Chapter 21 – Beneath the World, A New Dawn

  “Hmm…”

  Vice President Lysari Caerthalen’s voice broke the heavy silence, her golden hair gleaming beneath the crystalline glow of the audience chamber. Her green eyes shifted, calmly nding on Aiko.

  “You said… white hair and blue eyes?”

  Aiko hesitated. “Yes. She—she saved us… She cut down those men in bck cloaks like they were nothing.”

  Lysari tilted her head slightly, as if considering something far away.

  “Then I believe you speak of Lady Alicia Sylveria,” she said with regal composure. “The Windmarked Marchioness of Sylveria. A noblewoman of Aelvarin.”

  The name struck the air like a soft bell, unfamiliar and foreign.

  “Alicia… Sylveria?” Aiko echoed, confused.

  Behind her, Mirei furrowed her brows. “But… Alicia had bck hair.”

  That quiet remark froze the moment.

  Her eyes flicked to Aiko, uncertainty etched in her face. “Didn’t she?”

  Aiko's throat tightened. “Yes…” she murmured. “She did.”

  She could still see her—white hair, blue eyes, blood on her hands and that overwhelming pressure in the air… She hadn’t imagined it.

  Lysari looked toward Mirei, her gaze kind but cold

  “I mean…” Mirei’s voice faltered. “She… She had bck hair, not white…”

  Lysari’s smile was polite, but distant. “Then perhaps you are mistaken. There are many blessed by the spirits, and many who may rise when the world calls. Names can be shared… but people are not always who we think they are.”

  She turned her eyes to the stained gss window beyond the hall, letting the subject hang unspoken.

  No one dared to question her further.

  Aiko lowered her gaze, thoughts racing, but unable to find the pieces that would fit.

  The silence settled again.

  Unspoken, in the quiet of Lysari’s thoughts:

  ‘It’s so stupid, Alicia… You couldn’t come up with any better excuse than this?

  Still…I can only do this much for you. The rest is yours to carry. But honestly…You could’ve at least dyed your hair or covered your face, geez, I can’t cover for you forever.”

  Her expression didn’t shift. Not even once.

  Only her thoughts betrayed the truth.

  And just like that, the name Alicia Tsukihana drifted away, lost in a room where no one remembered her.

  Only Lady Alicia Sylveria remained.

  Unseen and unnoticed, a small spider lingered in the corner of the infirmary room. Its many eyes shimmered faintly, silently witnessing everything that transpired.

  Far above, on the academy's old clock tower, Alicia stood alone. Her white-silver-blue hair danced in the breeze, eyes narrowed and distant. Dangling from her left earring, a spider with nine glowing eyes pulsed with quiet awareness—its connection to the infirmary clear.

  A faint breath escaped Alicia’s lips, misting in the air like frost. Her voice was a whisper, unheard by anyone but the wind.

  “Thanks, Lysari. I’ll reveal myself… eventually. I just need time to understand what’s happening around me, to control these powers. There are too many unknowns, too many anomalies.”

  She closed her eyes, the breeze tugging at her cloak.

  “I don’t want to hurt them.”

  And with that, she vanished, fading into the cold air.

  From where she had stood, small rose petals rimmed with frost drifted gently through the air, caught and carried away by the wind.

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  Alicia’s POV

  Somewhere far from where the Hero Summoning Ritual neared its end—deep beneath the earth, where even the air was silent—a faint surge of magic stirred.

  Ancient runes etched into the cold stone floor pulsed with a deep, otherworldly violet light. The dungeon walls, carved from ash-grey stone, shimmered dimly in its glow. And there, within the centre of the glowing summoning circle, a figure slowly took shape.

  A girl.

  She y motionless at first—her hair as bck as the starless night, her skin bathed in flickering violet light. The magic circle hummed for a moment longer, then gradually faded. The room dimmed, left only with the flicker of a few torches struggling to pierce the darkness.

  The girl stirred.

  She slowly sat up, blinking drowsily like someone waking from a long, dreamless sleep. Her hand rubbed at her eyes. Then she turned her head left and right, surveying the unfamiliar surroundings. Her movements were sluggish, unhurried—more puzzled than panicked.

  “Where… am I?”

  Her voice echoed softly against the stone walls.

  It was dark. The air was cold. The floor beneath her bare feet was rough and gritty. She shivered—not just from the cold, but from the raw exposure.

  She was completely naked.

  Alicia instinctively wrapped her arms around herself, heart pounding.

  “Where are my clothes…?” she whispered.

  She tried to remember. The st thing she recalled was sitting in css, staring out the window. The sky had been clear. Peaceful. Ordinary. Then—

  That golden light. A vast, complex summoning circle, like something ripped from a fantasy game. A golden whirlpool of runes.

  She had felt herself pulled into it.

  “I was wearing my school uniform,” she murmured, eyes scanning the gloom. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

  The silence was oppressive… until she noticed it.

  A glint. Two faint red dots flickering in the dark.

  Eyes.

  Alicia froze.

  They blinked.

  Then… they moved closer.

  She stared. The strange red eyes stared back.

  “What… is that?” she whispered. “Is this… some kind of prank?”

  Then, from the shadows, the creature revealed itself.

  A white spider, small and almost absurdly round, crawled cautiously into the dim torchlight. Its tiny body shimmered faintly, and now she saw nine eyes, not two.

  It blinked again.

  Then it tilted its head to the left.

  Alicia, confused, tilted her head to the right, mirroring the strange gesture in an equally dumbfounded way.

  They stared at each other.

  A long, awkward silence passed.

  “…You’re not very scary,” Alicia finally mumbled.

  She slowly reached out her hand.

  But the spider, startled, immediately scrambled backwards into the shadows.

  “…Huh?”

  She blinked.

  Then blinked again.

  “…Seriously?”

  She was left sitting there, naked, confused, and now abandoned by the first living thing she’d seen in this bizarre, silent dungeon.

  “…What even was that?”

  Alicia sat still, the chill of the stone floor biting against her bare skin as she pulled her knees close. The faint purple glow of the now-dormant magic circle slowly faded from the cracked stones beneath her. Shadows crept in as the light receded, repced only by the flickering fme of a few ancient wall-mounted torches that barely held their fire.

  Her gaze drifted toward the enormous summoning circle etched into the floor.

  It was beautiful in a terrifying kind of way—intricate runes and symbols woven into yered rings, interlocked with smaller circles that glowed faintly with dormant energy.

  She reached out and traced her fingers over the grooves of the carving. The stone was warm to the touch, as if the magic hadn’t entirely left it.

  “…It feels so real,” she whispered.

  And it was.

  This wasn’t a dream.

  Alicia looked down at herself—completely naked, vulnerable, yet somehow calm. She wasn’t panicking. Not yet.

  After all… hadn’t she fantasised about this for years?

  Another world. Magic circles. Dungeons and quests.

  How many light novels had she devoured? How many anime series had she binged where this exact scenario happened?

  She wasn’t just familiar with it. She was ready for it.

  A slow smirk formed at the edge of her lips.

  “All those years… training alone in secret,” she murmured to herself. “People thought I was weird. I even started to think maybe I was.”

  But here she was.

  Summoned.

  “This is it. My moment.”

  Determination fshed in her blue eyes like a rising fire.

  She stood up, brushing dust from her skin, wincing slightly at the roughness of the stone floor under her feet.

  “Alright,” she said aloud, her voice gaining strength. “First things first—clothes.”

  She gnced around. Two wooden doors faced opposite each other—one to her left, one to her right.

  Both looked old, aged by time and neglect.

  She turned toward the left. Something about it felt… more promising.

  “If I’m lucky, there’s something usable in there.”

  With cautious steps, she approached and pushed it open. The rusted hinges groaned, but the door gave way.

  The room beyond had been swallowed by darkness—until the moment she stepped in.

  A soft hum echoed from the ceiling as a crystal embedded high above flickered to life, casting pale white-blue light across the space.

  “…Whoa.”

  It was a small study.

  A wooden desk and chair sat to the side, aged but sturdy. A full bookshelf stood beside it, packed with leather-bound tomes, their spines lined with gold or silver filigree. Dust hung in the air like mist, dancing in the glow of the crystal light.

  To the far wall, a rge chest rested against the stone, and beside it, on a tall iron rack, several garments were hung.

  Alicia’s eyes immediately snapped to the robes.

  She walked over and inspected them—worn bck cloth, rough and coarse, likely cheap linen.

  She picked one up and unfolded it. It was more like a cloak than a proper robe—meant to cover from head to knees, with an open slit for the head and just enough fabric to wrap around the body.

  “…Not exactly high fashion,” she muttered. “But hey, beggars can’t be choosers.”

  She slipped it on. The material scratched slightly against her skin, but the warmth it offered was a comfort she didn’t know she needed.

  “Okay. Step one: covered.”

  She exhaled slowly and turned toward the desk.

  There was a single book lying open on it.

  Intrigued, Alicia pulled out the chair, sat down carefully, and reached for it.

  The leather was cracked and faded. The pages yellowed. Strange, beautiful script filled each line—an unknown nguage, but elegant, flowing like music on the page.

  She ran her fingers across the words, whispering to herself:

  “Looks like a journal… or maybe a spellbook?”

  Her pulse quickened.

  Alicia turned the brittle page gently, eyes scanning the unfamiliar script. It twisted like calligraphy, strange symbols dancing across the parchment in delicate, swirling lines.

  She blinked. Then blinked again.

  “…I can read this?” she whispered.

  She didn’t know how. These weren’t Japanese, English, or any other alphabet she had ever seen. And yet the meaning came to her naturally, as if the words were being whispered directly into her mind, like they’d always been there, waiting for her to see them.

  A memory flickered in her mind.

  That golden magic circle… it didn’t just teleport us. It did something more.

  A gift? A blessing? Or a curse?

  She sat back, rubbing her arms as the coarse cloak shifted against her skin.

  “…If I remember correctly,” she muttered, “the summoning circle covered the whole css. Everyone should’ve come here with me.”

  Her fingers tightened around the edge of the book.

  “So where are they?”

  She gnced around the empty, cold room.

  “Did… they leave me behind while I was unconscious?”

  Her voice trembled for a moment—not from fear, but from something quieter. Heavier.

  “And my clothes—were they taken too?” She looked down at the robe wrapped around her like a makeshift barrier. “No… there’s no way they would let that happen.”

  Images of two people fshed in her mind: Mirei, the reliable css president with her unshakable calm. Miss Aiko, always kind, always watching out for them.

  “There’s no way Mirei or Miss Aiko would abandon me. And they’d never let anyone take my clothes while I was unconscious either.” Her voice had steel now, low and sharp beneath the surface.

  “Which means…”

  She let out a long breath, closing her eyes for a moment.

  “They must’ve been summoned to a different location. Or separated somehow.”

  She gave a soft sigh and shook her head.

  “…Honestly. How irresponsible of them.” She allowed a faint, wry smile. “Getting lost even in another world. Tch.”

  But the smile faded just as quickly.

  What if something happens to them while I’m not there? What if they’re in danger, or alone like I was?

  Her heart ached.

  “I have to find them,” she whispered. “No matter what.”

  She turned her attention back to the book. At least this much gave her comfort. Something familiar. Something stable.

  Her hand rested gently on the page.

  “Well… at least I have books.” Her smile returned, faint but real. “I’ll never be lonely if I have books.”

  In the dimly lit room, with flickering torchlight casting shadows on the walls, Alicia began to read. The ancient words filled the air, and the silence of the underground chamber felt just a little less cold.

  Somewhere above, the world waited.

  But down here, a girl in a bck cloak sat quietly, her bare feet swinging back and forth beneath the desk in quiet rhythm among the remnants of forgotten magic, beginning the first page of her new life.

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  Author’s Note:And so, Alicia’s point of view has finally begun—our true main character is here at st.From this point onward, the real story begins.If you notice anything off or confusing, feel free to let me know.Thank you so much for reading—how are you feeling about the story so far? I’d love to hear your thoughts!