Lucian didn’t answer right away. He simply watched her deeply flushed face for a moment before slowly pushing himself up from the dirt. He stepped forward, seamlessly closing the distance between them.

He reached out, his thumb gently brushing against her warm cheek.

You know, Sera... I want you too, and Elira. But if either of you wasn’t happy with all this... then I wouldn’t have been able to choose just one."

He looked straight into her eyes while keeping his voice low.

That is why I have just been waiting for this moment.

Standing there in her lightweight pajamas, Sera was nervously rubbing the toe in her slippers. Her gaze had been cast downward, though the second those words registered, her head slowly lifted.

Lucian was staring back at her with those same intoxicating eyes, heavy-lidded and unreadable.

Before she could process it, his other hand slid to the small of her back, firmly pulling her flush against his chest. Without another word, he leaned down and captured her lips with his own.

Sera’s eyes fluttered shut instantly. After a brief second of hesitation, her tightly clenched fists relaxed, and her hands crept up to grip the fabric of his shirt. The deep, intense kiss lasted for a long moment amidst the smoke and ruins of the battlefield, until they finally, slowly pulled apart.

"Hmm... you taste like strawberries."

A shy, completely flustered smile broke across Sera’s face.

"Shut up, idiot..."

Lucian chuckled lightly. Just then, both of them caught something out of the corner of their eyes.

Elira was leaning in close — Her face was only inches away from theirs and her doll-like eyes wide and unblinking, as if she had been enjoying a front-row seat to their entangled kiss

Well, what a weirdo she is...

Suddenly, another voice echoed from the treeline.

"My, my... what do we have here?"

All three of them snapped their heads in that direction.

A figure stepped out of the shadows. It was a girl with short blue hair, a sharp, teasing smirk playing on her lips.

"You guys picked quite the romantic setting," she said with an amused expression. "A blood-soaked battlefield, charred corpses everywhere... topped off with a three-way love confession. How poetic."

Lucian narrowed his eyes, examining her uniform carefully. The design definitely belonged to an academy, but it was different from theirs. A distinct Phoenix emblem was stitched onto her breast pocket.

I recognize that... Silvercrest Academy. The second most prestigious academy of the second Empire. But they’re located all the way in the North... and we’re standing way out here in the South.

Lucian kept his tone completely neutral, not dropping his guard.

"You’re a long way from Silvercrest. What brings you here in the Outer Ring of the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night?"

The girl tilted her head, clearly entertained by Lucian’s cautious tone.

"Oh? You recognized the uniform. Impressive." She placed a hand casually on her hip.

"Well, to answer your question... let’s just say we’re here for roughly the same reason you guys are."

Before Lucian could press further, another voice called out from behind the treeline. A short, brown-haired boy stumbled out of the brush, tightly clutching a mage’s staff in his trembling hands.

"Lyria, I told you to wait... this place is so creepy — ahhh!"

The moment the boy looked ahead and actually registered the gruesome mountain of slaughtered goblins, he slapped both hands over his mouth in absolute terror. A high-pitched, almost girly shriek escaped his lips.

"I told you! I told you this was a bad idea! Look at all this blood and chunks of meat everywhere... let’s just leave right now!"

"Come on, Kaelen, don’t be a coward now," Lyria sighed, rolling her eyes.

Seeing this bizarre dynamic, Sera picked up her bat from the ground and took a step forward.

"Who are you people? And why the hell were you spying on us?"

Startled by Sera’s fierce bark, the boy practically jumped out of his skin. He immediately ducked behind Lyria, trembling as he threw both his hands up in a desperate gesture of surrender.

"Eeep — no, no! W-we are just passing by, pajama girl! We did not come here to fight anyone, please don’t hurt us..."

"Huh... just ’passing by’ the deep zone of the Outer Ring in the middle of the night?" Elira mocked coldly. "That’s a bit hard to swallow."

"I swear, we really—"

Before the cowardly boy could finish pleading his case, Lucian suddenly shifted his gaze upward, locking his eyes onto a high, shadowy tree branch.

"You can come down now, you know, You’ve been giving me creepy vibes sitting up there this whole time."

There was a rustle of leaves. With a silent, athletic leap, a third figure dropped from the canopy, landing squarely on the dirt in front of them.

Nonetheless this new arrival was not wearing the Silvercrest Academy uniform like the other two. Instead, she was wearing the familiar golden threading skirt of Astraveil Academy, paired casually with a massive, oversized hoodie.

Lucian let out a short, dry laugh.

"Well, I had a feeling our class was a bit too packed with prodigies... right, Zeri Liora?"

Zeri sluggishly walked over, taking her place next to Lyria and Kaelen. She let out a long, heavy yawn.

"Mmm... spotted me so quickly... annoying..." she muttered in a sleepy, unenthusiastic voice.

"Oops, we’re busted," Lyria quipped.

Sera’s remaining patience finally snapped.

"Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on here?!" she yelled, pointing at her bat. "And Zeri, you’re in our class! If you are an Astraveil student, why are you standing over there with them?!"

"Mm... who cares..." Zeri mumbled, her eyes half-closed.

"They are my friends... and I just want to sleep."

Despite her drowsy state, Lucian noticed something else entirely. Her movements might have looked lazy and sluggish, yet they were eerily precise. Every single step she took was perfectly measured. There were zero wasted movements.

"Alright, fine. I won’t beat around the bush," Lyria continued, crossing her arms.

"We are not your enemies. Like I said, we are out here for the exact same reason... as Elira Frostviel transferred to your academy in the first place... and it’s the very same reason our cute little friend here enrolled as well.

She reached over and affectionately rubbed Zeri’s cat ears.

"You get it, right, Lucian Valemont? Talent scouting."

Lucian and Elira didn’t show a single ounce of reaction to this revelation. Although Sera was completely lost, she immediately interjected.

"Wait, what? Astraveil? And what kind of talent—"

before Sera could finish her sentence... every single person in the clearing went entirely stiff. Their senses spiked violently as they all realized a heavy suffocating presence had just entered the ring.