"You should first ask yourself… which ones betrayed him."
That phrase from Geri clung to me like an invisible bite.I carried it silently in the corridors of my mind, unable to push it away, unable to fully understand it.
The silence of the room was heavy.Even the darkness seemed to retreat before the contours of the words I had just read.The notebook lay beside me, as if it still breathed Kim's breath.His secrets.His fears.
I had found only one legible passage, amidst torn or empty pages:
"…they think I don't know. But I do. It's not an ordinary pact. It's not an animal. It's… something else. A disguised Nemesis."
I turned to Geri.
"Did you know what Kim was writing? What he suspected?"
No answer.
Even his silence had changed.He was no longer simply distant — he was tense. As if he too was searching for something, hidden in the margins of memory.
Night took me without warning, like a cold veil.
The dream came shapeless. Then, it became pain.
A black ground. White rain.I ran, or maybe it was Kim.
Voices behind me. A familiar laugh.A figure turns — a boy with black hair, a clear smile.
Matteo.
And behind him, the blade.And me, betrayed.
I fell to my knees. A dull sound in my chest.Someone screamed. Me? Him?And in the shadows around, a whisper:
"Even she lies."
Then the face of a girl. Her warm smile. Too gentle.A name I could not grasp.
And the void.
I woke with a start, breath short, body covered in cold sweat.
The nightmare. Again.But it was not my nightmare.It was his. Kim's. And yet... I felt it in my bones, like a personal memory.
I got up, restless, deciding to search the room more thoroughly.
But there was nothing. No hidden compartments. No secret writings.Only this room, heavy with someone else's past.And me, trapped inside it.
I left the room at dawn, the air still thick with mist.The hallway smelled of metal, damp stone, and morning enchantments.
That's when I saw him.
A noble boy, sharp cut, impeccable uniform.His eyes met mine with a familiar gleam. Hatred.
He approached, slow steps.
"Kim."
His voice dragged the name like an insult.
"How long do you plan to keep playing your little game?"
I frowned."I think you're mistaken."
"No, I'm not." He clenched his fists. "You humiliated me. In duel. In public. By trickery. And now you act like nothing happened?"
I was about to back away, avoid it. But something — a foreign impulse — took over.My lips moved without my consent.
"You were already defeated before you raised your sword. You never understood why."
I froze. That phrase wasn't mine.It had surfaced from somewhere — Kim, or Geri, or that dark link I was only beginning to sense.
The noble growled in rage and raised his hand.A magic circle ignited.An attack.
I had no time to think.An ancient movement guided my body.My arm rose, a fragment of shadow twisted around my fingers.A breath. An invisible explosion.
The student's attack was deflected with a sharp crack.
We stood there, sizing each other up, gasping.And I understood: something had protected me.
I didn't know if it was Kim's instinct.Or Geri's invisible hand.But I was not alone.
Later, in the regained calm, I murmured:
"Geri. Who were Kim's comrades? The real ones. Those he trusted."
A long silence. Then a slow, worn voice:
"That's the right question. But to answer it… you must be ready to see what he refused to believe."