Chapter 107

Without hesitation, Ariel ran out of the hall, determined to catch up to Lexius. Her leg protested with every step, still stinging from where she’d slammed it into the table, but she ignored the pain.

However, Lexius was already gone.

She rushed through the corridor, searching desperately, but he was nowhere to be found in the entire first building. Only then did she check his location on her phone.

Just a moment ago, his icon had still been showing inside the first building, but now, it had vanished as if it had never been there.

Lexius must have used teleportation to disappear. Ariel stood frozen in the hallway, a wave of disappointment washing over her. It wasn’t until a few moments later that she realized the area was crowded with students, as it was the middle of class hours. She quickly slipped her phone back into her pocket.

There was no point in staying around any longer.

Ariel asked a nearby staff member to call a car for her immediately.

The annex still lingered in her thoughts, but without a solid excuse or any way to get inside, she had to let it go for now. With Lexius’s affection level dropping, Racine’s route would have to take a backseat.

As she got into the car, her expression was unusually serious. Her mind was consumed with trying to understand how Lexius felt. That was the only way she could figure out what she had done wrong and how to earn back the favorability she had lost. When he got mad earlier, he said something like, ‘What am I, your personal info guide or something…?’

She recalled all of Lexius’s pointed remarks.

He had told her to focus only on him and accused her of being done with him once she had the answers she wanted. It seemed that he was displeased with the fact that she had shown interest in other people while he was right in front of her. But why?

‘Jealousy? But that doesn’t make sense, since his favorability isn’t even that high.’

Ariel carefully tried to guess his true feelings based on the situation. What could have made him angry enough to lose half a heart?

‘People in high positions usually have strong egos. Maybe he felt slighted, like I was brushing him off without realizing it.’

Noble arrogance, or maybe just personal pride and self-esteem. She figured that her indifferent behavior had probably bruised one of those things, triggering his anger. That seemed like the most plausible explanation.

But how was she supposed to smooth things over in a situation like this?

“Mmm…”

Ariel let out a soft groan, her eyes strained in concentration, her brows drew together in a frown from all the overthinking.

She had already been troubled about how to approach Racine, and now she had to figure out how to ease Lexius’s mood as well.

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ཐི༏ཋྀ ໒꒱ ˚₊ ୧‿︵

Lexius walked a quiet dirt path. Tall willows lined the way, and a shallow river ran alongside them, forming a serene and scenic landscape. It was a tranquil, almost poetic place. Only the distant call of birds and the soft murmur of the river broke the silence.

He came to an abrupt stop and gazed down at the water.

The river reflected the lush, dark greenery surrounding it, glowing with a soft green hue. It was the same river that wound around the academy and flowed all the way to the imperial capital. Its still surface was like a perfect mirror—calm, peaceful, nothing like the turmoil churning inside him.

Which only made his mood worse.

BOOOOM!

A deafening blast shattered the river’s glassy surface, sending a towering wall of water crashing upward like a tidal wave. The surging current roared toward where Lexius stood.

With an irritated flick of his hand—

BOOM!

The wave fractured into mist, steam hissing into the air. The heat sent droplets flying, falling back down like rain.

Lexius didn’t move as the spray drenched him. Cold water soaked his uniform in seconds, his wet red hair clinging to his forehead and cheeks.

“…Hah.”

He let out a long sigh. As the droplets trailed down from his hair down his face, the heat that had been burning in his head began to ease.

He had done a lot of things today that were out of character for him.

He had gotten overly sensitive to someone else’s indifference, lost his composure because of it, gotten angry at someone he had already decided to be lenient with, wasted magic by using teleportation in a fit of anger to escape from someone he could have easily outrun, and taken out his frustration by blowing up the river for no reason.

He went back over everything he had done. And from the very beginning, none of it made sense to him.

‘Did I get mad because Ariel was a little indifferent?’

Ha.

He let out a long breath, thick with disbelief. The whole chain of events seemed ridiculous from the start.

Strictly speaking, Ariel’s behavior today had been rude, given their difference in status. But it was rudeness he had allowed. The way she spoke casually and treated him lightly—it was all something he had overlooked before, even encouraged at times. If he hadn’t given her that freedom, she would have remained formal and polite, as always.

The only reason she had acted the way she did today was because he had made it okay.

It was strange that after letting everything slide until now, he had suddenly lost all patience today.

“Why did I do that?”

Lexius muttered bitterly to himself. He couldn’t believe he had gotten so petty over a moment when Ariel hadn’t paid attention to him.

He had always been generous and tolerant with people he chose to let close—that was one of his strengths. It was how he earned their respect, gained their trust, and ultimately, won their loyalty. Sure, it took time, but it always paid off in the end. Ariel was still someone he needed to invest that time in. Yet, instead of giving her that patience, he had lashed out at her on impulse.

‘This kind of behavior? I haven’t acted like this since I was a brat under ten.’

He pressed a hand to his forehead, frustration clouding his face.

All his years on the battlefield had taught him just how pointless it was to show emotion. Since he was fourteen, he had never once let himself truly get angry and never let his feelings burst out. But today? He had lost his temper and taken it out on something that had nothing to do with it.

‘Was I expecting something from her and feeling betrayed when I didn’t get it? Is that why I got so angry…’

In the middle of tearing through his own thoughts, he suddenly stopped cold. After all the mental digging, he had finally found the right answer.

As soon as the emotion started to define itself, a shiver ran down his spine.

‘I was expecting something… from her?’