Ariel kept dwelling on what had happened last time.

Even before that incident, he had already wronged Iria once.

He remembered the time in the sword training hall when she had been injured by the burst of starlight.

Even though Iria had accepted his apology, the guilt remained in his heart, refusing to fade.

Regardless of Iria’s willingness to forgive, Ariel couldn’t help but feel troubled.

Yet, he made another mistake. This time, it wasn’t an accident; it was something he had said directly that hurt her.

He had only wanted to get an explanation, never realizing that he would trigger Iria’s trauma.

How many wounds lay hidden beneath that cold expression of hers? Looking at her now, he could understand a bit.

Her lack of emotions, her refusal to show displeasure—it might have all been because she had grown desensitized and worn down.

'Red eyes don’t make someone a monster.'

Thinking about how she must have endured endless mockery and contempt just for being born that way, Ariel’s heart ached.

Rather than comforting her, he had caused her pain.

Ariel lowered his head, deep in thought.

'Caught up in the whispers of the stars…'

The stars had warned him that Iria wasn’t human.

He hadn’t wanted to believe it, so he sought the truth directly from her.

That’s why he had been so anxious. He was more concerned with denying the stars’ whispers than with Iria herself.

'No, that’s just an excuse.'

No matter his intentions, blaming the stars was still an excuse.

Ariel considered it clearly his fault. He planned to formally apologize soon. She might never forgive him, but he was determined to correct his mistake.

It was at that moment that Amelia appeared.

"Honestly, doesn’t Iria make you uncomfortable? Those red eyes—she’s like a monster."

Ariel fell silent, then slowly turned to face her.

"What did you just say?"

The expression on Ariel’s face as he looked at Amelia was filled with cold anger.

Amelia’s expression shifted, taken aback by his unexpected reaction.

Meanwhile, I ignored the rumors and walked through the Academy halls.

The weak could talk all they wanted—it didn’t matter to me.

Whether they feared me or not, I didn’t care. They had no power to expel me anyway.

Those who dared to approach me were annoying, but they didn’t have the guts to do much.

‘What could they even do?’ I often thought.

They couldn’t challenge me to a duel, not with their skill levels.

Still, Ariel’s matter lingered on my mind.

I remembered the conversation we had on the mountain ridge, where he had asked me if I was human.

"Hmm."

How did he know I wasn’t human?

Looking back, there had been plenty of clues.

There were times when I’d been injured by starlight during a duel with Ariel, or my physical abilities surpassed human limits without using mana.

And, of course, there were my red eyes.

But I doubted those were his reasons. While I couldn’t read his thoughts, I didn’t think that was it.

After observing humans as long as I have, I know he doesn’t suspect others lightly—especially not those close to him.

Although he had many reasons to doubt, he wouldn’t have asked me that question based solely on those.

There must have been some factor I wasn’t aware of.

'Since awakening his star power, his perception has changed.'

I thought it might be related to that.

The last time we talked, I had reacted a bit strongly.

Not out of true anger, but because I thought it was the only way to hide the truth.

Under the circumstances, it had felt like my only option. There was no way I could have told him the truth.

Although it wasn’t technically a lie, it didn’t bother me much now.

Once, it might have, but now I was too used to it.

It wasn’t really an offensive question anyway. Asking a monster if they’re a monster—what’s wrong with that?

Ariel did what he thought was right, and maybe I was the one in the wrong.

After all, I had deceived him, someone who was completely innocent.

For someone as straightforward as Ariel, that approach had worked well. In fact, he seemed to feel so guilty that I even felt a little sorry.

‘Maybe I should go talk to him.’

I decided to seek Ariel out.

I couldn’t resolve the misunderstanding between us, but I intended to show that I was fine.

The place to look was obvious. He was probably swinging his sword in the training hall.

By the time I finished this thought, I had already reached the training hall.

Since it was lunchtime, there should be no one else here—Ariel would likely be alone.

Without hesitation, I opened the door.

Then—

"Let me ask again. What did you just say?"

"It’s, it’s not that I meant—"

"If that’s not what you meant, then what did you mean?"

What on earth was going on?

It took me a moment to grasp the situation.

After reading Amelia’s memories from start to finish, I understood the gist of her conversation with Ariel.

I couldn’t read Ariel’s mind, so it took a bit longer.

Iria scratched her cheek.

So, it was Amelia who had been spreading the recent rumors, and now she had approached Ariel, trying to drive a wedge between us—only to end up like this.

"Iria... This isn’t what it looks like."

Even though I had read Amelia’s mind and grasped the situation, Ariel began to explain things to me.

Slowly, he took the time to elaborate on every detail. His explanation helped me understand the situation even more clearly.

It was mostly things I already knew, so I nodded along, a bit bored.

"I don’t really mind. Not about Amelia, or you, Ariel."

"Wait, how do you know my name?"

Amelia raised an eyebrow, surprised. Iria flinched slightly.

Oh, right. We hadn’t been introduced yet.

"It’s a top student’s name, isn’t it?"

Since I had already read her mind, I knew her general background, so covering for it was easy.

The conversation returned to its original course.

"So, what reason do you have for saying such things to me?"

"…"

Ariel rarely showed such a sharp side.

Usually so kind and upright, he now emanated a chilling anger.

Amelia couldn’t hide her confusion. Was this really the same Ariel she knew? She had thought he was a man indifferent to the world, focused only on his training.

He was kind to people but always maintained a certain distance. He valued honing his strength more than forming connections.

That’s why Amelia had assumed that he would abandon Iria when this happened.

Regardless of his feelings toward her, she thought Ariel would walk away without hesitation if he saw her as a hindrance to his training.

He disliked getting entangled in troublesome matters, so she assumed he would leave Iria behind completely over this incident.

‘What is this? Why is he reacting so sensitively?’

Normally, he wouldn’t have responded to any rumors. He would have dismissed it as something unrelated to him and focused solely on his training.

Yet here he was, standing up for Iria.

Amelia couldn’t comprehend why he would treat her differently.

"Did I lie? During the incident where everyone was hurt, someone resembling her acted strangely. Isn’t it natural for people who witnessed that horror to feel uneasy? I just told others what I saw. What’s the problem with that?"

With no retreat left, Amelia raised her voice, as if proving her point.

She shouted, trying to appear confident and unafraid, even though she was standing before one of the Academy’s top students.

"Besides, it’s her fault for staying silent while rumors were spreading. Staying quiet means she couldn’t deny it, right?"

She wasn’t entirely wrong.

Listening quietly, I had to admit that much. After all, I was the one they were talking about, and I had kept quiet partly because I wasn’t good at lying.

The biggest reason, though, was that I simply couldn’t be bothered.

The truth was, I didn’t care much. As long as it didn’t harm me directly, the Academy was just a means for me to observe Ariel.

That was another reason I hadn’t bothered to respond.

"Amelia Endelson, you’re a coward."

"What?"

"Iria isn’t someone for you to dump your petty emotions onto. Aren’t you ashamed to target a first-year as a third-year?"

There was someone angrier than the victim.

Ariel’s blue eyes glinted with a cold light.