Chapter 17—The Shadow’s Leash.
Chapter 17—The Shadow’s Leash.
"Yes, Head Instructor." The guards barked in unison before rushing down the corridor to execute the orders.
Vance turned back to Tsubaki, placing a heavy, gloved hand on the young noble’s shoulder.
"You did well to hold off senior Elite, Tsubaki. House Iwanome will be compensated for the loss of the relic, but this treason goes far deeper than a simple theft. Rylan could not have operated alone."
"I understand, sir," Tsubaki replied, inclining his head respectfully.
As Vance turned around to coordinate the lockdown with his lieutenants, Tsubaki took a step back. His silver eyes drifted down to where I lay on the floor.
For a fraction of a second, their eyes met.
There was no arrogance left in his gaze—only a terrifying realization of the monster he was now bound to. Kaelen had taken his power, rewritten his story, and forced the proud heir of House Iwanome to play a puppet in my performance.
Lyra rushed to kaelen’s side, kneeling to help him onto a stretcher brought in by the medics.
"Hold on,, kaelen, " she whispered, her hands trembling as she applied a healing salve to my side. "You’re safe now."
"Thank you, Lyra..." Kaelen murmured, letting his eyelids flutter shut.
In the dark cavern of his mind, the system’s notification continued to roll in absolute triumph.
[ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Scenario Execution Complete.]
[Suspicion cleared: 100% ]
[ Imperial Surveillance Disrupted.]
[Relic Assimilation Efficiency: 100%]
[ New Passive Unlocked: Imperial Interface Immunity (Level 1)]
Kaelen allowed the faintest, dark smirk to touch the corner of my lips beneath the shadows of my bandages.
The academy thought they were hunting a rogue Senior Elite. The imperial capital thought they were tracking a broken link.
But in the center of their little war, a commoner with a stolen void was quietly waiting in the dark, holding the leash of the academy’s greatest prodigy, preparing to swallow the entire empire whole.
The dim ceiling of the Academy’s high-security medical wing blurred as the medics wheeled kaelen’s stretcher down the silent, stone corridor.
Even with his eyes kept half-shut to maintain the charade of a shattered commoner, Kaelen could feel the atmosphere of the institution shifting around them. Heavy iron gates slammed shut in the distance. The resonant hum of the campus’s defensive barrier activated, sending a low vibration through the floorboards. Vance had locked down the entire perimeter.
Lyra walked beside his stretcher, her hand tightly gripping the edge of the canvas, her knuckles pale.
"They’re moving you to the Central ward, she whispered, her voice laced with genuine worry.
"The head instructor placed an extra guard post outside the hall. Nobody gets in or out without permission."
"Good..., " kaelen raped, leaning into the weakness of his voice.
"It means... It’s quiet."
In reality, Kaelen’s body was already far from weak.
Deep within his veins, the stolen origin power of House Iwanome’s relic was fully settling into his mana circuits. The sharp bruise on his flank had dulled to a faint itch as the system continuously funneled raw energy into his cell regeneration.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Passive skill imperial interference immunity (Level 1) active.]
[Result: Foreign Tracking Spells and Deviation Magic Ineffective.]
[Current Raw Energy Stock: 110 Points.]
Perfect.
The imperial capital’s scrying eyes were completely blind to him now. To their ancient diviners, the artifact had simply ceased to exist, destroyed in a tragic clash with a rogue Senior Elite.
Ten minutes later, the medics transferred Kaelen to a private recovery room in the Central Ward. Once the heavy wooden door clicked shut and the guards took their positions outside in the hallway, Lyra pulled a chair up to the bedside.
"Kaelen’,"she spoke softly, leaning in close so her voice wouldn’t carry past the door.
"What really happened back there? Tsubaki Iwanome... he isn’t the type to risk his life for a commoner. Why would he step in front of Rylan’s spatial blades for you?"
Kaelen looked at her, keeping his expression tired, shadowed by fictitious trauma.
"He didn’t do it for me, Lyra. "Kaelen answered calmly, choosing every word with surgical precision..
"He did it for his pride; Rylan attacked him first. I was just the witness who happened to know where the spatial seal’s weak point was."
Lyra stared at him for a long moment, searching his eyes for any sign of deception. But Kaelen’s facial metrics were locked down tight by the system.
Finally, she let out a long breath and slumped back into her chair.
"Either way, you survived," she murmured.
"But Rylan is still out there. If he escapes the campus barrier."
KNOCK. KNOCK
Two sharp, rhythmic taps rattled the heavy oak door.
Before Lyra could reach for her daggers, the door opened just enough for a tall figure to slip inside. The silver trim of the senior academy uniform caught the dim candlelight of the room.
Tsubaki Iwanome closed the door quietly behind him, his hand resting on the pommel of his sheathed blade. He didn’t look at Lyra. His silver eyes went straight to Kaelan’s, burning with a mixture of repressed fury and forced restraint.
"Leave us, Lyra," Tsubaki commanded, his tone cold though lacking the booming authority he had wielded just hours ago.
"I need to speak with the commoner... About our official statement to the Disciplinary Board."
Lyra stood up instantly, her wind mana flaring faintly around her fingertips as she stepped between Tsubaki and the bed.
"He just came out of surgery, Lord Iwanome. Whatever questions you have."
"It’s fine, Lyra," Kaelen interrupted softly from the bed, raising a weak hand to calm her.
"Let him speak. We...owe him our lives today, after all."
Tsubaki’s jaw clenched so hard Kaelen could hear his teeth grind together from across the room. Hearing Kaelan call him his savior in front of Lyra was a bitter pill, but Tsubaki knew he had to swallow it.
Lyra hesitated, looking between the two of them, before slowly relaxing her stance.
"I’ll be right outside the door with the guards," she warned Tsubaki with a sharp glare before slipping out into the corridor.
The moment the latch clicked shut, the silence in the room became suffocating.
Tsubaki took three slow steps forward, stopping at the edge of the bed.
The arrogant noble prodigy who had tried to crush Kaelen with his aura in the morning was now standing before him like a man walking on a tightrope over an abyss.
"The instructors cleared the room,"
Tsubaki said in a low, gravelly whisper. "They sent search parties into the subterranean conduits to hunt Rylan."
"I know," Kaelen replied, sitting up slowly in bed and discarding his weak, trembling posture entirely. His eyes locked onto Tsubaki’s, cold and calculating.
"You handled Vance well, Tsubaki."
Tsubaki leaned down, resting both hands on the edge of the bedframe, his face inches from kaelen’s.
"Don’t mock me, Kaelen," he hissed under his breath.
"My ancestral relic is gone. My family’s legacy in this academy is compromised. If my father finds out that a commoner swallowed our core’s power..."
"He won’t," Kaelen cut him off, a dark smile playing on his lips.
"Because as far as the world is concerned, Rylan shattered it. And you are the brave heir who saved a classmate’s life."
Tsubaki stared at him, his breathing heavy.
"What do you want from me? "
Kaelen leaned back against the pillows, crossing his arms as a blue system screen flickered into the vision, displaying Tsubaki’s full profile and suppressed stats.
"Simple," Kaelen murmured, his voice dripping with absolute authority.
"From this day on, you are my eyes and ears among the High Nobles. And when Rylan makes his next move, you and I are going to hunt him together. "
Tsubaki’s pupils dilated. His knuckles turned white against the wooden edge of the bedframe as the harsh reality pressed down upon him. He had spent his entire life learning how to command commoners, how to look down upon them as mere tools of the Realm. Now, the roles had been violently invented.
"Hunt Rylan ?" sneered, trying to salvage a shred of his pride.
"He’s a Senior Elite, Kaelen. Even with the Academy on lockdown, he knows the shadow paths beneath the grounds better than the instructors. You’re asking me to commit high treason against the High Council."
"I’m not asking, Tsubaki," Kaelen replied smoothly.
With a subtle flick of his fingers, Kaelen activated the system interface. A faint, dark purple aura, the distinct essence of the Iwabomt relic, swirled briefly around his fingertips before vanishing back beneath his skin. Tsubaki flinched, taking a step back as if struck.
"That power belongs to your bloodline,"
Kaelen continued, his tone devoid of heat, yet heavy as iron.
"If I leak even a decline of this frequency during the Disciplinary Board’s investigation, the diviners won’t just suspect Rylan. They will question why you transferred your ancestral core to an unranked commoner. Imagine what your father would do to preserve the family name."
Tsubaki closed his eyes, his breathing ragged. The trap was absolute. Kaelen hadn’t just stolen his relic; he had woven a web that guaranteed Tsubaki’s utter destruction if he stepped out of line.
"What is my first directive? " Tsubaki asked,
his voice barely a whisper, the fight leaving his body entirely.
"Rylan didn’t act alone," Kaelen said, leaning back and closing his eyes.
"Find out which noble faction funded his spatial movement talismans. I want names by tomorrow evening."
Before Tsubaki could reply, two heavy thuds echoed against the oak door.
"Lord Iwanome!" a guard’s voice called out from the corridor.
"Head instructor Vance requires your presence in the war room for the formal debriefing."
Tsubaki swallowed hard, adjusting his silver collar and putting his arrogant mask back on, though his hands still trembled faintly. He cast one final, grim look at the bed.
"Understood, "Tsubaki called back, before turning to Kaelen.
"Consider it done, partner..."
As the door opened and closed, leaving Kaelen alone in the dim candlelight, the faint blue glow of the system flickered in his vision once more.
[QUEST GENERATED: The noble puppet.]
[Objective: Establish complete control over House Iwanome’s heir.]
[Statut: in Progress (Phase 1 Complete). ]
Kaelen pulled the thin blanket over his chest, a cold, silent laugh echoing in the dark. The game had officially begun.