No one spoke immediately after the battle. The only sounds were heavy breathing, shoes scraping the ground, and the lingering trace of a strange aura that hadn't fully faded from the air.
The instructors arrived five minutes late—their steps quick, their faces not. They already knew something was wrong even before seeing the blast marks on the ground. One of them knelt, touched the cracked surface, then stopped.
"Residual aura… unstable," he muttered.
Another instructor turned to the students. "Who coordinated here?"
Class B exchanged glances. No one answered. Finally, one of them pointed at Rian.
Rian let out a slow breath—not from nerves, but because he already knew this would happen.
The instructor studied him for a long moment.
"You were the one giving orders?"
"I only pointed out the weak spot," Rian replied calmly.
"And knew when the monster would strike."
Rian neither denied nor confirmed it.
Silence hung for a moment before the instructor stood.
"All students return to the barracks. Now. The official report will follow."
His tone wasn't angry—more like someone arranging possibilities he didn't like.
The sky had already turned orange as they walked back. There was none of the usual casual chatter.
Dax spoke first.
"…You wanna explain?"
"I just saw the pattern," Rian answered without stopping.
Kael snorted.
"Yeah, pattern. Monster comes out of a dimensional crack, immediately fires at the area, and you just 'happen' to know its shoulder's fragile."
Mira crossed her arms.
"You also knew a second crack would appear."
Lyra said nothing. She just watched Rian—more worried than suspicious.
Rian finally stopped. The others stopped too.
"I've seen that symbol before," he said.
"Symbol?" Mira asked.
"On the monster's body. A circle split by a vertical line."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "…That's not exactly a detail people notice in the middle of a fight."
"I saw the same one in the tower," Rian continued.
Now everyone was fully focused.
"Tower of Aura?" Lyra asked softly.
Rian nodded.
"On the inner wall. Almost invisible. Like an old scratch."
Dax scratched his head.
"…Why would a symbol from the tower appear on a monster?"
No one answered. The question was too big for the walk back.
Night fell quickly.
In the instructors' room, the atmosphere was far heavier.
"A crack appearing without an initial signal is already strange," said a senior instructor.
"What's stranger," another replied, "is that the second crack formed in a stable pattern. That's not a wild phenomenon."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning someone arranged it."
Silence.
One of them opened a report on the communication crystal.
"And there's one more thing."
He displayed the residual energy pattern. In the middle of the damaged aura traces was a faint circular mark split by a line.
The room instantly fell quiet.
"…That's an old symbol," the eldest instructor murmured.
"A pre-Ironcrest symbol."
No one liked where that conversation was going.
In the dormitory, Rian didn't sleep right away. He sat on the edge of his bed, staring at his hands. The leftover vibration of the monster's aura was still there—not wild, not chaotic. Directed. Like a message.
Rian closed his eyes.
He saw the crack in the sky again. Heard the sound of the world being forced open. And behind that red light—the same symbol.
A cold sensation crawled down his spine. Not fear. More like realization.
If this was an experiment… then the next one would surely come. And maybe not in a training area anymore.
Rian opened his eyes.
Outside the window, the tower loomed in the darkness—silent, still, looking like nothing more than an ordinary stone structure. But now he knew better.
There was something behind the history of that place.
And somehow, Rian felt the answer wasn't hidden outside…
…but waiting inside the tower itself.