"How… How is this possible…?" Remington was the first person to speak after the grand reveal, shook by the unexpected turn of events.
"My dad said that it's a simple birthmark," Melodie said with candor, slightly afraid that the two guys would think he was lying.
Melodie let down his shirt and relaxed a little bit, seeing that the intent to kill him in their eyes was slowly going away.
"A simple birthmark of what?" Aslan impatiently questioned, the dying flames of the fireball hovering on his palm crackled.
"Of nothing. It's just that—a birthmark," Melodie defended his statement, attempting to get up from the floor.
A few of his body parts hurt because of Aslan's previous manhandling, but he was still able to make it up to his feet without any sound of pain escaping from his mouth.
His brown eyes were glossy with tears as he rubbed his wrists against his pants, trying to create any sort of friction that could distract him from thinking about silly things.
"Your dad knows about it, then?" Remington asked Melodie, moving to stand up from the sickbed.
Melodie nodded in response, then shyly asked, "I– the two of you weren't born with it?"
"Of course not. That dungeon. It fucking did this to us," Aslan responded through gritted teeth, squeezing his fist, finally extinguishing the fireball.
"Since you have it too…" Remington began to say, inching closer to Melodie. His movements were so smooth that it made Melodie's throat go dry.
Before Melodie could open his mouth to speak, Remington was already standing right in front of him and lifting up his shirt without permission.
"What are you- hah!" Melodie let out a gasp mid-sentence as Remington's extremely cold fingers made contact with his skin.
Remington circled the symbol on Melodie's abdomen and it seemed to come alive fully, glowing brighter. Melodie began to feel strange; as though there was something moving inside his body, but the feeling came to an end the second Remington retracted his fingers.
"It's real," Remington almost stumbled as he moved backwards, away from Melodie.
"Of course, it's real. I've had it since I was born," Melodie said without thinking, almost sounding proud of the symbol that came into this world with him.
"And it hasn't done anything to you? What's your Class?" Aslan began to inquire, annoyed at the slow pace of gathering information.
"Hm, the birthmark has always been there. It only glows… sometimes. It doesn't hurt or affect me in any way. And I'm an ordinary human." Melodie said, his volume dropped and went up again after he told a lie.
At Melodie's last sentence, both Aslan's and Remington's eyes widened with shock. Previously, they had believed that Melodie was perhaps a C or D-Class Guide. They never thought he was an ordinary human being.
How could they? Gifted Academy was a school for the gifted. How could an ordinary human gain admission into it?
"Then, what are the conditions for the symbol to glow?" Remington moved over the fact that Melodie was an ordinary human pretty quickly.
He didn't care much about Melodie, actually.
Melodie bit down on his bottom lip, an unpleasant memory flashed in his mind. He repressed it as fast as he could.
"I don't really know. It's just really random. Like now that it's glowing, I don't know why." Melodie kept his gaze on the floor as he spoke, his voice low and somewhat unsteady.
"Are you sure?" Aslan asked with a skeptical tone.
Melodie nodded and slowly lifted his head. There was a shaky smile on his lips as he said, "Mhm, I'm sure."
"Well, then. This is odd. Ours showed up after defeating the dungeon's boss." Remington gave out information freely.
Inside a dungeon, there was always a supreme being that ruled over the pocket dimension. Once that being was defeated, the dungeon would close up and disappear from the world. But one could also choose to replace the being and become the dungeon's boss, hence sustaining and ruling over the dungeon.
Remington and Aslan had stayed in the A-Class dungeon for a full week. Student dungeon analysts had concluded that the dungeon was either too spacious or the boss was too powerful.
From the dismissive tone that Remington used to speak just now, it was clear to Melodie that the dungeon's boss hadn't given them much trouble. So why had they remained in the dungeon for so long and what made them return with symbols etched to their skin?
Melodie didn't hide away his curiosity, openly asking, "How come it took a week for the two of you to come out from the dungeon?"
'And what made Remington go into a rampage?' A second question came to Melodie's head.
Melodie, though unaware, had gotten past the initial awe that he felt in the presence of his idols and was now able to speak well without fear or hesitation.
"The boss was hidden for a while and we had to lure him out with time. We ended up exerting a bit too much energy," Aslan said vaguely in contrast to Remington's openness.
"Oh…" Melodie said, knowing that he wouldn't be getting anymore information from the two of them.
"The three of us have this symbol now, so it must mean something. We have to do more research about it. You're an ordinary human, the symbol might not have any effect on you. Aslan and I are both Espers, it might have effects on us,"
"We can't use your experience with it to assure ourselves. For now, we shouldn't tell anyone else about it because people might assume that we're cursed." Remington spoke with a reasonable tone.
Aslan sneered and said, "What if we are cursed?"
Melodie's stomach churned uneasily. His dad had always assured him that it was a simple birthmark and only appeared to be otherworldly because he was a special kid.
Melodie never believed he was special in any way since he didn't have any abilities. His father had never actually told him how he was special, only that he was.
What if his father had lied to him? What if it wasn't a simple symbol? No way. It couldn't be.
'Dad would never lie to me,' Melodie thought firmly. He could lie to anyone else but not him.
"Stop talking nonsense, Aslan. We should observe ourselves for a specific period of time and note any changes our bodies undergo before we come to any conclusion." Remington looked at Aslan with a stern expression on his face.
Aslan's features were still filled with scorn as he said, "Whatever."
"What about him?" Aslan redirected the focus to Melodie.
Melodie wet his lips, scratching his wrist against his pants. "What about me?"
"He's going to be part of the observation period too."