‘I think I’ll just wait here since he’s going to wake up soon,’ she thought as she approached Seth’s bed.

Whatever the nurse gave him seemed to work quickly as his expression looked slightly more relaxed.

As her eyes followed his chest movement, rising and falling in a calm and rhythmic motion, she couldn’t help but fall deep in thought and space out.

Something about Seth had intrigued her since their first meeting. She knew what she had felt that day, however since then, she hadn’t been able to find it again. She had tried not to think too much about it, presuming she might have made a mistake.

‘Now you show up to the tournament faking your identity and not only make it to the third phase without an ability but even catch the interest of Executioner Leywin. You sure are a weird one,’ Stella thought as her curiosity grew

Just then, she noticed that she had been staring at Seth’s face for too long and her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. She quickly stepped away from the bed but Seth’s face kept popping back into her mind. She could feel the blush creeping back to her cheeks as she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

‘What was that?!’ she thought, trying to calm herself down.

Still embarrassed, she decided to sit on a chair and wait for Seth to wake up.

While she waited, she got comfortable on the chair. She hadn’t noticed but due to the training and her recent injuries, Stella’s body was exhausted, so it wasn’t long enough before she started getting drowsy.

Just as she was falling asleep she heard movement coming from Seth’s bed and opened her eyes. She saw Seth sitting on the bed, looking outside the window.

She stretched, trying to push the drowsiness away, got up, and walked toward Seth’s bed.

“You finally woke up. Luckily I was able to spot you and bring you to the high-grade medical wing,” Stella said in a teasing tone, trying to get Seth’s attention. “No need to thank me.”

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Seth slowly turned around and their eyes met.

DOOOOOM!

Stella instinctively took a step back as she channeled energy through her body and activated her ability. Seth’s eyes didn’t look anything like before, they were emotionless, devoid of any light, and yet, menacing.

Stella felt like his gaze was directly stabbing her soul.

Seth blinked a couple of times and his eyes returned to normal. Stella also felt the dark aura that had filled the room suddenly disappear as she was finally able to breathe again.

“Hey Stella,” Seth said with a tired smile.

‘Did I just imagine all that?’ Stella thought, confused, ‘that feeling, it felt similar to that day.’ The whole thing had lasted less than a second so she doubted herself. Looking at Seth now, he didn’t seem to look any different than usual, just tired. However, after looking into his eyes she was able to see a faint hint of sadness.

She considered brushing off all the thoughts that plagued her mind and just going on like nothing happened but she couldn’t. She had so many questions she didn’t know where to start, or even if she should be asking. In the end, only one was able to come out of her mouth.

“Are you okay?” she asked, concerned.

The question took Seth by surprise. He looked away, avoiding Stella’s eyes.

“I’m fine,” he said, dismissing the question.

Stella approached the bed, searching his gaze.

“You’re lying,” she said as she looked into his eyes, discerning a deep sadness to them that became more evident.

“I-” he suddenly stopped.

He looked away and laid on the bed again.

“I’m still feeling tired, so I’m going to sleep a little more”

Stella decided not to push it any further and turned around to leave, but she stopped midway to the door.

“The third phase will start the day after tomorrow, I’ll be rooting for you, just… make sure not to overdo yourself,” she said before walking out of the room.

Seth tried to fall asleep, but every time he closed his eyes the memories popped off again, keeping him awake.

Stella closed the door and let out a sigh before walking away.

She was walking down the hallway, lost in thought, when Executioner Leywin appeared in front of her.

“Why looking so down? Didn’t they let you bring your friend to the high-grade medical wing?” she asked.

Stella saluted Executioner Leywin with a small bow before talking.

“Sorry Executioner, I’m just lost in thought.”

“Hmm? What happened?”

Stella proceeded to tell her about the feeling she got from Seth the first time they met and the incident when he woke up, she made sure to leave out the fact that Seth had entered the tournament with a fake name since she didn’t want to get him in trouble.

“I see… It’s such a tragedy for a boy to have such eyes.”

“What do you mean?”

“The eyes that you described, are the eyes of a person who has witnessed their close ones being murdered.”

Stella was shocked.

“How would that be possible? Murder as a crime is basically non-existent across all cities of the New World. Unless…”

“The Horizon City attack,” Executioner Leywin completed Stella’s train of thought. “He’s one of the survivors. It’s probable one or both of his parents were killed during the attack, right in front of him.”