Greg, walking ahead, didn't notice the girl's instantly crestfallen expression or her complicated thoughts behind him. He simply carried on in a nonchalant tone:
“You know how my reputation is in the academy... well, pretty awful. Notorious, really. If people see us together, no matter what we're actually doing, it could spark unnecessary speculation and gossip, which wouldn't reflect well on you girls. So keeping a low profile and staying out of sight is always best.”
“!!!”
Silvia came to a complete halt, if only for a brief second.
She looked up, staring blankly at Greg's silhouette in the dim light.
Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, scattering dapples of light across his shoulders.
A sudden surge of warmth—a mix of surprise, deep emotion, and an indefinable flutter—flushed into her cheeks. Her pale skin immediately turned a vivid shade of red, standing out in stark contrast against her smooth pink hair.
Although Silvia's opinion of Greg had already shifted thanks to the past few events—believing he might not be as bad as rumors claimed, or perhaps was even a decent upperclassman—
she had never expected him to be so much more... thoughtful, kind, and even... gentle?
Even while embarking on something right and risky like investigating dungeon anomalies and rescuing trapped upperclassmen, he didn't boast or brag at all. Instead, he proactively considered their reputations, preferring to take on extra trouble himself just to avoid drawing unwanted gossip.
“How can someone be... this good...?”
Silvia whispered internally, feeling as if her heart had been softly bumped, its steady rhythm inexplicably skipping a beat.
An unfamiliar emotion quietly took root and spread within her chest.
While Silvia was still immersed in these feelings that left her mind somewhat blank, Greg suddenly stopped without warning. He turned around quickly, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her gently yet firmly into the shadows of a nearby lush ornamental bush.
“S-Senior Greg?!”
Caught completely off guard, Silvia let out a soft exclamation before being brought into the dim corner hidden by leaves and branches.
With the distance between them suddenly closing, she could almost feel his body heat, carrying a faint scent of grass and earth. As she looked up, her gaze collided with his amber eyes, which looked extraordinarily deep in the shadows.
The sheer proximity made her hold her breath instantly. Her cheeks burned even hotter, leaving her temporarily unable to form a coherent sentence.
“Quiet. There's someone on the path ahead.”
Greg explained in a hushed tone, “We'll wait for them to pass or take a detour. Try not to be seen.”
Silvia carefully peered out in the direction of his gaze.
Sure enough, at the fork on the main path leading to the dungeon entrance, several female figures were lingering. They seemed to be discussing something, their eyes scanning the surroundings from time to time as if looking for a person or object.
Seeing this, Greg's heart skipped a beat, secretly glad he had been alert enough.
Silvia, on the other hand, fully understood Greg's strategy of staying low-key.
Because of that, she offered no objections.
Using the cover of night and the various features of the campus landscape, the two moved like shadow-blended figures, carefully avoiding the girls who seemed to be searching for something, taking a roundabout path toward the dungeon entrance.
At first, Silvia felt an instinctive discomfort and slight reluctance toward this secretive behavior.
She had been a rule-abiding child all her life and was a devout Candidate Saintess of the Holy Church of Light. Forget wandering at night or hiding—she had barely ever broken even the mildest school rule.
Yet soon, an unprecedented and strange sensation quietly took hold of her.
As she pressed close to the cold wall alongside Greg, holding her breath while listening to the footsteps and chatter of the passing girls fade into the distance...
Her heart pounded like a drum against her ribs. Though accompanied by a nervous tremble, it was overwhelmingly filled with a thrilling surge of excitement.
It felt like an adventure.
Under the veil of night on a campus where everyone else followed the rules, doing something so irregular in a corner hidden from sight...
Especially at the thought that those girls might discover her doing such a “bad thing”—far from causing resistance, it painted the experience in a whole new light that left her cheeks slightly flushed.
It seemed... she was experiencing just a tiny taste of the fun of being a “bad girl.”
Quietly doing something improper right out of everyone's view...
This feeling inexplicably made her grow somewhat excited.
Walking ahead of her and terrified of being caught by those girls and causing even bigger trouble, Greg remained entirely unaware that behind him, within the devout and obedient heart of this seemingly pure, pink-haired Candidate Saintess, a door leading toward a novel domain had been quietly cracked open by tonight's operation.
...
Inside the girls' dormitory building, a sudden emergency had thrown everything into chaos. Voices, footsteps, and the occasional sharp gasp echoed back and forth along the hallways.
Yet amid this commotion, one bedroom remained completely different, maintaining absolute silence.
Moonlight passed through sheer lace curtains, casting a cold, gentle glow across the room.
Unlike typical girls' dorm rooms cluttered with personal decorations, books, or trinkets, this room possessed an impersonal, sterile neatness.
The furniture consisted of standard-issue basics arranged with rigorous precision. Aside from essential stationery and a desk lamp, the desktop was entirely bare.
The sheets on the bed were pulled so taut without a single crease that it looked completely unused.
The entire space was clean and bright, yet felt extraordinarily empty and restrained, lacking any of the cozy warmth expected of a young woman's room.
A blonde girl sat quietly before the desk.
Her long hair resembled flowing molten gold, shimmering with a faint luster under the combined light of the moon and lamp, tied back impeccably behind her head.
Her face was as exquisitely crafted as a portrait sculpted by a master, her skin fair, every contour of her features flawlessly proportioned to create an impeccable beauty.
Her eyelids were lowered slightly, her azure eyes focused on the documents spread before her. The quill in her hand moved with effortless fluidity, her expression calm and absorbed, as though the commotion outside belonged to a completely different world.
“Knock, knock.”
A gentle knock sounded at the door.
“Come in,” the girl spoke, her voice smooth and devoid of emotion, without looking up.
The door opened silently. A woman wearing a neat maid outfit with crisp, short black hair stepped respectfully inside, stopping a few paces from the desk with a slight bow.
“What is happening outside?” the blonde girl asked as if in passing, her pen never pausing.
“Reporting to Milady,”
the maid replied, her voice steady and clear. “It appears a male intruder infiltrated the girls' dormitory area. However, he managed to escape. The dormitory wardens and patrolling faculty are currently organizing a search.”
“A male... infiltrated this place?”
A trace of genuine perplexity flickered across the girl's azure eyes, as if she were utterly incapable of comprehending the logic behind such an action.
To her, sneaking into the heavily guarded academy girls' dorm entailed immense risk, yet yielded no conceivable return to match it...
Did he intend to commit theft?
She soon shook her head gently, clearly unwilling to waste mental energy on something so incomprehensible and trivial.
Her eyes returned to the documents, her tone reverting to a businesslike indifference. “How are things progressing over there?”
The maid bowed her head even lower, her voice still steady, yet carrying an almost imperceptible weight: “They have... completely lost contact in the deep area of the first layer.”
Tap.
A faint sound echoed.
The quill in the girl's hand, which had been writing so smoothly, stopped abruptly against the paper without warning, leaving behind a tiny ink blot.
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