A young girl slept beneath the shade of a tree, its branches gently filtering the light above her.
She was dressed in a white, long-sleeved polo beneath a blue robe with a gold badge of magical staff, paired with a short skirt... A simple attire, yet unmistakably that of a magic academy student.
Her eyes slowly fluttered open, revealing pupils clouded in a pale, hazy white.
She was blind.
Even so, she was counted among the academy's talents, held in the highest regard despite her physical disability.
Her name was Nimue—a young girl of common birth, raised in the rural outskirts far from the heart of the kingdom.
As she stirred from her nap, the filtered sunlight softened her features, enhancing the youthful charm of her face. There was something quietly dazzling about her—an unassuming beauty that drew the eye without effort.
"Mue!!"
As she slowly rose to her feet, a voice shouted from afar.
Nimue turned her head toward the sound.
There, was Noah running towards her, one of her classmates and a close friend.
An average-looking boy with nothing particularly striking about him—except that he was one of the very few capable of wielding mana.
In response to his call, Nimue smiled and waved her hand—a silent gesture that spoke a simple "Hello."
"Why are you here?" she asked the boy, who now stood before her with a wide grin.
"I should be the one asking that," he said. "Are you just going to sleep here and miss the party?"
She nodded. "That's right... You know I don't really enjoy lively events like parties."
"But still," he said, grinning. "This is a yearly thing. Come on."
Being dragged along wasn't exactly pleasant, but Nimue couldn't get angry.
As her good friend, Noah had a way of making even inconveniences feel endearing. She even caught a faint resemblance of someone from her past life in him.
Nimue hadn't always been the girl she was now.
It had been ten years since an accident triggered memories of her past life.
And in that past life, there was this girl who kept him smiling, someone who was there even when he was bullied by other kids in the orphanage that he very much despises. She was the only person that he considers a true friend from her past life... that is until she was adopted by a wealthy family and vanished from her world.
Even now, Nimue silently wished that girl had lived a good life... unlike herself, who was already living her second.
Just as they reached the school gates, Nimue thought she felt a faint tremor as they passed through.
But seeing that no one else seemed to notice, she dismissed it, unwilling to overthink something that was probably nothing.
They soon arrived at the main hall of the magic academy, where hundreds of students had already gathered, watching the graceful figure of the one known as ice princess.
"Look, she's so pretty..."
Whispers of praise spread through the crowd as the main attraction of the event displayed her magic with flawless grace.
Noah, who couldn't even begin to replicate the trick she was performing, watched in awe—just like everyone else.
Her long white hair swayed with the wind, and wherever she stepped, a delicate trail of ice followed.
It was like watching a queen of ice drawing a masterpiece upon an empty canvas.
Today was the Year of the Star—at least, that was how Nimue translated it in Earth terms.
By her reckoning, today would have been Christmas. Here, however, it was called Origin's Day.
A celebration marking the beginning—the birth of life itself.
The day was supposed to end peacefully, with nothing out of the ordinary.
But just as the performance came to an end, time itself seemed to freeze.
The crowd fell silent and everyone stood motionless.
Even the falling confetti halted midair. Leaves caught in the wind stopped where they were, and the drifting clouds above remained fixed in place.
Nimue noticed immediately.
Yet despite being fully conscious, she found herself unable to move a single part of her body.
—What's going on?—
The question echoed uselessly in her mind.
That was when the space itself split apart.
A strange opening — like a crack carved into reality — slowly widened until a figure stepped through.
A man-shaped silhouette formed entirely of darkness, wreathed in black flames.
In this time frozen world, only he and those flames were moving.
—Who is that? What is that?—
Nimue could only watch as the figure moved freely, unbound by whatever held the rest of the world still.
It seemed to examine the students. Looking at them with keen interest... Then suddenly
"Interesting..." it spoke.
The figure turned its head towards her.
"How very interesting."
It reached its burning fingers toward her and the last thing she heard was "What Are You?"