The following morning, I woke up early. Though not as early as usual, it was still considered pretty early for a Saturday. I went through a simplified routine and put on some casual clothes before leaving my dorm room. As I left, I bumped into a few students who were either preparing to leave the dorms or going to the training floor. Since the start of the week, I had avoided the dorm’s training facilities because I didn’t want to meet Tim or any of his friends, but I would eventually need to go there. If I wanted to become stronger, I had to sweat like all the other students.

With that out of mind, I left the academy and went to a familiar restaurant. It was the same one where I met Precious, but this time, I was meeting up with Lily. I entered the restaurant and searched for her with my eyes, but as if she already knew, she was already looking at me from a short distance inside. I didn’t know if it was fate or a funny coincidence, but she was sitting in the same place where I'd found Precious last time.

“Hey.”

“Hello.”

I gave a casual greeting and Lily returned it with a smile. The primary reason she had never contacted me this past week was to hide our relationship from prying eyes. Even in my past life, she knew it would cause trouble if people knew we were related, so she tried to keep as little contact as possible. But this time around, I didn't think it would really be necessary.

“It’s rare for you to be the first to call. Did you miss me that much?”

She playfully asked as she sucked on some soda through a plastic straw. I just smiled without responding, and her face flushed red in embarrassment. Before regressing, it had already been a year since I last saw her. The situation with the Dragnok family was a complete mess during the war. Perhaps similar to Lily in this regard, the head of the Dragnok family was extremely reckless.

“Well, I have my reasons. You got my text, right?”

Lily frowned at my sour response and replied with a sharp tone,

“Yeah, the one about boss—kehum, I mean Precious?”

She corrected herself midway, and I retorted with squinted eyes,

“Boss?”

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“W-well, she forces us to call her that. Anyway, what do you want to know? Why are you so interested in someone like her?”

I never imagined Precious as someone who would flaunt her authority like that, but at the same time, I acknowledged just how little I knew about her. Though beyond that, why the hell was Lily calling her that too? As Precious had said, she'd heard about me from Lily herself, so maybe they were already pretty close.

“I have my reasons, so what can you tell me about her?”

“You sure have a lot of reasons today. Other than her terrible personality, I couldn’t find anything regarding her abilities,” she said in an annoyed tone, making me rethink my earlier assumption about the two of them being friends.

“Well, that’s a problem. What about your authority?”

Lily’s eyes could see beyond our normal plane of existence, and yet…

“I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

She replied with a look of concern. She could probably sense that there was something special about Precious but felt uneasy when her own eyes betrayed that expectation. Looking at her furrowed brows, as if she was trying to think of something, an ominous thought suddenly reached my mind as I voiced my thoughts out loud,

“Hey, Lily.” She looked up at me with anticipation in her eyes, and I made sure to analyze her reaction as I asked,

“Is Precious stronger than you?”

She flinched at my question, but the answer came even quicker.

“I’m stronger, there’s no doubt.”

I didn’t know whether or not to believe her words, but she at least seemed confident of her claim. Since Precious died during her time at the academy, I wasn't able to remember anything regarding her powers. Lily’s authority on the other hand was special; special in the fact that it could transcend the limitation of ranks and give her a decent chance even against stronger opponents, but what about Precious?

“Well, since we’ll start combat training next week, try to keep your eyes on her.”

“Sure, but is there some special reason for this?” she asked cautiously, looking into my eyes as if trying to pry into my mind.

“She seems like a dangerous individual, so I want to keep an eye on her.”

“Uh. Yeah, right.”

She didn't seem to believe my words but reluctantly agreed to my request. After that, we started to catch up on things we did throughout the week and an hour flew by like nothing.

“Ah, so you are the leader now?”

“Yeah, I worked very hard to—”

Ding~!

The sound of a synchronized notification cut me off as both our cell phones rang unexpectedly. We stared at each other in confusion before grabbing them and checking the contents. It was likely an urgent message from the academy. I looked at the notification, and my heart immediately sank the moment I read the message.

“What the… fuck?”

The words slipped from my mouth before any thoughts could properly form. I could feel my blood pumping through my head as I read the message again and again, yet it remained the same.

[Dear student, first-year high class-C, student Dante Eliv has been found dead in his dorm room. Everyone is to return to their dorms immediately within the next hour. Please contact the academy if you cannot return at the moment.]

Where did I go wrong?