System and Starry Sky

Nightfall once again shrouded the Wood Orphanage. The clamor and malice of the day settled into a deeper stillness, broken only by the occasional muffled sound of carriage wheels from distant streets, a reminder that a completely different world existed beyond.

In the dormitory, the other children were already asleep, a chorus of snores and grinding teeth rising and falling. Ares lay on the hard bedboard, but felt no trace of drowsiness. After completing the "Silent Alliance" task, his body had indeed felt lighter, but the new task, [Cornerstone of Trust], weighed on him like an even heavier stone. Making Tom Riddle willingly share a secret? That was like asking a hedgehog to voluntarily expose its soft belly.

He turned his head, using the faint light from outside the window to look at the bed across from him. Tom was awake too, lying on his back, staring at the mottled shadows on the ceiling, lost in thought. One of his hands was under his pillow; Ares knew he was tightly gripping the recovered pendant.

The daytime "Pendant Incident" had bound them together more tightly, and more complexly, like an invisible thread. They were "accomplices" now, but this relationship was as fragile as a spider's web, requiring careful maintenance.

[Host, the atmosphere is a bit heavy (′?_?`). Want the system to tell you a joke to lighten things up?]

"Thanks, but no thanks," Ares refused silently. What he needed was a breakthrough, an opportunity to make Tom lower his guard just a little.

He recalled Tom's obsession with those "strange things"—that is, magic—and his reaction upon seeing the Hogwarts graffiti. Knowledge, perhaps, was the only bridge.

He took a deep breath and made a decision. Gently, almost soundlessly, he sat up, then looked toward Tom and gave him a small wave.

In the darkness, Tom keenly caught the movement. He turned his head, his black eyes flashing with vigilance and doubt in the night.

Ares pointed out the window, then at himself, and mouthed silently: "Outside."

Tom frowned, clearly not understanding what Ares intended to do.

Ares didn't explain further. He slipped quietly out of bed, moving like a cat, silent and stealthy, to the door. He glanced back at Tom once, then slipped out of the dormitory.

He leaned against the cold wall of the corridor, waiting, feeling uncertain. Would Tom follow?

A few seconds later, the dormitory door creaked open gently, and Tom's figure appeared in the doorway. He was still wearing that shabby coat, his sharp eyes sweeping across the empty corridor before finally settling on Ares.

"What do you want?" he asked in a low voice, with his usual caution.

Ares didn't answer. He simply turned and gestured for Tom to follow. Relying on his memory from the day and the system's faint guidance, he led Tom through the dark corridors, carefully avoiding the possible routes of the night watchman, until they reached the end of a narrow, abandoned staircase leading to the rooftop terrace. There was a rusty iron door there, usually locked, but the lock was long broken, and the children could open it with a bit of clever force.

Ares struggled to push it open just enough for a gap, and the two squeezed out one after the other.

The rooftop wind carried the coolness of the night, dispersing the stale air of the orphanage. London's night sky was not clear, stained a hazy dark red by the city's lights, with only a few of the brightest stars stubbornly twinkling.

"Why did you bring me here?" Tom looked around, his tone still cold, but his tense body showed he wasn't entirely unmoved. Standing here felt like temporarily escaping that suffocating cage.

Ares walked to the edge of the rooftop, leaning against the low railing, and looked up at the limited patch of stars. Then he turned to face Tom, pointed at the sky again, then at himself and Tom.

He took a deep breath and began communicating with the system in his mind: "System, help me. Tell him something about 'our' world in the simplest, least secretive way possible."

[Understood! (??????)?? Knowledge popularization class is now in session! Host, follow my prompts and speak!]

Ares looked at Tom and, using extremely slow, clear mouth movements accompanied by simple gestures, began his clumsy and dangerous "sermon":

"Those... strange things." He pointed at Tom, then at himself. "Not... a devil... are... a gift."

Tom's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, but he didn't interrupt. He just watched Ares more intently, in silence.

"There is a place..." Ares continued, his hands gesturing a vague, grand shape, "a castle... very big, many towers... like in a dream." He was referring to the daytime graffiti. "There... are all people like us."

Tom's breath seemed to catch for a moment. He took a small step forward, his voice carrying a hint of eagerness he himself hadn't noticed: "What place? What's it called?"

Ares shook his head, indicating he didn't know the full name or couldn't say it. He then tapped his temple with a finger: "Power... is here. Needs... learning. Control." He made a gesture of gathering scattered things together, "Otherwise... can hurt yourself... and others."

This was his extremely simplified explanation, based on the common knowledge about young wizards' magical outbursts provided by the system, combined with his own understanding.

Tom stared at him, his black eyes blazing in the night. Ares's words were like a key, inserting itself into the long-dusty lock of confusion and anger in Tom's heart. Those uncontrollable powers, those strange dreams, that fear of being ostracized... So, it wasn't a curse, but a... "gift"? And there was a place full of kindred spirits?

"How do you know all this?" Tom's voice was low and tense. "What exactly are you?"

This was the most critical question. Ares was silent for a moment. He raised his hand, lightly brushing the golden chain mark under his left eye, then pointed at the starry sky, and finally placed his palm flat on his chest, feeling the light and dark magic surging like a tide within him.

He couldn't explain the Blood Pact, the system, or his transmigration. He could only hint this way: My origin is as mysterious as this starry sky; my essence is one with this power.

It was an answer full of holes, but at this moment, under the stars, after the secret they had jointly guarded, this symbolic gesture carried more impact than any clever lie.

Tom didn't get a definite answer, but looking at Ares's heterochromatic eyes, which seemed even deeper and more unfathomable in the night, and at the almost compassionate calm on his face—a look that didn't belong to an orphanage child—the conflict between suspicion and desire within him raged fiercely.

In the end, desire overwhelmed everything.

He stopped asking about Ares's origins and instead asked the question that had plagued him until now: "How do I... 'control' it?" For the first time, he used "it" to refer to the ability that had once frightened him yet also given him power.

Ares saw the flame of craving for knowledge and power burning in his eyes and knew his risky first step had succeeded. Using the most basic part of the "Basic Magic Stabilization Technique" transmitted by the system, he began to demonstrate, with extremely slow movements and mouth forms, accompanied by simple mental guidance, how to sense the flow of magic within the body and how to try to calm it when emotions fluctuated.

Tom watched with intense focus, not missing a single detail. He even began to imitate Ares's breathing rhythm.

On the rooftop, two children abandoned by the world—one teaching clumsily but sincerely, the other learning with focused greed. The starlight was dim, the city's noise fading away below, as if they were in a lonely, secret classroom for beginners of magic.

[Host! (?ω?) The target character is actively seeking knowledge! This is an important sign of trust-building! Although we're still far from sharing secrets, we've already taken a big step!]

After an unknown amount of time, the vague sound of the night watchman's cough came from afar. Both of them became alert at once.

Tom immediately stopped imitating and reverted to his usual cold expression, but the flame in his eyes hadn't gone out. He gave Ares a deep look, one that was no longer purely scrutinizing, but held a hint of something hard to describe, something akin to "recognition."

"Time to go back," he said quietly, and headed toward the iron door first.

Ares followed behind him, watching Tom's back—still straight, yet seemingly no longer so isolated—and silently breathed a sigh of relief.

Tonight, in Tom's sealed world, he had pushed open a tiny window, letting him glimpse a sliver of starlight. Would that starlight eventually illuminate his path to darkness, or would he use it to seize even deeper shadows?

Ares didn't know. But he knew that from this moment on, the bond between them, forged by the shared secret of "magic," had become stronger—and more dangerous.

The system's starry sky and Tom's longed-for starry sky had begun to intertwine.