Amelia Lionheart
It had been a few days since Amy had enrolled at the academy, and so far, her time had been anything but nice — most times, at least. The academy had created a list of all the new cadets, ranking them based on how likely they were to survive their first ascent. Not surprisingly, she was ranked last. While the other Seers occupied the top three spots, Kalon and Dick were both somewhere in the middle — maybe leaning a bit toward the end.
There were many criteria for deciding the cadets' placements on the ranking, beyond just their abilities. Some included potential, charisma, and relationships.
Amy's family was shocked to learn that she had placed last. After all, she was from the Lionheart Clan, the direct descendants of the Leo constellation. Even if she wasn't first, her family had no doubts she would be in the top ten, as her parents and older siblings were. But now, she was considered a stain on her family's honour.
After being depressed for a while, Amy decided to go make some friends and be productive. She washed up, put on a pretty dress, and started getting ready to leave her dorm room before a thought crossed her mind: "Maybe I can get a boyfriend now." The thought instantly improved her mood.
As a member of the Lionheart Clan, Amy had never been allowed to "waste time on something as irrelevant as dating." She had been forced to train for her eventual enlightenment until she was older — and even when she reached adulthood, she wouldn't marry someone she loved, but someone chosen by her clan. The thought of being free now that the clan wanted nothing to do with her was surprisingly refreshing, unfortunately fate had other plans in store for her.
Amy left her dorm and wandered around for a while, trying to start conversations with people, but continuosly failing. No one wanted to talk to her, and everyone seemed to have already established their friend groups.
From her peripheral vision, Amy spotted a young girl sitting alone reading a novel and approached her.
"Hi, I'm Ame—"
The girl instantly stood up and shoved her to the side. staring at her with loathing and disgust she said;
"I know who you are. And don't ever talk to me again."
Her attempts at conversation had not exactly been fruitful, but this one made her consider giving up. Then she saw a boy walking alone. He was strolling casually with both hands in his pockets, as if he didn't have a care in the world. He had bright red hair, jade-green eyes, and a subtle smile playing across his face.
Of course, she recognised him. He was one of the two boys who had sat across from her at the induction ceremony a few days ago. He looked exactly the same — calm, detached, and completely unbothered by the looming start of classes.
Steeling herself, Amy walked up to him and introduced herself.
Rather than walking away, he turned to face her and smiled. Amy almost fell backward — she hadn't expected such a positive reaction.
"I'm Dick. Wanna be friends?"
That was how she made her first friend — and one day, her greatest enemy.
For two days, Amy and Dick continued to hang out nonstop. Today, however, Dick said he had to leave early to help his other friend, Kalon, with something important. Amy, who was enjoying their time together, blurted out without thinking,
"I can come too!"
While she immediately regretted her careless suggestion, Dick considered it for a moment before simply saying,
"Okay. I told him about you anyway."
Following closely behind Dick, they walked to the dorm buildings for the cadets in the middle rankings — the higher their rank, the better their rooms were. After a couple of floors, they finally reached the one they were looking for.
As they approached the door, Amy suddenly felt uneasy. Something was wrong. She activated her ability, [Dream Eye], but she still couldn't figure out the source of the unease she felt.
After knocking on the door, Dick stood silently for a moment, staring at it as if considering something. Then, a weak voice spoke from inside the room.
"Come in."
Dick turned to Amy again and said, in his soothing and relaxing voice,
"Don't worry, he's really nice."
After saying that, he opened the door and entered the room, with Amy trailing right behind him.
The weak voice spoke again:
"Dick, Amy — how are you guys? Ahh, wait… you're Amy, right? I'm Kalon."
Amy stared at the boy with fear. She had seen him before, she had felt how the shadows grew darker around him. She also noticed that he himself had no shadow. But even with her ability, she hadn't seen anything else.
Now, however, with her [Dream Eye] still active, she saw nothing when she looked at Kalon.
No, there was something. There was something so dark it was almost invisible right next to the shadows that swirled within him, but it was different from them. it was...
"Something darker than shadows…"
That was her last thought as she fell into the warm embrace of darkness.