A Different Lynae

After everyone had left, Lynae rose from her chair. She exchanged a look with Mo Bai and Rover, then went outside the classroom with them.

"Thank you for speaking up for me."

As she said it, Mo Bai felt that Lynae...

She was nothing like the Lynae he knew.

She wasn't bright or cheerful at all. If anything, she seemed gloomy.

"Why didn't you tell them the truth?"

Rover had asked exactly what Mo Bai wanted to ask.

In the end, Lynae hadn't shown the teachers the canister-shaped device she had used to attract Haiveisha. Nor had she told them who the mysterious student who confronted her earlier was.

"..."

But Lynae didn't answer Rover's question. She simply strode ahead.

Mo Bai and Rover had to jog to keep up.

"What was that device you were holding when Haiveisha went out of control?" Rover pressed.

"Whew, straight to the point..."

Faced with Rover's relentless questioning, Lynae stopped with a helpless sigh.

"I thought you'd let it go like they did." Lynae gave a bitter smile.

She probably meant the teachers in the classroom who had chosen not to question her further.

"That's not likely," Rover replied.

From beside them, Mo Bai noticed how sharp Rover's gaze had become.

Rover had often looked like that since Lynae appeared before Haiveisha and her identity came into question.

Rover usually seemed gentle, but when something might endanger others, Rover became much sterner.

Lynae didn't back down. Instead, she stepped up to Rover and Mo Bai and looked closely into their eyes.

Unlike Rover, who met her gaze without fear, Mo Bai found himself quietly amazed.

The people of this world all had such beautiful eyes.

It wasn't just their vivid colors. What mattered more was what lay within them.

Whether it was Rover's golden eyes or Lynae's multicolored eyes that looked as though they'd been scribbled on, Mo Bai felt he could see into their hearts through them.

"Good. You're still yourselves..."

After saying something Mo Bai didn't understand, Lynae turned away.

"Let's talk somewhere else. I can hardly breathe here. And..."

At that, Lynae fell unusually quiet.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this, Mo Bai." With that, Lynae led Mo Bai and Rover onward.

Lynae's words made Rover look at Mo Bai too.

Unlike Lynae and Rover, who might have second identities, Mo Bai really was just an ordinary person with a somewhat strange ability in their eyes.

Ordinary, that was, in his outlook.

Mo Bai merely spread his hands.

"I didn't have much of a goal to begin with, and for now, you two are my only friends at the academy. I'll just count this as a learning experience."

His words made Lynae clench her fist and lower her eyes.

What he'd said seemed to make her feel even sorrier.

Mo Bai genuinely considered her a friend, yet she hadn't told him or Rover the whole truth.

Mo Bai himself felt a little wistful as he said it.

He wasn't the sort of person who would risk his life for someone else.

At least, that was how he saw himself.

But earlier, when he'd seen Lynae in danger and ordered Nue to take him to the battlefield...

Thoughts he'd never had before had crossed his mind.

He had been a little afraid.

Afraid that the friend he'd only just made might die because he hadn't helped her.

Even so...

Mo Bai still believed he would put his own life first.

If his life were on the line, he would surely hide in the shadows again, just as he had when facing Haiveisha before.

Having settled that in his mind, Mo Bai felt much better.

"Come on. I'm the one who brought you into the academy. If you're ever in danger, I'll protect you."

As if Rover had read his mind, Rover placed a hand on Mo Bai's shoulder.

Mo Bai felt a little embarrassed.

After all, he thought what he'd just been thinking was rather shameful, and Rover had somehow noticed.

Lynae glanced back and saw the exchange between Rover and Mo Bai. A smile slipped onto her face.

Her mood lifted a little.

After that, Lynae led Rover and Mo Bai away from the classroom and toward the library.

"You're not just a student, are you?" Rover asked Lynae along the way.

"Though I wish all the time that I were just an ordinary student," Lynae said with a bitter smile.

That was, in its way, an answer to Rover's question.