The Anomaly's Path

"Leo?"

Isabella’s soft voice broke through my thoughts.

I blinked, snapping my head back toward her. She had stopped walking, staring at me with a deeply worried expression. Before I could say anything, she reached up, her cool, gentle hand resting against my cheek.

"You look so pale suddenly," she murmured, her thumb brushing softly beneath my eye. "Are you in pain? Did you push yourself too hard today?"

I stared into her eyes, feeling the genuine, pure warmth in her touch. For a split second, my throat felt tight, but I forced a small, tired smile onto my face and took a small step back to let her hand drop.

"I’m fine, Mom," I said softly. "Just... a long shift. Standing over a hot stove for hours takes it out of you."

Isabella let out a soft sigh, shaking her head with a gentle, fond look. "You kids... Seriously, you and Sylvia never get tired of making this old woman worry."

"You aren’t old, Mom," I muttered, looking away. "You still look like you’re in your twenties."

"Flatterer," she smiled, though her eyes glinted with amusement. "Speaking of Sylvia, did you see her today? I stopped by the Student Council building earlier. She was buried under mountains of paperwork, looking exhausted."

"Yeah, she’s the Vice President," I said as we continued walking. "She practically runs the entire academy behind the scenes because the President is too lazy to do his job. She’s always angry, but that’s just her normal state."

"She cares about you deeply, Leo," Isabella said quietly. "She might yell and threaten you, but when I spoke to her, the first thing she asked was whether you were eating properly."

"She threatens to kill me twice a week," I grunted, though a faint smirk touched my lips.

"That’s just how she shows affection," Isabella chuckled. "Oh! That reminds me. Sylvia said she’s taking you shopping tomorrow. So I decided I’ll go with you too. Tomorrow afternoon. No excuses. You need proper clothes that aren’t academy uniforms."

I groaned slightly. "Mom, I have patrol duty in the morning and stall shifts in the afternoon—"

"I don’t care..." she interrupted smoothly, her voice carrying that quiet authority that not even my father ever argued with. "...And you should bring those wonderful friends of yours along too. Roan and Alice. It’s the festival, Leo. You’re young. You should be out enjoying yourself, not just working behind a kitchen counter."

"If I bring Roan and Alice shopping, someone is going to end up in jail," I said flatly.

"Nonsense," she smiled. Then, her smile shifted slightly, becoming a little more playful, a little more sharp. "Besides... Sylvia mentioned something very interesting to me earlier today."

A sudden wave of danger washed over my intuition. My instincts screamed at me to run.

"What did she say?" I asked guardedly.

"She mentioned that you’re planning to go out for dinner tomorrow with a young lady named Seris Lunaria," Isabella said, her emerald eyes sparkling as she turned to look at me. "Rank 1 of the second years? Sylvia’s friend?"

I almost stumbled over my own boots.

"What?!" I blurted out, my face suddenly flushing hot. "How does Sylvia even—look, it’s not a date! I just owe her a favor, so we’re getting food! That’s literally all it is!"

"Is that so?" Isabella teased gently, clicking her tongue with a playful grin. "A dinner with one of the most powerful and beautiful girls in the academy... and my son claims it’s just ’a favor’. Are you sure you don’t have feelings for her?"

"No! Mom, stop!" I groaned, pulling my collar up to hide my face while Mia stirred slightly on my shoulder. "Seris is... strange. She’s socially awkward, terrifyingly strong, and extremely weird. We’re just... acquaintances who happen to cross paths a lot."

Isabella’s playful expression softened slightly, a gentle, somewhat bittersweet look entering her eyes as she looked at me.

"...I’m glad," she murmured quietly.

I blinked, looking back at her. "Glad about what?"

"Glad that you’re moving forward," she said softly, her voice filled with a quiet tenderness. "For a long time... after what happened with Amelia... I was worried you would lock your heart away forever."

The name hit the air like a cold draft.

Ah... right. Amelia.

I understood why Mom was worried.

Back then, she was the one who had pushed hardest for the engagement between House Celestial and House Nightshade. When things went wrong and the engagement broke, Mom had carried a quiet guilt, blaming herself for putting so much pressure on us.

Seeing me now, moving forward, making friends, and putting the past behind me, she must have finally felt a weight lift off her chest.

"Amelia was a sweet girl," Isabella said softly, a hint of regret in her tone. "Your father and I pushed that engagement because we thought it would give you stability. We didn’t realize how much pressure it put on you... or how much pain it would cause when it ended."

I let out a quiet, slow breath, looking up at the night sky.

"...It doesn’t matter anymore, Mom," I said cleanly, my voice steady and calm. "I don’t care about Amelia. She chose someone else, and honestly? Good for her. I’m not the same person I was back then. I don’t look back."

Isabella stopped walking and looked at me with pride and quiet relief. She smiled — a real, warm smile that made her eyes shone under the lantern light.

"Yes," she whispered softly. "You really aren’t that person anymore, are you?"

_

We finally reached the grand, marble-pillared entrance of the Royal Guest Quarters. The guards at the gate bowed deeply as Isabella approached. I carefully handed sleeping Mia to the head maid who had come down to meet us.

Mia mumbled something in her sleep, reaching for my shirt before settling into the maid’s arms.

"I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon then, Leo," Isabella said, reaching up and ruffling my hair. "Don’t be late for our shopping trip. And bring your friends."

"Yeah, yeah. Goodnight, Mom," I said softly.

I turned on my heel, slipping my hands into my pockets as I began the slow walk back toward the academy dorms alone. The festival streets were slowly thinning out as midnight approached. The cool night wind blew past, carrying the sweet scent of blooming flowers.

I looked up at the pale moon hanging in the dark sky, letting my thoughts drift back to everything that had just happened. I let out a long breath, a faint smile touching my lips in the dark. I didn’t know what the future held.

I didn’t know if the truth would catch up to me one day, or if I would eventually have to face the consequences of living this borrowed life.

But for tonight... I was just Leo.

And I was going to keep fighting for this second chance, no matter what came next.

_

The next morning came far too quickly.

I woke up at dawn, my body heavy and sore from standing over the grills for six hours the night before. But I couldn’t sleep in. The festival wasn’t just fun for students — it was a security problem for the academy, and patrol duty didn’t wait.

I threw on my uniform and met up with Roan and Alice.

The two of them looked like walking corpses. Roan had dark circles under his eyes, his usual playful energy completely gone, while Alice dragged her boots along the path like she was heading to her death.

"If I have to stand on my feet for another three hours, I’m going to chop them off," Alice grumbled, rubbing her eyes as we walked our designated patrol route through the busy festival streets.

"You’re complaining?" Roan groaned, leaning against a street lamp as we stopped near the main plaza. "Leo, my back feels like it got run over by a herd of boars. And now we have patrol? Ugh... why do we have to do this?"

"Because it pays extra credits, and neither of you knew how to say no," I said flatly, keeping my eyes on the passing crowd. "Besides, you two should save your energy. We have stall shifts right after this."

Roan winced, clutching his chest like I had just stabbed him. "Please, Young Lord, have mercy. Don’t remind me."

I scoffed looking at him.

Truthfully, as much as I hated the endless work, it kept my mind busy. It kept me from overthinking the heavy thoughts that had kept me awake half the night — the dread of being exposed, and the guilt of wearing another man’s skin.

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts, and glanced over at the two idiots standing beside me.

"By the way," I said casually. "Mom is taking me shopping this afternoon."

Roan perked up, blinking. "Oh? Lady Isabella is staying in academy city? That’s nice."

"She told me to bring you two along."

The silence that followed was instant. Roan’s jaw dropped, while Alice froze mid-stretch, her eyes widening in sheer panic.

"What?!" Alice hissed, grabbing my shoulder. "Are you insane, Leo?! Why would you invite us?!"

"I didn’t invite you," I grunted, shoving her hand off. "She told me to bring you. And if you think I’m going to face my mother and Sylvia while they drag me through five different clothing shops alone, you’re wrong. You two are coming with me to suffer."

"Leo, bro, listen to me," Roan said, his voice dropping into a desperate whisper as he grabbed my other arm.

"Your mother is a lovely, wonderful woman. Truly, an angel. But being around her makes my heart beat faster than a duel against a monster. Every time she smiles at me, I feel like I’m one sentence away from being executed for disrespect. I can’t go!"

"You’re going," I said, a cold smirk touching my lips. "And if you try to run, I’ll tell her you refused her personal invitation because you thought you were too important for it."

Roan gasped, looking genuinely horrified. "You wouldn’t."

I said nothing, but the small, quiet smile playing on my lips gave him all the answer he needed.

"You monster," Roan whimpered, slumping his shoulders in total defeat. "You’re actually going to drag us to the slaughter."

"Consider it teamwork," I replied evenly.

While the two of them argued back and forth, I let my attention drift to the crowd, scanning the festival grounds to pass the time.

Before I left the dorms this morning, I had checked in with Lyra. She was still taking care of Julian, keeping a close eye on the kid just like I asked. Julian was quiet, but he was observant — reminding me a little too much of Riven. Cold, distant, and holding onto a quiet edge.

Thinking of Riven naturally brought my mind to what the other classes were up to during the festival.

Yesterday, while Class Ascendant was drowning in food orders, the rest of the first-year classes had been running their own stalls.

Riven’s Class Fortis had set up a combat arena where visitors could pay to fight students. Riven, being the cold, battle-obsessed guy he was, took every match way too seriously and crushed overconfident tourists and older students alike.

Roan and Alice had wanted to jump in yesterday, but they were too busy running trays. Probably for the best — a fight between them and Riven would have turned the festival into a war zone.

Then there was Princess Cordelia’s Class Audax.

They had built a big, fancy horror house, expecting people to run out screaming. But instead of being scary, the monsters and floating spirits they made looked cute.

The actors were so bad at acting that visitors started taking pictures with them. By the end of the day, people were calling it the "Cute House" instead of a haunted maze. Cordelia was reportedly furious, yelling at her classmates because no one was scared.

The image of Cordelia’s proud, stubborn personality failing so miserably at being scary brought a faint, quiet smirk to my lips.

...And finally, there was Class Veritas.

Arthur’s class.

When we were deciding on our stall idea a few days ago, half the boys in Class Ascendant had yelled at me because I shot down their idea to run a Maid Cafe. They had glared at me like I had ruined their life’s dream.

So when news spread that Arthur’s class had actually built a Maid Cafe, those same boys had sprinted over to check it out, thinking they were about to be served by cute girls like Amelia or Nyra.

Roan had been one of those idiots who ran over.

"How was Arthur’s cafe, by the way?" I asked, looking sideways at Roan with a mocking grin. "I heard you went."

Roan’s face instantly went pale, a look of profound, deep trauma crossing his eyes. He shuddered violently.

"Don’t," Roan whispered, staring blankly into the distance. "Don’t speak of that cursed place."

I chuckled.

Twist of fate.

Arthur’s Class Veritas did run a Maid Cafe — except the girls in the class flatly refused to wear the maid outfits. Instead, they forced the boys of Class Veritas to wear the ruffled aprons and maid dresses to pull in the crowds.

So instead of being served by polite girls, visitors were greeted at the door by Arthur Vale — the legendary Chosen Hero, wearing a white lace apron, forced to serve tea with a dead, soul-crushing smile on his face while Amelia and Nyra handled the money and laughed at him.

The fact that Arthur was forced into that embarrassing disaster almost made me feel bad for the guy. Almost.

"Anyway," I said, pushing off the pillar as our patrol shift finally came to an end. "That’s enough idling. Patrol is done. We have two hours at the stall, and then..." I paused, giving Roan and Alice a ruthless smile. "...we go shopping with my mother."

Alice groaned and buried her face in her hands, while Roan looked like he was thinking about jumping into the river.

"I hate my life," Roan whispered as we turned to walk toward the kitchen area.

"Save the tears," I grunted, leading the way. "You’re going to need them later."