Chapter 18: Helion Core [3]
Leon hit the doorway at full speed and didn’t slow down. Boots crunching over shattered stone. The corridor stretching ahead. His spell still crackling around his fists because he hadn’t bothered to dismiss it.
"Alden!"
His voice bounced off the walls and came back.
Then he saw him. Sitting against the wall beside the lecture hall entrance.
Alden turned his head slowly at the sound of his name.
Leon crossed the distance and grabbed his collar, slamming him back against the wall hard enough to feel it.
"Where’s my sister?!" His voice came out rougher than he intended. "Answer me. Where is Emilia?"
Alden looked at the hand on his collar. Then at Leon’s face.
Then he pried Leon’s fingers off one by one.
"Go inside and see for yourself."
Leon held his glare for one more second before shoving through the lecture hall doors.
"Emili—"
The word died halfway out of his mouth. He stood in the doorway and took in the room.
The spacious lecture hall had become something else entirely. Desks pushed together into rows, transformed into makeshift beds. Injured students lying across them, shoulder wounds with fresh bandages, legs splinted with wooden boards taken from somewhere, blood-soaked wrappings.
Healer students moving between the rows, casting what they could, treating what they couldn’t heal completely.
Some students were still in pain. But nobody was dying.
"...Brother?"
He turned toward the voice.
Emilia sat against the far wall with bandages wrapped around both forearms, looking at him.
Leon crossed the room in about four strides and dropped to one knee in front of her.
His eyes went straight to the bandages. "Are you hurt badly? Does it still hurt? Can you stand? Should I carry you somewhere—"
"Brother." She puffed her cheeks and smacked his arm. "Calm down. I’m fine."
"...Oh." He let out a breath that had been sitting in his chest for the last several minutes, and felt the tension go with it like a rope that had finally been cut.
’She’s okay.’ He stayed kneeling for a moment just to confirm it.
He looked around the room again.
"Why is everyone here?" He kept his voice low. "The Headmaster ordered injured students to the ramparts. Why didn’t anyone follow the route?"
A healer student nearby set down the cloth he’d been using and stood.
"We intended to," he said. He wiped his forehead before continuing. "But most of the injured couldn’t walk properly. Broken bones, blood loss, some of them were barely staying conscious. Carrying everyone all the way to the ramparts would have taken too long."
His eyes moved toward the entrance.
Toward Alden.
"And before we could even decide what to do, a mana beast cut off our path. Nobody here was in any condition to fight it." He paused. "We thought that was going to be the end of it."
He didn’t look away from the doorway.
"Then Alden arrived. He held them back by himself and cleared us a path. He didn’t make us keep going toward the ramparts, he looked at the situation and made the call immediately. Brought us here instead." A quiet breath. "Told the healers to stay inside and treat everyone. Said he’d handle whatever came from outside."
He glanced across the rows of injured students.
"If he hadn’t made that decision when he did..." He shook his head once. "A lot of the people in this room wouldn’t have made it to treatment."
Leon’s eyes drifted back to the entrance.
Alden was still where he’d been. Sitting against the wall and watching the corridor with the same steady attention he’d had when Leon arrived.
Not once had he looked back to check whether anyone inside was watching.
’He’s been sitting there this whole time.’ Leon frowned. ’Guarding them.’
The thought arrived before he could stop it.
’Was he guarding them?’
He turned it over. Tried to make it fit the shape of the person everyone had described to him. Every whispered piece of which he absorbed over the past week.
’Then why would someone like that—’
"Um. Senior Alden?"
A first-year boy had walked up to the entrance. One arm still bandaged. Trying to look steadier than he was.
Alden turned. "Yeah?"
The boy’s expression lit up immediately. "Is there anything I can help—"
"Heal properly first."
The boy blinked. "...Huh?"
Alden pointed back into the hall. "You’re injured. Stop trying to play hero and finish your treatment."
"But I wanted to—"
"Then help the healers after you’re fully recovered." He nudged him gently back through the doorway. "Now stop wasting time and get inside."
The boy scratched the back of his head. Then smiled awkwardly. "...Right."
He disappeared back into the hall.
Two first-year girls came next, stepping close together like they’d been gathering courage for a moment.
"Senior..."
Alden glanced at them.
One of them held the bandage at her shoulder without quite looking at him. "...Thank you."
"If you hadn’t come when you did—" She stopped. Tried again. "I don’t think we’d still be here."
The other one nodded twice, quickly.
"We won’t forget it."
Alden raised a hand without turning fully toward them.
"If you’re thankful, recover fast."
They exchanged a look. Then both of them smiled and went back inside.
Leon had been watching the whole thing.
’The Alden standing in front of me right now—’ He walked over before he’d fully decided to.
"Shouldn’t you be somewhere else instead of standing here?"
Leon stopped. Looked at the back of Alden’s head. "...I came to check on Emilia."
"After hearing I was the one who brought everyone here?"
The question was so direct that Leon didn’t have a good answer.
"...Yeah." He looked at the floor.
A moment of silence.
Then Alden gave a small shrug and reached up to fix his own collar from where Leon had grabbed it.
"Don’t worry about it." Alden adjusted his collar. "I’m used to people looking at me like that."
Something settled wrong in Leon’s chest.
"...Sorry."
Alden ignored the apology.
"So. What’s happening outside?"
Leon pulled himself together and explained it quickly.
Alden rested his chin in one hand.
"So that’s how things are."
His brows pulled together slightly.
"But none of that explains why any of this started." He glanced sideways at Leon. "Darius must’ve figured something out which he might even told the Student Council about it."
"...He did."
"And?"
"I’m sorry, I can’t say." Leon shook his head. "It was Headmaster’s direct order not to tell anyone about this."
’Tch.’ Alden clicked his tongue internally.
’That infuriating old man.’
He folded his arms and turned it over for a few seconds.
’Even if it isn’t anything I wrote, I just need a small clue to figure things out. I can’t predict what comes next from memory alone. I need information. And the only way to get it is to be in the room where it’s being shared.’
He looked back at Leon.
"Then take me to Seris and the others."
Leon blinked. "...What about everyone here?"
Alden raised his hand.
Small golden ’Glow’ orbs materialized in the air. He sent it drifting toward the entrance, where it hovered just above the doorway and cast light down the corridor in both directions.
Nearby, two mana beasts that had been prowling the outer hallway registered the fire and pulled back. Turned away without investigating further.
"That keeps the weaker ones from approaching." Alden dusted off his coat. "The healers can handle the rest."
He looked at Leon.
"Shall we get going?"
______
The central grounds were holding together.
"What do we do now, Vice-President?"
"We can’t just wait here while the academy burns!"
"More beasts could appear any second—"
"Silence."
One word from Seris. The crowd went quiet immediately.
Roselle stepped forward into the space the quiet had made.
"I understand everyone is scared." She looked across the gathered students. "So are we. But acting without a plan right now will only cause more casualties."
She clasped her hands behind her back.
"The Headmaster and the others are handling the primary threat. Until we have further instructions, we keep everyone organized and we prevent unnecessary panic."
"And if we keep waiting—"
The voice came from the edge of the gathering.
"I’m afraid there won’t be much of the academy left to organize."
Every head turned. Two figures were walking toward the central grounds from the direction of the lecture halls.
One of them was Leon.
The other one was walking half a step behind him.
"...Alden?"
The crowd stiffened as one.
"Why is he here?"
"Wasn’t Leon supposed to go break his bones?"
"I thought he kidnapped the injured students—"
Leon kept walking without a single glance back or word of explanation.
The whispers faltered. Something about that alone felt wrong.
Alden stopped a few steps from the Student Council and looked at the devastated academy grounds around them.
His voice was calm when it came.
"But if we waste any more time, we’ll lose the chance to stop this before it gets worse."