As soon as Ryuke opened the door, he was greeted with a dimly lit room, its floor scattered with half-opened files and crumpled papers, some pages marked with markers.
At the center of the chaos stood a man. His purple eyes glancing each and every file one after another, shaking his head left and right. This simple process made his shoulder length long white hair flow drastically with rhythm.
"Captain."
Ryuke called.
To the familiar voice, Ezra’s eye glanced up to him.
"Ryuke, you came so early today." He asked with his deep elderly voice.
(Ezra first appeared in the Chapter: Fake it till you make it [2], he was the one who brought up the letter part to Raizen Nightson at Eclipse.)
"Yes captain, I heard you were searching for me."
"Hmm, yes indeed," Ezra replied. "I want to know how far your investigation has reached. It’s already been three days."
Without beating around the bush, Ryuke reported everything to him.
"..."
"Hmm," Ezra rubbed his chin, before asking, "did you try asking in the slums?"
"Uh... the Ghosts tried, but they got the same answer."
Everyone in the capital had seen the Twilight Order during the Shinra Incident. No matter who they asked, or where they searched, the clues always pointed toward them.
It’s as if...
"They’re deliberately trying to shift attention onto themselves."
The Twilight Order was practically screaming that they were the ones behind the mess.
Ezra walked to his desk and took his seat. Resting his chin on one arm, he thought back to Raizen’s words.
’He said that during the incident, Ethan was away from Eclipse.’
Only Ethan was capable of killing the Primordial.
When Ezra first heard that, he thought the Twilight Order had lured Ethan into the scene and made him kill the demon.
But the real question was—
How did the Order know that Ethan possessed Light Mana?
No matter how hard Ezra tried to think, he always ended up at a deadlock.
It was supposed to be a national secret. Then how did it get leaked?
"We’re missing something," he muttered.
To solve this mystery, they were missing something really big. Something every criminal possessed...
"A goal."
He muttered again, looking up at Ryuke.
Ryuke, quick on the uptake, understood what he meant and nodded.
"Yes, Captain. If we know their true goal, then a lot of things would make more sense."
But then again, what else could that person have wanted aside from killing the demon?
If it was fame, then they could have easily claimed it was their effort that made the kill possible.
"All of it... just doesn’t make any sense."
The more they thought about it, the messier the whole situation became.
"Haaah..." Ezra let out a long sigh of defeat before declaring,
"Let’s start from square one."
— — —
Present.
Eclipse Institute.
After the lunch break was over, every student including Leon and Ethan made their way to the designated location, where the Class Allotment Examination was scheduled.
"Wow, there are so many students here," one of them commented.
Leon looked around.
All two thousand first-year students were told to gather at the [Library of Astral-Tale].
From the name alone, it was clear this wasn’t an ordinary library.
In fact, it was crafted by none other than the Silvermoon Goddess herself, and rumors claimed it held every tale written since the Great Calamity War. It stood as one of the largest libraries to ever exist in this world.
With a capacity to hold more than five thousand people at once, it was spacious enough for the examination to be conducted under a single roof for better evaluation.
"Why a library?"
Ethan muttered curiously. He wasn’t the only one with that thought; nearly everyone shared the same question.
Their doubts were valid.
Leon glanced at him and smirked slightly.
’Just a few more minutes, and his jaw will hit the floor.’
Leon was, as always, thrilled to witness one of his game’s creations come to life in reality. But today, his excitement felt heavier than usual.
After walking for five more minutes, they finally arrived at their destination.
Every footsteps halted.
And just as Leon had predicted, their jaws nearly dropped the moment they laid eyes on the monument before them.
"N-No way..."
"So pretty."
"Wow."
Comments spilled out, but the closer they drew to the entrance, the quieter everyone became. Their breath caught in awe.
From the outside, its architecture resembled ’La Sagrada Família’ of Barcelona, a basilica located in Barcelona back on earth.
Sky-piercing spires clawed at the heavens, while walls of brown and black stone were etched with impossibly delicate carvings. And at the forefront stood the gates, a vast, awe-inspiring architect, as though they walked into the realm of gods.
Even Leon, who had seen it hundreds of times before, found himself stunned. He swallowed hard, recalling the interior in his mind.
’If the outside alone takes my breath away, then how will I even stay conscious inside?’
"Please don’t push each other,"
The professor warned before signaling to the guards by the entrance.
Grmmmm—
With a loud, ear-piercing screech, the door slid open across the surface, unveiling a scene even more heavenly inside.
The first thing Leon noticed were towering bookshelves, stretching several hundred feet into the air. Then his gaze lifted higher toward the ceiling.
It wasn’t a normal ceiling. It was a vast canvas replicating the Milky Way with uncanny perfection. Tiny stars shimmered above, and their glow served as the only source of light, yet they illuminated the interior as brilliantly as a real sun.
And it didn’t stop there. The moment everyone tilted their heads upward, a flock of birds appeared, their wings flapping rapidly as they soared across the starry expanse.
"Is that... a bird?" someone muttered in disbelief.
Leon only smiled.
"Wait—" the student froze mid-sentence.
"They are not birds... they are books!"
Indeed they were. Fully opened, the books flapped its covers like wings, gliding through sky.
"It’s like a miniature world," Ethan whispered in awe.
It’s as if the [Library of Astral-Tale] had its own ecosystem.
"We’re here."