night after he saw them in this 'dream' for the first time. When Bunny woke him the next morning, worried about his condition, he couldn't explain it; he could only weep, feeling the aching void of longing for his parents more acutely than ever. His whole team tried to cheer him up, to be there for him, but no one could fully understand what was happening inside him.
Then the war escalated. The fights grew fiercer, pushing them deeper into rebel territory. They encountered fierce resistance, and each new mission was more brutal and demanded higher tolls. During this time, Croy slowly began to let his memories of his parents fade. The Void visited him less frequently, and he focused more on his team, on his hatred for the enemy, and on survival. The unrelenting routine of war left little space for feelings or memories.
But finally, the day came when there were no enemies left and no team to protect. The war was over for him, and he enrolled at the academy. Here, in just one week, he found a new purpose that challenged and fulfilled him in a way that made him happy.
He had fun, fought with a competitive spirit he'd never known in the war, and discovered new strengths. Yet the Void… the Void followed him.
At first, he thought he would never encounter this place again after the loss of his parents. But he had been wrong.
Now he felt that the Void was more than just a manifestation of his grief. It was something deeper, rooted within him.
But he had never heard this voice before. How had it been there? What was it?
Unable to remain trapped in this silent loop of thoughts, Croy looked over at the princess and asked:
"How did you escape?"
She hesitated, as if she had to relive the memory herself before she could speak.
"That's just it…" she began slowly, looking into his eyes as if she still believed it might have been a strange dream.
"I believe you brought us back here."
Croy's head spun. The princess's words reached his ears, but he couldn't grasp them.
He had brought them all back? That made no sense. He could remember nothing but the droning hum that had overtaken him entirely.
Princess Kadutor continued, her voice steady but with an undercurrent of disbelief:
"We were on the brink of death when, suddenly, your mana erupted like a furious typhoon. It wasn't a simple flash; it was a massive vortex that pulled us all in. I couldn't even react. It took over my entire vision, scrambled my mana sense. The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back in some bushes here at the academy, with you, Lady Clayford, and Lord Jradan nearby. I went to get help after that."
Croy tried to respond, mumbling, "That sounds…"
But the princess shook her head, as if she understood his doubts.
"I know what it sounds like. But it's impossible. And yet… I've never seen anything like it. Your mana was… different."
Croy tilted his head, thinking.
'Right. She can sense it. Maybe even see it.'
"Can you describe it in more detail?"
Princess Kadutor furrowed her brow, clearly searching for the right words.
"Not really… normally, your mana is well, violet and oscillates at a high frequency. Rare, but not particularly unusual. But when that happened in the garage, it was… different. I could barely make out individual frequencies. It was blacker, darker, and it felt visible and yet somehow unreachable. I can hardly explain it."
Croy remained silent, pondering her words. They stirred a faint idea in his mind - something that could perhaps explain what had happened. But he wasn't ready to share it with her. Not yet.
Instead, with a lopsided grin, he redirected the conversation:
"Is that why you were staring at my bare chest?"
She raised an eyebrow, a slight smile curling her lips.
"You're not that interesting, Belmont."
He chuckled, and for a moment, the tension slipped away.
"Thank you," she said quietly, surprising him with a soft look.
"Whatever you did… it saved our lives - it saved my life."
He cocked his head, lifting an eyebrow.
"So I've saved Your Majesty three times now? I think that deserves a reward."
Then, suddenly embarrassed, he hastily added:
"But I don't mean–"
Her laughter interrupted him, a grin lighting up her face.
"I thought you found me sadistic and self-centered."
"I'm… not over that yet," he said slowly, then added with a grin:
"But when you go through hell together, you can't help but start liking each other. Just a little bit."
"Is that something you learned in the army?" she asked, looking at him with a curious gaze.
He nodded, noticing the faint smile on her face as she gazed downward thoughtfully. Finally, she shrugged, stretched, and said:
"Well then. Since we're already chatting, there's something else I want to know before I go to bed. We'll discuss all this in more detail tomorrow - for now, we need rest."
He nodded, feeling the exhaustion in himself, too.
"What do you want to know?"
She pointed at the pants hanging over the bed frame, and Croy suddenly realized he wasn't only shirtless. He cleared his throat, feeling his cheeks warm. Thankfully, he was covered by a blanket.
"Your identification card is still in there," she said.
Croy blinked, and suddenly his eyes widened. After all these things he had completly forgotten why he had been outside in the first place.
'That's right! I got a rank!'