After leaving the cafeteria, Liam made his way straight back to his room. Once inside his dorm, he released a slow, controlled breath as his fingers moved to unbutton the first two buttons of his shirt.
’Today was... more unstable than I expected,’ he thought inwardly as he sat down at the edge of his bed, his posture relaxed but his mind anything but. mories from the day surfaced one after another, uninvited and persistent.
’There was no reason for to react to Chris’s taunting,’ he continued, his expression tightening slightly. ’Yet I did. I moved before he even properly spoke to .’ His jaw clenched faintly. ’And even before that... I’d already been irritated. Subtly, constantly. But I never once figured out why.’
During the trial—more specifically when they had reached the mountain and begun planning their ascent—Liam rembered the sensation clearly. It hadn’t been anger, nor frustration directed at his friends. It was sothing else, sothing quieter and more persistent, like an itch beneath his skin. He hadn’t been annoyed at anyone in particular, yet he had been undeniably irritated, aware of it without understanding its source.
Then there was what happened at the summit. When they had prepared to descend and Chris had approached them with his usual smug intent, Liam had reacted in a way that felt foreign even now. He knew better than to waste effort on Chris and his lackeys. He knew they weren’t worth the ti, the energy, or the attention. And yet, he had confronted Chris openly, cutting him off before he had even finished speaking—before Liam himself had fully processed what was being said.
After returning to the academy, Liam had gone over the events again and again, trying to pinpoint exactly what had been gnawing at him so persistently. No matter how he approached it, he couldn’t find a clear answer. Eventually, an uncomfortable possibility surfaced in his thoughts—that remnants of Aesmirius’s nature were bleeding into his own.
He rembered all too well how easily the godlike being could beco irritated, the mories from the Mind Realm still vivid and disturbingly clear. Seen from that angle, it made sense. Aesmirius wasn’t truly gone yet. Even if he had claid that Liam would have full control over his own body, the truth remained that the being still existed within him—mind, body, and soul. With Aesmirius lingering as a tenant, it was only natural that traces of his temperant would begin to surface.
"Tch," Liam clicked his tongue softly, annoyance flickering across his face as he considered the thought. ’Even if that’s the case... what was bad enough to irritate him that much?’
He replayed the day once more in his mind, carefully dissecting each interaction, each mont of tension, each decision he had made. Still, he found nothing that seed worthy of provoking such a reaction—nothing that justified the level of irritation he’d felt. More accurately, nothing that justified irritating Aesmirius to that extent. Eventually, he let the thought go.
’Whatever it was,’ he concluded silently, ’I can’t feel it anymore.’ He leaned back slightly, resting his hands against the mattress. ’I’ll deal with it later.’
His gaze lowered, his expression growing more serious. ’And if this is how my traits and Aesmirius’s traits are going to start intertwining... then I’ll need to maintain even stronger control over myself.’ His eyes hardened with resolve. ’Because if I don’t, whatever happens in the future will make today look insignificant by comparison.’
Liam was pulled from his thoughts when he felt a subtle ripple in the air near the corner of his room, close to the door. His gaze shifted instinctively in that direction, and his eyes settled on Mabel as her form gradually solidified, the faint distortion around her fading as her invisibility spell wore off.
"Oh... hey, Mabel," Liam said evenly, his expression barely changing as he looked at her.
"Hi," Mabel replied with a slight bow of her head. "I hope you’re doing well."
"Yeah... to so degree," Liam answered calmly. After a brief pause, he added, "You’re here to take to the training hall, right?"
"Yes," Mabel said without hesitation. "As we agreed earlier this morning."
"Alright then," Liam replied as he rose smoothly to his feet. "Let’s get going."
Mabel acknowledged him with a small nod, and in the next mont, a portal blood to life beside her, its surface shimring with light.
"This way," she said evenly, gesturing toward it.
Liam walked forward without hesitation and stepped into the portal, his figure dissolving into its brilliant glow. Mabel followed imdiately after, and within seconds, the portal collapsed in on itself, leaving Liam’s room behind in complete silence.
***
Deep beneath the city of Grandeur, a portal flared into existence within a vast underground training hall. Liam stepped out first, with Mabel erging right behind him.
The mont his feet touched the ground, Liam began taking in his surroundings, his eyes scanning the massive, empty space. The sheer scale of the hall registered quickly—uncannily similar to the training hall he had once used within the royal palace.
As he continued to look around, his gaze landed on a translucent crystal embedded into a tal stand near the center of the hall. It was identical in function to the one he rembered from the palace—a crystal capable of generating whatever was requested of it, from training dummies to weapons and equipnt.
’This place really is a copy of the royal palace’s training hall,’ he noted inwardly as he took a few slow steps forward. ’And it’s underground too... just like before.’
"So," Liam said calmly, still surveying the area, "are we still in Grandeur City?"
"Yes, we are," Mabel replied. "More specifically, we’re beneath the eastern district."
"The eastern district?" Liam muttered, glancing over his shoulder at her as mories stirred—mories of what had transpired there a year ago, involving blood and demons beneath the city streets.
"Yes," Mabel said evenly. "Mystica ordered this facility to be constructed here. It was ant to serve as a reminder of what you did in this area that night."
Liam stopped and fully turned to face her. "Wait... you know about that?" he asked calmly.
"Well, yes," Mabel replied without hesitation. "There’s a classified report on you, stored among the kingdom’s most sensitive records. Her Majesty had review it once. So I’m aware of what you did during your first months at the academy."
"I see," Liam murmured. "Then this classified report... how many Corps mbers have access to it?"
"Just ," Mabel answered. "The others received a report as well, but it contains far less information than the classified version. So you don’t need to worry about too many people knowing your business."
"I’m not worried," Liam said calmly. "I just wanted to know." He turned his attention back to the training hall, his gaze sharpening slightly.
Watching him, Mabel hesitated before speaking again. "Are you really planning to train after the kind of day you’ve had?" she asked, her tone neutral, devoid of concern.
Liam glanced back at her over his shoulder. "Wait... were you in the forest during the trial?"
"Yes," Mabel replied evenly. "I was."
A brief pause followed before she added, "It’s my duty to watch over you, after all."
Liam held her gaze for a brief mont before speaking again, his expression unchanged, voice steady as ever. "That makes sense, I suppose," he said calmly, as though he were acknowledging a simple fact rather than sothing personal. "So you saw everything that happened out there, then?"
"Yes, I did," Mabel replied without hesitation, her tone composed. "And I have to say, you and your friends put on quite a display for a group that wasn’t allowed to use Myst at all. Especially that descent. It was reckless, extrely dangerous even, but sohow you all managed to pull it off." She paused briefly, then added, more honestly than she perhaps intended, "I was genuinely impressed."
Liam let out a quiet hum, the sound low and thoughtful. "Well... thank you," he said. After a short pause, he shifted, turning fully toward her this ti, his red eyes settling on her with an intent that felt heavier than before. "And while we’re at it, there’s sothing else I wanted to say." His voice didn’t waver. "I wanted to apologize for last night."
The words caught Mabel completely off guard. She flinched before she could stop herself, her shoulders tensing as she stared at him. It took her a mont to recover enough to speak. "What are you talking about?" she asked, confusion slipping into her voice despite her attempt to sound calm.
"Don’t pretend you don’t know," Liam said evenly, not unkind, but firm. "You know exactly what I an. I’m apologizing for my unnecessary irritation toward you yesterday. There was no real reason for to be annoyed, yet I was. That reaction was unjustified." He inclined his head slightly, a restrained bow that still carried weight. "So... I’m sorry."
Mabel’s eyes widened as she stared at him, clearly stunned by how openly—and how seriously—he was saying all of this. For a brief mont, she could only look at him, searching his face as if expecting so hidden motive to surface. Then she inhaled slowly and steadied herself before responding.
"There’s really no need for you to apologize to ," she said at last. "If anything, I crossed a line yesterday. I think your annoyance was understandable, even justified."
Liam straightened and looked at her again, studying her expression. "You really do have a talent for making things more complicated than they need to be," he said evenly.
The words made Mabel flinch again, though this ti she didn’t look away.
"If I didn’t believe I had a reason to apologize, I wouldn’t have done it," Liam continued calmly. "And no, you didn’t cross a line yesterday. My reaction was... sothing I didn’t understand at the ti. Truthfully, I still don’t." His gaze sharpened slightly. "But I do know that it wasn’t the correct reaction."
Mabel fell silent, watching him closely. This is the second ti, she thought, her mind racing despite her outward composure. The first was what he did with Aesmirius to save my life... and now this. Her eyes softened just a little as she studied him. What exactly is happening to you, Liam?
After a mont, she finally spoke. "Alright," she said calmly. "I accept your apology. And I won’t hold what happened yesterday against you either."
"Thank you," Liam replied, giving another slight bow of his head. Then he lifted his gaze once more, expression as composed as ever. "There’s one more thing," he added. "I have a favor to ask."
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