The Academy of Luminar looked serene from the outside — marble towers gleaming under a sky too perfect to be real. Inside, though, the air carried a quiet tension. Whispers followed Rei Asakura wherever he walked.
Students kept their distance. Some stared, curious, others fearful, but most avoided eye contact. After all, the "System-Rejected" boy had become a living rumor — the one whose presence dulled desire, whose gaze made enchantments crumble.
He didn't care.
For the first time in his life, he felt peace in their avoidance.
During the lectures, he listened half-heartedly, eyes scanning the floating glyphs that streamed above the instructor's podium. Every symbol, every pulse of light — he watched how they connected, how emotions were encoded into data fields.
If feelings could be programmed, they could also be erased.
That night, Rei snuck into the Archive Wing. His provisional pass allowed limited access, but the locks on the inner chamber recognized something else within him — the anomaly that the System itself couldn't categorize. With a whisper of static, the door opened.
Rows of crystalline pillars stretched into infinity, each containing fragments of memory — laughter, affection, devotion — harvested emotions powering the Academy's core network.
Rei placed a hand on one pillar. A warmth bled into his palm, and he heard faint voices:
> "I love you."
"I'll always stay by your side."
"For the goddess."
He withdrew his hand sharply.
"Artificial affection," he muttered. "They're feeding on it."
Behind him, a faint sound — soft footsteps. He turned, his blade materializing in a heartbeat.
Aria stood in the doorway, moonlight outlining her figure. "I knew you'd come here," she said.
"Then you should've stayed away."
"I can't," she replied. "You're being watched. Every move, every word. They implanted a tracker in your access band."
Rei raised an eyebrow. "Then you shouldn't be here either."
"I disabled the feed," she said, voice trembling. "But only for a few minutes. Tell me what you're doing."
Rei looked at the sea of glowing memories. "This isn't just magic. It's control. The System feeds on emotions — collects and redistributes them to keep everyone obedient. Love, loyalty, faith... all coded loops."
Aria stared at him. "That's impossible."
He met her eyes. "Then why do people stop feeling when I'm near?"
She had no answer.
For a moment, silence filled the chamber — then alarms flared crimson. The feed was reactivated.
Rei grabbed Aria's wrist. "Too late. Move."
They sprinted through the hall as mechanical sentinels awoke, their eyes burning white. Rei swung his black blade, the energy slicing through the air with a ripple that shattered illusions and data alike.
When they reached the outer corridor, Aria stopped, gasping. "You can't fight them all!"
"I don't need to," he said, pushing her toward the exit. "I just need to show them I'm not part of their script."
With one final strike, Rei unleashed a pulse that cut the alarm's core signal — the entire Archive Wing went dark.
For a second, the world stood still.
— — —
Far away, inside the luminous void of the System's Core, the administrator paused mid-analysis. Her console flickered — an unauthorized emotional field had nullified local control.
"Impossible," she whispered. "He severed a synchronization node."
The shadow beside her appeared again. "Perhaps the System underestimated human will."
"No," she murmured, narrowing her digital eyes. "It's not human will. It's rejection. He exists in the absence of emotional law. That shouldn't be possible… unless—"
Her hand froze over the code stream. There, buried deep in the System's roots, was a fragment older than the goddess herself — a record labeled 'Prototype 00: REI'.
The administrator's voice trembled. "He… was part of the foundation code?"
The shadow smiled faintly. "Maybe the one thing the System fears isn't corruption… but its own beginning."
She stared at the data until her image flickered, uncertainty crossing her perfect face.
— — —
Back in the waking world, Rei looked at the silent city below, the moon reflected in his blade.
Aria approached, still shaken. "What now?"
He turned toward her. "Now? I stop pretending."
"What do you mean?"
Rei's eyes glowed faintly. "If this world feeds on love... then maybe hate is
the only thing left that's still mine."
The wind howled as he vanished into the shadows.