At the same time, somewhere else within Velcrest Academy, a very important meeting was happening that would change Rin's fate.
"This is the security footage, Chairman."
The Chairman leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand as the screen flickered to life.
"Hmm… A shame the quality isn't great. But it's enough to see what happened." She studied the grainy footage for a moment before smiling. "Good work. I imagine retrieving this wasn't easy."
The woman standing beside her, Lena, gave a slight nod. "It wasn't, but it's been handled."
The Chairman's eyes remained on the screen, her interest piqued.
"Some very interesting students have entered the academy this year, don't you think?"
The footage showed a chaotic battlefield—the sudden terrorist attack, the panic, and the students caught in the middle of it. Most were scrambling to survive, but two figures stood out.
One of them, Ryen, moved with terrifying precision, cutting through DeathFlame like it was nothing.
Even a deaf, blind dog would laugh at the absurdity of what she was witnessing.
She rewound the footage, watching again. And again.
No matter how many times she looked, it was undeniable—Ryen had not only withstood the DeathFlame, but severed it entirely, stopping Kai Foster, a C-rank villain, in his tracks.
But that's what didn't make sense.
If Ryen was this strong, why didn't he act sooner? Why wait until the last possible moment?
Two possibilities.
Either he was deliberately hiding his true power… or something else had happened.
The Chairman's fingers tapped lightly against the desk.
No, this wasn't just simple restraint. There was another factor at play.
"Lena," she said, eyes still fixed on the screen, "the original footage—completely erased?"
"Yes. No one else will have access to it."
"Good."
Her gaze shifted to Ryen's face on the screen. He looked… surprised.
Not at Kai Foster. Not at the situation.
At himself.
Like he hadn't expected to wield that kind of power.
And then, just a little further away, she noticed someone else.
A black-haired boy.
The low resolution made it hard to see his expression clearly, but there was one thing she was certain of—he wasn't afraid.
Yet, according to reports, he had fainted the moment the battle ended.
The Chairman's lips curled into a small smile.
"…Did he really faint from fear?"
Ryen and Leo were promising students, no doubt. Talented. Strong.
But they weren't the jackpot.
No, that student—the one watching from the sidelines—he was the real mystery.
And mysteries, in her experience, were often the most valuable things of all.
The Chairman studied the grainy images on the screen, her sharp eyes narrowing as she analyzed the face of a cadet said to have fainted from fear.
Then, suddenly, something clicked.
A crucial detail surfaced in her memory.
Her expression shifted, and she quickly turned to Lena, a deep frown settling on her face.
"Lena," she said, her voice carrying a sharp edge. "Isn't this the cadet who claimed a terrorist attack was going to happen at the Velcrest Academy auditorium?"
Lena hesitated for a brief moment, as if processing the Chairman's words. Then, she nodded.
"Yes, Chairman. I believe he's the one."
Silence hung between them as the Chairman's gaze flickered back to the screen.
And then—she grinned.
A slow, deliberate grin.
One that carried a dangerous glint of excitement, like a gambler who had just drawn the perfect hand.
"Now… who is this student?"
She spoke the words with such enthusiasm that it was almost unsettling—like she had just stumbled upon a hidden treasure.
Lena, the woman standing quietly at her side, offered a silent prayer for the poor cadet who had now captured the Chairman's undivided attention.
Lena hesitated for a fraction of a second before glancing down at the tablet in her hands. A few taps on the screen, and the student's file appeared before her.
She swallowed.
The Chairman was rarely this interested in a single cadet. It wasn't just curiosity—it was something deeper. Anticipation. Calculation.
A shark circling the water.
Lena cleared her throat. "He's a first-year cadet. No recorded achievements before enrolling in Velcrest."
The Chairman hummed, still watching the paused image of the boy on the screen. "No achievements… yet he predicted a terrorist attack and remained unfazed during it?"
Lena nodded. "That's correct."
The Chairman leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers. "Interesting."
Her gaze lingered on the cadet's face. A nobody, according to the records. But instinct told her otherwise. There was always a pattern, always a thread connecting the seemingly ordinary to something far greater.
She had seen it before—geniuses hiding in plain sight, only to shake the world when the time was right.
Was he one of them?
Or was he something else entirely?
Lena shifted uncomfortably. "…Should I request an interview?"
The Chairman didn't respond immediately. She simply stared at the screen, as if trying to see past the pixels, past the layers of uncertainty surrounding this cadet.
Then, she smiled.
"Not yet."
Lena blinked. "Not yet?"
"No." The Chairman's voice was smooth, confident. "If we bring him in now, he'll know we're watching." She turned her gaze to Lena. "And I don't want him to know that. Not until I understand what he is."
Lena hesitated before nodding. "Then… what should we do?"
The Chairman's eyes gleamed with quiet amusement.
"We wait."
It wasn't hesitation—it was patience. The kind of patience that came from knowing something valuable was just within reach, not yet ripe enough to pluck.
"But in the meantime," she added, tapping a finger against her desk, "keep an eye on him. Discreetly. I want everything—his behavior, his interactions, his habits. No matter how small."
Lena exhaled softly, already dreading the task ahead. "Understood."
The Chairman's smile widened.
This academy year had just become far more interesting.