Chapter 20: No Longer in Hiding

  The third day of the Holy Academy dawned peacefully, with a golden sun rising high above the spires and trees. A cool breeze drifted through the enormous open-roofed training field built into the east wing of the academy—a marvel of magical engineering. Floating instructor ptforms, animated training dummies that could adjust to skill level, and protective barriers made the field a sanctuary for progress. It was a holiday on paper, yet many of the less-acknowledged heroes had gathered here under the guidance of Miss Aiko.

  The previous day had passed without major events. It was left free, allowing the summoned heroes to complete administrative matters—choosing their preferred csses, reviewing mandatory courses, and understanding academy expectations. Unlike the elites who spent their time in guided swordpy or magical seminars, this group—those considered the "lesser" heroes—found soce in their quiet progress.

  Their dormitory reflected a subtle hierarchy. A grand three-story building exclusive to the summoned heroes. The first floor served as communal ground: an elegantly designed meeting hall, warm dining space, and artistic drawing rooms where many bonded over stories of Earth. The second floor was a sanctuary for the girls—strictly off-limits to the boys—and the third floor housed the male heroes.

  Though some tension existed between noble-born students and the summoned heroes, it had not boiled over yet. Polite exchanges occurred in corridors and cssrooms, but the divide remained—nobles wary of outsiders with sudden power, and heroes wary of being tools of another world.

  Now, on this peaceful morning, Miss Aiko stood barefoot on the magically enhanced ptform at the centre of the training field. Her long brown hair was tied into a loose braid, and her eyes—warm, maternal, but ever-watchful—moved between her gathered students.

  "Alright, everyone. Let’s begin with light sparring and then move to elemental control drills," she announced, her voice calm and encouraging.

  Gathered before her were nearly twenty students, each with potential despite their rankings. Among them:

  Renji Okabe, a soft-spoken boy priest with healing skills and quiet resilience. He often acted as moral support.Mika Yano, a short-haired, observant girl with keen scouting skills and a sharp eye for danger. She used a shortbow expertly.Haruto Kuroi, an assassin-type boy with a zy demeanour and twin bdes always at his hips. He never said much.Four elemental healers: Daichi (fire), Yuto (earth), Mayu (wind), and Rina (water). Always practising in pairs, they were pilrs of support.Toma Hoshigaki, a craftsman with S-Rank talent, is often seen sketching enchantment patterns on scraps of paper.Ayame Fujita, a no-nonsense alchemist whose bubbling fsks often startled the others. Her explosive talent had earned her quiet respect.A handful of others—six more to be exact—rounded out the group. B-rank girls Nana, Emi, Kaoru, and Suzu, and C-rank boys Kenta and Shinji, who never let their ranking dull their determination.Miss Aiko watched them all with a smile. They weren’t the strongest, but they worked hard. More importantly, they looked out for one another. She had taken them under her wing like a protective older sister.

  As the morning waned and drills turned into partner exercises, a sudden chill prickled the back of her neck. The wind shifted unnaturally. The sky above the open roof darkened for a split second.

  Birds had been chirping a moment ago. Now, silence. The wind carried something else—wrong, heavy, like a warning.

  Then they struck.

  Bck-robed figures dropped into the field, almost soundlessly. The few guards stationed outside were overwhelmed within seconds, poisoned bdes fshing in the light. No words, only hand signals passed between the intruders as they advanced.

  "Formation! Defensive stance!" Miss Aiko commanded, stepping between her students and the attackers.

  The field exploded into motion.

  Renji raised a shimmering barrier. Mika lost a flurry of arrows. Haruto’s bdes fshed as he danced between shadows. The healers fell into support formation, patching wounds, dousing poison. Fire, water, earth, wind—all fred to life as the students held the enemy back.

  But they were outnumbered.

  Miss Aiko fought like a storm—wind gusts throwing enemies off bance, water spheres knocking daggers from hands, her martial arts as fluid as the river, as strong as a crashing gale. Yet she never struck to kill.

  "They're not speaking. They don’t hesitate. What is their goal...?" she murmured, keeping her focus on defence.

  .

  A sudden impact.

  “Then—

  A scream.”

  Three of the robed attackers had breached the line. Before Miss Aiko could react, one slipped behind her like a shadow, seizing her arm in a tight, brutal grip. A poisoned bde pressed against her throat. The cold bite of the metal sent a jolt of panic through her spine.

  "Don’t move!" one of the students yelled, terror in their voice.

  “The students froze—

  Trapped between fear and the instinct to save the only one who had ever truly believed in them.”

  The masked figure began dragging Miss Aiko backwards, step by step, toward the shattered edge of the training field. His grip was firm, mechanical, devoid of emotion. His mask—a smooth, featureless porcein pte with a bck handprint across it—revealed nothing but menace.

  Two more masked men moved quickly to fnk him, weapons drawn, scanning for threats. Their eerie silence made it worse—no threats, no commands, only swift coordination. This wasn’t a random attack. It was a well-rehearsed extraction.

  The students froze, torn between rushing to save their teacher and fearing they’d get her killed. Mika’s bow trembled in her hands. Renji’s barrier flickered. Even Haruto, ever calm, hesitated.

  Miss Aiko’s heart pounded. She could feel her students’ fear—and her own. Her breath caught as she stumbled slightly, the attacker jerking her arm roughly to keep her moving.

  Her mind screamed at her to fight, to do something. But the bde at her throat, the dead-eyed precision of the attackers... she had never felt so powerless.

  This is the first time I’ve been truly afraid, she realised, her vision swimming. The first time... I’ve been captured.

  Her thoughts spiralled into guilt. I was supposed to protect them. I trained for this. I promised myself I’d never let it come to this... But here she was—helpless, dragging her fear behind her like a shackle.

  Suddenly, she saw.

  A blur of white—a figure in brilliant white robes—delivered a crushing kick to the attacker’s side, sending him flying. The bde fell. Before Miss Aiko could colpse, strong arms caught her. A princess carries.

  They soared upward.

  The wind whipped around them as the white-cloaked figure leapt to one of the floating instructor ptforms. Gently, she set Miss Aiko down and turned her back to the ptform’s edge, eyes scanning the battlefield.

  Miss Aiko gasped—not just from the rescue, but from the face partially visible beneath the white hood. For a moment, the fabric slipped just enough in the wind.

  Those eyes.

  Cold, brilliant, ice-blue eyes that gleamed with detached focus—unmistakably hers.

  “Alicia…?” Aiko whispered before catching herself. No… her hair—it was white. Alicia had bck hair. She had bck hair.

  But the resembnce was too strong. Even if the robe obscured the face, even if the aura felt distant and cold, something in the way this person moved… something was her.

  The white figure didn’t respond. With a flourish of her hand, a wave of freezing mist surged down from the ptform. A winter wind howled through the battlefield.

  In an instant, the robed attackers’ advance halted. Ice crept up their legs, slowing movement. Arrows of crystallised frost rained from the sky, precisely avoiding the students but pinning enemies to the ground.

  Some tried to flee. The white figure blurred, almost teleporting between them. Her bde was a whisper of steel and ice, carving through weapons and leaving deep cuts along the arms and legs—not lethal, but decisive.

  “Tch—she’s neutralising them without killing,” Haruto muttered, eyes wide. “What is she?”

  Within minutes, the tide turned.

  Three attackers colpsed from the combined effects of poison backsh and frostbite. Another had their mask shattered by Mika’s arrow, revealing pale, inhuman skin beneath, twisted, with bck veins running down the neck.

  Renji knelt beside a fallen student, casting a warm glow over a purple-tinged wound. “They used poison!” he said urgently. “I need stronger antidotes!”

  Ayame was already tossing him three vials from her bag. “Here! Use the green one first, then the silver.”

  Miss Aiko pushed herself up, breath uneven. She wanted to help, to fight—but her eyes were still locked on the white figure now walking calmly among the fallen enemies.

  She paused in front of one still groaning, ice crawling up his legs.

  Without a word, the figure pointed her bde at his throat.

  “Who sent you?” she asked, voice low, emotionless.

  The robed man coughed. “Y-You... You weren’t supposed to be here…”

  Her bde tapped the side of his neck. “Answer.”

  “We were sent… to test the summoned ones. By the—”

  Before he could finish, a cursed rune on his chest fred and erupted, disintegrating his body into ash.

  The figure didn’t flinch.

  Miss Aiko stepped forward. “Wait—please!” she called out. “Who are you?”

  The white figure turned slightly, her profile visible again. That face, so simir to Alicia’s… yet more mature, colder, wrapped in loneliness and quiet power.

  “…Protect the ones you can,” the figure said softly. “I’ll deal with the ones lurking beyond the veil.”

  And just like that, she vanished. A gust of snow swept across the ptform.

  Gone.

  Silence fell on the battlefield. The students, injured but alive, began gathering. Poison was being treated, wounds were closing, and shock gave way to awe.

  Miss Aiko stared into the sky.

  Alicia… was that you? But how—?

  The girl who had vanished during the summoning. Who should not be here?

  And yet, here she was—like a phantom in white, saving lives without a word.

  ________________________________________________________________

  Alicia Tsukihana's POV

  The scent of scorched mana still lingered in the air, like singed paper and cold metal.

  I stepped lightly across the empty corridor, weaving past broken gss and splinters of burnt wood. The Silents—the bck-cloaked puppets of our hidden enemy—had retreated or been sin, but their presence still pressed against the soul like a phantom weight.

  No more hiding hnn

  Miss Aiko and the others are safe.

  That was all that mattered.

  Still, the memory of her expression—eyes wide with panic, voice trembling despite her strength—etched itself into my thoughts. I had stayed in the shadows long enough. Hiding was no longer an option. The moment I saw fear in her eyes, something shifted.

  I exhaled softly. A breath to steel myself.

  I’ll reveal only as much as needed. The rest… can remain buried. For now.

  But first, I had one st cluster of intruders to erase. According to the threads I’d pnted earlier, six Silents were still clustered near the rear of the girls' dormitory. The veil of cursed mana was thin now, barely noticeable, like a dying echo.

  Slipping through an open window, I nded silently in a dim room, moonlight casting pale bars through cracked curtains.

  And I saw them.

  Six colpsed bodies in tattered bck robes—already beginning to crumble into ash—and standing amid them was the cause.

  Golden hair cascading past her shoulders like sunlight, wind bde still humming faintly in her hands.

  Princess Lysari Caerthalen.

  “Ah,” I murmured, voice calm and cool, the chill of my mana still clinging to the sylbles. “Are you done here, Princesses?”

  Only someone who truly knew me would hear the warmth beneath the ice.

  Lysari looked up, wiping a speck of blood from her cheek. “Haa… Yes. I assume the rest who infiltrated the academy have been dealt with?”

  I gave a small nod. “They’ve been neutralised. Miss Aiko and the other summoned heroes are safe. No casualties.”

  “And the cursed ones?”

  I raised a hand, conjuring a few glowing thread-lines to collect the remaining weapons and equipment left behind by the disintegrating Silents. “All of them bore the same cursed mark. The moment capture becomes likely, it activates. Instant disintegration. Just like in the forest.”

  Lysari clicked her tongue. “Troublesome. So we're no closer to finding out who's behind them.”

  “Not yet. But they’re not hiding their intention anymore. That cursed aura—the Veil—is gone now. I can’t sense it anywhere in the academy.”

  She nodded grimly. “Elira should have alerted the guards and the principal by now. Let’s move. We should regroup before the nobles start making noise about security failures.”

  Alicia’s eyes remained forward, her mind racing through the events that had just transpired. Her encounter with the robed figures—those mysterious Silent ones—still lingered in her mind. The words of the one who had spoken to her echoed through her thoughts, haunting in their simplicity.

  She gnced at Lysari, the princess's presence somehow grounding amid all the confusion.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” Alicia said, her voice low, almost hesitant. She paused for a moment, her fingers tracing the seam of her cloak. “One of those robed figures… they said something. When I captured one of them… it said, ‘You weren’t supposed to be here.’”

  Lysari’s eyes narrowed slightly at the words, her brow furrowing in contemption. She had always known there was something strange about the Silents, but this revetion made her stomach twist in unease.

  “You weren’t supposed to be here?” Lysari repeated, her voice her gaze intense. “That’s… odd. The Silents are creatures of secrecy and shadow. They shouldn’t have been able to speak at all.”

  Alicia nodded, her face cold under the weight of the realisation. “Exactly. I’ve never heard them speak before. They’re usually silent, just moving like shadows, obeying orders. But this one—this one spoke to me. And I have a feeling that’s not all.”

  Lysari’s eyes shifted as she processed the information, her mind racing through the possible implications. “Could they be watching you?” she asked, her voice a bit sharper now. “I know the Silents have always been part of the kingdom's darker forces, but if they’ve singled you out... That’s troubling.”

  Alicia’s lips pressed into a thin line, her expression hardening. “I’ve been feeling it. Ever since the attack… I can’t shake the feeling that they’re keeping an eye on me. Not just observing, but... waiting for something.”

  Lysari’s gaze turned to the side, her thoughts drifting for a moment. “It’s possible. They’ve never shown any interest in individuals before, but maybe they’ve been tasked with something more specific. Watching you, or guarding something you don’t even know about.”

  “I don’t know,” Alicia muttered, her eyes staring straight ahead, the weight of the words gnawing at her insides. “But I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface of whatever this is. And I don’t think they’re done yet.”

  The two continued walking in silence for a few moments, the weight of their conversation pressing down on them. The unknown loomed ever closer, and both knew that the storm was far from over.

  As they stepped into the corridor, a sudden pulse of magic surged through the walls.

  WEEEEE–OOOH.

  A high-pitched magical arm rang out, echoing down the marble halls. The first-level Academy Warning System. A signal for danger.

  Lysari paused. “Too te to stay in the shadows now.”

  I didn’t reply. My eyes were already narrowing.

  Because somewhere, behind the veil, a greater threat was watching.

  The infirmary was quiet, save for the faint crackle of magical wards humming through the stone walls.

  Miss Aiko sat beside one of the beds, her gaze unfocused. The scent of healing potions, burnt mana, and vender filled the air—an odd mixture of war and recovery. Around her, students rested with light wounds, some unconscious but stable. Mirei was tending to one of them, her hands trembling only slightly.

  Aiko hadn’t spoken since they arrived.

  I couldn’t protect them. I wasn’t strong enough.

  And Alicia…

  Her fingers clenched around the edge of her cloak as guilt twisted like thorns in her chest.

  Then—

  The heavy door creaked open.

  Every gaze in the room turned as a figure stepped through: a girl in a pristine third-year academy uniform, golden hair cascading past her shoulders like sunlight, and piercing green eyes that shimmered with the calm crity of someone born to lead.

  A single spirit-light crystal glowed faintly at her colrbone, pulsing in tune with her mana. Embroidered into her dark mantle was the unmistakable sigil of Aelvarin’s royal house—a silver tree encircled by three stars.

  The girl offered a brief nod to the room before stepping forward.

  “I am Lysari Caerthalen, of the royal family of Aelvarin and vice president of the student council,” she said, her voice crisp but gentle. “The situation has been resolved. All remaining Silents have been dealt with. There were no student casualties.”

  She turned toward the tall figure near the corner—the academy principal, robed in yered silver and violet, eyes sharp with worry.

  Lysari bowed slightly, then reported, “The veil of cursed mana has dissipated. We believe all infiltrators have been neutralised. Emergency protocols have been enacted across the outer barrier. The guards are on high alert. We are secure—for now.”

  The principal’s eyes lingered on her for a moment, then softened with measured approval.

  “Well done… Vice President Lysari Caerthalen.”

  A stillness settled over the room.

  Lysari’s eyes met hers, and Aiko felt the knot in her chest tighten. Before anyone could speak, she couldn’t hold it back anymore. The question burned at the edge of her mind, and the words tumbled out before she could stop them.

  “The one who saved us,” Aiko whispered, her voice barely above a breath. “White hair… blue eyes… the girl who defeated those men in bck cloaks… Do you know Alicia?”

  A long pause hung in the air, the atmosphere so heavy it almost felt suffocating. All the heroes in the room turned their heads in unison, their curiosity piqued. The question had been asked with such raw emotion that it seemed to pulse in the air, like something important was about to break free.

  Mirei’s reaction was immediate and visceral. She froze, her face pale, eyes wide. Her body stiffened, a sudden shock running through her.

  Aiko saw it—the way her friend’s breath hitched, the way she looked like she might colpse under the weight of her thoughts.

  The room fell silent again. And as Mirei tried to mask her expression, it was too te. The tension was palpable, and no one could ignore the sudden shift in the atmosphere.

  Before anyone could ask what was going on, or even if they could, the scene was interrupted by the sound of distant footsteps. The chapter ended, leaving the room suspended in a question no one was prepared to answer.

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  Note from the Author:

  Writing from Alicia's point of view is a challenge, and the scene above is not quite the result I envisioned. I’m not sure if it’s just my perception or if it’s good, so I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. If it didn’t come across as intended, I’m more than willing to make improvements and refine it further.

  Thank you for reading and supporting the story!

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  "Suddenly, a familiar image flickered in Alicia’s mind—her test portrait, captured and shared on social media. It was a striking image, one that captured her cold yet alluring gaze, and the faintest hint of a smile. She had posted it earlier, and a flood of messages and comments had followed. If you're curious, here's a glimpse of the image that sparked quite the reaction: Alicia's new picture."