Return of the Legendary Runesmith-Chapter 96 - 95- Upset

Elana was irritated—but no, it was more than that. Annoyance alone couldn’t explain what she was feeling.

Just a few days ago, her father had come to inform her that the King of the Grimvale family had sent an invitation for her.

Of course, she knew what that meant. Nobles didn’t invite each other’s children without a reason, especially not when they were the same age.

It wasn’t about friendship. It was about something deeper. Something she didn’t want.

Sylvie was the same age as the prince, too, yet during the contest, Carter had made it painfully clear who he was truly interested in—Elana.

So to her, the reason behind this sudden invitation was obvious.

And she wanted nothing to do with it.

Even turning them down in person felt like giving them hope—hope that she might be interested. And she wasn’t. Not even a little.

But her father couldn’t simply ignore the invitation either. Now that he held the title of Duke, keeping ties with other nobles, especially ones as powerful as Grimvale, was part of the burden he had to carry.

Things were at a deadlock until Elana came up with a way out.

"Tell them I’m still injured and can’t travel far."

Given the recent ambush on the academy, no one would question it. After all, the news of the Runbound Academy getting ambushed is already all over the world.

The Acolytes actively targeting an institute was nothing to happen regularly.

Her father agreed. And for a moment, Elana believed the storm had passed.

But she was wrong.

So terribly, utterly wrong.

Today, she received a letter from her father. Just one line changed everything:

[They seem concerned about you and are visiting the Duchy next week. You must come back.]

Elana stared at the words for a long time, unable to believe what she was reading. Her hands trembled slightly as the weight of those words sank in.

"...Why are they so damn persistent?" she muttered.

She couldn’t understand it—the Prince’s obsession, his strange attachment to her. What had she ever done to earn that kind of attention? She never wanted it. Never asked for it.

There was only one person in this world she wanted to impress. Just one.

So why... why did someone else have to get caught up in her story?

Why did someone she didn’t care about have to care so much?

She groaned and buried her face in her hands.

’Guh, why does everything have to be so difficult?’

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Adrian... had failed.

Even after three tries, he couldn’t form an armament. The memories he saw while trapped inside the doll’s mind were too much—too heavy, too twisted. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find that one emotion that mattered most. The one that shaped the target’s heart.

All he found was horror. Raw, blinding horror.

He didn’t even have a chance to connect. Everything had changed so fast, so violently, that it left him breathless.

But Adrian wasn’t stupid. He understood what the System was doing.

At first, when he was just testing things out, the doll had shown him unsettling but bearable memories. Dark, yes—but not soul-crushing. It was only after the System gave him challenge of skill that everything shifted. From then on, the memories became something else. Terrifying. Inhuman.

Adrian had grown up in a pretty normal home. The worst thing around him was the shadow of his dad’s old debt from the underworld—but that was just a story in the background. He had never faced anything like this before.

No wonder it shook him to his core.

On his way to class, he let out a quiet breath and muttered under it, "Haah... you must be happy now."

Of course, the System didn’t reply.

Three days remained. And in the two days since that nightmare, Adrian hadn’t done much. He couldn’t. Just the thought of going back into the doll’s head made him shiver.

Still... he hadn’t let go of the dimensional chat.

He wasn’t ready to give up.

The next arc was drawing closer. After this brief encounter with Elana, things would escalate—and when they did, Adrian would need magic bullets. A lot of them. frёeωebɳovel.com

And the only one who could create those bullets was Forgelet.

That meant he had to master the third thread within the next three days. No excuses. No delays.

He had to.

"Sit down," he said as he stepped into the classroom, his voice calm but unusually firm.

The students fell silent.

Elana blinked in surprise, just like the others. Professor Adrian rarely carried such a serious tone—especially not this early in the morning.

He placed the book on the desk and scanned the room. Without a word, he reached for the attendance register.

The class representative, seated near the front, suddenly felt a cold wave of tension creep up his back. There was something different about the professor today—something sharp beneath his calm face.

He watched anxiously as Adrian compared names in the register with the students sitting in front of him.

No one had been marked present without being there. The rep had made sure of that.

Or so he thought.

"David," Adrian said, without looking up.

The class rep jumped to his feet. "Y-Yes, Professor?"

"You’ve been sharing the same classroom with her for over for months. She sits right in front of you," Adrian paused, lifting his eyes, "and you still don’t know how to spell Issabelle?"

David froze.

He had... spelled it wrong?

A ripple of tension spread across the classroom.

However, he was the only one who reacted so visibly. Others believed this was no reason he would have called out a student. Not with that serious frown on his face.

For the rest of the class, Adrian kept asking questions and, upon not receiving answers, he frowned and said a few words, which made students discouraged and lower their heads.

Meanwhile, there was a certain silver head standing outside the classroom.

She happened to be passing by and heard Adrian’s cold voice, making her pause.

Even those who aren’t close to Adrian could tell that he was angry at something. Frustrated.

And from Ariana’s perspective the reason behind his current mood was her.

She...has been distant from him, nearly avoiding him.

’He is...upset...naturally.’

And inside the classroom, Elana was thinking,

’Did the Professor get the news of the Grimvale family coming to meet me?’ Her heart grew heavy. Did they create a misunderstanding between her and her professor by announcing their sudden decision to meet her?

Two different minds and two different opinions.

However, neither of them could have guessed that the reason behind Adrian’s frustration was something entirely different.

’Fuck you system,’

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A/N:- Poor girls. Anyway, thank you for reading the Chapter. Drop a comment