"Ruvian... who are you?"
Calyra asked, her voice shaky as she held her head, trying to stop the strong pain in her mind.
The moment Ruvian saw her like that, he knew it wasn’t just confusion, a simple headache or exhaustion.
No... Calyra had clearly touched a memory that had been forcefully removed from her mind by the curse.
Something buried deep inside her that should never have come back, was now trying to rise again.
Her fingers pressed harder against her temples, as if even thinking was hurting her.
But that wasn’t what bothered him the most.
No... there was something even worse.
A much more troubling thought slowly started to form in Ruvian’s mind.
What does this have to do with him?
Ruvian frowned slightly, his eyes narrowing as he stared at her, trying to connect the pieces together.
No... that’s not the right question.
What does this have to do with the original Ruvian Castelor?
’Did the old Ruvian... meet Calyra before?’
The question slipped out of his mind slowly, heavy and uneasy.
If they had met before... then what exactly happened between them? Why would her memories of it be erased?
Just thinking about it shocked him.
But no matter how hard he searched through Ruvian’s memories, looking again and again, he found nothing.
There was absolutely nothing at all that showed they had ever met.
’Then what is this...?’
’Is there... something about Ruvian Castelor that I didn’t know?’
Only now did the thought start to form, slowly and in a dark way.
Could it be... that Ruvian was never just a nobody?
That he was never meant to stay unimportant?
That he was actually someone meant to play a much bigger role in this story?
After all, he also had a strong and reliable blessing.
It could be possible!
Because Yuzuki never finished proofreading the novel, this kind of possibility... even if it sounded strange, it could not be fully rejected.
But then, Ruvian forced himself to stop thinking like that.
There was no point in overthinking something he could not prove, no matter how uneasy it made him feel.
When he finally calmed down, Calyra seemed to have recovered, at least on the outside.
But what happened next only made things worse.
Because it seemed...
She had already forgotten what she just asked him.
"Huh... did I fall? Why am I on the floor?"
She said, her voice full of real confusion as she looked around, as if everything that happened before had been completely erased.
For a short moment, Ruvian felt pity towards her.
An uncomfortable kind of pity that he didn’t like feeling.
She was still very young... but the curse had already made her seem like she had dementia.
Ruvian stayed silent for a second, looking at her.
Then he slowly reached out his hand toward her.
"Yeah," he said softly.
"You slipped."
Every single time she brushed against a memory that had been forcibly erased by the curse, an immediate and violent disorientation would seize her senses, overwhelming her head with a merciless pain.
It had even been explicitly stated in the novel that there was a point where she had come perilously, terrifyingly close to losing her sanity entirely under the relentless torment of this very curse.
Reading that scene made Ruvian feel terribly sorry for her.
Because of that, Ruvian, who cared about her and wanted what was good for her, chose not to say anything about those missing memories.
It was the kind of suffering that Ruvian refused to let Calyra experience again and again.
"I see... huh, that’s... strange," Calyra murmured as Ruvian carefully lifted her up.
Yet, before she could allow herself to sink any deeper into contemplation over it...
Ruvian deliberately, almost decisively, shifted the topic, cutting off the very path her thoughts were beginning to take, unwilling to let her dwell any further.
"I already picked all the books I need. Let’s go to the private study room that you have reserved."
Ruvian walked first, and Calyra just watched his back from behind. For a while, she simply just stared at his balance frame.
’Hmm, his mana... feels warm all of a sudden.’
And then, without another word, she followed after him.
*****
They sat under the pavilion in the same garden where Ruvian had first met Calyra before.
Back then, Silvena was there as well... but now, there were only the two of them.
After a brief moment of quiet, Calyra finally spoke.
"So... the reason you made me fight a Malice-class Voidspawn was because you wanted to see how strong I am right now, to prepare for what is coming?"
She asked, slowly repeating what Ruvian had just explained to her, as if she needed to hear it again for it to truly settle in her mind.
Ruvian gave a slow, quiet nod, not rushing to add anything more.
Seeing that, Calyra continued.
"So... what did you learn from it?"
There was a short pause before he answered.
"Not enough."
For just a moment, a faint shock rose inside her and then quickly disappeared, leaving her face completely unchanged.
Ruvian looked at her steadily before speaking again.
"I need you to become stronger."
Hearing that, Calyra fell into deep thought, her mind turning heavy.
Even her current strength was still not enough for the future that Ruvian had seen?
Just how absurdly severe must that approaching future truly be?
After a while, she finally spoke again.
"I see. Then what must I do in order to grow stronger? How many days remain for me?"
"You don’t need to worry too much. Just keep training like you have been doing until now. I will handle everything else."
Ruvian said, presenting her with an almost absolute smile of confidence.
Calyra looked at him for a long, quiet moment... before she finally let out a small, held-back sigh, like she was keeping many thoughts to herself.
Then, her eyes slowly moved to the tall stacks of books Ruvian had picked, and just from seeing that, she started to feel a growing curiosity inside her.
"So the reason you collected all of these books... is because you want to learn more spells and get stronger?"
Ruvian just nodded simply, like it was obvious, as he opened one of the books without saying anything more.
[Foundations of Darkness Spellcraft]
Calyra read the title quietly, her eyebrows lifting a little in surprise before she asked.
"Do you have a darkness affinity spell?"
"No."
Ruvian replied in a calm, almost indifferent tone, already turning the page.
"And you still decided to learn it. But why darkness affinity? Is it because of the island test?" she asked, the curiosity in her voice now becoming far more apparent and difficult to conceal.
There was actually a very clear and solid reason why Ruvian decided to learn some Darkness spells.
And yes, she was right.
One of those reasons was directly tied to the Vazrun Island test.
That island was notorious for its night. But it wasn’t just normal darkness... the night there felt entirely wrong.
The darkness was too heavy, too deep, like it was swallowing everything. It made it very hard to see, and to move around. If you wanted to move through that night, you needed specialized spells just to function.
Since most first-year tests were held on that island, nearly everyone knew how unforgiving its nights were.
And because of that... they did what anyone with sense would do at night. Staying put. And waited for daylight.
Because stepping into that darkness blindly was no different from throwing your life away.
But as for Ruvian, during those same dark hours on that island... he already had his own plan.
"Yes," Ruvian said, and this time there was a small hint of pride in his voice.
"You can say it’s related to that."
Ruvian flipped another page.
"I want to learn the [Night Eyes] spell."
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[Chapter 125: Who Are You? (2)]