Lana listened carefully, still surprised she was learning such details only now.
Just then, the staff doctor looked up. "Please sit down."
Lana obeyed, sitting on the examination chair while the doctor began applying dicine. The cool ointnt stung slightly, carrying a bitter herbal scent.
As Lana’s gaze wandered absentmindedly around the room, it suddenly fixed on sothing familiar.
A glowing gel.
Her eyes sharpened.
"That is the sa substance the girl in the bathroom had..."
She imdiately looked at the doctor. "Can you lend that gel?"
The doctor paused, then smiled beneath her mask. Though her face was hidden, her eyes curved gently.
"Of course. I even have extra. You may take a sample if you wish."
Lana nodded quickly. When the container was placed into her hands, she felt its faint warmth and saw the strange luminescence swirling inside.
She wanted to open it imdiately.
But rembering the doctor was still watching, she restrained herself.
Instead, she waited until she reached her own car before opening it.
The mont the lid lifted, Lana froze.
A heartbeat later, she let out a sharp gasp and shoved the glowing gel away from her as though it had burned her.
The container slid across the leather seat, leaving a faint sar behind as she pushed it as far as she could.
There was raw fear in her eyes, the kind that ca from instinct rather than thought.
Axel, startled by her sudden reaction, turned toward her. "What happened?"
Lana pointed at the gel, her fingers trembling slightly. Her face twisted with unmistakable disgust. "There are bugs."
Axel frowned deeply. He leaned over from the driver’s seat, struggling slightly to reach the container because of the awkward angle between them.
The car was silent except for the faint ticking of the cooling engine.
When he finally lifted it and looked inside, his expression darkened.
To an ordinary person, the cream looked perfectly normal, smooth, white, and harmless.
But Axel and Lana were not ordinary.
Through their awakened third sight, the truth revealed itself.
Inside the cream were countless tiny white insects, layered so densely that the substance itself seed to be made of them.
They were not moving, yet their presence was unmistakable, packed together in a nauseating stillness that made the skin crawl.
It looked less like dicine and more like sothing grown.
Even Axel felt revulsion rise in his chest. Without hesitation, he threw the container out of the car window. His face turned grave.
Lana took several monts to recover, her breathing uneven before she finally managed to speak.
"I want to leave. I want to return to Shadowridge University."
Axel did not argue.
"We will," he replied imdiately. "This place is not safe."
He glanced toward the road ahead, his voice low.
"Whatever is happening here, that cream would have played a role in it. I am certain of that."
Lana nodded silently.
With that decision made, Axel resolved to submit withdrawal requests for all the exchange students the next day.
The engine started with a soft growl, and they drove away from the campus.
Lana still felt deeply unsettled. She removed the jade bracelet from her wrist, rembering that when she had recoiled earlier, a bit of the cream had splashed onto it.
The thought alone made her stomach twist.
She imdiately passed the jade bracelet to her uncle and asked him to have it cleaned thoroughly.
Only after that did she feel even a trace of relief.
That night, when Lana returned to her room, an unusual heaviness settled over her body.
She felt overwhelmingly sleepy, as though exhaustion had been waiting for her all day.
Perhaps a routine had ford without her realizing it, and her body had grown accustod to proper rest.
Once she closed her eyes, she expected to dream of Luciana again.
But the dream that ca was entirely different.
In the dream, she saw Axel.
He was running. Running toward her.
For so reason, she could not see herself, yet she instinctively knew he was rushing toward her position.
Just as she tried to ask what was happening, Axel suddenly raised his hand. A blinding light burst from his palm and pressed against her forehead.
The world shattered into whiteness.
When her vision returned, Axel was lying on the ground.
Blood seeped from the corner of his lips.
Her eyes widened in horror as she rushed toward him, shaking her head desperately. "Axel! What happened?"
There was no response.
His breathing was slowing.
Fear swallowed her whole. She began shouting for help, her voice echoing into emptiness, yet no one ca. Not a single figure appeared.
Her heart sank.
’This... this has to be a nightmare.’
The mont that thought surfaced, sothing clicked in her mind.
She began repeating it aloud, almost pleading with reality itself. "It is a dream. This is just a dream. It is a dream."
As if obeying her insistence, the scene blurred and dissolved.
Lana jolted awake.
Her heart pounded violently against her ribs, and for a mont, she almost ran out of bed to check on Axel. The fear felt too real, too vivid to dismiss.
But she forced herself to stop, clenching her fists tightly. ’I am overreacting... It was only a dream.’
She looked toward Mr. Crow, hoping he was awake and could calm her.
He was asleep. That alone startled her.
Mr. Crow almost never slept, yet now he rested quietly, his presence unusually still. He must have been recovering from the earlier battle.
How could she wake him?
So she remained silent. But silence did not comfort her. It made everything worse.
The deeper the night grew, the heavier her fear beca.
It was common knowledge that fear magnified in darkness, and even though she was a mystic cultivator with telepathic defenses, unease gnawed at her relentlessly.
Just as her anxiety began to spiral, her phone, set to silent, started vibrating on the bedside table.
The sudden sound made her flinch.
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