Contrary to Noah's expectations, Kaia left after dropping Luna near their apartment. Noah paid the taxi driver before rushing to Luna.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at her pale face in worry. Luna shook her head, turning to climb the stairs.
"Tomorrow, the academy will open. We need to arrive there before 8 AM," she said, starting to climb the stairs.
She stopped midway before muttering without looking back, "Also, don't waste tea given by a woman, even if it's a little bitter."
He watched her disappearing back with a frown. What did she mean by that?
His mind raced, and he remembered the tea made by Kaia.
That was so bitter; he only took a sip and left it untouched.
"Something about that tea..." Noah rushed to his room, picking up the glass of tea from the table. He smelled it.
"Ah! The smell is also bitter." He said in disgust.
Something cracked in his mind. Perhaps this tea was the reason he lost himself.
He stored it in a plastic bag and searched for the forensic department on the island.
There was an option for a sample check, mainly for runners who find valuable potions or toxins to understand their properties.
He called for a sample test. Within an hour, a man arrived to collect the sample of the tea.
He waited patiently for another hour before a message arrived directly to his mail.
[Antidote of Mania Draught]
[Mania Draught: Triggers duality of the runner. Helpful for runners with dual personality to merge as one.]
"What?" He was taken aback by the bizarre details of the tea. Dual personality? Him?
It seemed so.
"Thundrith..."
"Sizzle..."
"If not you, then who?" Noah felt alien in his own body.
It churned him a lot that his body had another personality, and from the actions that personality had done until now, it was pretty violent.
Another thing hit him hard: his parents, his past with them.
Until now, his mind had continuously believed that they were killed by monsters, and he should take revenge on those monsters.
But now, even after using his mind to pain, he couldn't recall anything about his parents. It was like everything about them were just imaginations, they were just a group of data's implanted into his brain.
How could he miss such obvious details?
He didn't know his parents' names, their professions, or the home he was supposed to have lived in.
Every memory of him started from that orphanage. Nothing before that, like of an infant.
Another message notification came from his smartwatch. A new group had been created with him, Luna, and Kaia.
"Academy will start tomorrow. Sharp 8 AM at the main hall ~ Tutor Kaia."
Something he didn't know about, this woman seemed to know. What was it?
To know that, he had to go to this woman, intentionally knowing he was walking into a trap.
He hated this.
A blue lightning, a massive shadow of a grotesque creature, and nothing.
His room was empty, like he wasn't there.
While a snippet of news started to spread in the articles, someone had cleared multiple dungeons in an hour.
A peculiar thing was that one hadn't booked any slot to run those dungeons. He just appeared and cleared without anyone noticing.
The guardians of Zenith dispatched to find out about this, but all the clues about that mysterious runner led them to one person.
Kaia Zenith , the legendary Zero.
Meanwhile, a bloodied figure came knocking on Luna's door.
When she opened it and horrified, before she could open her mouth to scream, a scaled hand blocked her mouth.
"Shhhh..."
* *
When Noah opened his eyes groggily, it was already past 6 AM. The time in Zenith was calculated by the moving speed of the planet's rotation towards Solaris.
Morning didn't mean it was bright. Some days, Zenith might move through space without any stars, which would make mornings dark as well.
Today was such a day. The sky was dark, with only mana lights illuminating the island.
Noah cleaned himself, made a simple meal, and exited his room for the academy.
Luna was waiting for him. For some reason, he saw dark circles around her eyes. And something about her look at him irked him.
Was it because of yesterday? Noah thought.
It was because that woman had poisoned him! He groaned, trying to shake off the irritation.
Cleaning every expression off his face, he put on a wide smile and greeted her.
"Hello, Luna. You seem more beautiful today."
She put on a stretched smile, glanced down at her palm, and said, "Thanks, Noah..."
They called a taxi to the academy. On the way, both of them were silent. Noah felt something odd about his body.
Thundrith was silent for some reason and his muscles screamed tiredness. It was like he had run a dungeon last night.
"Perhaps a side effect of that potion..." he gritted his teeth in anger towards Kaia.
That's when he noticed a barrage of notifications on his smartwatch.
He opened it to see many recent posts with a lot of discussions. They were about a mysterious runner.
"Hm." Reading one of the posts, he was also surprised. A mysterious runner had cleared a dozen tier 1 and tier 2 dungeons in a night.
He magically appeared and left after clearing dungeons, not even bothering to book a slot and in that way foiling the slots of some unfortunate runners.
It was bizarre that the guardians of Zenith had failed to catch that one. Noah wondered who had the capability to do so.
Many conspiracy posts stated that an outsider, supposedly someone from that dimensional break, had invaded Zenith and was trying to mock everyone with their actions.
That fueled anger in the population, but some posts appeared with worries.
Did runners from that dimension be this powerful? If so, then could they face off against such opponents whom even the guardians had failed to catch?
Noah nodded his head with the same sentiment. He decided to avoid walking out alone at night.
He turned to Luna and warned, "It's so dangerous outside. So, Luna, better not to go alone at night."
She recoiled at his words and nodded her head repeatedly. Noah raised his brows, seeing a purplish mark on her neck.
It was like a hickey. He blushed slightly, then frowned.
"Luna, I'm not being noisy. But it's better to avoid such things..." he pointed at her neck, "...before becoming an adult."
Luna was stunned by his words. With an accusing look, she gritted her teeth.
"But he said, underage x underage is legal."
"What a pervert. Luna, you better break up with him..." Noah slapped his thighs furiously.
"Yes... yes... I will break his thing with a snap if he done the same again..."
Suddenly, Noah felt a coldness sweeping through his spine.
He clenched his legs together glancing at Luna whom turned her head in other direction.
'So ferocious.. sorry my guy.' He snickered thinking about that guy.